She could not speak; she was barely conscious.
He rose above her, dark eyes burning, the lover of her dreams. “Lexie, I have never…” he groaned as he drew her close, placing his hands on her hips as he renewed the torment. She gasped as each new sensation slammed into her.
“No—” she pleaded. “I—I can’t.”
“Yes…” the pirate’s smile demanded. “Oh, yes, you can. Fly with me, Lexie,” he cajoled. “Fly with me.”
Lexie was the best kind of lover, generous and without shame. She didn’t hold back, her responses lusty and thrilled.
And then she was pulling him to her, urgent and demanding, her hands all over him, driving him beyond all control. It was all he could do to protect her before it was too late, his fingers fumbling as they hadn’t since he was a teen.
He braced himself over her, seeing the rose in her cheeks, the heat in her eyes, and for a moment, Nikos wanted to freeze time because all too soon, it would be over. A curious pain invaded his heart, almost a premonition that a night such as this would never come again.
It should not surprise him. He still wasn’t sure it wasn’t all a dream.
“Now, Nikos,” she whispered. “Take me now. Steal my soul.”
If it was a dream, he would never forget it. And he would pray to dream it again, night after night.
“I think you beat me to it, sweetheart,” he said, his voice rough to his own ears. Then with one deep thrust, he made them one.
Lexie gasped, and Nikos stilled, a groan working its way up from his throat. He watched her eyes widen and wondered if she could possibly feel as good as he did.
And then she smiled so rich and wicked that he thought perhaps he’d found his pirate queen. He bent to her mouth and thought no more, wanting only to go deeper, to capture the elusive temptress with grease under her fingernails and laughter in her eyes.
He growled low in his throat, and her breath caught at the feel of him filling and stretching her. He closed his eyes, pausing for a moment.
“Lexie, I—you are more than I ever—”
She placed a finger on his lips and covered his mouth with her own, hungrily. Galvanized, he began to move again. She felt his every response as if it were her own. She felt his skin hot against hers. She reeled, faint from the pleasure.
As he moved within her, another storm built, eclipsing the last one. She’d never experienced anything like this, his strength wrapping around her in safety, his desire rushing her dangerously over the edge of a waterfall, her will to resist utterly lost. The night air sang with their passion, their cries and murmurs tumbling in the air.
She was lost in him, so lost she cared not at all to be found. Whirling down into the spiral of seduction, Lexie lost all sense of her surroundings, drowning in the deep, dark mystery that was a man called Nikos. She didn’t care if he was a pirate. She didn’t care if she went overboard into that swirling, boiling, storm-tossed sea of bliss into which he’d pulled her. Lexie entered a realm of sheer, iridescent, shimmering magic.
A magic she’d tried all her life to create.
And finally found in this man’s arms.
Cresting, she cried out, and Nikos caught her cries in a kiss. He tried to hold out to take her up once more, but she was a wild thing in his arms, her eager cries and caresses demanding that he join her. It was a battle of wills won only by his greater strength, and when she shuddered in his arms again, he gratefully surrendered, losing himself as never before.
The swinging bed creaked slightly as the cooling breeze drifted across their sweaty bodies. Lexie sighed deeply, barely able to move for the sheer contentment that spread slowly through every cell.
Golden moments of pure, liquid desire left in their wake a bone-deep quenching of a thirst she hadn’t known she suffered.
As Nikos’s long, caressing fingers drifted lightly across her skin, she felt, for the first time in her life, what it was to be cherished.
She would never forget the man who taught her.
Bittersweet longing for things she couldn’t have suffused her. Maybe he’s different, her treacherous heart urged. Maybe he won’t leave.
But she knew better. Practiced in the art of living for the moment, Lexie pushed foolish longings away.
She felt his lips against her forehead as if in benediction. She closed her eyes and drank in the scent of him, of their loving, of the night’s perfume. All but wallowing in the luxury of his nearness, she wriggled closer, gratified when he pulled her to him and breathed a deep moan of contentment himself. Almost a growl…definitely male. She shivered at the sheer sensual delight of his sounds and his scent.
Heart thundering, he bundled her into his arms and held her close. Lexie stroked his hair and kissed his throat, sighing softly as she slipped into slumber, her breath soft against his chest. Nikos fought to stay awake, not wanting to find out it had all been a dream.
But Lexie’s magical bed swung slowly, like a cradle, and finally sleep claimed him.
He was gone. Lexie knew it as soon as she awoke.
She might have even thought she’d dreamed him, except that her body ached in delicious new places.
