“I beg your pardon?”
“You heard me,” he replied coolly. “Kiss me like you did last night and I’ll forget every tactless word you just said.”
“You know I can’t do that.”
“Why not?” he responded, without a flicker of concern. “It would make us both feel a lot better—and I know you want to.”
“Because it wouldn’t stop there, would it?”
“There’s no reason why it should have to stop at a kiss, pethi mou,” he replied, and curled long fingers around the back of her head to remove her hair clip. He smiled as her black curls tumbled over her shoulders, as undisciplined as the rest of her body. His voice dropped to a seductive growl. “We’re alone and we want to, need to, enjoy each other’s company.”
Kizzy closed her eyes and struggled to wrench out a negative response. But her unspoken words were stolen by the burning touch of his lips against hers. Her mouth trembled as he withdrew a tiny bit to assess her reaction. The intimate warmth of his breath against her cheek made her abandon all reason and professional sense.
Tangling her fingers in the black silk of his hair, Kizzy pulled him tightly back toward her and drew him to her parted lips. As his tongue began gently to explore, she felt his hands slide around her waist and pull her hips firmly into the cradle of his own.
She felt the rigid heat of his arousal, and gave a little moan.
“This is destiny, Kizzy.” He held each cheek of her bottom in the palms of his hand and groaned with pleasure. Bending his head, he kissed her again. “I’ve wanted you since the very first moment I saw you, wanted you so much that I couldn’t think straight.”
Kizzy began to shake her head. “Andreas, I—”
“No, Kizzy,” he told her adamantly, and ran the flat palm of his hand across her breast, lingering over the swollen, heaving jut of her nipple through her top. He inhaled sharply, as though already testing the limits of his control over the situation. “No more denial, no more pretending. Your mouth can do much more exciting things when it’s not trying to deny you the most natural pleasure in the world.”
He stroked both nipples with the pads of his thumbs, anchoring the deep blue of her eyes with his own intense stare.
“Now, are you going to take all these clothes off or am I going to do it for you?”
Rendered speechless by the intoxication that was coursing through her body like a potent aphrodisiac, Kizzy was only able to place her shaking palms on the black cotton of his T-shirt.
His chest lay under her fingers. Stroking him, she relished the sudden tightening of his nipples under her inexperienced touch.
“You do it,” she said, with a voice so altered by sexual excitement that she wondered if she had actually uttered the words or just imagined them as part of the wicked, forbidden fantasy that this must be. Then reality caught up with her. She sucked in her breath as he undid the buttons of her blouse, his fingers swift and skillful. “But Andreas—before we get carried away, I need to tell you, I don’t—I haven’t—”
“Don’t worry, I have,” he muttered quickly as he slid the blouse off her shoulders. He paused briefly to cup both heavy, lace-covered breasts with reverent hands. “I will take care of you, pethi mou, trust me.”
He reached back to unfasten her bra. His voice was deep and throaty. “You have no idea how badly I’ve wanted this, to get you alone, to touch your bare skin, just you…” Slowly, painstakingly, he slid the straps of her bra down the length of her slender arms. “And me. And that.”
Her gaze followed his to the bed and her skin tingled with the shock of sudden cool exposure as her bra fell to the floor. Any words she might have uttered vaporized at that point into tiny exquisite breaths of longing.
He inhaled at the sight of her naked breasts, the sinews in his neck taut as he held each one in his warm hands. His body trembled with undisguised arousal. “I could die for just one taste of these,” he whispered, tracing a path of feathery kisses along her collarbone, his fingertips brushing lightly over each nipple until it tightened into a peak.
Kizzy’s fingertips sank into the hard strength of his biceps, relishing the feel of his intense maleness. The desire building within her was overwhelming as she took his hand and crushed it hard against the soft swell of her breast.
“Then don’t stop, you don’t have to be so gentle. It’s okay, I…I want it.”
Expertly, he maneuvered her backward against the edge of the bed, and she arched her back in supple compliance, urging him to continue with his kisses. Clumsily, she tried to ease up the fabric of his T-shirt. He quickly shucked it off, barely breaking contact with her body, and she uttered a small moan as the dark, wiry dusting of hair on his chest brushed against her tender skin.
In a haze of physical sensation, Kizzy watched his upper body muscles ripple powerfully as he lifted her onto the mattress.
His fingers continued to coax her breasts to a peak of excitement. At last, she knew what it was like to feel truly desired by a man.
“Yes...”
She could barely comprehend the pleasure that she was experiencing.
His hot, ragged breath raked her tense body, and she sighed as he seized one taut nipple between his lips and ran the tip of his tongue around its velvet peak.
“You have the body of an angel,” he murmured against her skin, then sucked harder and more insistently, caressing her other breast as the urgency of their need began to take over rational thought.
She helped him ease off her pants, leaving her in the tiny, blue silk panties he had purchased in Rhodes. Needing no further persuasion, he slid his fingers under the lacy trim to languorously explore her soft, velvety curls.
A low noise in the depths of his throat reminded them both of the primitive nature of the act about to take place between them.
Kizzy lifted her hips to help him free her from that last scrap of material, then ran her fingertips tentatively along the waistband of his shorts. The bulge of his erection straining beneath the fabric was as intimidating as it was mesmerizing, and Kizzy bit down hard on her bottom lip as she dared to trail her fingertips over its pulsating heat.
She met the smoldering intention in his eyes.
“Take it all off, Andreas,” she pleaded softly, as she continued to stroke and tease him with a skill that was instinctive and designed to provoke him beyond further endurance.
Purposefully, Andreas produced a foil wrapper from his back pocket.