Читать книгу Modern Romance November 2019 Books 5-8 - Dani Collins - Страница 18

THE LIMO SWEEPING through the gates of his Athens mansion drew from me a breath of relief. But I soon realised I wasn’t going to be set free from Ax’s presence when he trailed me up the stairs to the door of Andreos’s room.

I hesitated before the doors—partly because I didn’t want to bring charged tension into Andreos’s presence and partly because a tiny part of me wanted space to dissect everything that had happened this evening. But the greater part of me wanted to keep my son all to myself. Just for a little while.

A sharp cry from within dissipated every thought.

As Ax held the door open for me I entered the room in time to see Sophia lifting Andreos from his changing mat.

She stopped and smiled when she saw us. ‘Good evening, Kyria Xenakis. You’re just in time for Andreos’s midnight feed. Would you like me to warm the bottle for you?’

I waved her away and Ax strode forward to take Andreos from her arms. ‘Go to bed, Sophia. I’ll take care of it.’

With a smiling nod, the young girl retreated to the adjoining bedroom, shutting the door behind her.

Ax adjusted his hold on Andreos, his strong hands lifting him aloft so they were face to face. My breath caught and, recalling his words in the car, I watched father and son stare at each other, one expression showing unabashed curiosity while the other probed with raw intensity as Axios absorbed his son’s every expression as if hoarding it for his memory.

A little ashamed at questioning his motives in the car, I bit my lip as something settled inside me. No matter our personal angst, Axios cared for his son. Perhaps in time he’d love him almost as much as I did.

In that moment I wanted to tell him he would have years of special moments like this if I didn’t manage to defuse the time bomb ticking inside me, but the words remained locked tight in my throat, the need not to have this time diluted with unwelcome outside influence stilling my tongue as I joined them.

Sensing another presence, Andreos turned towards me, his chubby arms windmilling as he babbled in delight. Then delight turned into familiar irritation as hunger kicked in and he whimpered his displeasure.

‘Someone is impatient for his feed,’ Ax mused, before his gaze dropped pointedly to my chest.

A fierce blush suffused my face. My breasts had been growing heavier in the last couple of hours. Even without the need to feed him myself I would have needed to express some milk before going to bed.

Expecting Ax to hand him over, I watched in surprise when he headed to the antique rocking chair I used for feeding Andreos. ‘You’re staying?’

‘Unless you have an objection?’ he asked, and I realised it was a genuine query.

About to say yes, I stunned myself by shaking my head.

A look flitted across his face faster than I could decipher it before he nodded. Once I was seated in the chair, which I’d discovered had been in his family for generations, Ax handed Andreos over. Then he started to move towards the adjacent sofa.

‘Um…’ I said.

He turned immediately. ‘What is it?’

‘Can you help me with my dress?’

Piercing grey eyes darkened a fraction as they moved to the halter neck of my dress. He gave a brisk nod, and in one deft move freed the fastening.

I caught the front before I was completely exposed, but there was no hiding from Ax’s focused attention as I positioned Andreos on my lap.

He latched on with greedy enthusiasm, one fist planted firmly on my breast while both chubby legs jerked up to wrap around the forearm of the hand I’d laid on his plump belly to steady him.

The familiar action tugged at my heartstrings and drew a smile.

‘Does he always do that?’ Ax rasped, his voice gruff with emotion.

For a precious few seconds I’d forgotten he was there, watching my every move, absorbing his son’s routine. Now my gaze met his and I nodded shakily, strangely overcome to be sharing this little snippet of time with the man who’d helped create my precious son.

‘Since he was two and a half months old. I think it’s his way of telling me to stay put. He’ll let me go when he’s satisfied.’

Ax lounged back in his seat and crossed his legs, a curious, heart-stopping little smile playing at his sensuous lips. ‘He’s a Xenakis. He knows what he wants.’

That display of unabashed male pride would have been unbecoming from any other man. From Ax it was a solid statement acknowledging his progeny. Progeny that would be completely his if I lost my fight.

The lance of pain to my heart made my breath catch.

‘What is it?’ Ax asked sharply. ‘Does it cause you pain?’

My gaze flew to his and I had to swallow before I could answer. ‘The breastfeeding? No, it doesn’t.’

