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She flushed at his tone, lost for words.
‘You have sex with me at a ball within five minutes of meeting me,’ he murmured, continuing his hateful judgment. ‘You didn’t even know my name.’
‘And you didn’t know mine,’ she flared. ‘And we used protection. So there you go.’
‘But I wasn’t engaged to anyone else at the time.’
That one hurt because it was truth. ‘Nor was I,’ she mumbled weakly.
‘Not “officially”.’ His eyes were so full of scorn that she winced. ‘But you knew. You knew the announcement was about to be made. You owed him your loyalty and you cheated.’
Damon was right, but he didn’t know the reality of the marriage she faced. He’d never understand the scrutiny and crazy constraints she endured in her privileged world.
At her silence now, pure danger flashed in his eyes. She backed away until the wall brought her to a stop. Her heart raced as he followed until he leaned right into her personal space.
‘So, how many others?’ he asked again, too softly.
She’d brazen it out. Disgust him so he’d take her back to Palisades in repulsion. ‘At least four.’
‘Liar.’ Slowly he lifted his hand and brushed the backs of his fingers over the blush burning down her cheekbones. ‘Why won’t you just tell me the truth, Eleni?’
His whisper was so tempting.
She lifted her chin, refusing to let him seduce her again. And at the same time, refusing to run. ‘I don’t have to tell you anything.’
‘What are you afraid of?’ he taunted huskily. ‘The world finding out your secret? That Princess Eleni The Pure likes dressing up in disguise and doing it fast and dirty with a succession of strangers? That she can’t get enough?’
Anger ignited, but something else was lit within as well. That treacherous response. She had liked it fast and dirty. With him. She closed her eyes but he tilted her chin back up, holding it until she opened them again and looked right into the banked heat of his.
‘Are you ashamed of what happened, Eleni?’
Tears stung but she blinked them back. Of course she was ashamed. She couldn’t understand how it had happened. How she could have lost all control and all reason like that. And how could her body be so traitorous now—aching for him to take that half step nearer and touch her again?
The intensity deepened in his eyes. A matching colour mounted in his cheekbones.
Hormones. Chemicals. That crazy reaction that she still couldn’t believe had happened was happening again.
‘You like it,’ he muttered. ‘And you want it.’
‘And I get it,’ she spat, reckless and furious and desperate to push him away. ‘From whomever, whenever I please.’
‘Is that right?’
‘Yes,’ she slammed her answer in defiance.
He smiled. A wickedly seductive smile of utter disbelief.
‘You’ll never know.’ She was pushed to scorn.
‘You don’t think?’ He actually laughed.
‘Maybe I’m pregnant with my fiancé’s baby,’ she snapped. Reminding him of her engagement might make him back off. She needed him to back off.
His smile vanished. ‘I don’t think so, Princess.’
She stilled at his expression.
‘You haven’t slept with him,’ Damon said roughly. ‘I was your first, Eleni. That night with me, you were a virgin.’
She gaped, floundering in total mortification as he threw the truth in her face.
How had he known? How? She pressed against the cool wall, hoping to stop shaking.
‘Why lie so constantly?’ he demanded, leaning closer, the heat of his body blasting. ‘You still have nothing to say?’
How could she possibly explain? She couldn’t answer even her own conscience.
‘There is nothing wrong with liking sex,’ he said roughly. ‘But there is something wrong with lying and cheating to get it.’
She trembled again, appalled by how aroused she was. She could no longer look him in the eye; he saw too much. She wanted to hide from him. From herself. Since when was she this wanton animal who’d forgo all her scruples simply to get a physical fix?
‘Eleni.’
She refused to look at him.
But she couldn’t escape the sensations that the slightest of touches summoned. He brushed her cheek with a single finger, and then tucked a strand of her hair back behind her ear. She stood rigid, desperate not to reveal any reaction.
‘Let’s try this again, shall we?’ He leaned so close.
She bit the inside of her cheek, hoping the pain would help keep her sane, but she could feel his heat radiating through her.
‘No lying. No cheating,’ he murmured. ‘Just truth.’
The tip of his finger marauded back and forth over her lips; the small caress sent shock waves of sensuality to her most private depths.
