by Marian Tee
She squeezed her eyes shut as if to ward off the temptation of Nick’s voice.
“Say it, manari mou.”
Nick’s seductive whisper wrapped around her like silken bonds, tightening and tightening until she couldn’t breathe because she wanted Nick so, so much. “Yes,” she choked out. “I want…to come…again.”
Nick didn’t say a word, and she didn’t either, not for a long time, not as Nick twisted them around, with Lilac lying on the couch and Nick kneeling on the floor as his head dipped and he started worshipping her anew.
****
The sudden lurch of the limousine jarred Lilac awake, and she blinked. It took a while to realize she was still in Nick’s arms. Naked.
She struggled to get off Nick’s lap, embarrassed, but his arms tightened around her.
“Stay.”
His voice was so hard, it made Lilac look up at him. His beautiful face was devoid of expression it made Lilac wince. “Nick---”
“When did Jason ask you out?”
Of all the things he would have asked, Lilac hadn’t imagined it would be that. “He did not…ask me…out.”
“Fine,” he snapped in a bitingly sarcastic tone, “when did he ask for you to hang out together?”
“Nick!” She shook her head, aghast at how sordid Nick made the time she spent with his own brother sound.
When Lilac still didn’t answer, Nick gritted out, “I asked you a simple question, Lilac.”
She answered reluctantly, “Last…night.”
Nick cursed under his breath, rage boiling again at how his brother certainly hadn’t let the grass grow under his feet.
“He wanted me…to help him…choose a gift…for your mom’s…birthday.”
Nick expelled a furious breath.
“What?” she asked defensively.
“And you fucking bought that?”
“I checked…Facebook. It’s true! Your mom’s…birthday is---”
“Not that,” he growled. “Jason! How could you fall for that kind of ploy?”
“Are you telling…me…I should…not have…believed him?” Incredulity had her eyes grow as wide as saucers.
Christ! Those eyes, coupled with his rage and the wet dreams he had been having about Lilac, was a fucking potent combination. Go fucking down for once boy, Nick thought angrily as his cock shot up. Grabbing the pair of sunglasses he had left on the limousine’s side table, he slapped it on Lilac’s face even as he snarled, “You have to fucking ask?”
“He’s…your…brother!”
“Doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a dick!”
“Nick!”
This time he answered her with a kiss, his lips conquering hers ruthlessly, his tongue sweeping in and claiming every inch as his. “You’re mine,” Nick said savagely. “You were mine from the very start and just because Jason’s my brother doesn’t mean you can fucking leave me for him!”
“Who says…I’m leaving?” she cried out.
“Everyone fucking leaves,” Nick snarled. “Everyone fucking leaves m---” Nick whitened, as if only realizing what he had been about to let slip.
Nick’s last words reverberated between them in the silence that followed.
“Oh…Nick.” Tears started to trail down her cheeks.
In his eyes, she saw fear, hurt, and betrayal.
In his eyes, she saw what he couldn’t see because he couldn’t yet look within him.
Karla...unknowingly or knowingly…had forced Nick to isolate himself, made him believe that she was the only one who would not leave him. And when he had, Karla cut him off at the knees by leaving him when Nick least expected it.
“Oh…Nick.” The truth shattered her, and Lilac forgot her embarrassment about being naked while Nick was fully clothed, forget about all her scars and fears. She threw her arms around Nick, hugging him as tightly as he could. I’m here, I’m yours, I’ll stay with you. She squeezed him with all the strength in her, using it to say the words her lips couldn’t come up with.
Nick was stiff in his arms, and when she tried to make her look at him, Nick whipped his head away.
“Oh…Nick.”
He said rawly, “You don’t need Jason. You don’t need anyone else but me as your friend.”
She laughed and cried at the same time. “Oh…Nick.”
Nick’s head snapped back to her at the words. “What the fuck does that even mean? Can’t you fucking say anything else other than that?”
