by Sophia Lynn
The kiss was gentle and sweet, surprising in its own way. The touch of his lips against hers made her whimper with the electricity between them, and that was before his tongue ran silkily along her bottom lip. She held herself still as he kissed her, holding himself back with beautiful restraint. When he pulled back, his eyes were wild.
“I want you,” he said roughly. “I want you. More than I can remember wanting anything. If you say yes to me right now, I swear I will make you feel so good, Anastasia, I swear—”
“Yes,” she murmured desperately. “Yes. That is what I want. Please. I want you, Augustine—”
His mouth pressed against hers, stopping her impassioned words. This kiss, though still sweet, was hotter, filled with masculine need. When his tongue pressed into her mouth, she welcomed it, relishing the hot vital life of Augustine's body. Somehow her hands landed on his shoulders, clinging to him as if it would kill her to let go.
It took her a moment to realize that when she grasped his shoulders, she had let go of her robe. The sound he made, half-groan and half-sigh, make her pull back with shock. The edges of her silk robe had fallen apart to reveal her pale breasts and belly. She would have blushed and stammered, but with a gentle touch to her neck, Augustine told her he didn't mind at all.
“God in Heaven,” he murmured. “I might not have been nearly so collected if I had known that you were entirely bare underneath your robe…”
“You came knocking on my door in the middle of the night,” she murmured. “I don't know what you were expecting.”
“Not this,” Augustine admitted. “Though perhaps in my deepest heart I hoped…”
With a surprisingly delicate touch, he eased the robe down her shoulders. She felt naked for a single moment, and then, still kneeling, he was pressed against her, his mouth on hers and his hands brushing against her shoulders with gentle touches. She could feel the light hair on his chest brush irresistibly against her nipples, making them harden with excitement.
When he edged a little closer, she had to part her knees so he could press between them. She could feel his flanks against her calves, and even that intimacy threatened to take her breath away.
Through it all, he never stopped kissing her. Augustine kissed her as if he wouldn't stop until the sky fell in, and all she wanted was for him to be closer.
After some timeless moment, his mouth drifted from hers down to the point of her shoulder. To her surprise, he kissed his way down her arm to her hand. At first, she didn't understand, but when he lapped at the cup of her palm, a shiver of desire ran up her spine.
“You are simply exquisite,” he murmured, kissing each of her fingers. “Every breath of you is responsive and wanting.”
She started to reply, but then he slipped two of her fingers into his mouth, suckling on them gently. She wouldn't have thought that such a simple thing would arouse her as much as it did, but when the shivers of desire raced through her body, she could only moan. Her knees tightened on his legs, and right then, she would have likely agreed to anything he asked.
Slowly, leisurely, he worked his way down her arm again, and this time the target of his tender ministrations were her breasts. She had never thought of her breasts as a very sensitive part of her. She had certainly had to fend off amorous suitors to the point where she knew they were desirable, but until Augustine started kissing them and stroking them with the most delicate motions, she had never realized how much pleasure they could bring her.
By the time he was done, she was squirming in the chair, her breath coming in soft mewls of need. When he pulled back, she cried out, but he only laughed.
“Patience, beautiful. I'll give you what you want, never fear.”
He slid back slightly, but only so he could spread her legs a little wider. She whimpered when he started to kiss his way up one smooth thigh. Her hands ended up knotted in his thick dark hair, but she couldn't pull him forward. It was as if he were made of living stone, stone that was intent on pleasuring her in a slow and unhurried way no matter what she needed.
When he came to the very seat of her desire, he started slowly and gently. At first, he only drew his tongue along her slit, adding the wetness of his mouth to the wetness that was already there. She could feel the heat in her body rising to meet him, making her more and more desperate. Then the tip of his tongue found her clit, sending a bolt of electricity through a body that was already sensitized to his touch. He didn't stop there. His tongue worked at her clit even as his hands held her legs wide for him. With her legs immobilized, it was all she could do to hang on to him.
She was held open to the pleasure that he wanted to give her, and she was helpless against the power of the sensations that he was visiting upon her. Anastasia could feel the shocks of pleasure shoot through her, each more powerful than the last until she trembled with need and desire.
“Please, please, Augustine, please! I need you, please!”
As if her cry had given him what he needed, he pressed his mouth hard against her body, giving her the sensation that she needed to explode. It was like fireworks shooting through her body, it was as if a thousand colors suddenly bloomed in sightless eyes. Her body was rigid with pleasure and need finally released. She knew she was crying out with her release. She knew that her fingers were buried in his hair and yanking quite hard. She knew nothing else as the pleasure took her.
Finally, she fell back bonelessly in the chair, her body soaked in sweat and her eyes wide. She felt as if she had passed through fire and come through exhausted but triumphant. All she could do was reach down to brush her fingers across his cheek, making him smile.