Rosebud leaped up to the bed, setting it to swinging again. Lexie could recall the sway of the mattress as Nikos poised above her—
She swallowed hard and rubbed the cat’s head as she stared into the rapidly lightening morning sky.
She knew nothing about him, really, not even his last name. Yet she knew everything important.
She wouldn’t know where to start looking, but he at least knew where she lived. Would he come back to find the magic again?
A one-night stand, Alexandra, in this day and age. What were you thinking? She could just hear her mother’s lecture. Her mother would never have understood that last night had been so much more.
Max might understand, though—or at least he’d cheer. Heaven knew he’d spent enough time trying to fix her up with dates.
Lexie shivered with exquisite memories of the night. It wasn’t like her at all. She couldn’t imagine doing it with anyone else. But Nikos…
He hadn’t been unmoved, either. She could still see his smoldering eyes. See the flare of surprise, the split second of vulnerability when she’d known that he’d been shocked, too, by the power of their joining.
Rosebud purled a trill and butted Lexie’s hand with her head.
“I know, I know. I need to get up.” She wanted to lie here forever, lost in memory. She rolled toward the empty space where he had lain and caught his scent on the pillow. Tenderly, she pressed her cheek against it and breathed him in.
Tears pricked her eyes and she brushed them back impatiently. He’d be back. He’d felt it, too, hadn’t he?
Reluctantly, she let go of the pillow and stepped from the bed. She picked up her clothes from the floor, glad she had no neighbors, only a valley past the screened-in porch.
As she walked through her house, she realized that he’d already destroyed her refuge. Everywhere she looked, she could now see him.
She straightened. “You made your choice, Lexie. No reason to cry.” Even if she never saw him again, she’d never forget. She’d hold the night in her heart forever. He’d just set the benchmark for the rest of her life—she had to thank him for that. She might never find another man like him, but now she would know if she were settling for second best. She’d had the best holding her in his arms last night.
Head high, she walked toward the shower, detouring by the coffeepot when she saw the scrap of paper, a sheet torn from the notepad beside her phone, the letters of her name dark and scrawling.
And her foolish dreamer’s heart skipped a beat while she opened it with fingers trembling faintly.
Lexie—
I wanted to stay and watch you wake up, but I made promises I must keep.
Last night was special. Like a dream.
I will see you later today. I want to hear you laugh again.
Nikos
He had fe
lt it, too. “Come back, Nikos,” she whispered, hugging the cat. “If it was a dream, let’s dream again.”
She twirled across her kitchen, scratching Rosebud’s head and humming until the cat yowled to be put down.
“He’s going to come back, Rosie. He takes his promises seriously.” With a smile, she headed for the shower.
Chapter Two
His mother was sick and he’d flown to be with her…. He’d been in an accident and was lying near death’s door.
Lexie ran through a litany of excuses why Nikos hadn’t shown up. Yesterday had come and gone without a word. The possibilities ranged from terrifying to merely humiliating.
Face it, Lexie. You don’t know him. And men who’ve said they loved you have left you before.
As Lexie walked into Poseidon Productions headquarters, she knew only one thing for sure. He hadn’t appeared. Enough said.
It was probably for the best. Someday she’d feel philosophical again, able to laugh about the turn her life had taken. Until that fateful night, she’d thought the upcoming job on the Poseidon gala the most exciting development that had happened to her in a long time. It was a superb opportunity to build A. Grayson’s reputation, to prove herself in a setting more lavish than many Hollywood set designers were allowed.
She should have been thrilled.
She was.
It was understandable to be nervous.
She was that, too.
She should not want to go back home right now and wait.
But she did.
And she was pretty certain the reason had a name.
And dark, wavy hair.
And ebony eyes.
And—
Stop it, Lexie. He didn’t come back. End of story.
“Ms. Grayson?”
Her head jerked up, and she remembered with a start where she was. The man in front of her would have seemed very handsome before she’d met Nikos. He was just the type many women would admire: blond, Ivy League looks, urbane polish—all the respectable traits that had never appealed to Lexie.
Her pirate put this man to shame.
“I’m Bradley Stafford, executive vice president. I’ll take you to Mr. Santorini’s office in a moment.” He held out his hand, shaking hers. “If you’d follow me this way, we’ll take care of getting you a security pass, since you’ll be here almost daily from now until the gala.”
She gathered her thoughts and nodded. “That’s great. Thank you.” Most of Lexie’s contacts up to now had been by phone, fax or e-mail. She had been here only once, to meet with the public relations department to make her original pitch. As Stafford escorted her down a different hallway than the one she’d seen before, she looked around eagerly. She already knew that access beyond the main lobby was strictly controlled. Electronic gaming was an intensely competitive field and corporate espionage a daily worry.