His narrowed gaze moved from Andreos and back to me. ‘Then what is it?’

I flailed internally as I tried to find a plausible response. ‘I was just remembering our conversation in the car. Perhaps I was…a little harsh.’

One brow quirked, but it was minus the mockery I’d become used to. ‘Perhaps?’

‘Okay, I was. I… I don’t want us to butt heads over Andreos.’

His hands spread in a manner that suggested a truce. ‘Neither do I, Calypso.’

As milestones went, this was another sizeable one in an evening filled with small earthquakes of surprise. My breath caught. Andreos whimpered. I looked down to find eyes so much his father’s wide and curious upon me. Reading my every expression just as intently as his father probed beneath my skin.

‘Maybe we should discuss this further later?’

‘I agree,’ Ax responded, then proceeded to watch me with hawk-like intensity all through the feed.

When I transferred Andreos to my other breast Ax’s gaze tracked my blush after dropping once to my nipple. But this time my self-consciousness was reduced. The natural act of providing sustenance for my baby was one I realised I didn’t mind sharing with his father.

Just as abruptly as he’d wrapped his sweet limbs around my arm Andreos dropped his legs and he detached with a loud plop.

Ax rose and sauntered over, wordlessly securing my dress as I sat Andreos on my lap and rubbed his back. I was rewarded with a loud burp three minutes later.

With a gentle caress of his son’s head, Ax stepped away. ‘I have a few phone calls to make. I’ll meet you in my suite when you’re done here.’

The reminder that our suites were interconnecting and the memory of what had happened in his sent a pulse of electricity through me as I watched him walk away.

His icy indifference had receded. Something had happened on that balcony tonight. The realisation that Ax didn’t tar me with the same brush as my father had eased something in me.

I was pondering the new path this might lead to as I laid a sleepy Andreos back in his cot and then entered the suite forty-five minutes later.

Both the living room and bedroom in Ax’s suite were empty. Entering my own suite, I crossed to the dressing room, quickly undressed, then slid on my night slip before throwing a matching silk gown over it.

I was brushing my hair at my dressing table when Ax walked in, both hands in his pockets.

He paused in the doorway, his eyes holding a skin-tingling expression and resting on me for a long moment before he prowled forward. He stopped behind me and I waited, my breath locked in my throat as one hand reached out, tugged the brush from me and slowly dragged it through my hair.

For a full minute he said nothing, and the hypnotic sensation of his movements flooded my system with torrid lust.

‘You’ll be pleased to know our strategy worked,’ he drawled eventually. ‘My family and friends believe we are happily reunited. I expect my business partners to fall in line by morning.’

Something shook inside me. The easy way he laid his hand on me was a stronger warning that things were shifting. That the conversation on the balcony had indeed sparked much more than a rebellion and the need to answer it in both of us.

Before I could heed the warning he nudged me to my feet, slid his hand down my arm to link with my fingers. ‘Come with me.’

Even the imperious tone had altered, become less…autocratic.

I followed him into his living room.

There, on a wide screen, he’d set up the video I’d given him. ‘Ax…?’

‘I haven’t had a chance to watch this yet. Or perhaps I was putting it off,’ he said, with a hint of vulnerability in his voice that stunned me enough to take the seat next to him when he settled on the plush sofa.

‘You want to watch it now?’ I asked.

His eyes met mine, held me in place. ‘Yes,’ he stated simply.

With a flick of his finger on the remote the video came to life. The simple but clean walls of the hospital room in Kenya came into view before the camera swung over the machines to rest on my heavily pregnant form.

My breath strangled into nothing as the uniquely intimate and life-changing event unfolded on the screen, tugging at the very heart of me.

Beside me Ax caught his breath audibly as he watched a contraction hit me, and the hand that still held mine tightened. This footage had been taken about ten minutes before Andreos’s birth. Ax watched every frame without taking his gaze off the screen, his whole body rapt as Andreos was laid in my arms for the first time. He watched me kiss his wrinkled forehead, heard me murmur, ‘My little miracle,’ as tears of joy spilled down my face.

His throat moved in a swallow when the video ended, and he immediately hit ‘rewind’ and watched it all over again.