“You’re so beautiful…inside…you take my…breath…away.” A choked laugh escaped Lilac. “That’s what it…means.”
He shuddered.
She shattered, again.
His arms went around her, Nick holding her so tightly it was as if he wanted to absorb her into him so that she would always be unreachable to everyone else. “Tell me you’re mine, Lilac.” He kissed her, hungrily, possessively, desperately. “Tell me I’ll be your only friend, your only lover.”
“Oh…Nick.” She pulled away and laid her hand on his cheek. “All my smiles…yours.” But the darkness was still in his gaze. Struggling to breathe, she placed a finger on her lips. “All my kisses…yours.”
It was the best she could do.
Nick captured her hand and brought it to his lips. “Mine.”
He understood.
****
Nick: I’m sorry. I can’t go to you like I promised. I hope you’re fine. Call me if you need help.
Karla Niall threw the phone away, and it smashed into pieces. She drew no comfort from it, her heart remaining as cold and empty as it had been after leaving Nick Christakos.
Some of the pieces had fallen on the newspaper lying discarded on the floor, the front page torn out. Her gaze strayed to it, the headlines and the photo below it mocking Karla with her biggest mistake.
Menage a Trois for the Christakos Twins?
The shot was perfectly clear, with a woman wearing the vilest clothes standing next to Jason Christakos while her hand was held by Nick.
Just the sight of it had her gasping, and she scrambled off the bed, diving for her purse in the corner of the hotel room. Just one, just one snort would do---
The world became beautiful again and Karla fell back on the carpet, the room turning into a kaleidoscope of colors. In the middle of it was Nick, her strong beautiful Nick. She had wanted him from the very first day, and in the end she had gotten him. He had loved her like no other, the only man who would willingly die for her.
She would never, never ever give him up to another woman!
Nick Christakos was hers, always had been, always will be.
This time, she would not make the same mistakes. This time, she would be careful and maybe Karla would not be forced to betray him a third time.
Pain wracked her body as the past hurtled hateful images into her mind, and she doubled over, moaning even though Karla knew none of it was true.
She pushed herself up.
Just another snort, just another whiff---
Aaah.
Karla writhed on the floor as ecstasy took over.
Yes, that was it. She was a victim, just like Nick. Her father had threatened to sell her to the highest bidder if she couldn’t find a rich man to marry. She had been afraid. She shouldn’t be blamed for selling Nick’s whereabouts to the creditors under Davos’ employ. They had told her he would just be roughed up, and that was nothing – Karla should know since her father roughed her up all the time and she could take it.
It wasn’t her fault that those men had lied to her, wasn’t her fault that they had done more than rough Nick up.
It wasn’t her fault he had been the shell of a man he once was.
And she had taken care of him all those years, hadn’t she?
Nick Christakos should be thankful, the way she had made him feel like a man again – made his cock stand erect when in the past, all it could do was lie flat like a shitty useless piece of flesh between his legs.
Karla crawled to where the last of he
r fix remained. She inhaled it sharply, and a bolt of pleasure shot through her.
Yeeeees.
Nick would take her back. She was sure of it, could already feel his hard beautiful body moving over hers, making her scream over and over with the way he worshipped her. He would forgive her for leaving him for Davos. Nick always forgave her, Nick loved her – Nick understood her.
It was his job to take care of her, but he had failed and she had to go. If she hadn’t, her father’s creditors would have killed them. Only Davos and his billions could have saved her back then and she knew Nick knew that – or at least he had learned about it when it was already too late.
Karla’s hand went inside her panties and she started playing with herself.
Nick would touch her like this again.
Nick would take one look at her, and he would know that no other woman could make him alive, could make him a man like Karla did.
He was hers, always was, always will be – and Nick knew that.
The Fifteenth Encounter
A typical day – or night – spent at home with her rambunctious family was never this quiet: normally, there would be shrieks aplenty from the younger ones, heated and hilarious debates among her sisters, and of course her mother groaning in despair about how unruly they all were.
