The Greek Bachelors Collection. Rebecca Winters

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ wound. “Your honesty isn’t comfortable for me. I’m not used to it, but... It’s reassuring.”

      She offered a crooked smile.

      His heart tipped on its edge, making him bold enough to add, “So whatever you’re thinking about how I might be thinking of you differently, it’s only that I’m trying to offer you reassurance as well. I won’t force you into anything, Jaya. Not marriage, not my bed.”

      Her watchful gaze wasn’t easy to bear. He felt like his entire future hung in the balance.

      “I believe you,” she murmured, leaning on her elbows. “And I don’t feel coerced. I know that marriage is probably best for Zephyr, but a lifetime is a long time, Theo. I can’t just leap in. I need to know what it would look like first.”

      “I have no idea,” he admitted, tensing against the million ways he could fail her without even being aware of it. “What do you want it to look like?”

      She sat back to consider that and her gaze snagged on the couple at the next table as they rose and moved onto the dance floor. Her face became younger, cast with the yearning of a woman who loved to move to music.

      “Would you dance with me?” she queried.

      “Of course.” He stood and held out his hand while calling himself a shameless ass for seizing the excuse to touch her. Maybe it was even a small test to see if she would accept his hands on her. He could live within just about any limit, so long as he knew what it was. He was going crazy not knowing where his lines were with her.

      “I meant, you know, are you the kind of man who would dance with his wife?”

      “You weren’t asking? Then I am. Will you dance with me, Jaya?” He picked up her hand, oddly pleased with the shy smile she hid with a dip of her chin.

      He’d learned early that the guy who was willing to dance got laid. He was proficient at most of the ballroom moves, but she made him hyperaware of himself as he fit them together, especially because he was on guard against being too aggressive. He wasn’t quite as smooth as he’d wish, but he wasn’t standing on her painted toes, either.

      She was awkward, her hesitation seeming more from surprise and unfamiliarity with formal dancing than apprehension. After settling her hand on his shoulder and her fingers into his palm, she took a step forward instead of back, then cringed in horror.

      He grinned. “It’s fine, just follow my lead.”

      She did and because she was naturally graceful and rhythmic, they moved well together—not unlike the way they’d meshed in Bali. It was her same quiet trust that made it possible, heating him to his core as he absorbed it, solidifying his need to take great care with her, stoking his need.

      “Question answered?” he managed to say, trying to keep things light.

      “You’re sneaky,” she accused. “Maybe you don’t bully or pressure, but you’re not above seduction, are you?”

      He stopped dancing and drew in a deep breath, harking back to when he’d done everything he could to lure her by her own desire into his bed. “Jaya—”

      “It’s okay, Theo. I don’t know what I’m doing when it comes to men.” She nudged him back into leading. “I’ve never danced like this, never been on a real date. If you don’t make advances nothing will happen because I don’t know how. That’s really why I’m scared to say I’ll marry you. You’re the first man who’s asked.”

      Reservations paralyzed him, but when he used the excuse of an approaching pair of dancers to pull her close, his misgivings slipped from his mind. The contact of her abdomen hitting his hips detonated a subdued explosion that drained his thoughts.

      Her lips parted as they held the pose for an extended few seconds, eyes locked.

      She took a sudden step back, but didn’t release his hand when he relaxed his hold on hers. Chewing her lip, she seemed to debate whether to continue their dance.

      “I’m always like this around you,” he admitted under his breath, throwing his ego into the wind. It might be the dumbest thing in the world to think this would reassure her, but if they had agreed on nothing else, they were being honest with each other. Maybe, just maybe, if she knew she could trust him, he could have her in his bed again someday. “Every time I saw you in Bali, I was aroused. Just knowing I would see you would do this to me. I’ve only ever acted on it the once, Jaya, when you wanted me to.”

      They still weren’t moving, only holding the half embrace while music and couples swirled around them. He searched for uneasiness in her, but her eyes were clouding with confusion and... Was it desire?

      If he cupped her breast right now, he wondered, would he find her nipple pebbled and sensitive, aching for the pull of his mouth?

      He swallowed, dying as he balanced on the knife’s edge between hell and ecstasy.

      “Would you kiss me, please?” she asked softly. “I’ve been wondering—”

      He did, not debating, just grasping at permission to capture her parted lips with his. Deep in the back of his mind he reminded himself, Easy. Go slow.

      It was agonizing to hold himself back. She was so exquisite, her mouth the pillowy satin welcome that tortured his dreams. By some feat of inhuman discipline, he kept his hand light when he clasped the side of her neck where she was warm and soft. He raked his mouth across hers in gentle ravishment, drinking in the clove and nutmeg taste of her.

      Jaya liked these extra high heels. Her neck didn’t hurt from tilting up to Theo’s kiss. Her arms rose of their own accord to curl behind his neck. She opened to the tip of his tongue with a hitch of her breath and started to arch into him.

      His hands hardened on her hips, pressing her into her shoes as he lifted his head.

      “I was wondering, too.” His voice sounded like it originated in the bottom of his chest and came out in a purr like a high performance engine. “We’re still incredible together. Make sure you take that into consideration.” He circled his thumbs on her hips.

      She ducked her laugh into his collarbone, hand pressed to where his heart slammed in the tense cage of his ribs. Oh, Theo. She had missed him so much. In this second, all she could think was that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, feeling like this.

      It reminded her of that fearful moment in Bali when she’d closed her eyes and grasped at her own future. There had been consequences to her actions that she hadn’t foreseen. She ought to show a little more sense this time. Marriage was the oldest form of subjugation in history.

      But she didn’t believe it would be that way with him. Perhaps she was fooling herself, but she felt more like a mammal with the mate she was meant for. Whether she said yes today or years from now, no man was ever going to have this same effect on her. In her heart she was already tied to Theo. Hesitating to make it official seemed like fighting the inevitable.

      On the other hand, was money and sex enough? Could Theo ever give her the things she really craved from a lifetime with a man?

      “Our food has arrived,” he said, nudging her back to their table.

      Her pulse jittered from his touch as she sat down and tried to take СКАЧАТЬ