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He placed a finger on her lips. ‘He was worthless and attempted to tarnish you with the same brush. I know your worth, Alexis.’
Deep, solemn words that shook the very root of her soul. Alexis was stunned by how much she wanted to cling to them. But...wasn’t this very urge to cling what had left her devastated in the end? And once this little sexual experiment had ended, then what?
‘Our agreement is for three years, Alexis, and there’s still two of them left. You might grow bored of me long before then,’ he said, although the light in his eyes said the contrary.
She wasn’t about to stroke his ego by denying it. Maybe he assumed that because he believed she wasn’t the clingy type. Or even the falling-in-love type.
Someone else might have appreciated the unspoken compliment. But his perception was a vice around her chest, a reminder that it was the same reason most families had passed her over as a child. The reason her own mother had abandoned her on a forgettable doorstep. She was unlovable. Good, it seemed, for only a brief fling and nothing more.
‘I’m human, Christos. I may develop needs that go beyond just sex.’
For a nanosecond his face shuttered. Then he was back in counterargument mode. The mode he thrived in best. ‘And do you intend to deny them all as a whole or will you let me take care of one, in particular? You can rest assured I won’t l
eave you wanting in any way when it comes to sharing my bed,’ he said, his voice low and throbbing with the kind of dangerous sexiness that should trigger a definite flight response from her.
Instead, the brazen and unexpected response made her roll her eyes. ‘You’re certainly not lacking in the sexual ego department, are you?’
His smile was pure arrogance. ‘Our chemistry is remarkable. You’d be a fool to let it go to waste when we’re tied to each other for the foreseeable future.’
She opened her mouth to dismiss his claim with the contempt it deserved. But slowly, her lips pressed together, that loud drumbeat in her ears warning her that this could be her only chance to experience something this spectacular.
He took the opportunity to step closer, to run his fingers down her cheek, an action he seemed particularly enamoured of. ‘Take the afternoon. Think of this,’ he murmured, lowering his head to brush his lips lightly over hers. ‘And this.’ The hand on her cheek trailed down her neck, over her shoulders, to lightly graze over her nipple, causing her to shiver wildly. Against her lips, she felt his conceited smile as his hand strayed even lower, over her belly, aiming for that hot place between her legs. She had ample time to stop him, but every last objection drained away, her senses alive with the need pounding through her, with the hunger to experience what he was offering. ‘Then think of my lips here, pleasuring you for hours. Making you come over and over.’
Alexis barely stopped her knees from giving way at the thick promise. His free hand gripped her shoulder, even as the hand between her thighs splayed possessively over her hungry, feminine core. Over her clothes, his fingers boldly caressed her, unerringly finding her most responsive spot and stroking her to a frenzied arousal. Her nails dug into his skin as a delicious haze blinded her.
‘Christos...’ She wasn’t aware she’d thrown her head back until his lips found her pulse, caressing it with lazy strokes that matched the bold ones between her thighs.
‘Yes, that is exactly how you will pant my name when I’m inside you. My name, matia mou. No one else’s.’
With that hard-edged edict, he caressed her one last time, then stepped back.
Alexis inhaled desperately as he took her hand and led her back to the buggy.
In the hours after that, he didn’t by word or deed reference that insane moment on the cliff edge, morphing into the perfect host as they explored the rustic dwellings that had once formed part of a vineyard but was now turned into a stunning staff quarters for the caretakers of Drakonisos. Alexis was gratified to see that they lacked for nothing, that the same demanding but generous ethic she’d noted in Christos was practised by his grandfather.
She was hot and thirsty by the time Christos stopped the buggy almost three hours later under a clutch of cypress trees at a midway point between north and south.
An elaborate picnic was laid out on a checked blanket, complete with champagne, oysters and an array of mouth-watering Greek food.
‘Hungry?’
‘I’m starving.’
His gaze dropped to her mouth, setting it tingling. ‘Come, then. Let me feed you.’
He alighted, came around to help her off the buggy. And as she dropped down to the blanket and feigned an avid interest in the spread, Alexis was terrified to note she was several degrees hotter and more bothered. And that it had nothing to do with their trek.
* * *
The possibility of everything backfiring was strong enough to allow brief moments of misgivings as Christos expertly uncorked the champagne and filled their glasses. But they were nowhere near as strong as the need that simmered beneath his skin, threatening to turn into a blaze at the smallest opportunity.
Sleeping next to Alexis last night had been a special form of hell. He’d made an excellent job of feigning sleep until she’d stopped fretting long enough to fall asleep. Then it had been his turn to wonder what the hell he was playing at. Why he was torturing himself like this...
For Drakonisos.
For the place that had helped him hang on to a shred of humanity when everything and everyone around him had shown him that life was a hot mess of greed, pain and self-aggrandisement. In his more indulgent moods, he’d even believed the island had reached out loving arms and hugged him when he’d needed it most.
The last thing he would allow was Georgios to turn this into a hedonistic destination for his unsavoury circle of friends. That he wasn’t prepared to stomach.
