The Konstantos Marriage Demand. Kate Walker

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ indrawn breath, watched those heavy black eyelashes close slowly, then open again as the burning bronze of his gaze blazed into her.

      And he bent his head to kiss her.

      It felt as if she had been waiting for it for so long. As if it was the kiss she had been waiting for all her life. It was shocking, heart-stopping in its gentleness. In anyone else she might even have called it hesitancy, but there was nothing hesitant about Nikos’s taking of her mouth. It was slow, it was sensual, it was totally sure of what he was doing—the effect it was aiming for. It was pure seduction, aimed right at her libido and having exactly the effect that he wanted.

      Sadie’s fingers softened, her grip on the water glass loosening so that it fell to the floor. She vaguely heard the splash of water, the thud of the tumbler bouncing on the thick wool of the rug.

      But after that she knew nothing else. Nothing but Nikos and the warmth of his body all around her. The strength of his arms as they gathered her close. The pressure of his mouth on hers and the magic it was working as he eased her lips open, slid his tongue along the edge and into the warm softness of her mouth.

      His hands slid up her back, into her hair, tangling in the dark silky strands. He twisted his fingers around them, using them to hold her head just where he wanted as he increased the pressure, forcing her to open to him even more.

      She was drowning in a dark, heady world of sensuality. Lost to reality and aware only of the responses of her body, following blindly where Nikos led. She was soft and malleable in his hands, unable to think for herself or find any trace of will to call her own. Her own hands lifted, arms winding themselves around his neck, drawing his proud head down even closer, taking the kiss into another dimension, another stage of hungry sensuality.

      ‘Nikos…’ she murmured against his cheek as he turned his head, his wicked, beguiling mouth finding the fine, taut line of her throat and kissing his way down it to the spot where her pulse throbbed frantically at the base of her neck.

      When his warm lips pressed against the tiny point, she felt her breath catch in her throat, the electric shocks of response sparking its way along every nerve, flashing down to pool in liquid heat in the most intimate spot low in her body, between her legs. Restlessly, she moved against him, pressing her body close to the hardness of his and feeling the heated swelling of the erection that marked his undisguised response to her. That pressure was what she wanted. That and more—so much more—and it was obvious that Nikos felt the same as one large hard hand came down to curve over her buttocks, bringing her into even more intimate contact and holding her there.

      ‘Nikos…’ Once more she choked out his name, restless fingers clutching in his hair, pressing against his scalp, holding him against her.

      It seemed that the heat of their bodies had melted her bones, so that she swayed against him on unsteady legs. She heard his breath hiss in sharply between his teeth, and the hand that had been in her hair released her to slide, hot and sensuous, down to her ribcage to cup the side of her breast, his thumb stroking tormentingly over her nipple, bringing it to springing, tightened life underneath the cotton of her blouse. Sadie’s own breath caught in her throat, making her gasp in shocked delight and wriggle even closer, pressing her sensitised flesh against the heat of his palm.

      ‘Yes, Nikos, yes. This—’

      But the words died on her tongue, crushed back down her throat by the way that he suddenly stopped, his whole mood changing.

      ‘No!’

      His body stiffened, the dark head going back violently to look down at her with a new and devastating hostility, brutal rejection blazing in his eyes.

      ‘No!’ he said again, more forcefully this time.

      The hands that had held her close were now moving her away from him, setting her aside with cold precision. The fingers that had tangled in her hair were tugged free with a speed and roughness that brought pinpricks of tears to her eyes, though she was too stunned, too bewildered by the sudden change in mood to have even the energy needed to let them fall.

      She couldn’t find the strength to speak, either. Shock deprived her of her voice, so that even though she opened her mouth twice to try to protest she had to close it again when all she managed was an embarrassing croak. Stunned, she could only stand and watch in blank bewilderment as Nikos adjusted the fit of his jacket that her clutching fingers had knocked askew, smoothed his hands over his hair to bring it back into sleek order rather than the wayward tangle she had made of it.

      And then, to her total consternation and horror, he actually checked his watch once again.

      ‘Your time is almost up. You have just fifty seconds left,’ he declared with flat detachment, completely devoid of emotion. ‘Was there anything else that you wanted to say before you leave?’

      Chapter Three

      HE SHOULD NEVER have touched her, Nikos told himself. Never been such a damn fool as to bridge the gap between them, do something as crazy as to put his finger on her face, feel the softness of her skin underneath his.

      He should never have let himself get close enough to her to catch the scent of her skin, the clean softness of her hair.

      Just a couple of steps forward was all it had taken. And, with the electrical sting of response to the moment their hands had touched around the glass still sizzling up his arm, he had already been halfway towards the madness of arousal that she had always been able to spark in him so instantly in the past.

      And still could, damn it, it seemed.

      He had spent the last five years trying to put her part in his life behind him, out of his mind. He had managed to get the taste of her out of his mouth and now it was right back there, sensual, intoxicating, driving him insane.

      He had to be insane. How the hell else could he have let her get to him so far, so fast?

      One touch and he had been right there, back in the maelstrom of searing hunger that tightened his throat, made his heart pound in his chest, made him hot and hard and hungry in the space of a single devastating heartbeat.

      Just the feel of the soft flesh of her cheek under his fingertip had brought a memory, fast and dangerous as a bolt of lightning, of the way it had felt to have her naked, all that softness underneath him, warm and willing, yearning for his touch, his caress…opening to him…

      Thee mou, no! He was not going down that dangerous path again, sensually enticing though it was.

      ‘I repeat,’ he said, injecting every ounce of control he possessed into the ruthless command of his voice, ‘is there anything else that you want to say before you leave?’

      Was there anything?

      Sadie felt as if her head was spinning, reeling as if from the force of a sudden fierce blow.

      Her shocked, numbed brain wouldn’t focus, and all she could think of was the feeling of Nikos’s arms around her, the pressure of his body against hers. Her heart was still thudding ferociously and the taste of him was still on her lips. And deep in her body the yearning hunger that had uncoiled in those few fraught, dangerous moments was still burning, still stinging at her senses and making her feel miserably restless with unfulfilled need.

      The clamour of every aroused cell made her feel as if she was being assailed by some appalling fever. One that had her СКАЧАТЬ