‘My ego is glad you think so.’
Her lips twisted in a half-smile.
‘I didn’t really know it could be so...whoa...’
‘Whoa?’ he teased, his eyes shuttered so she couldn’t discern emotion in their depths.
‘So mind-blowing,’ she clarified, swirling her fingers in figures of eight, just below his navel.
‘Ah.’ He made a sound of comprehension, swiftly followed by a knitting together of his brows. ‘And that’s...different for you?’
His accent was thicker in this snatch of time, before daylight danced across the horizon, pulling out of the ocean’s depths.
Alice’s fingers moved lower, slowly, so slowly, until her fingertips brushed against the base of his erection. She felt his swift intake of breath and smiled at the raw rush of feminine power.
‘I don’t really have much experience.’ Her eyes flicked upwards and now there was self-consciousness there. ‘Definitely nothing compared to you.’
She didn’t see the frown that etched across his face.
‘You were not a virgin?’
‘No.’ Her smile was wistful. She wished, in that moment, she had been. It was ridiculous, but the only thing that could have made what they’d shared more meaningful was if he’d been her first. She could make her peace with the fact this was a very temporary affair, she could make her peace with the fact that soon—in a matter of months—their marriage would be dissolved and they’d go their separate ways. But somehow, that didn’t detract from the specialness and uniqueness of what they’d just shared.
‘But you haven’t found sex “mind-blowing” to date?’
She bit down on her lip, shaking her head. ‘I mean, I was only with one guy.’ Her eyes lifted to his. ‘Once.’
He was very still then, and not because her fingers were continuing their exploration of his erection. ‘You have only had sex once before?’
‘Well, now I’ve had sex a lot,’ she teased, sobering at his look of absolute disbelief.
‘I know that must seem ridiculous to someone like you,’ she said quietly. ‘But it wasn’t really...a great experience. Definitely not one I was rushing to repeat.’
Thanos reached beneath the sheets and captured her hand, pulling it away from his member with a warning look. ‘I cannot think when you do that.’
‘Good.’ She blinked at him with mock innocence.
‘I want you to explain to me,’ he insisted, lifting her hand to his lips and pressing a kiss against her fingertips so her heart jolted inside her.
Alice sighed, her eyes shuttering a little, her gaze focussed on his lips. He was sort of like a conversational solar eclipse; there was such an intensity in his eyes that it was hard to concentrate when she looked directly at him.
‘There’s not really much to explain. I learned my lesson,’ she said quietly.
‘What lesson is that?’
She forced her eyes to his then, burnt sugar holding glowing amber. She aimed for light-hearted; it came out strangled. ‘That handsome men who promise you the world aren’t to be trusted.’ She flicked her lips into a smile for good measure; Thanos didn’t return it. Nor did he relinquish his hold on her gaze.
‘It’s funny. All my life my mom drummed it into me again and again that men weren’t to be trusted.’ Her smile was wistful. ‘It wasn’t her fault. My dad burned her pretty badly and we both had to live with the consequences of that for a long time.’
‘What did he do?’
She shook her head. ‘It’s a long story. The point is, he broke her heart and she made sure I grew up knowing there’s no such thing as Prince Charming or saccharine happy endings. She was trying to protect me, and I guess she really did have a point.’
He frowned; she didn’t notice.
‘But then I met Clinton, and despite being a walking cautionary tale, everything I knew to be true, everything Mom had always said, flew out of the window as I fell head over heels in love with his smooth lines.’
‘He was your contemporary?’