Then his gaze shifted to me.

‘Ax…’

He shook his head, raised my hand to his mouth, gently kissed the back of it. ‘It was a magnificent birth.’

Deep inside me something essential melted, pulling me into a dangerous spell I wasn’t entirely certain I wanted to fight. Emotion clogging my throat, I smiled.

‘He’s a beautiful boy,’ he rasped, a throb of deep pride in his voice.

I blinked unbidden tears away. ‘Yes. He is.’

‘As beautiful as his mother.’

As my breath caught all over again, his thumb rubbed across my knuckles.

‘Again you have my thanks—especially since you had to go through that alone.’

‘I’d do anything for him,’ I replied, and I knew the fervent well of my emotion had registered with him.

For the longest time he simply stared, then his gaze returned to the screen, his vision going a little hazy. ‘The reality of him—’ He stopped. ‘He may be an unexpected arrival in my life, but I want the chance to do right by him. To do things differently—’

Again he stopped, prompting questions I couldn’t halt.

‘Differently from what? Your father? I noticed your stiff interaction at the wedding, then again at the family mixer, and assumed I was to blame.’

He shook his head. ‘Our issues go back a little further. I was still a teenager when my grandfather announced that I was to be his successor. In his eyes my father didn’t have what it took to make the tougher decisions.’ A muscle ticked in his jaw as his lips firmed. ‘My father disagreed. He attempted to prove my grandfather wrong.’

I frowned. ‘How?’

‘My grandfather temporarily handed him the reins of the company. Six months later my father suffered a breakdown brought on by extreme stress. He didn’t take the prognosis well.’

‘What did he do?’

‘He believed my grandfather had humiliated him. And when my grandfather made it known that he’d seen me as his successor all along, my father…didn’t take it well. His resentment festered irreparably.’ His lips twisted. ‘Which, in a nutshell, is the story of my whole family.’

‘But you all seem so…united—give or take the odd vibe or two.’

He shrugged cynically. ‘Self-interest, especially where wealth is concerned, has a way of binding even the most dissenting individuals. My father may not like the status quo but he’s had to accept it.’

‘Is there no way to repair your relationship?’

A hint of bleakness came and went in his eyes within a heartbeat. ‘We’ve accepted our strengths and our weaknesses. My father may resent me for seemingly usurping him, but he doesn’t want the role.’

‘You offered it to him?’

His lips thinned. ‘A few years ago I suggested a partnership. He refused.’

‘He wanted all or nothing?’

His lips twisted. ‘Don’t we all?’

Pain lashed me. ‘Not all of us. Our fathers, maybe.’

Grey eyes met mine and a moment of affinity lingered between us, threatening to burrow into vulnerable places.

I cleared my throat. ‘Is that why you’re determined to try with Andreos?’

He’d said on the balcony that he was attempting to be different. The part of me that wasn’t terrified of what the future held desperately craved to see that difference.

The question took him aback, and a naked yearning blanketed his features before he mastered it. ‘Is it wrong to wish for a better outcome with my son than that between my father and I?’ he rasped.

Again, a deep, sacred sensation pulled at me. Harder. Stronger. Making it impossible to breathe.

Despite the danger of falling under the silken spell he was weaving, I laid my hand on his arm. ‘No, it’s not.’

His gaze dropped to my hand. Silence charged with electricity filled the room as something flashed in his eyes. Primal and fierce. The video and our conversation had done something to him. Shifted the dynamic.

I was tempted to run. To hide from it. But I was just as determined not to regress.

‘So…where do we go from here? After tonight, I mean?’

His eyes dropped to my lips, then moved back up to seize mine.

‘Now we consolidate on what we’ve started,’ he murmured huskily.

I wanted to ask for clarity. Wanted to ask whether he meant us or the larger world. But his fingers wound tighter around mine, his free hand rising to slide into my hair, dragging over my scalp in a wickedly evocative move that snatched the air from my lungs and hardened my nipples into aroused peaks.

Those penetrating eyes tracked my every reaction, his nostrils flaring when he caught the visible signs of my agitated state.

‘And how do you propose to do that?’ I asked.

‘By making things real both inside and outside of the marriage bed,’ he stated, his voice deep and sure.