But now, everything was quiet – no footsteps running down the old creaking stairs, no one playing the piano in the drawing room, no children begging for her to tell them a story before she left for a ball for grown-ups.
She sighed, knowing that the silence was her entire family’s way of disapproving of her plan. They did not understand now, but one day she would make them see that she was doing the right thing.
Breathe, breathe, breathe – she could do this. All the girls from the ladies’ school had been able to do this so of course she could do this, too. She had been able to study Latin, conquer Algebra, and master Geography. So of course she could do this.
The butler’s voice boomed throughout the house, announcing the duke’s arrival. Thomson’s loud voice was also lined with disapproval, only his long-standing loyalty forcing him to give her his cue.
She positioned herself at the foot of the stairs and closed her eyes. She placed one hand on the rail and another one her forehead. There – that should be a good pose for fainting. Or was it? Maybe she should bend backward a little? Mmm…how about her head? Should she bend it to the other side?
She went through the various poses of fainting that she gleaned from those Minerva books she had stolen from Phaedra’s room, trying to find a pose that would perfectly convincing for a lady who had never had a fainting spell in her life.
Of course, the duke saw all these and when he could not hold back his laughter any longer, he asked slowly, “My lady?”
She almost jumped.
Oh Lord! How was it that she had not heard him come near? How long had he been standing there? She hastily squeezed her eyes shut. “I feel so very faint,” she whispered and started to fall.
The duke swept her in his arms, as she had expected to.
She prepared to tell him she was so unwell she could not possibly attend tonight’s Important Ball, but instead she felt warm lips covering hers. Her eyes flew open. The duke’s blue eyes smiled wickedly down at hers before they closed, and his lips became more insistent, forcing her lips to part.
It was a very, err, thorough kiss, almost as if the duke needed to be familiar with the taste of her mouth. The kiss sent a tingle throughout her body, and even though he did not caress her in any way, it felt like he did, the way his lips moved sending aftershocks all over her system.
When the duke’s head lifted, she looked at him in confusion, saying breathlessly, “You were not supposed to kiss me, Your Grace.”
“Was I not?” The duke’s voice was innocent. “I saw you practicing your poses---”
She blushed and gasped. “You saw! And yet you did not speak!”
“---and I thought you were playing the beautiful princess who was waiting for a prince’s kiss.”
“I was not waiting for your kiss,” she protested hotly. “I was pretending to faint so that you would think I’m sick and---” She gasped again, realizing what she had let slip.
His laughter was a caress, and then he was kissing her again.
“---and so I would tell you that it is better you stay home for the night and skip this ball?”
Her eyes pleaded with him. “Yes.”
His eyes became cool. “No.”
“Your Grace---”
“My lady.” His voice had become just as cool. “You will attend this ball with me.” It was no longer the man whom she was so drawn to speaking. Now it was the duke laying down the law. “You will let me escort you to dinner, let me dance with you and near the end, you will let me announce our betrothal. Everyone must know you are mine.”
“This is silly. You only want to say I’m yours because of the stupid words of Jared---”
The duke’s arms around her tightened. “You call him Jared, and yet you call me Your Grace – all the time?”
She realized her mistake the moment he said the words. “Your Grace---” Oh! She had done it again! She caught sight of the fury in the duke’s eyes just before he kissed her once more. And it was such a different kiss from everything else he had given her. It was not sweet or tender, but it was…beautiful. Hot, passionate, rough – demanding rather than wooing, claiming rather than asking.
“Now,” the duke said quietly, raising his head. “No more arguments. You will call your family, and they will attend the ball. You will smile only at me, and you will dance only with me, and afterwards you will show everyone what we both know.”
“And that is?”
“That you want to be my future duchess.”
“Lilac, we’re here.”