Her pulse quickened, but his finger didn’t. Slowly he teased. Such pleasure and such promise came from a touch so small, building until she could no longer hold still. He teased until she parted her lips with a shaky breath.
He swooped, pressing his mouth to hers, taking advantage to slide his tongue deep and taste until he tore a soft moan from her. So easily. He wound his arm around her waist and drew her close, holding her so he could kiss her. Again. Then again.
After all these sleepless nights he was with her—with all his heat and hardness. She quivered, then melted against him. Immediately he swept his hand down her side, urging her closer and she went—her body softening to accommodate the steel of his.
With his hands and with his lips, he marauded everywhere now. Kissing her mouth, her jaw, her neck, he slid his hand across her aching breasts, down her quivering stomach, until he hit the hem of her skirt. He pushed under and up. High, then higher still up her thigh. Demanding—and getting—acceptance, intimacy, willingness. So quickly. So intensely. She curled into his embrace, then arched taut as a bowstring as he teased her.
‘Eleni...’ he whispered between kisses and caresses. ‘How many lovers have you had?’
Unable to contain her need, she thrust against that tormenting finger that was so close, that was stirring her in a way that she could no longer resist. On a desperate sigh she finally surrendered her not so secret truth. ‘One.’
He rewarded her with more of that rubbing designed to drive her insane. She couldn’t breathe. Closer, so close.
‘And how many times have you had sex?’
She shook with aching desire. With the need for him to touch her again. Just once. One more touch was all she needed. ‘One,’ she muttered breathlessly.
Her answer seemed to anger him again. He held her fast and kissed her hard. Passionate and ruthless, his tongue plundered the cavern of her mouth. He was dominant and claiming and all she could do was yield to his passion.
But the fires within him stoked her own. She kissed him back furiously, hating him knowing how aroused she was. But there was no controlling her reaction. No stopping what she wanted. And she wanted. Now.
It was at that moment, of her total surrender, that he tore his mouth from hers.
‘How many men have kissed you like that?’ he rasped.
She panted, her nipples tight and straining against her suddenly too tight bra. ‘One,’ she answered, pushed beyond her limits.
‘And how many men have kissed you liked that, but here?’ His fingers pushed past the silk scrap of material covering her, probing into her damp, hot sex.
She gasped at the delicious intrusion. Her limbs trembled as release hovered only a stroke or two away. She gazed into his gorgeously fiery eyes, quivering at the extreme intimacy connecting them.
‘Answer me, Eleni.’ He ground out a brutal whisper.
‘None.’ Her answer barely sounded.
She registered his sharp exhalation but then he kissed her again. Somehow she was in his embrace, his body between hers. Heaven help her, she went with him to that sofa. She let him. Wanted him. Bu
t as he pushed her skirt higher and slid lower so he was kneeling between her legs she realised where this was going. A lucid moment—she gasped and shifted.
‘Don’t try to hide. I’m going to kiss you. There won’t be even an inch of you that I haven’t tasted. Every intimacy is mine.’
His blunt, savage words stunned her. Blindly she realised that his control was as splintered as her own. That he too was pushed beyond reason. Pleasure surged and she couldn’t resist or deny—not him. Not herself.
She groaned at his first kiss, shocked at how exposed she felt and embarrassed by just how much she ached for his touch. It was like being taken over by a part of herself she didn’t know was there. That lustful, brazen part. She flung her arm over her face, hiding from him. From herself. But there was no hiding from the sensations he aroused and the delight and skill of his mouth on her. His tongue. There. Right there.
She moaned in unspeakable pleasure.
‘Look at that,’ he muttered arrogantly in the echo of her need. ‘You like it.’ His laugh was exultant. ‘You like it a lot.’
His attention was relentless. She arched again, pressing her hands against her eyes but unable to hold back her scream as a torrent of ecstasy tore through her. She shuddered, sweet torture wracking her body.
Then she was silent, suspended in that moment where she waited for his next move. For him to rise above her, to press against her, to take her. She ached anew to feel him. She wanted him to push inside and take her completely.
But he didn’t. He didn’t move at all.
