She flushed at his tone, lost for words.
‘You have sex with me at a ball within five minutes of meeting me,’ he murmured, continuing his hateful judgment. ‘You didn’t even know my name.’
‘And you didn’t know mine,’ she flared. ‘And we used protection. So there you go.’
‘But I wasn’t engaged to anyone else at the time.’
That one hurt because it was truth. ‘Nor was I,’ she mumbled weakly.
‘Not “officially”.’ His eyes were so full of scorn that she winced. ‘But you knew. You knew the announcement was about to be made. You owed him your loyalty and you cheated.’
Damon was right, but he didn’t know the reality of the marriage she faced. He’d never understand the scrutiny and crazy constraints she endured in her privileged world.
At her silence now, pure danger flashed in his eyes. She backed away until the wall brought her to a stop. Her heart raced as he followed until he leaned right into her personal space.
‘So, how many others?’ he asked again, too softly.
She’d brazen it out. Disgust him so he’d take her back to Palisades in repulsion. ‘At least four.’
‘Liar.’ Slowly he lifted his hand and brushed the backs of his fingers over the blush burning down her cheekbones. ‘Why won’t you just tell me the truth, Eleni?’
His whisper was so tempting.
She lifted her chin, refusing to let him seduce her again. And at the same time, refusing to run. ‘I don’t have to tell you anything.’
‘What are you afraid of?’ he taunted huskily. ‘The world finding out your secret? That Princess Eleni The Pure likes dressing up in disguise and doing it fast and dirty with a succession of strangers? That she can’t get enough?’
Anger ignited, but something else was lit within as well. That treacherous response. She had liked it fast and dirty. With him. She closed her eyes but he tilted her chin back up, holding it until she opened them again and looked right into the banked heat of his.
‘Are you ashamed of what happened, Eleni?’
Tears stung but she blinked them back. Of course she was ashamed. She couldn’t understand how it had happened. How she could have lost all control and all reason like that. And how could her body be so traitorous now—aching for him to take that half step nearer and touch her again?
The intensity deepened in his eyes. A matching colour mounted in his cheekbones.
Hormones. Chemicals. That crazy reaction that she still couldn’t believe had happened was happening again.
‘You like it,’ he muttered. ‘And you want it.’
‘And I get it,’ she spat, reckless and furious and desperate to push him away. ‘From whomever, whenever I please.’
‘Is that right?’
‘Yes,’ she slammed her answer in defiance.
He smiled. A wickedly seductive smile of utter disbelief.
‘You’ll never know.’ She was pushed to scorn.
‘You don’t think?’ He actually laughed.
‘Maybe I’m pregnant with my fiancé’s baby,’ she snapped. Reminding him of her engagement might make him back off. She needed him to back off.
His smile vanished. ‘I don’t think so, Princess.’
She stilled at his expression.
‘You haven’t slept with him,’ Damon said roughly. ‘I was your first, Eleni. That night with me, you were a virgin.’
She gaped, floundering in total mortification as he threw the truth in her face.
How had he known? How? She pressed against the cool wall, hoping to stop shaking.
‘Why lie so constantly?’ he demanded, leaning closer, the heat of his body blasting. ‘You still have nothing to say?’
How could she possibly explain? She couldn’t answer even her own conscience.
‘There is nothing wrong with liking sex,’ he said roughly. ‘But there is something wrong with lying and cheating to get it.’
She trembled again, appalled by how aroused she was. She could no longer look him in the eye; he saw too much. She wanted to hide from him. From herself. Since when was she this wanton animal who’d forgo all her scruples simply to get a physical fix?
‘Eleni.’
She refused to look at him.
But she couldn’t escape the sensations that the slightest of touches summoned. He brushed her cheek with a single finger, and then tucked a strand of her hair back behind her ear. She stood rigid, desperate not to reveal any reaction.
‘Let’s try this again, shall we?’ He leaned so close.
She bit the inside of her cheek, hoping the pain would help keep her sane, but she could feel his heat radiating through her.