Lightning-hot excitement charged through me, the need to experience this altered Axios overwhelming me. Would the change he wanted with his son manifest itself with me too, even in the short time I might have?

Only one way to find out.

I tugged myself free and stood to my feet.

Mutiny flashed in his eyes.

When he started to reach for me, I held up a hand. ‘If you want me to change my mind convince me that you’re worth it,’ I said.

Then I fled.

I went after her like a beast possessed.

She was mine.

My wife.

All evening I’d caught tantalising glimpses of her. The way she moved, the thoughtful way she responded to strangers’ rabid curiosity, even accommodating Stavros…

I’d run the gamut from telling myself I didn’t care about all the facets of herself she was revealing to feeling a determination to pin her down and extract every last secret from her.

But that video…

Her father was in possession of a hundred million euros. My name could have commanded an entire wing in a plush private hospital. And yet Calypso had chosen to deliver our son in a state-run hospital in Kenya with third-rate equipment. And, not only that, she’d done all that with an inner strength that shone through the footage, surrounded by people who had clearly held her in high regard.

She’d spent some of the past year volunteering. I couldn’t name a single member of my family who would devote their time to charity unless it came with a tax write-off or a star-studded gala where they could show off their diamonds.

And besides the awe-inspiring act of giving birth, the most striking thing about Calypso Xenakis was the determination I’d seen on her face in that video.

It had sparked something inside me. A need for…more.

That intoxicating little incident on the sofa this afternoon, compounded by the kiss on the balcony this evening and watching her nurse our son, was what had finally fully awakened the primitive beast inside me. The video was evidence of her strength and resilience, despite my less than stellar behaviour last year.

Even confessing the true relationship between myself and my father—a subject I’d never discussed with another living soul—had felt…liberating. That we were both products of our circumstances had triggered an affinity in us that had in turn laid out a different way to approach what had been thrust on us.

Perhaps it didn’t need to be finite.

That admission to do things differently this time had surprisingly settled deep inside me.

The Calypso I’d married had possessed a banked fire.

The woman who’d returned from her mysterious absence was flame and grit.

Heat I was unashamedly drawn to. Grit I wanted to explore.

Both characteristics drove me after her.

I arrived in the suite just as she was entering her own bedroom. I stopped her with the simple act of capturing her delicate wrist. The electricity of contact simply reaffirmed my decision.

She waited, one eyebrow elevated.

Theos mou, did she know how alluring she was, with her blue eyes daring me even as her agitated breathing announced that she wasn’t unaffected by this insane chemistry?

‘I want you, Calypso. And unless I’m wildly off-base you want me too.’

‘That’s it? Surely you have better negotiating skills than that, Axios?’ she taunted.

The breathless sound of my name on her lips escalated the heat pounding through my bloodstream. I wanted to kiss her. To prove with deeds instead of words how combustible this thing between us was.

‘You’re not the same woman I left on Agistros last year. I see that now.’

More than that, she had the power to walk away again if she chose.

The strange sensation of being on slippery ground forced me into further speech, even as I questioned the wisdom of the route I was taking.

‘Come to my bed—not because of our agreement or because of your ultimatum. Do it because you want to. Because we can make each other feel things we’ve never experienced before.’

Her lips parted in a soft gasp. ‘You… I do that to you?’

I couldn’t help the hoarse laughter that was ejected from my throat. I dropped her wrist and removed myself several mind-clearing paces away.

‘Barely two hours ago, I was close to saying to hell with propriety and taking you on that balcony. What do you think?’

Despite the heat flaming up her face her shoulders went back, accepting her power over me. It was all I could do to remain standing where I was and not stride across the room to demonstrate just how much the hunger inside me lashed through her too.

But this was too important.

I wasn’t an animal, and she needed to grant me clear acknowledgement of her desire before it would work. But it was going to work. There were no viable alternatives to allay this…this insane craving inside me save for the highly unsatisfactory avenue of self-pleasure, which I wasn’t willing to consider any more.

‘I’m a man with healthy appetites, Calypso. And I haven’t had sex since our wedding night. Do you know that?’

She gave another gasp, this time a heated one that went straight to my groin. She backed against the door, as if putting distance between herself and the live wire of desire lashing us would work.