“You are beautiful when you are racked with pleasure,” he said tenderly. “I have never seen anything that I want more…'
“What are you waiting for?” she said, finding her voice. “That wasn't all that I wanted…I mean, I didn't intend for this pleasure to be one sided.”
He chuckled a little, shaking his head.
“I wasn't so crass as to come down here with a condom.”
“Hardly a problem. Trinity made sure to stock all of the dressers in the rooms with a healthy supply of condoms. I think she said something about stranger things happening at sea.”
With a slightly incredulous look, Augustine stepped over to the drawer she indicated. The selection in that drawer was enough to make his eyebrows shoot up.
“My sister-in-law has a very enthusiastic idea of what her guests will be doing,” he said, pulling a condom out of the assortment.
“Well, in all fairness, we are putting it to good use.”
He turned, stepping out of his pants to sheathe his cock in latex. For a brief moment, she could see his member jutting proudly from his body, and the only thought that entered her mind was how much she needed him.
When he turned around, she stood up, her hands twisting in front of her.
“I…I haven't done much of this,” she murmured. “Will you tell me what pleases you most?'
Any amusement fell off his face, and he looked at her tenderly.
“You please me,” he said simply. “You, as you are, standing there with your skin still flushed from my mouth and still wet from your desire, you please me.”
He leaned in close to kiss her again. She realized with a pleasant shock that she could taste her own moisture on his lips. When they broke apart, Augustine pressed her down to the bed. She lay back and gazed up at him as he knelt over her.
“You're so beautiful,” she murmured, and he laughed.
“I think I should make love to you in front of a mirror sometime,” he said, coming to lie down on top of her. “I should show you how lovely you are after you have found your release.”
She wanted to answer him, but then she felt his cock brush against her slit. She could feel him covering his cock in her juices until the slide was smooth and easy. To her disbelief, she felt her body start to rise and meet him again.
“That's my beautiful girl,” he crooned. “That's perfec
t…”
He slid inside her with one deep thrust. In a single moment, they were as close as two humans could get, staring into each other's eyes. Then with a sound that was as much a growl as anything else, he started to thrust inside her.
Each thrust was slow and deep, ending just short of driving her head into the bed frame behind her. He took his time with her, drawing out his own pleasure as much as he had hers.
She would have been lost in a sensual haze if she hadn't felt the first urgent sparks of electricity fly through her again.
“Oh god,” she whimpered, making Augustine halt with concern.
“Anastasia? Are you all right?”
He started to pull away, but she halted him with a hand to his hip.
“No, please…please don't stop. It's just that I think I might…again…”
She couldn't find the words in her pleasure, but he understood her well enough. His eyes widened, and she could feel a tremor run through his muscular frame.
Suddenly, his motions became less focused, less steady. He was muttering something to her in his native Greek, and even though she didn't understand, it struck a spark inside her. She knew that he spoke of need and want and how good she felt.
Somehow the idea of him losing control made her pleasure even hotter. Without thinking of what she was doing, she wrapped her legs around his hips, dragging him even closer as she ran her hands down his arms.
“Oh, please, please,” she whimpered. “Please!”
On her final word, to her near disbelief, a second orgasm rocketed through her body, making her cry out. She clung to him, sobbing into his shoulder as he thrust into her one last time.
For a long moment, they simply shook together, clinging to one another as if they were lost in a storm. In a way, they were.
She was the one who moved first. As good as he felt, he was heavy, and so she pushed him to one side. She felt the loss of his presence in her body keenly, but she snuggled up next to his side as comfortably as if she had done it for years.
“You are…an incredible woman,” he murmured. She was pleased to hear how hoarse his voice was.
“Oh really? I would say that you were the one who was doing all the work,” she murmured in amusement.
“Well, I have always believed that there is an art to accepting pleasure,” he said, bringing her even closer. “When I saw you tense a second time, when I felt the way you clung to me…You are wrong if you think you are anything less than incredible, Anastasia.”
“You almost sound serious,” she said with a chuckle, and when he opened his mouth to argue, she leaned up and kissed him.
“That's one way to shut me up,” he said with a sigh.
He went to her small bathroom to take care of the condom, leaving her in a bed that smelled of him, of her, and of what they had done together. While was gone, the bed felt absurdly cold and empty. It was as if she were returning to reality, and she fought it off as best she could.
When he came out of the bathroom, he simply came and stood by the bed.
“What is it?” she asked, propping herself back up on one elbow. “Was I taking up too much space? There's actually plenty of room.”
He laughed a little at her joke, but he still didn't climb back into the bed with her. “Anastasia, how do you feel?”
She blinked. “Is that a trick question?”
“Not at all. Just a question for which I want a truthful answer.”
He sounded so serious that she sat up, pulling the sheet up to cover herself. She could have hated it, the moment where she felt the need to cover herself in front of the man who had been caressing her most intimate places just a few moments before.
