Sexy Billionaires

by Carol Marinelli

  “God, you drive me crazy,” he whispered against her skin. “I want you, Anna. It’s killing me.”

  “Good.” She reached for his shirt and saw his expression as she untucked the fabric and ran her hands underneath, exploring his flat belly and the muscular chest covered with dark hair. “This time you’re not going to refuse me,” she said, using a tone she’d heard him use many times—the tone no one could refuse. She unbuttoned his shirt, her fingers somehow moving deftly, as if she’d been seducing men all her life. “You’re not going to make me wait. You’re not going to demand that I marry you.”

  “Anna.” His breathing was coming harder. “We both know—”

  “Later.” She already knew what he was going to say, and she didn’t want to hear a word of it. She didn’t want to think about the résumés in her purse, or the fact that Nikos had finally decided to let her go. Tomorrow she’d face those cold, hard facts. But tonight she’d stop time. She’d have one perfect night with him that could be crystallized in her memory forever—something to remember during all the cold and lonely nights.

  Tonight she would give herself to him completely.

  I love you, Nikos. I love you.

  “Did you say something?” he murmured.

  Oh, my God, had she whispered those words aloud? She had to distract him.

  “I said no talking.” She reached for his waist. Unbuckling his belt, she pulled it out of the loops and tossed it to the floor of the elevator. She slowly stroked his bare belly beneath his shirt, swaying her body against his.

  With a taunting smile, she undid the top button of his pants.

  He gave an audible gasp and grabbed her wrists, yanking them tight above her head. “Is this what you want?” he choked out. “Hard and fast? Here in the elevator?”

  She struggled against the shackles of his hands, wanting to touch him, to feel his naked skin against her own. Her whole body ached for him.

  The elevator dinged as it reached their floor, and the doors slid open. She felt drunk, drugged with desire, as with a throaty growl Nikos picked her up, carrying her roughly into the penthouse.

  Against a backdrop of two-story-high windows, the only color was a minimalist red sofa against white walls and white carpet. He took her swiftly into his enormous bedroom. He pressed a button on the wall and the room suddenly glowed with firelight. She’d wondered what this room would be like. It was spartan, empty, and ghostly white. The floor was white tile, covered by a white fur rug in front of a white adobe fireplace. Surrounded by oceans of unused space, the king-sized bed sat, pristine and untouched, in the center of the room.

  Nikos started to kiss her again, and she closed her eyes. She forgot where she was, forgot everything. He lowered her gently to the enormous mattress, caressing her long hair. He stroked her cheek, down her neck, then placed his hand softly between her breasts, over her heart.

  “Last chance to leave,” he growled.

  Deliberately, she leaned back against his bed.

  Unblinking as a wolf, he stared at her. Her eyes devoured his bare chest. Dark hair covered his torso, tightening to a vertical line that disappeared beneath the waistband of his exquisitely tailored pants.

  His clothes were elegant and fine. The uniform of a wealthy, civilized man. But his body was something else, something more. As he discarded his clothes, tossing them on the white tile floor, he revealed the savage warrior beneath.

  He stood in front of her, naked and unselfconscious. His muscles were hard, wide. She saw the old scars, almost faded, brought into stark relief by new white lines across his ribs and collarbone. She saw how much he wanted her. Most of all she saw his dark eyes, hungry with need. She sat up, reaching for him, holding out her arms.

  He was on her in an instant, pressing her back roughly against the luxuriant softness of the bed.

  “Agape mou,” he whispered. “I have waited so long. Wanted you for so long…”

  Reaching his broad hands beneath her back, he unzipped her skirt. He pulled his shirt over her head and tossed them both to the floor. The stroke of the fabric, the sheen of his breath, sent prickles of longing up and down her skin. As he kissed slowly down her body, between her breasts and down her belly, it was all she could do not to blurt out the three forbidden words.

  Kissing her, he pushed her back against the soft goosedown comforter, spreading his hands wide as he caressed her body, making her shiver as he ran his fingers over her white panties and bra.

