“I told you that game is no place for a woman.”
“Do they actually bet women in these games? Isn’t that against some sort of law?”
“There are no rules for some of these men. The sultan, Dimitri, they live in a whole other universe. It would never happen in one of my games, though, and they know it.”
She shivered. “I didn’t like him—Dimitri. Doesn’t his background bother you? His unethical business practices? The rumors of far worse?”
“They are rumors, paidi mou. Exactly that. Show me a rich man who doesn’t have shadows.”
The casual endearment stirred the anticipation churning her insides. Her stomach lurched as he moved closer, the bottle of champagne in his hand. Close enough she could feel the heat of his big body. It moved through her, stung her with its all-enveloping warmth.
He raked his gaze over her face. “So here’s the thing. I think you’re right we need to tackle this problem of ours. Face up to this attraction we share. An affair would do that. But I need to know you can handle this, Alex. That you’re not jumping in with this newfound confidence of yours only to realize it’s been a big mistake.”
She shook her head, heart battering her ribs so hard she thought it might break free. “I won’t. I know what I want.”
He lifted a hand and brushed the back of his knuckles over her heated cheek. “This starts and ends here. Nobody gets hurt...”
She nodded. He was protecting her with his caveats, but he was also protecting himself.
Aristos’s eyes darkened, the only outward sign he had acknowledged the decision they’d just made. He took a long swig of the champagne straight from the bottle, then passed it to her. She closed her fingers around the ice-cold glass. “Not very princess-like.”
“Nothing about tonight is going to be very princess-like,” he murmured, snaking an arm around her waist and pulling her into all that solid heat. “Except me granting your every wish... I might be persuaded to do that as long as I have leeway to make some demands of my own.”
She didn’t dare even wonder what those demands would be. Had enough on her plate at the moment, quite frankly. She lifted the bottle to her mouth and took a sip of the dry, fruity vintage. It tasted intoxicating, heady. When Aristos cupped the back of her head and took her mouth in a kiss that wasted no time in getting to the point, her head spun.
His tongue dipped inside her mouth, sliding against hers in a leisurely exploration. His throaty murmur of approval skated across her cheek. “I love champagne on you. You taste so sweet, moro mou.”
Bringing the bottle to her mouth, he fed her another swallow. Dipped his head to consume it with her. She had never experienced anything so erotic, so intimate. He fed her a few more sips in between those sweet, hot kisses until she had melted against him, completely under his spell.
He captured her bottom lip in his and bit lightly, the sharp reprimand catching her off guard. “This mouth,” he growled, “does something to me... Every time I tell myself I have to stay away, I can’t. You are wrecking my head, Princess.”
Her stomach folded in on itself. She leaned back, drinking him in. “I love kissing you. It’s almost...spiritual.”
His gaze darkened. Setting the bottle down, he took the weight of her hips in his palms, dragging her closer. “Do it again,” he instructed, covering her mouth with his. She did, kissing him back, exploring his beautiful mouth with teasing nibbles of her own. He tightened his hands around her hips and pulled her into him, settling her against the erection that strained his trousers. She gasped at the size of him.
“That’s right, angel...your kisses do that to me.”
That they did blew her mind. A light-headed feeling descended over her as Aristos buried his mouth in her throat, seeking out her pleasure points while his palms held her hips in place for the sensual, intoxicating slide of his thick length against her core.
When Sebastien had kissed her, it’d been pleasant. These kisses were turning her insides to molten heat. Making her forget she’d ever had nerves.
A low moan escaped her throat.
“You want more?”
“Yes.”
He slid his hands down the back of her thighs and pushed her dress up. Easing his knee between her legs, his hard muscle found her throbbing core. The friction, his purposeful movements, the heat of his gaze as he watched her, sent bolts of pleasure rippling through her. The aching flesh between her thighs grew wet, supple, his to command.
“Aristos.”
“You like that, angel?”
“Yes.”