‘No lying. No cheating,’ he murmured. ‘Just truth.’
The tip of his finger marauded back and forth over her lips; the small caress sent shock waves of sensuality to her most private depths.
Her pulse quickened, but his finger didn’t. Slowly he teased. Such pleasure and such promise came from a touch so small, building until she could no longer hold still. He teased until she parted her lips with a shaky breath.
He swooped, pressing his mouth to hers, taking advantage to slide his tongue deep and taste until he tore a soft moan from her. So easily. He wound his arm around her waist and drew her close, holding her so he could kiss her. Again. Then again.
After all these sleepless nights he was with her—with all his heat and hardness. She quivered, then melted against him. Immediately he swept his hand down her side, urging her closer and she went—her body softening to accommodate the steel of his.
With his hands and with his lips, he marauded everywhere now. Kissing her mouth, her jaw, her neck, he slid his hand across her aching breasts, down her quivering stomach, until he hit the hem of her skirt. He pushed under and up. High, then higher still up her thigh. Demanding—and getting—acceptance, intimacy, willingness. So quickly. So intensely. She curled into his embrace, then arched taut as a bowstring as he teased her.
‘Eleni...’ he whispered between kisses and caresses. ‘How many lovers have you had?’
Unable to contain her need, she thrust against that tormenting finger that was so close, that was stirring her in a way that she could no longer resist. On a desperate sigh she finally surrendered her not so secret truth. ‘One.’
He rewarded her with more of that rubbing designed to drive her insane. She couldn’t breathe. Closer, so close.
‘And how many times have you had sex?’
She shook with aching desire. With the need for him to touch her again. Just once. One more touch was all she needed. ‘One,’ she muttered breathlessly.
Her answer seemed to anger him again. He held her fast and kissed her hard. Passionate and ruthless, his tongue plundered the cavern of her mouth. He was dominant and claiming and all she could do was yield to his passion.
But the fires within him stoked her own. She kissed him back furiously, hating him knowing how aroused she was. But there was no controlling her reaction. No stopping what she wanted. And she wanted. Now.
It was at that moment, of her total surrender, that he tore his mouth from hers.
‘How many men have kissed you like that?’ he rasped.
She panted, her nipples tight and straining against her suddenly too tight bra. ‘One,’ she answered, pushed beyond her limits.
‘And how many men have kissed you liked that, but here?’ His fingers pushed past the silk scrap of material covering her, probing into her damp, hot sex.
She gasped at the delicious intrusion. Her limbs trembled as release hovered only a stroke or two away. She gazed into his gorgeously fiery eyes, quivering at the extreme intimacy connecting them.
‘Answer me, Eleni.’ He ground out a brutal whisper.
‘None.’ Her answer barely sounded.
She registered his sharp exhalation but then he kissed her again. Somehow she was in his embrace, his body between hers. Heaven help her, she went with him to that sofa. She let him. Wanted him. Bu
t as he pushed her skirt higher and slid lower so he was kneeling between her legs she realised where this was going. A lucid moment—she gasped and shifted.
‘Don’t try to hide. I’m going to kiss you. There won’t be even an inch of you that I haven’t tasted. Every intimacy is mine.’
His blunt, savage words stunned her. Blindly she realised that his control was as splintered as her own. That he too was pushed beyond reason. Pleasure surged and she couldn’t resist or deny—not him. Not herself.
She groaned at his first kiss, shocked at how exposed she felt and embarrassed by just how much she ached for his touch. It was like being taken over by a part of herself she didn’t know was there. That lustful, brazen part. She flung her arm over her face, hiding from him. From herself. But there was no hiding from the sensations he aroused and the delight and skill of his mouth on her. His tongue. There. Right there.
She moaned in unspeakable pleasure.
‘Look at that,’ he muttered arrogantly in the echo of her need. ‘You like it.’ His laugh was exultant. ‘You like it a lot.’
His attention was relentless. She arched again, pressing her hands against her eyes but unable to hold back her scream as a torrent of ecstasy tore through her. She shuddered, sweet torture wracking her body.