  He covered her with his naked body, pressing her into the soft folds of the thick comforter. She felt as if she was drowning. She clutched at him like a life preserver, gasping as he unhooked her bra and freed her breasts. He slowly moved his body up against hers, rubbing his chest against her, pressing his naked hardness between her legs as he sucked on her neck, her shoulder, her earlobes. Holding her tightly, he ran his tongue around the tender edge of her ear, slowly moving inward until he made her gasp as he penetrated the center with his tongue. She turned her face to him, grabbing the back of his head as she kissed him hungrily.

  Then she pulled away, looking into his eyes.

  She had to say the words. She couldn’t keep them inside anymore.

  “Nikos, I love you.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  NIKOS froze. “What?”

  “I love you.” Anna’s face looked bare, vulnerable, as she repeated the words.

  Nikos had tried for the last hour to speak those same three words—the simple lie that would close the deal and give him the upper hand. But he’d been unable to force the words out of his mouth. He hadn’t wanted to say them, hadn’t wanted to lie to her. He’d let himself hope that making love to her would be enough.

  Tsou. No. It was now or never. He had to act now, or it was all over.

  He pictured his son with a man like Sinistyn as his stepfather. He imagined Anna in another man’s arms, and his lips pressed into a line. To protect his family he’d do anything, say anything, sacrifice anything.

  Even his honor.

  Watching his face with a troubled expression, Anna rushed to say, “I know you don’t love me back, and it’s okay—”

  “I love you, too.” He spoke the words quickly, spitting them out as if they were a live grenade in his mouth.

  “You love me?” Anna stared at him in amazement, as if she couldn’t believe what she’d heard.

  “Yes.” His voice was low, strained.

  Her whole face started to light up from within, like a thousand Christmas candles glowing at once. “You love me?” she repeated in a whisper, her eyes filling with tears. If he’d truly loved her, the joy on her face would have been enough to keep him warm through a thousand cold, dark winters. “I never expected—I never dreamed—Oh, Nikos…”

  She kissed him then with a passion so pure and sweet it was unlike anything he’d ever known. He returned her kiss with fervor, desperate to forget the lie he’d told, to wipe his sin clean through the fire of his longing for her. He wanted her. He wanted every part of her. Her beauty and innocence and goodness. He kissed her back with all the hard, brutal honesty in his soul.

  He ran his hands down the length of her soft skin, kissing her lips, her breasts, sucking the tips of her fingers as she reached for him, trying to pull him closer. The way she moved, the sway and tremble of her body beneath him, brought him perilously close to exploding. Only the thin barrier of fabric kept him from seizing her hips and plunging himself into her. The image had barely crossed his mind before he kissed down her belly, running his hands beneath the fabric, gently nudging her panties down as his kisses went lower. He pulled the cotton down with his teeth even as he ran his fingers between her splayed legs, lightly tracing upwards from the sensitive area behind her knees to her inner thighs. He reached his hands beneath her panties and pulled them down. His tongue descended on her, spreading and licking her wide. As he ran his tongue over her hot nub, swirling in a circular motion, she writhed and moaned beneath him.

  “No—” she gasp
ed, trying to push him away. “I want you inside me—”

  But he was merciless. Instead of stopping, he reached a thick finger inside her, then another finger. He pushed into her as his tongue licked and lapped her. She arched violently, her body snapping back against the bed, and he felt her shake and tremble as she came.

  Feeling like he was going to explode, he lifted up on his arms and positioned himself between her legs. He found her wet core, pressing right into her, then hesitated, panting from the effort of restraint. He didn’t want to hurt her. He would have to go slowly…

  But Anna, more merciful than he, took things into her own hands. As he gritted his teeth, aching as he pushed himself slowly inside her, she reached behind him and yanked his naked buttocks towards her, forcing him through the tight sheath, impaling her. He heard her gasp, and he tried to pull back, but the pleasure of being buried deep inside her after all the months of longing was too much. He moaned her name softly, moving inside her, and took her in his arms, kissing her.