The helpless, raspy note to her voice sounded foreign to her. She didn’t know what she wanted. Needed. She knew only that she wanted more.
He dropped to his knees. Her spinning head attempted to determine what he was doing. Closing his hands around her thighs, he nudged them apart, a look of such wicked intent on his face, her breath stopped in her throat.
“Aristos—”
He looked up at her. Read the hesitation in her face. “You’ve never had a man do this for you?”
“No.” She hadn’t had a man do anything to her beyond kissing her. But she thought the timing was all off to tell him that now.
“Consider it another of your firsts,” he said huskily. “I’m pretty sure it was the thought of you, spread out for me like this, that lost me the game.”
Theos. “It’s too—”
“Angel,” he said firmly, “trust me.”
She did. Had trusted him from the beginning. She relaxed her thighs, giving way to the firm pressure of his palms. His hands pushed her dress up to her waist. The look on his face when he discovered the wispy black thong she wore made her stomach dissolve. “You kill me,” he murmured. “You are so beautiful, Princess. I want to know you. Every part of you.”
Any further qualms she might have had dissolved with those words. His thumbs slid under the sides of the thong to ease it off her hips. She stepped out of it for him, blood pounding in her ears. She closed her eyes after that as he parted her thighs wider. One hand on her hip, he slid a finger down the length of her most intimate flesh. She jerked against his touch, but he held her in place. “So aroused,” he murmured, repeating the caress with a more insistent movement. “As hot for me as I am for you.”
When he parted her with gentle fingers, she thought her heart might jump through her chest. His breath was a warm, heady caress against her skin, announcing his intention to touch her just before his tongue made a leisurely foray where his fingers had been. She bucked into his hold. He held her firmly, sliding his tongue over her again, finding the tight bundle of nerves at the heart of her this time. A white-hot pleasure exploded through her.
She buried her fingers in his hair as he nudged her nub with his tongue. Over her, against her, he moved, increasing his rhythm until the almost-impossible sensitivity dissolved on a hot rush of sensation.
“This is how I wanted you,” he rasped, lifting his mouth from her flesh. “Completely at my mercy. Begging for the pleasure you know I can give you.”
She was too far gone to respond. Her eyes flew open as Aristos slid one of his long, elegant fingers inside her.
“Easy, angel,” he murmured. “I’ve got you. I promise.”
Her hands clenched his hair as he moved his finger in and out of her in an exquisite torture that stoked the fire inside her higher. When he added another, filling her completely, she started sliding down a starry path of no return.
She moaned his name, the desperate edge to her voice shocking her. Keeping up that delicious rhythm with his fingers, he brought his tongue back to the tight nub at the heart of her. “That’s it,” he murmured against her flesh. “Let go, angel.”
She arched her hips against his mouth. He took her apart with a deliberate flick of his tongue that pushed the white-hot pleasure to its peak. Her orgasm racked her, blinding her, her legs giving way beneath her.
He held her up as, spent, shaken, she recovered, waves of aftershocks shivering
through her. When the earth had righted itself, he slid an arm under her knees and picked her up, carrying her to the bed.
Setting her down beside it, he reached for the buttons of his shirt. Rapidly, his gaze on her the whole time, he undid it and dragged it off, then reached for the button of his pants. Her heart jumped into her throat as he pushed them off his hips and stepped out of them. He was all solid, powerful muscle. Vastly intimidating. Not to mention the part of him that was fully aroused beneath his black boxers. It made her mouth go dry. Excessively dry.
She headed straight for the champagne bottle, picked it up and took a healthy swallow.
He sat down on the bed. “Nerves, angel?”
He had no idea. He really didn’t.
She took another sip of the champagne.
“Bring it over,” he suggested.
“No,” she said, taking another drink, “I’m good.”
* * *
Aristos had no problem waiting her out. He might be way past gone where Alex was concerned, but he intended to take his time with her. Play to her inexperience this time around. Later was another story...