Eyes wide, she lifted her chin in further challenge. ‘How do I know that’s true?’

Frustration threatened to erupt. I tamped it down. ‘I don’t make a habit of lying, yineka mou. Regardless of how we came together, I took a vow I intend to honour until I’m no longer bound by it. But if you don’t believe me I can give you the number of a top investigator and you can discover the truth for yourself.’

‘Even if I believe you, maybe you didn’t seek another woman’s bed because you didn’t want to jeopardise your precious deal.’

She was really good at pushing my buttons. And the curious thing was that I preferred this version of Calypso to the one who’d glided down the aisle a little over a year ago.

I shrugged off my tuxedo, watched her gaze cling to my torso before another blush pinkened her smooth skin. ‘Whatever my reason for staying celibate, I wish it to end now.’

‘Because you decree it?’

‘Because you’re woman enough to admit you want me too. Because when you come to my bed it’ll be because your needs are as strong as mine and you’re not ashamed to give in to them.’

Tossing the jacket aside, I gave in to the urge and returned to her, my senses jumping at the promise of decadent friction when she swallowed but stayed her ground. And then, because I wasn’t above playing dirty to get my way, I unbuttoned one shirt stud. Then another.

Brazenly, I revelled in the tremor that went through her lush frame as her eyes followed my undressing with abashed appreciation. A layer of femininity which might have been there all along or I might have missed called to the beast in me.

‘I want to lay you on my bed…make you cry out my name in climax.’

Her eyelashes fluttered before sweeping down. That tell-tale sign that she was hiding something nearly derailed me. It certainly froze me in place, congealing my insides with the knowledge that, far from being a forward-thinking man, some things were sacred to me.

‘Tell me what you’re thinking.’

She remained silent for far too long. In real time it was probably a handful of seconds. But it was enough to unnerve me. Enough that when she deigned to lift those hypnotising eyes to mine all that remained in me was a frenzied roar.

I watched her lips move but didn’t hear the words she uttered. Her eyes grew wider, possibly at my expression. She started to step back.

I closed the gap between us and tugged her to me. With her heavy magnificent breasts pressed against my chest all I wanted was to lose myself in her. To slay this terrible need.

Her nostrils quivered as she inhaled rapidly. Against my chest her hands fluttered, and a trembling I wanted to believe had nothing to do with sex seized her.

‘Axios…’

‘I said I want to be different, Calypso. Take this leap with me?’

But even as her eyes widened at my words she hesitated, her lower lip caught between her teeth, taunting me with the prospect of unaccustomed denial.

And all the while my insides churned with emotions I didn’t want to examine.

All the while delicate tremors filtered through her body and her breathing grew more erratic with her undeniable arousal.

I was on the very edge of my sanity when Calypso’s fingers whispered over the button above my navel, toyed with the stud for a second before fluttering away again. Eyes that refused to meet mine remained fixed on my chest.

She released her lip and I fought the urge to lean down and bite the plump, wet curve.

Before her wicked hands could further wreck me, I caught them in one hand. ‘Calypso, look at me.’

After an eternity her lashes lifted. Dark blue hypnotic pools pulled me in, threatening to drown me.

‘Say the words. I want to hear them,’ I pressed, aware that my voice was a gravel-rough mess.

She inhaled. ‘I’ll take the leap with you. For now.’

I had to hand it to her—she knew how to time her negotiations to maximum effect. But I’d given my word and I wouldn’t go back on it. Besides, the earlier we excised this fever from our systems the earlier we could start the extrication process.

The earlier I could return to my life as I knew and preferred it.

The punch of satisfaction I expected never arrived.

More…

‘For now?’ I repeated, dismissing the hollow echo of the words.

I steeped myself deeper in the moment. Revelled in the fingers gripping my shirt as if the small scrap of cotton would ground her. She swallowed again, then gave a nod.

I crooked a finger under her chin and nudged her head upward. ‘Tell me, pethi mou,’ I insisted.

‘I want you,’ she whispered.

The breathy little sound washed over my chin and throat, making something frenzied and untamed leap inside me, filling me with the prospect of what ‘more’ could mean.