Her eyes flew open, and she was thoroughly disoriented, the daydream still vivid in her mind.
“Lilac?” Nick watched in amusement as Lilac grabbed her iPad from the seat and started typing furiously.
Satisfied that she had written everything down, she put the iPad back and looked up, blushing when she saw Nick grinning lazily at her. “Sorry. I might…forget. I had to w-write it down.”
“Nothing to apologize for,” he said, meaning it. “And you never have to.” One of his bodyguards opened the door. “Shall we?”
“Do I look…okay?” Lilac whispered between clenched teeth, a frozen smile on her face as Nick gently assisted her out of the limousine. Camera bulbs flashed, shouts came at her from all sides, and her smile became more difficult to keep.
It was opening night for Senses, the newest addition to the line of clubs owned by the di Luca family. Lilac supposed most women would easily trade places with her for the chance to get inside the club at opening night, but unfortunately – she was not most women.
Before she could take one step on the red carpet, Nick’s fingers curled around her arm. “Let me see,” he murmured, making Lilac face him.
He had told Lilac to dress up, and her understanding of it was like Wednesday Addams in leggings, with a white lacy dress shirt and black sheer stockings. It was, in a word, terrible. And that was fucking perfect.
“Well?” Lilac asked nervously. “Is it…okay?”
He answered cheerfully, “Nope.”
She wanted to kill him, cheerfully. How could Nick be so blasé about this? Couldn’t he see how the press was having fun at his expense? She had zero taste – and sub-zero interest in fashion. Lilac had long accepted that. But it didn’t mean she was blind. She had always admired how well put-together Nick was, and tonight he was dressed too hot for words. Fine casual for Nick Christakos consisted of designer brands from top to bottom, with his black-dyed chambray shirt, beautifully tight near-silver jeans, and studded loafers.
Mouth-wateringly sexy, really, and so Lilac totally did not mind the way women in the crowd were glaring daggers at her.
“I’m…serious,” she told him irritably
as they started walking down the red carpet, his hand on the small of her back.
“Just as serious,” was all Nick said.
She scowled. “Nick!”
It was too cute, and Nick swooped down, giving Lilac a kiss that was sweet, rough, and so frustratingly short.
It was his favorite response nowadays, whenever Lilac was obviously annoyed, and it was, unfortunately, quite effective. When he lifted his head, she could only glare. “Nick.”
“I’ve changed my mind about your horrendous taste in clothes.” Nick curved an arm around her waist. “Anything that keeps other men blind about you is good for me.”
Nick’s sheer selfishness had Lilac choking, but before she could figure out a retort, the club doors had already been thrown open, glittering light and loud music swallowing them whole.
Lilac suddenly gripped his sleeve, and when he looked down Nick was stunned to see how pale Lilac had become. “What’s wrong, sweetheart?”
“Promise…you won’t leave…me?” Lilac hated herself for sounding like a baby, but she felt so completely overwhelmed, the way everything that was new to her life was also happening too quickly.
When Nick shook his head, her heart fell.
And then he was kissing her, again, in front of everyone else. The music faded, the blinding lights blended into the darkness, and all she could see and feel was Nick. His arms were around her, his lips taking hers again and again, his tongue going inside her mouth, demanding her tongue to dance with his.
She was more than a little lightheaded when Nick released her, a smirk playing on his lips. “Nick.” This time, it came out soft and breathy.
Lust gripped him at the change in Lilac’s voice.
Ah, fuck.
“I’m barely hanging on, sweetheart. If you say my name like that again, I’ll take you against the wall.”
Lilac blinked rapidly at his words, shock all over her face.
Nick didn’t even have to say a word. He simply stretched out one hand, and he got what he wanted. A second after, Lilac had another pair of his sunglasses perched on her nose.
“Nick.” This time it came out a wail. Honestly, she wished she could be more eloquent but it was all her mind could come up with. Sunglasses in a darkly lit club, really?