“I…I feel good,” she said hesitantly. “You gave me a kind of pleasure that I have never experienced before with another person, and I can still feel it echoing through me. I guess I also feel a little afraid? You’re standing there as if you want to pass judgment on whatever it is I am going to say next, and I am a little afraid that you will…revile me, or call me names or tell me I am a little fool for thinking this was something real between us.”
With a soft sound of repentance, he was back in the bed and cradling her against his body. She might have wanted to be a proud woman who pushed him away, shunning such comfort, but she could not do it. Instead she clung to him, burying her face in his chest.
“Was I a fool?” she made herself ask. Her voice was tinny and small. “Was I foolish for letting this happen between us?”
“I swear that I do not think of you as a fool,” he growled. “I swear it, and you will never have a cause to regret this. This was an experience I never could have predicted, and I know that it left a mark on me. You have marked me with what we have done here tonight, and I never want you to regret this.”
She nodded into his chest, but he wasn't done. “I don't know what will come of this night. All I know is that I am not sorry it happened. I want…I want you to feel good. I know that is very important to me.”
“I do,” she said immediately. “Oh god, I do, Augustine, better than I have felt with anyone…”
He seemed to relax at her fervent words. He stretched out his long body along hers, until they touched from head to toes. This felt closer. It felt warm and safe.
“What are we going to do?” she whispered.
He kissed the top of her head.
“We have had an extraordinary time,” Augustine said after a moment. “But the fact remains that neither of us are at home. We came from very different lives to be on the Wild Waves. What happens here…it is not real.”
Her heart thudded in her chest. She swallowed hard before speaking.
“It felt real to me,” she said, her throat dry.
He only chuckled. “Yes, it felt real. It felt wonderful. But when the Wild Waves docks in a week, everything goes back to what it was before.”
“Like Cinderella and her rags,” Anastasia whispered.
“Just so. You will return to New York. I will return to Athens. We will let this be what it needs to be now. This can be pleasurable and sweet for both of us, something that we will look back on with great pleasure.”
Anastasia could see the truth of his words, and after all, he was known for telling the truth. He wouldn't fit into New York any more than she was likely to fit into Athens. They were split apart by culture and language, background and expectations.
She took a deep breath and nodded. “You're right,” she said. “It feels real, but that’s because we are in the world of the Wild Waves. Only, Augustine?”
“Yes, darling?”
A part of her curled with pleasure at the endearment. The other bridled at the idea of him using it after he had essentially told her she was his vacation fling.
“You must keep telling me the truth,” she said. “Not only when I ask, but also when something comes up that I need to know. Do you understand?”
He chuckled a little at her sternness, kissing her gently. “Of course, my dear. The truth and nothing but for you, because nothing less will do for someone like you.”
She pressed her unease with the situation down. She had had one of the most incredible nights of her life with this strange mercurial man. The fact that she could have this while on vacation in the Mediterranean was amazing. After all, he was right. They were from two different worlds.
She drifted off to sleep, her dreams fraught and frail. She dreamed of being at a showing at the art museum again, only this time, it was Augustine on a pedestal roped off from the public. He stood with all the charm and charisma that he normally had, and the public gathered to sigh at his beauty. She knew that she had to go tell him something, but no matter how hard she fought, she simply could not reach him.
After a while, she started to cry.
Though he lay as still as a statue, Augustine was awake for hours after Anastasia had fallen asleep. She was a warm and welcome weight in his arms, and sometimes he would stroke her rich brown hair gently just to feel the sleek stra
nds slip through his fingers.
He had never spent the night with a woman that made him feel what she had made him feel. She was a responsive lover, a woman that seemed made for him. There was something deeper going on here, however, and it was unnerving him badly.
He had never been one for vacation flings before. None of his relationships had ever been overly long, but normally he was perfectly happy to let them go where they needed to go. He had never tried to put fences around them or chains on them.
Now, with his relationship with Anastasia, he was trying to do everything he could to keep it bounded. He tried to tell himself that it was only logical, that it was for her own good.
No matter how he sliced it, though, he had to come back to the point that he was doing it for himself. There was something about this woman that got under his skin, and the idea of giving her more of himself made him deeply uncomfortable.
Then he looked down at her sleeping face. He thought about what it might be like to say goodbye to her when the trip was over. His stomach lurched. Augustine pushed his feelings away. They wouldn't serve him now when she was in his arms, and they wouldn't serve him when he had to let her go, either.
The pleasure that they found in each other's arms was too intense to waste. He had never felt anything like it before, and he might never feel anything like it again. Augustine drew her a little closer, pleased when she murmured softly and pressed herself against him.
Whatever happened between them, he knew that she was a diamond, a gem he would not see harmed for the world.
“I will always tell you the truth,” he murmured. “Always…”
Chapter Five
The next day, Anastasia had a brief moment to wonder why there was a man showering in her bathroom. Then the memories of last night came back to her with a rush, and she smiled.
As silent as a cat, she sneaked into the bathroom and with a quick motion, leaped in with him, making him start.
“Good god, woman, you're a menace,” he said with surprise.