‘More…’ I pressed, wanting irrevocable confirmation that she wanted this.

Her chin lifted, her eyes gleaming boldly. ‘I want to be in your bed. I want you to take me.’

I slid my hand up her delicate spine to tangle in her hair. To grip it and keep her attention on me. ‘I want to make you mine again. Tell me you want that.’

Her fists bunched, a breathy little sound escaping her throat as she swayed closer. ‘I want to be yours.’

Like over a breached dam, a torrent swelled inside me. Removing her silk dress was as simple as catching the fragile material and ripping it off her body.

She gasped, staring down at the tattered fabric at her feet before attempting to glare at me. ‘I don’t believe you did that.’

A smile caught me unawares. ‘I didn’t think you were that attached to it. If so, I’ll buy you a dozen more,’ I vowed thickly. Because the sight of her body, displaying changes after bearing my son in the form of slightly thicker hips, a rounded softness in her belly and, best of all, the heaviness of her breasts, had intensified the throbbing in my groin.

I was barely aware of sinking to my knees, framing her lush hips and pulling her to me. I welcomed the fingers clenching tight into my hair as my lips found the sensitive flesh below her navel and brazenly tasted her creamy skin. When she sagged against the door I went lower, removing her panties before catching one leg and throwing it over my shoulder so I could find the heart of her, the true feminine core that called to me with the strength of a dozen sirens.

‘Ax!’

Her sweet cry urged me on, her taste a drug surging with unstoppable force through my bloodstream. I didn’t relent until she was splintering in my arms, her moans music to my ears. Only then did I scoop her up and carry her to my bed to begin all over again.

Her head rolled on the pillow, her hair fanning out in a dark silken halo as her lips parted on hot little gasps as I rediscovered every delightful inch of her body.

‘Omorfi…’

The word tumbled unbidden from my lips as I caught one pearled nipple in my mouth. And she was beautiful, with a certain indefinable layer of femininity and strength adding to her allure.

‘When you glided up that aisle like an obedient wraith I had no idea you were hiding this…this steel and sensuality beneath that frothy gown.’

Her eyes widened in dazed surprise. ‘Was that why you left the next morning? Because I wasn’t what you expected?’

It was my turn to be stunned. To ponder how events had unfolded through her eyes. But now wasn’t the time to admit I’d been unnerved then too. Just as I was now.

‘No. My delivery wasn’t great, but I believed leaving was best. However, this…’ I slid a hand down her ribcage, revelled in her unfettered response ‘…was certainly a surprise.’

And the fact that she was even more responsive now threatened to annihilate my self-control completely.

Before I was entirely consumed I reached for a condom, donned it and accepted the enthralling welcome of her parted thighs. I slanted my lips over hers, unwilling to leave any feast unsatisfied as I entered her in one deep, glorifying thrust.

Pleasure detonated in a shower of fireworks as I seated myself deep within her. Felt her tighten around me, drawing me deeper. When she sought to shatter me further with needy whimpers and greedy hands I tore my lips from hers, gritted my teeth in an effort to make this last.

But of course the next layer of sweet torture waited in the wings. With her mouth free, and the nirvana of a higher plane of pleasure waiting, I watched her slide into that unique dimension, that place where her unfiltered pleasure rippled from her alluring lips.

‘My God, you’re so big. So deep. I feel every inch of you…’

A muted roar rumbled up my throat as her words threatened to completely unravel me.

Her nails sank into my back, ripping away another layer of control. And just like on that night I’d never been able to put out of my mind I realised she was unaware of herself, that pleasure had transported her into another dimension.

‘Shall I roll my hips like that first time? That was incredible.’

‘Calypso…’ I wasn’t sure whether saying her name was warning or encouragement. Either way, she didn’t respond. She continued her mind-altering commentary. Commentary that fired a white-hot blaze inside me alongside the fiery one already raging from possessing her.

I stared down into her stunning, unguarded face as I pushed in and out of her, racing both of us towards that special peak.

Another man would have taken advantage of the situation, prised secrets from her subconscious while she was in this state. But that was an invasion my conscience wouldn’t let me stomach for longer than a nanosecond.