Then she was silent, suspended in that moment where she waited for his next move. For him to rise above her, to press against her, to take her. She ached anew to feel him. She wanted him to push inside and take her completely.
But he didn’t. He didn’t move at all.
She lay frozen, her face still buried in her arm as the last vestiges of that bliss ebbed. And then shame flooded in. Bitter, galling shame.
She twisted, suddenly desperate to escape. But he grasped her hips hard, prevented her moving even an inch.
‘Stop hiding,’ he growled savagely. ‘There are things we must discuss.’
‘Discuss? You think you discuss anything?’ She threw her arms wide and snarled at him. ‘You dictate.’ He bulldozed. ‘And you...you...’
‘Take action.’ He finished her sentence for her, as breathless and angry as she. ‘And I’ll continue to do so. And first up, you’re not going to marry Prince Xander of Santa Chiara. You’re going to marry me.’
CHAPTER SIX
‘I’M NOT MARRYING YOU,’ Eleni snapped, furiously shoving him. ‘I’m not marrying anyone.’
‘Right.’ He lazily leaned back on his heels and sent her a sardonic look. ‘That’s why the world is currently planning party snacks for the live stream of the royal wedding of the century.’
She was sick of his smug arrogance. Awkwardly she curled up her legs to get past him and angrily pulled her skirt down, too mortified to hunt for her knickers. ‘I wasn’t going to go through with it.’
‘Really?’ He stood in a single, smooth movement, mocking her with his athletic grace. ‘What was the plan?’
She loathed how inept he made her feel. How easily he could make her lose all control. How much her appallingly stupid body still wanted his attention. ‘You have no idea how impossible it is for me to get away.’
‘As it happens, I do have some insight into the technical difficulties.’ His gaze narrowed. Hardened. ‘So you were going to go through with it.’
She’d never wanted to but she’d known it was what was expected. Since she’d suspected her pregnancy her desperation had grown. She glared at him from the centre of the room. ‘I didn’t know what to do.’
‘Why not try talking to him?’
She rolled her eyes. He made it sound so easy.
‘Giorgos wouldn’t listen.’
‘Giorgos?’ Damon’s eyebrows shot up. ‘What about the man you were supposed to marry?’
Who? Oh. He meant Xander. As if she could talk to him—she barely knew him.
‘I’m guessing you don’t love him. Prince Xander, that is,’ Damon added sarcastically.
She turned away from Damon. Her heart beat heavy and fast and she perched on the edge of a small chair—far, far away from that sofa. ‘Obviously not or I wouldn’t have...done what I did with you.’
‘Then why marry him?’
‘Because it is what has been expected for a long time.’
‘So it’s duty.’
‘It would benefit our countries...’
‘Because a royal wedding is somehow going to magically smooth away any serious issues your respective countries may be facing?’ He laughed derisively. ‘And you’ll throw in some rainbows and unicorns to make it all prettier and perfect?’
‘You don’t understand the subtleties.’
‘Clearly not,’ he muttered dryly. ‘And was my child meant to be the fruit of this fairy-tale unity?’ he demanded. ‘When in reality she or he will grow up lonely in a house devoid of warmth and love with parents absent in every sense.’
Eleni stared, taken aback by his vehemence. And his insight.
‘I’ll never let my child be used that way.’ His eyes were hard. ‘I know the unseen impact of a purely political union and I’ll do whatever it takes to ensure my kid doesn’t endure that kind of bleak upbringing.’
‘I’m not going to marry him,’ she said in a low voice. ‘I know I can’t.’
‘But if you don’t marry someone, your child will be labelled a bastard. We might live in modern times, but you’re a princess and there are certain expectations. What kind of life will your child have without legitimacy? Will she be kept cloistered in the shadows, even more stifled than you were? Look how well that turned out for you.’
She flinched. He saw too much and he judged harshly. But the horrible thing was, he was right. She had to think of a better way. She leapt to her feet and paced away from him, twisting her cold hands together. She didn’t want to involve him—he twisted everything up too much.
