Up, up, up—-
They both slowed down at the same time, staring at each other, unspeaking.
Down, down, down—-
Nik drew her towards the palm trees, away from the crowd of diners and selfie-takers. Here, the sound of water crashing against the sand was louder, drowning the noise and the laughter.
She waited for him to speak, trembling, but he only stared at her with brooding intensity.
Up, down, up, down, up, down—-
“You are too seductive.” Nik’s beautiful voice was rough, and Daria loved the way his Greek accent thickened at the last word.
The sound had her licking her lips, which then caused Nik’s grip to tighten. It should have terrified her, this unbidden display of his power, but instead it only made Daria remember.
The two of them in the shower, Nik pushing her against the wall and his hands gripping her hips, hard, as he took her from behind—-
Her eyes clouded with remembered desire. As Daria felt telltale moisture slowly drenching her bikini bottom, the rest of the world faded into nothing, leaving her only capable of thinking of only one thing.
“Make love to me.” The words stumbled past her lips before she realized what she was saying, her voice a throaty whimper that had Nik’s body stiffening and his cock surging up in a rock-hard erection.
He was not, however, the only one to hear her, with Daria’s voice coming out louder than intended and causing people close enough to hear to glance at them. A couple of them were teenage boys, and they hooted and whistled appreciatively.
Daria blushed, realizing she had been heard. A second later, and Nik yanked her to him, his hold possessive. The dark color staining his face was mesmerizing. There was just something about a grown-up man so obviously unused to such attention that was...cute.
Before she knew what she was doing, she was reaching for his cheek—-
Nik’s head snapped towards her the moment the tips of her fingers grazed the side of his face. His eyes narrowed, a silent warning for her not to do anything silly. DO. NOT. DO. IT.
But Daria couldn’t help it.
She pinched his cheek.
Nik’s eyes widened in disbelief. What the fuck? Did this woman just dare pinch his cheek? In public?
Daria giggled, as if to answer his unvoiced question, and his face turned grim. “You—-” But he was no longer speaking to anyone.
Having taken one look at Nik’s face and correctly interpreting it as her impending doom, Daria beat a quick escape, not exactly running, but definitely walking faster than usual.
Vixen. As always, thoughts of Daria left him torn between irritation and amused exasperation. As he watched her slim shoulders shake with mirth while zigzagging through the crowd, Nik debated whether to run after her or not.
The smart thing would be to wait for her to come back and punish her then. But in the end, and again this tended to happen only with Daria, Nik found himself chasing after her like a damn puppet wanting to have his strings pulled.
Peering over her shoulder, Daria caught a glimpse of Nik closing in on her and hurried away faster even as she struggled not to laugh out loud. Oh, the look on his face when she had pinched his cheek! He was so unbelievably serious, it just made her want to tease him more and more.
From the corner of her eye, Daria spotted a fairly empty alley and instinctively took a detour. Three steps in, and a hand suddenly curled around her waist, making her jerk in a combination of fear and excitement.
A second later, and she was being whirled around, her gasp cut off by Nik’s mouth slamming against hers.
“I should punish you,” he gritted against her lips.
“You...should.” Two words, and she felt like it took her forever to think of what to say. Nik’s presence was as drugging as ever, and this near, with his hard body pressed against hers, there was no escaping its debilitating effects.
For one moment, she tried – she really did try to pull away. She tried to think clearly and not let her trouble-making impulses get the better of her.
For once in her life, she waited and gave the tiny, sensible voice inside her head a chance to issue its warning about frogs. She had dated and had her heart broken by twenty-eight men, and that voice had issued warnings about each and every one of them. That voice had told her they were all frogs, and they wouldn’t change – they’d stay frogs – even if she kissed them, but she hadn’t listened to it. Not once.
So where was it now? Why wasn’t it warning her?