  He’d never known it could be like this.

  It hurt when he pushed into her. Had he always been this big?

  Then he kissed her. His tongue twined around hers, caressing her deeply, and as her body relaxed the pleasure returned, built, intensified.

  He loves me, she thought in amazement. Her eyes fluttered open and she saw the expression on his face as he was kissing her. It was worshipful. Devout. Intent. He loves me.

  Her body relaxed. She didn’t have to leave him, ever. Her heart was flooded with joy such as she’d never known before. He’d never said I love you before.

  With those three words her whole world had changed.

  Somehow everything would work out. Why not? What problem was insurmountable, what miracles were impossible, when Nikos loved her?

  Running his hands along her breasts, he slowly pushed into her again. Her nerves grew taut. She wanted him, wanted more. She lifted her hips to meet his thrust, holding on to his shoulders. But the bed was far too soft, swallowing her into the comforter under his weight.

  With a growl of frustration he lifted her up from the bed, careful not to pull out as he wrapped her naked body around him. In five long steps he crossed the firelit room to the nearest wall—the thick windows that overlooked the Las Vegas Strip, twenty floors below. Thick, unbreakable windows that she herself had discussed with the architects—but she’d never dreamed she would put them to use like this.

  Anna moaned as he pressed her naked body against the windows. She glanced down at his tanned skin, at the ripple of his hard muscles in the flickering firelight. She tightened her legs around his rock-hard buttocks as he pushed into her. A groan came from his lips as he thrust into her again and again, causing her full breasts to move with each force of his thrust. Leaning forward, he bit her neck as the pleasure began to spiral within her, even deeper and harder than she’d felt before. Her whole body began to shake, so tense that she could hardly breathe for want of him. She felt him explode inside her with a shout, and she screamed, rocked hard against the windows behind her, as she was devoured by the most intense pleasure she’d ever known.

  She fell forward onto him, weak and spent. He lifted her in his arms and lowered her to the white bearskin rug in front of the fire. Murmuring her name tenderly, kissing her face, he held her close.

  It took Anna several minutes to open her eyes, but when she did Nikos was looking down at her. His dark eyes were fierce, guarded.

  “Anna—” he said, then stopped.

  She licked her lips uncertainly. Was he already thinking that he’d made a mistake telling her he loved her? Or maybe she’d imagined the whole thing? Suddenly she felt afraid. For a long moment she heard only the low roar of the fire.

  He reached down to caress her cheek. “I don’t want to be like Sinistyn. Answer me this one last time, and I promise you I will never ask again.” He took a deep breath. “Will you marry me?”

  A rush of relief and joy went through her.

  “Yes,” she said.

  He visibly exhaled. “Tonight? Right now?”

  She snickered, playfully tugging on his ear. “We’ll have to get a license, won’t we? The courthouse closed hours ago.”

  “I’ll call the judge at home—”

  “No. Let’s do this right. Please.”

  “Tomorrow, then?” he growled. “First thing in the morning?”

  “All right,” she said, kissing his cheek and smiling.

  “You’re really going to marry me?”

  “Yes!”

  “Say it again,” he ordered, holding her close.

  She laughed out of pure happiness. “Nikos, I’ll marry you.”

  As Nikos held Anna in his arms through the long, interminable night, he stared up at the moonlight creeping slowly across the ceiling above the wide bed. He held her close, listening to her sighs of sleep against his bare shoulder. She was so sweet. So trusting.

  And he’d deceived her.

  I did what I had to do, he told himself fiercely. Anna would be his forever. Michael would have a permanent family. He’d saved his family. He’d matched his wits against hers, laying siege against her heart until it fell, like a golden city overrun by a savage army.

  But he’d never thought winning would feel like this.

  He’d lied to her. Now, even holding her in his arms, so warm and soft against him, he felt cold. He stared down at her lovely face in the shadows and moonlight. She was smiling in her sleep, pressing her body against his. She was radiating warmth and contentment. She believed that he finally loved her. She believed in happy endings—even for a man like him.

