‘What about you?’ She paused, realising he hadn’t had the same release she had. He was still aroused and unfulfilled. ‘Your...partners...they reciprocate in the same way?’
‘I don’t expect you to.’
That jarred. She didn’t want him treating her as anything less or anything more than his other ‘companions’. She sat up, realising that the King was on his knees on the floor in front of her. ‘What if I want to?’
Something flickered in his eyes and he slowly shook his head.
‘Consider this part of the exploration of my needs. I’m curious.’ She glanced down his body, still hidden in one of those damned perfect suits. ‘I want to understand how this works for you too.’ She wanted to know how he looked, how he felt, in that ultimately vulnerable moment. She didn’t want him to hold that back from her. ‘It’s only fair.’
‘You have a fixation with fairness.’
‘I want to explore everything about this attraction. All senses.’ Suddenly she was angry and embarrassed by his denial. ‘I don’t want you martyring yourself for me,’ she said harshly. ‘Making this all about my pleasure only—as if you getting me off somehow makes you a better person. Just because you’ve helped a poor frigid girl get to orgasm. I want you to want me. To have me the way you want to. To have the pleasure that I have. The way you want it.’
He stared at her, colour deepening in his face. ‘Kassie...’
‘I told you already,’ she whispered fiercely. ‘I haven’t got anything to lose here. I want what I want and how I want it. If you don’t want me the same way I want you, then walk away. I’m not going to be your charity case.’
He moved so quickly she sucked in a shocked breath. He savagely strained forward, pushing her back against the sofa, grinding his hips against hers.
‘Does this feel like I don’t want you?’
The rigid length of his erection dug into her stomach. Her toes curled. How was it that it took only this? Only a few words and a simple touch for her to be so aroused when she’d never been turned on before in all her life?
She trembled and gripped his hips as he lifted away from her. She wriggled beneath him, sliding lower until she slipped right off the sofa and was sitting on the floor, while he was up on his knees before her. She heard his muffled swearing and tilted her head so she could see up into his face.
‘Teach me,’ she said simply. ‘What do you want me to do? How can I please you?’
‘You only have to look at me like that and you’re halfway there.’ He looked into her eyes. ‘Kiss me,’ he muttered rapidly. ‘Touch me. I ache for you to touch me.’
She fumbled, butter-fingered, with his belt and zipper. Half-laughing, half-cursing, he helped her until his manhood jutted free. Her jaw dropped at the sight of him—the size. She licked her dried lips.
He groaned harshly. ‘Just touch me.’
His skin was flushed and she realised how near to the edge he was. And so she touched him. Gently at first, then with greater pressure as she felt him press against her. With one hand, then two. And then with her tongue.
Could she make such a strong and powerful man tremble? Power sluiced through her veins as she gained knowledge of him. She used her mouth, kissing him hard, sucking and stroking, taking him in as deeply as she possibly could.
‘Stop, Kassie.’ His fingers tightened painfully on her shoulders and he pulled her away. ‘Stop.’
‘Why?’ she demanded plaintively, desperately wanting to continue. Because that had felt good to her too. That had felt exciting. ‘Did I do it wrong?’
‘No.’ He shook his head, his breath shuddering.
‘But you didn’t...’
‘Not this first time.’
‘I’m not scared. I want to—’
‘Kassie.’ He hauled her up to sit on the sofa, so he could stare into her eyes. ‘I know what you want—and you’ll have it. But I have wants too. And I don’t want my release until I’m tight inside you. I want to lose myself in you. Right inside you.’ He rested his forehead on hers. His gaze was close and searching. ‘Kassie?’
‘Okay.’ Kassie’s pulse slowly settled and a poignant longing trickled into the lingering warmth. She wanted that too. She wanted that more than she’d ever wanted anything. ‘But why have you stopped?’
‘Because I told you before we started that we weren’t going all the way tonight. This is enough for now.’
‘No, it isn’t.’ Why on earth would he possibly think that this was enough? ‘I’m not going to regret this. I want you. I want this.’
‘Not tonight, Kassie.’
