‘The circumstances of our meeting—’
‘Can be placed squarely at your feet. I told you to leave me alone in that bar. But you were too busy playing the alpha me-big-man-you-little-woman role to listen to me. If you’d left me alone to have my drink we wouldn’t be in this position.’
He whirled and propelled her back against the wall next to the lift. He didn’t like that description of him. Didn’t like that he’d seen what he wanted and just gone for it. It struck too close to home, made him too similar to the man he’d desperately tried to forget all these years.
And yet, as if from another dimension, he heard his reply. ‘You mean this position when all I can think about is tearing that prissy little skirt off you, yanking aside your panties and slamming inside you?’
Her gasp was hot on his face. He welcomed it. Welcomed the excuse to plunge his tongue between her lips and taste her the way he’d been longing to taste her since she’d walked into his office today.
She pushed frantically at his shoulders but Ari wasn’t in the mood to be denied. Not until he’d taken a little bit of the edge off this insane, pulsating need. Besides, her lips had started to cling, to kiss him back.
He groaned as her tongue dashed out to meet his, tentatively at first, then with progressively daring thrusts that made his blood rush south with dizzying speed. He hitched her higher up on the wall, felt her moan vibrate through them as he palmed her breast.
God, she was hot. So damned hot. Her nipples were already hard nubs beneath his thumbs as he teased them. Her cries of pleasure made him thankful she was here with him, not in a bar somewhere being hit on by other men.
Her fingers scraped over his nape and up through his hair, then dropped back down to restlessly explore his shoulders.
Theos, she was as hungry for him as he was for her.
With impatient fingers he slid up her skirt. The scrap of lace he encountered made his blood boil some more. With a rough growl, he shredded them.
‘Oh, God! I can’t believe you just did that,’ she gasped and stared down at the tattered lace in his hand.
‘Believe it. My hunger for you is bordering on the insane, glikia mou. Be warned.’ He took her lips in another kiss, bit down on the plump lower lip and felt her jerk with the sensation.
Without giving her time to think, he sank to his knees and parted her thighs.
Her eyes widened as she read his intention. ‘Arion...’
He hadn’t had time to explore her like this last time. But this time he fully intended to gorge on her.
‘No,’ she said, but he could read the excitement in her eyes.
He managed to drag his lips from the velvet temptation of her inner thigh and the seductive scent inches away. ‘Why?’
‘Because you’ll hate yourself if we do this again. And you’ll hate me. For whatever trivial reason, you think I soiled something for you by sleeping with you three months ago. Frankly, I don’t want to have to deal with whatever that was again.’
The reminder sent a spear of ice and jagged pain through his heart. Before he could stop himself, he rose and his hand slid to her throat.
Her eyes widened, not with fear, but with wariness at the look he knew was on his face. Every condemning thought he was trying to keep at bay came flooding back.
‘Trivial? You think my reason for blaming you for sullying that day is trivial?’ Pain made his voice hoarse, his heart thud dully in his veins. He distantly registered the quickening pulse beneath his palm but he was too lost in his own turmoil to react to it.
‘I don’t know! You never told me why. You were only interested in shredding me for—’
‘For sleeping with a soulless wanton and ruining my wife’s memory for ever?’
CHAPTER FIVE
PERLA FELT THE blood drain from her face. From head to toe she went numb. So numb she couldn’t move. Or speak. Or do anything apart from stare at the pain-racked face of the man who held her upright.
When the full meaning of his words sank in, she jerked from him, pushing him back with a strength that felt superhuman but only made him take one single step back.
‘Your wife? You...you’re married?’ The word choked out of her throat.
His nostrils flared and the skin around his mouth whitened. ‘Was. Same as you. Bereaved. Same as you. The night we met, I was mourning. Unlike you.’
The accusation slashed across her skin, waking her numbness. The tingle of pain came with a healthy dose of anger. ‘What makes you think I wasn’t in mourning too?’