  His whole body was racked with tension. But even as he tried to justify what he’d done the thought that she would learn soon enough about his lie pounded through him. She wouldn’t be satisfied with an unlimited bank account in lieu of his love. She would demand things of him—emotion, energy, vulnerability—that he simply couldn’t give. Not even if he tried. He just wasn’t made that way.

  And as soon as she found out how she’d been deceived, her joy would be snuffed out like a candle. It would cause the bright new light in her to go out, perhaps forever.

  Shortly before dawn he heard snuffling moans from the next room, where Mrs. Burbridge had brought their baby to spend the night. At their son’s cries, Anna stirred in his arms.

  She gently pushed out of his embrace and crept into the baby’s room to nurse, before returning back into his bed.

  “Nikos?” Anna whispered.

  He kept his breathing even, feigning sleep.

  “Thank you,” she said, so quietly it was barely audible. “I have the home I dreamed of, the family I dreamed of. I don’t know what I did to deserve this. Thank you for loving me.”

  God, this was intolerable. He turned on his side, pulling away from her, every nerve taut. As soon as he was sure she was really asleep, he sat up in bed. Feeling bone-weary, he raked his hands through his hair and rose slowly from the bed.

  Glancing at Anna, slumbering peacefully beneath the white goosedown comforter, he came to a decision. He looked at the clock. It was almost six. He’d intended to have her sign the prenuptial agreement as soon as she woke, then drive straight to the courthouse for a license. He’d planned for them to be married at a drive-thru chapel before breakfast.

  But, no matter how pure his motives, now that he held her fate in the palm of his hands he just couldn’t do it. He couldn’t take her honesty and trust and love and use them as weapons against her. He couldn’t break her heart and destroy her life, no matter how good his motives might be.

  Anna Rostoff deserved a man who could love her with his whole heart.

  If he wasn’t that man, he had to let her go.

  A fine time to grow a conscience, Nikos thought bleakly. Apparently he did have one last bit of honor left.

  He gave Anna one final, lingering glance. Her dark hair was sprawled across his pillow, her creamy skin like ivory against the white thousand-count sheets. He
r cheeks still glowed pink, a remnant of their lovemaking, and her lips curved into a soft smile as she sighed in her sleep.

  It was an image he knew he’d never see again.

  Anna woke in a flood of early-morning light with one bright thought: today was her wedding day!

  She stretched her limbs against the luxurious sheets with a contented yawn. Her body felt sore. A good kind of sore. She smiled to herself, almost blushing as she remembered everything Nikos had done to her last night. She’d woken up twice for the baby, but, as worn out as she’d been from their lovemaking, with Nikos’s hard body curled protectively around hers she’d still had an amazing night’s sleep.

  She glanced over to the wall of windows, revealing the wide blue Nevada sky from the twentieth-floor penthouse. She’d never felt happy like this before. Safe. Optimistic. Secure. For the first time in her whole life she not only had a home, she had someone who would actually watch over and protect her, instead of just looking out for their own interests. And she had someone she could protect and love in return not because she had to, but because she wanted to.

  She and Nikos would be partners, in work as in life. Together they’d be as unbreakable as tempered steel.

  It was an exquisitely heady feeling. She wanted to do cartwheels across the penthouse.

  She wanted to kiss Nikos right now.

  Where was he? In the kitchen, making her breakfast? Humming to herself, she rose from the bed and threw on a satin robe, barely stopping long enough to loosely tie the belt to cover her naked body. She paused briefly outside the door of the second bedroom, where Misha was sleeping. She heard only blessed silence.

  She smiled to herself. With any luck she and Nikos would have time for more than a kiss before their child woke up demanding breakfast.

  She went down the hall and found the kitchen, but it was empty. The immaculate white counters looked as if they’d never even been touched. Nikos was probably already working in his office. Wouldn’t he be surprised and happy if she made him coffee, eggs and toast?