She stood up, a streak of coldness entering her bloodstream. ‘You think I’m going to change my mind.’
He too stood, and reached for her wrist, holding her close while keeping her away from him at the same time. ‘I’m giving you a chance. One last chance.’
She looked at him seriously. ‘I don’t need you to protect me in this way.’
‘Perhaps I’m protecting myself.’
She shook her head. He wasn’t. He was being the King—the decision-maker, the protector. The dominator. But she would forgive him this once, because she wanted what she knew he would give her in the end.
It wasn’t easy for him to walk away from her now. His chest rose and fell rapidly as she stepped away from him. His lips twisted, as if he were regretting her obedience. She wanted to tease him for that, in the same way that he’d teased her. The remnants of that languid feeling made her movements relaxed and assured. Confidence in her body soared. In their chemistry.
She suddenly turned back and strolled towards him. He didn’t move as she reached up and kissed him the way she’d learned from him—with all her aggression and desire—until she felt his tension snap and he jerked back from her with an audible gasp. The fire in his eyes should have alarmed her. Instead she sent him a soft smile of pure satisfaction.
‘Get to your room,’ he ordered huskily. ‘And lock the damn door.’
‘If I don’t?’ she murmured back. ‘Will you tie me to the bed?’
He stepped after her again, gripping her wrists and twisting her arms to pin them tight behind her back, pushing her body hard into his.
He retaliated just as she’d desired—kissing her with complete carnal dominance until she was breathing hard and begging. But he just stood there, his feet planted wide, his hands exerting such control—holding her fast even as he tormented her, reducing her to nothing more than a mass of need and pleasure just by using his mouth.
‘Go to bed, Kassie,’ he growled, and released her. He strode to the door, opening it and waiting for her to walk through it. ‘Go now.’
‘Why do you have to be so controlling?’ she whispered in reproof as she stalked past him. ‘You know I’m no threat to you.’
CHAPTER SIX
SHE WAS AN absolute threat. He needed to prove to himself that not all his control was gone. But in the smallest hours he lay wide awake. He was fooling himself. He had zero control left—and he was reduced to fantasising about how he’d make it the best for her, imagining all different scenarios and tying himself in knots.
What she’d asked of him was so personal, and it was a privilege that he refused to abuse. While it was a delight for him too, this was about her. Perhaps he
could even think of it as one little redress in the balance of guilt he carried.
Conceited jerk.
He threw back the sheet and stalked to get a fresh glass of water. As if he were doing her a favour! This was all for him. He wanted her in every way and he’d manipulated her into being here. Into staying. Into asking him to take her virginity. He’d done everything he could to get her in his grasp. Hell, he’d effectively kidnapped her from the hospital. The ‘pause’ he’d insisted on tonight was nothing more than a lame attempt to ease his conscience over yet another moment of guilt...
But it was buying her some time to ensure she truly wanted this, right? He figured nothing would make that decision clearer for her than being presented with it in the cold light of day. So he’d suffer through the agony of lust through the long, slow night. That was the least penance he could do.
* * *
Kassie woke late again, but she didn’t feel as rested; she felt hot and niggly. Needy. She wanted to confront him and provoke him into finishing what they’d started last night. She just didn’t quite know how. No doubt he’d be working already, anyway, and she’d have to wait through another whole torturous day.
He was high-handed. Arrogant. Honourable. Which was utterly annoying. Why did he have to be so protective? Why wouldn’t he throw caution to the wind and take this risk? What was it that had caused him to have such little trust in people?
Bothered, she got out of bed and picked a strawberry from the breakfast tray that had been delivered to her private lounge. She bit into the fruit and felt her body eagerly absorb the fuel, but those edgy fires still smouldered within her.
She slipped on the simple white bikini she’d borrowed from the collection in the pool room the previous day. It was the only one decent enough to cover her curves. She walked down the cool corridor to the cave that had been incorporated into the building. There she discovered that Giorgos wasn’t working. He was swimming lengths in the sheltered end of the crystalline pool. His movements were powerful and strong and, if her eyes weren’t deceiving her, he was swimming naked.