When she eventually set the bottle down and walked back over to him, he took her in from head to toe, watching a flush work its way across her beautiful olive skin as he did. “Take the dress off, Princess.”
She blinked. Chewed on her bottom lip. “I need help with the zipper.”
He set his hands on her hips and turned her around. Reaching for the zipper, he slid it down to where it ended at the beginning of her delectable bottom. Snagging an arm around her waist, he pulled her against him, pressing his mouth to the delicate column of her spine. A shiver went through her. He moved his hands up to cup her breasts. She arched against him, seeking his touch.
Her responsiveness made the blood fire in his veins. “Take it off,” he ordered throatily.
She lifted her hands and pushed the dress off her shoulders. It fell to her hips and caught on the curve of her bottom. Bending, she slid it past her hips to the floor, stepped out of it and kicked it to the side. When she turned around, he knew he’d never seen anything so perfect. She was petite with a Venus-like voluptuousness that was all woman.
He wondered if that was why he needed to possess her so badly. The dominant side of him. The need to protect, to claim what was his. And yet, he reminded himself, frowning past that errant thinking, she would never be his. This was a fling to put their explosive chemistry to rest.
He caught her hand in his and pulled her onto his lap. A tinge of apprehension still lingered in her blue eyes. He covered her mouth with his and kissed her until she was soft beneath his hands, played with the erect points of her nipples with his thumbs until she let out a low moan.
Depositing her on the bed, she landed in a cloud of cream-colored silk. Riffling through his pants, he found the condoms he’d stashed there. Fishing one out, he threw it on the bedside table, slid his fingers under the waistband of his boxers and pushed them off.
Alex’s eyes were riveted to the proud thrust of his manhood. Ripping open the package, he slid the condom on, happy to give her a show. When he’d sheathed himself, he joined her on the bed. “This is where you get to tell me how you like it, Princess. Your choice.”
Her eyes widened. “It—it doesn’t matter. Just...slow, you know.”
She was damn lucky he had some self-control left. Barely. “Maybe you don’t know? Soukis was that tame?”
Her delicate throat convulsed. “I don’t know. How I like it, I mean...”
Something twisted inside him. “No worries,” he murmured, moving over her and caging her with his thighs. “I know how I want you. Underneath me. Wrapped around me, angel, so I can watch your face while I give you everything I have.”
Her eyes were huge, sparkling sapphires. Bending his head, he took one of her perfect breasts in his mouth. Applied enough pressure to make her writhe beneath him. She thrust her fingers in his hair and hung on. Devoting the same attention to her other nipple, he slid his hand over her flat stomach, dipped into her warmth and found her wet and ready for him.
His control on shaky ground, he nudged her thighs apart. Guiding one of her legs around his waist, he lifted her bottom with his palm and slid his throbbing flesh against her slick opening. Alex closed her eyes, her fingers catching hold of the silk beneath her. Slowly, deliberately, he caressed her. Waited for the signal she was ready.
“Aristos.” His name left her lips on a sigh. Sinking his fingers into the soft flesh of her bottom, he eased himself into her tight, hot body. She was small, petite here, too. He gritted his teeth and took it slowly, allowing her body to soften around his before he continued. The leg Alex had wrapped around his waist tightened, urged him closer. He sank deeper inside her, her snug body heaven and torture all at the same time.
“Okay, angel?”
She nodded, the hazy pleasure in her eyes inflaming his senses. Gripping her buttocks, he surged forward, filling her with all of him. Flinched at the resistance he encountered. His brain struggled to compute. Had it been physical? Mental? The shock spreading across her face, the different tightening of her body around his, the sudden easing now that she’d accommodated him, made it seem as if—
He froze. Surveyed the tension on her face.
“Alex,” he said in a dangerously quiet voice, making those blue eyes flutter open. “Tell me you aren’t what I think you are.”
She bit her lip. He cursed.
Her fingers closed around his forearm. “I wanted it to be you. I made this choice, Aristos.”
“And you didn’t think to tell me?”
