A spear of pain lanced her at the memory of his ex-fiancée. Did he still love her?
‘Even now I can hardly believe you were so inexperienced.’
Until last night. The unspoken words pulsed between them and his hand tightened a fraction at her breast, sending darts of shivery delight through her body.
She shrugged, her shoulder moving across his broad chest, reminding her of the hard-packed power surrounding her in his deceptively relaxed form. Excitement quickened her blood. How could she ever hope to win this uneven struggle against her own weakness?
‘Abstinence has its own appeal sometimes.’ Especially when the alternative had been rape at gunpoint. Tessa shivered at the memory of hair’s-breadth escapes from militia fighters.
His hand slid from her breast as he wrapped his arm round her waist to hug her closer. She missed his gentle, almost absent-minded caress with an intensity that appalled her. But the feel of Stavros, so hot and hard, right up against her, was sheer delight.
Desire flared, a tingling, unsettling ache that curled in her abdomen and lower, making her squirm. One night with him had turned her into a wanton. She couldn’t concentrate when her body was accelerating into overdrive.
‘And now?’ His deep voice was pure temptation as his lips grazed the skin below her ear. She sighed as a tremor of response rippled through her.
‘Do you still prefer abstinence?’ He pressed against her, his long length a delicious invitation to pleasure.
Again Tessa felt that melting sensation between her thighs. When he cupped her breast again she put her hand over his, feeling his fingers gently squeeze. She bit her lip so as not to cry out her delight.
‘No. I’m not interested in abstinence at the moment.’ Was that her voice? So throaty and explicitly inviting?
‘That makes two of us.’ Stavros slid his hand from her breast to her waist. Her belly. Still he arrowed lower.
Tessa’s breath hitched on a sigh of pleasure.
This time Stavros did it right. Or at least better than last night.
He took his time caressing her body with his hands and his mouth, exploring every sleek centimetre of her till she was fully aroused and wanting and they were both on fire.
The sound of her sultry voice pleading for him to stop, then begging him not to stop, almost sent him over the edge. Combine that with the heady, unique scent of her, the most potent aphrodisiac on the planet, and it was a miracle he had any shred of control left.
Especially when she writhed beneath him, urging him closer. Or when she reached out, her touch hesitant, almost awkward, yet like magic on his tortured flesh.
‘Please, Stavros.’
He looked into her luminous emerald eyes and knew he couldn’t resist any longer. Gently he lifted her legs as he settled over her, careful to brace himself so she could breathe. Her eyes were huge, her mouth a voluptuous pout of unwitting invitation. The feel of her soft skin against his was almost too much.
He paused, trying to marshal some restraint.
Tessa lifted her hands to his sides, then lower, palming his buttocks, and he surged forward, just enough to penetrate, and to wonder if there’d be pain this time.
Her eyes widened, her mouth sagged open as she breathed heavily. But there was no anxiety in her face.
Gingerly he moved, trying not to concentrate on the feel of her opening for him. Of her tightly embracing warmth welcoming him. Her fingers clamped hard, tugging him closer, and he went gladly, watching for signs of discomfort but finding none.
There was stillness as he tried to gather his wits and dredge up the control to take this slowly and make it right for her.
The trouble was, this felt like paradise. Like perfection. How could he resist it?
Asto kalo! No man could withstand the torture of this ultimate pleasure. Frantically he scoured his brain for something mind-numbing enough to distract him from the ecstasy of making love to Tessa. The opening of the new Denakis showrooms in Shanghai: that had enough problems to…
His breath hissed out as she moved against him. Automatically he responded so they rocked together.
Too soon, his mind warned, but then he felt it, the tell-tale stiffening of her hands on his flesh, the tremors that rippled through her like a swelling tide. Her breathing quickened and her eyes held his, her expression lost and wondering.
‘It’s all right, glikia mou,’ he assured her. Then speech was impossible as the wildfire spread to his veins too and there was nothing but the pulsating throb of ecstasy as they rode the crest of fulfilment together.
It seemed a lifetime later that he lay stretched on his back, every muscle apparently dissolved in the conflagration that had melted all sense of self, all autonomy. He felt burnt clean by the inferno that had stripped him to the bone and to raw, visceral emotions.