With one finger he lifted her chin up, so that she was imprisoned in the febrile glitter of his eyes. ‘Why so sad, agape mou?’ he queried.
She tried, fruitlessly, to shake the finger away. ‘Just go away! Leave me!’
‘You want me to?’
‘Yes!’
‘No. You want to know why I stopped?’
Jade swallowed. ‘What makes you think that I wouldn’t have stopped you myself?’
There was the trace of an arrogant smile. ‘Be- cause you were ready for me—’
It was the cool assurance that galled her most, even though she knew that he was being nothing but honest. ‘Why—?’ she raised her hand, but he caught it, pressed the palm to his lips and kissed it.
‘You’ve been ready for me for days now. You wanted me to take you, to fill you, to make love to you until you cried out. Again and again and again. As you have wanted from the first moment we met. And I would have done that, Jade. Don’t you think I don’t want that, too? Quite desperately?’
All her insecuriti
es came swimming to the surface. ‘Then you don’t respect me,’ she stated.
‘Why not?’
‘Because I would have—have—’
‘You would have let me?’
‘Yes,’ she admitted unhappily.
He caught both her hands in his. ‘And that is exactly as it should be between a man and a woman. Honesty and passion, no games or pretence—now that I respect. But you are leaving tomorrow, Jade. It is not a satisfactory way to begin a relationship and certainly not your first—a night of passion and then a parting. And then I did not imagine for a moment that you would be a virgin.’
That hurt. ‘Why ever not?’ she demanded.
He shrugged. ‘Because English women do not guard their virtue so carefully. And most English women that I have met…’ He gave a little movement of his shoulders, as if he was being diplomatic in not completing the sentence.
Jade felt absolutely furious. Not only had he shown that he no longer found her attractive, but now he was denigrating English women in general! ’I suppose you’ve had hundreds of English women?’ she accused.
‘Not at all,’ he answered, unperturbed.
‘What we don’t do,’ she said cuttingly, ‘is use our virginity as some kind of bartering tool in the marriage market—’
‘Enough!’ he told her sternly, and caught both her hands in his. She angrily tried to shake her hands free, but he held them too securely.
‘No, it is damned well not enough! I suppose I should be grateful that you didn’t take advantage of me!’ she lashed out at him. ‘Do you like your women more experienced? Better used to casual sex? Less troublesome to the conscience, I suppose?’
Savagery returned to distort the handsome fea- tures into an impenetrable mask. ‘Do you think I am that kind of man?’ he demanded fiercely, and his accent became more Greek by the second; his presence more dominating. ‘One who wants or even needs this one-night stand that you speak of? There is no joy in sex of that nature, and besides that there is something much more fundamental at stake here. You see,’ I have fallen in love with you.’
Jade stared at him wide-eyed, her heart starting to race in exultant beat. ‘What did you say?’ she said, very quietly.
The black eyes glittered. ‘You heard me very well,’ he said softly.
She wanted to believe him—oh, how she wanted to believe him. ‘But you can’t love me! You don’t even know me!’
‘Wrong!’ he contradicted arrogantly. ‘I knew you the moment I first set eyes on you. As you did me.’
‘Oh, Constantine,’ she said helplessly, feeling herself beginning to melt. ‘I’m lost. Confused. What are you saying? What do you want?’
He moved the powerful shoulders in a tiny shrug. ’I want to spend every moment that I can with you. I want you in my arms when I fall asleep, and beside me when I wake up. I want to make love to you; I think you know how much. But first I intend to marry you.’