‘I need to call Giorgos,’ she said. It must be almost two hours since she’d left Palisades and her brother would be irate already.
‘I agree.’
She spun on the spot. ‘You do?’
‘Of course. It’ll be better if you’re completely honest with him. Do you think you can be—or are you going to need help with that again?’
She flushed, remembering just how Damon had dragged the intimate truth from her only minutes ago. Now his biting sarcasm hurt and she felt sick enough at the thought of confessing all to her brother.
‘What, you expect me to cheerily tell him I’m here of my own free will?’ She flared. ‘That you didn’t bundle me into a boat and set sail for the high seas before I could blink?’
‘The choice was yours.’
‘What choice did you give me?’ she scoffed.
‘To speak the truth, or give you time. I think it was a reasonable choice.’
‘It was blackmail. Because you’re a bully.’
‘You’ve already admitted you didn’t know what to do. You couldn’t figure a way out. Here it is and you’re happy about it. Don’t dramatise me into your villain.’
Eleni rubbed her forehead. Damon’s words struck a deep chord. She’d been refusing to admit to herself how glad she was he’d stolen her away. She’d been unable to think up an escape and he’d offered one. She wasn’t as much mad with him, but mad with herself for needing it—and for layering on complications with her wretched desire for him. Her emotional overreactions had to end.
She’d been too scared to admit to Giorgos how badly she’d screwed up. But if she wanted her brother to treat her as an adult, she had to act like one.
‘Okay.’ She blew out a breath and turned to look Damon in the eye. ‘I’m not sorry you took me away. You’re right. I needed this time to think things through. Thank you.’
‘How very gracious, Princess,’ Damon drawled. ‘But don’t be mistaken. Like I said, this isn’t a rescue. I’m not doing you a favour. I’m claiming what’s mine. And I’m protecting it.’ He picked up a handset from a small side table and held it out to her. ‘Phone your brother.’
Eleni’s hands were slick
with sweat as she tapped the private number onto the screen.
‘Giorgos, it’s me.’ She turned away from Damon as her brother answered his private line immediately.
‘Eleni. Where are you?’ Giorgos demanded instant answers. ‘Come back to the palace now. Do you have any idea of the trouble you’ve caused?’
‘I’m not coming back yet, Giorgos. I need time to think.’
‘Think? About what?’ Her brother dismissed her claim. ‘Your fiancé is already here. Or had you forgotten that you’re about to go on tour with him?’
‘I can’t do it, Giorgos.’
‘Can’t do what?’ Giorgos asked impatiently.
Eleni closed her eyes and summoned all her courage. ‘I’m pregnant,’ she said flatly. ‘Prince Xander isn’t the father.’
Silence.
Seven long seconds of appalled silence.
‘Who?’ Giorgos finally asked in a deadly whisper. ‘Who?’
‘It doesn’t matter—’
‘I’ll kill him. I’ll bloody—Tell me his name.’
‘No.’
‘Tell me his name, Eleni. I’ll have him—’
‘Call off the hounds, Giorgos.’ She interrupted her brother for the first time in her life. ‘Or I swear I’ll never return.’ Her heart broke as she threatened him. ‘I will disappear.’
Her guilt mounted. Her horror at doing this to the brother she loved. But she pushed forward.
‘It doesn’t matter who it was. He didn’t seduce me. I was a fully willing participant.’ She screwed her eyes tight shut, mortified at revealing this intimacy to her brother, but knowing the way he’d assume she’d been taken advantage of because he still thought of her as an innocent, helpless kid. She needed to own this. ‘I made the mistake, Giorgos. And I need to fix it. Tell Xander I’m sick. Tell him I ran away. Tell him anything you like. But I’m not coming back. Not yet. Not ’til I’ve sorted it out.’
‘Are you with the bastard now?’ Giorgos asked impatiently.
‘I’m not marrying him either,’ Eleni said.
She didn’t catch Giorgos’s muttered imprecation.
‘This child is mine. Pure Nicolaides.’ She finally felt a segment of peace settle in place inside.
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