So I refocused on the words tumbling from her lips, revelled in them for another reason altogether. Because they turned me on. Because no other woman had brought this unique, exquisite surprise to my bed. Because hearing her vocalise her pleasure charged mine in a way I’d never thought possible.

Increasing the tempo of my thrusts, I lowered my body to hers, drew her tighter against me. ‘Wrap your legs around my waist, omorfia mou.’

With gratifying speed, she complied.

‘Now, tell me more,’ I growled in her ear. ‘Tell me everything you’re feeling.’

Whether she heard me or not, I didn’t know, but the words spilled out.

Unmanned by her unfiltered longing, I kissed the corner of her luscious mouth and groaned when she chased mine when I withdrew.

‘Kiss me. Please kiss me.’

‘Say my name, matia mou. Say my name and I’ll kiss you.’

‘Axios,’ she moaned. ‘Kiss me, please, Axios.’

Unable to resist the sultry demand, I kissed her again. Felt her tighten around me in response and gritted my teeth to keep myself on that dizzying plateau for one more second. She was eroding every ounce of my willpower, pushing me towards the zenith long before I was ready.

And there was little I could do to stop it.

Especially not when my mind was already flying to the next time, to the next position.

She would be on top. Yes, she would ride me, her heavy breasts high and proud, while those unfettered words fell from her lips. The image was so potent, so vivid, I lost the ability to think straight.

My unguarded growl in response to that scenario pushed her higher. Her nails dug into my shoulders, her head thrashing on the pillow.

‘Let go, Calypso. Now!’

The command set her free. With a sharp, sweet cry, she dissolved into uncontrollable convulsions, her body writhing beneath mine in innocently uncoordinated movements that finally shattered my control.

With a roar torn from deep within I succumbed to exquisite, untrammelled bliss. Time ceased to matter. I was aware I’d collapsed on top of her, one propped arm the only thing stopping me from crushing her. But her own arms were wrapped tight around me, as if holding me together.

The singular, searing thought that I wanted to remain here indefinitely charged through my daze, forcing me to move. Forcing sanity back into this madness.

But even as I gathered her to me after my return from the bathroom she was unravelling me again, the hand on my chest reaching deeper as she turned her face to me.

‘Ax?’

‘Hmm?’ Unfamiliar dread clenched my gut, escalating the notion that somewhere along the line I’d fallen under her mercy and her whim.

Her breath fluttered out in an almost reverent exhalation as her eyes lifted to mine. ‘You’re the only man I’ve ever been with. I just thought you should know.’

That gift, freely given when it could have been withheld in light of our circumstances, punched and winded me. The notion that opening up to her had possibly earned me this unsettled me even more.

Questions and wants and needs surged higher than before, racing to the tip of my tongue before circumspection halted them. I wanted more from her. But did I have more to give to her and to Andreos?

I pushed back the dismaying sensation.

She was staying…for now.

That unsettling little addendum would be tackled later. After much-needed regrouping.

‘Efkharisto.’

The word emerged deeper, graver than I’d expected. I did nothing to offset it. Nothing but accept that things had to be different.

Nothing I’d seen of the marriages around me had fuelled a need to embroil myself in one—not when they strained so easily and threatened to break at the smallest hint of adversity.

But, in the hypothetical scenarios where marriage had crossed my mind, I’d known that unshaken faithfulness and stalwart support would be the cornerstone of its success. Not the kind of marriage held together by financial worth—the kind my grandfather had struggled to hold on to and ended up paying dearly for.

That reminder cooled my jets long enough to let in rational thought. Long enough to know that Calypso and I needed a base of trust from which to operate.

Which meant getting her to open up about her secrets…

I decided to come at it from a different angle. ‘Are you ready to tell me why you chose to leave Greece?’

Her eyes shadowed and her lashes swept down. But before I could catch her chin and redirect her attention on me she lifted her gaze, her eyes boldly meeting mine with a resolution I wasn’t sure whether to welcome or battle.

‘Okay.’

Relief stunned me. ‘Okay?’

She nodded. ‘I want whatever time we have remaining to be peaceful.’

I forced my teeth not to grit at the reminder of a timescale. ‘Good.’

A touch of nerves edged her features. When she went to move out of my arms, I caught her back. ‘It would please me if you stayed right here for this.’