“I should have.” She tightened her leg around him, holding him to her. “It’s done now. Parakalo—I want this. I want you.”
She was right. The damage was done. It was all his stunned brain could process.
“Please,” she said again. “This is what I want.”
It was the vulnerability, the hot desire in her gaze that did him in. The knowledge that if he was going to hell, which he surely was now, he was going to enjoy himself while he was doing it. He was going to make her first time the best experience it could be.
Palming her buttock, he began stroking inside her. Her natural eroticism, her passionate response as she lifted her hips to meet his thrusts, stoked the flame inside him back to life. Deepening his strokes, he brought his mouth down on hers and drank from her sweetness. Swallowed her low moans of pleasure.
“You like me inside you? How does it feel to have all of me?”
“Good. So good.” She dug her fingernails into his back. “Don’t stop. Please don’t stop.”
There was no way he could now. There was no resistance left in him as he drove himself into her soft, willing body. Spiritual, she’d called it. He thought it particularly apt as he buried his mouth in her throat and tasted her racing pulse. Kissing Alex had been one thing. Possessing her another thing entirely. He had the feeling nothing else would satisfy him after this. That she would be imprinted on his brain, ruining him for anything less than what she was.
The tension in his body built to unsustainable levels. Lifting his mouth from hers, he filled his palms with her hips, angling her so he could find that pleasure point deep inside her that could give her an even more intense release than before. He saw it in her eyes, the way the blue turned deep indigo, that she felt it, too.
“Right there,” he murmured huskily, stroking that spot again and again with deep, hard thrusts. “Feel me right there.”
She started to tremble beneath him. He closed his mouth over hers as she came apart, her moan of pleasure raking through him, completing him in a way he’d never experienced before. It spurred his own violent release. Uttering a hoarse cry, he drove into her sweetness, slaking the lust that had been consuming him for weeks.
A thick silence filled the room as they lay spent, catching their breath. Shifting his weight off Alex, he went into the bathroom and cleaned himself up. When he returned, she was sitting up on th
e bed, her dark hair in wild disarray, blue eyes wary. “Are you angry?”
“Yes.” He raked a hand through his hair. “You should have told me. Diavole, Alex, I just took your virginity.”
“So?”
“So how does that happen in this day and age? You are twenty-five.”
She lifted a shoulder. “I told you. There wasn’t much of a chance to meet anyone in Stygos. Sebastien was my only serious boyfriend.”
“And he never got you into bed?”
“That’s why he asked me to marry him. Because I wouldn’t.”
She might have been worth it. He shook off that rather insane thought. “So you blithely decided to toss it all away tonight? Just for the hell of it?”
“You know it wasn’t like that.”
He didn’t know anything anymore. Not one damn thing.
“Aristos,” she said quietly. “This changes nothing. I’m an adult. I made a decision.”
“A decision you didn’t consult me about. A decision that has repercussions.”
She frowned. “What repercussions?”
He didn’t know that, either. Biting out a curse, he gathered his clothes from the floor and threw them on. Alex watched him from the bed, a frozen look on her face. But this time, this time, he wasn’t going there. He needed to go find his common sense instead.
“Get some sleep. I have guests to see off tomorrow.”
“Aristos—”
He left without looking at her. Before temptation led him astray yet again.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
ALEX WOKE WITH a pounding headache, sunshine from another glorious Larikos day streaming in through blinds she’d forgotten to draw. But it wasn’t just her head that hurt. She was sore in places that made her cheeks heat.
Burrowing her aching head in the pillow, images from the evening before came at her fast and hard. Her night with Aristos had been hot, tender and passionate, had surpassed any expectations she’d had. Reading about that type of passion on a page and experiencing such heart-stopping intimacy were two entirely different things.
She felt different, changed, more of a woman in every way, as if the universe had opened up yet another facet of itself for her to explore. She didn’t regret for one second giving her virginity to Aristos, but apparently he did.
Claiming the Royal Innocent (Kingdoms & Crowns) Page 12