Her thoughts darkened. Could Max be wrong? Why would this big, successful company stoop to hacking to steal software?
Looking around, it was obvious that Dominic Santorini was making plenty of money. How much money was enough? Why would he need to steal Max’s brainchild?
After she’d gotten her ID, they walked toward the inner sanctum, and Stafford stopped in front of a very intimidating-looking gizmo set into the wall beside a door that was a solid slab of metal. Lexie halted behind him, then realized that he was waiting for her to try her thumbprint and badge as the technician had instructed.
She felt a ridiculous sense of accomplishment when she heard the clearance voiced and the lock clicked open. It almost felt as though she was entering the chamber where she might find the Holy Grail.
Photographs lined the walls. The light was dim enough that she couldn’t see well. “Are these company mug shots?” she asked, too nervous to be quiet.
He smiled. “You might say that. These are the early days of Poseidon Productions.”
She slowed and looked closer at one grouping of five men. “That’s you, isn’t it?” She turned back to look at him.
He laughed. “Yes, that young, idealistic fellow is me.”
She was struck by the weariness in his tone, but decided she didn’t know him well enough to ask him about it. She turned back to the picture—
Her breath froze in her chest.
Her heart thudded once. Hard.
She couldn’t face him as she asked her question. “Who are these other men?”
“Well, that’s Rob Johnson on the left, and Matt Hendricks next to him. Sitting down is Henry La-Fleur, and of course, there I am.”
She could barely get the words past her throat for the dread locking it tight. “And the man in the center?”
“That’s Dominic Santorini. You’ll meet him in just a minute.”
She’d met him already, she wanted to say. From deep inside her, a keening moan wanted to break free. She knew that black, curly hair. Those ebony eyes. That same flashing pirate’s smile.
Intimately.
She’d made love with a man who didn’t exist. Her Nikos was a lie—and now it made sense that he hadn’t come back. Her Nikos was no grease monkey; he was rich as Midas.
And if Max was right about his software—
Her Nikos was also a thief.
Dominic Santorini rubbed the bridge of his nose as his sleep-deprived eyes stared at the computer screen. The couple of hours sleep he’d grabbed on the couch in his office last night hadn’t taken the edge off his exhaustion. The trading day had just ended on the Tokyo exchange. There was no question about it now—Poseidon’s stock was being quietly bought up by someone, bit by bit, from one exchange to another.
His gut told him that Peter Kassaros was behind it. The man had almost broken Ariana before she had gotten away. Boyhood competitor then business rival, Kassaros had gone too far when he’d seduced Dominic’s naive, much younger sister. He’d made it personal, and Dominic had taken steps to avenge her, buying up some of Kassaros’s loans.
Kassaros had found a new avenue to strike back.
If only Dominic could prove it.
“Dominic?”
He lifted his gaze to find his best friend and second-in-command, Bradley Stafford, studying him from the doorway.
“She’s here.”
Dominic frowned. “Who?”
“The designer for the gala. You wanted to look over the final plans.”
Oh, hell. Dominic had forgotten about A. Grayson. He had trusted the public relations department and only had to okay the concept of the gala, but last week he had decided that the launch was too critical to not look over the plans himself before the work began on the grounds of his home. Why he had ever agreed to doing it there—
Dominic scrubbed his face with his hands. The launch of Legend Quest meant everything to this company’s survival. Too many people depended on him to find an answer.
The man who’d been Nikos for one magical night remembered a note…and a promise. With regret lodged in his chest like a boulder, he admitted that he had been kidding himself to think he could afford the luxury of Lexie’s joy right now…when so much else was at stake.
“All right,” he sighed. “Show her in.”
He glanced back at the report he’d been reading, wishing he had a few more minutes. He heard the door open again.
He looked up.
And forgot to breathe.
Nothing could have prepared him for the sight of the woman who had been on his mind for two days.
A fierce flare of joy shot through him, even as he tried to figure out why she was here. He rose without thinking, his mind grasping to make some sense.
Lexie here—in his office. How had she found him? Damn—the timing was all wrong, but he wanted to see her, talk to her. He’d have to get Bradley to cancel the meeting with—
A. Grayson. The designer. The creative—
A for Alexandra?
My God. Under his nose all the time.
Lexie. He almost said it out loud, started to smile until he got a lo
ok at her eyes, dark and anguished. Then they turned almost…empty.
He frowned. He needed to explain why he hadn’t come back—
“Dominic Santorini, this is Alexandra Grayson, our designer.” Bradley’s voice sounded as if it were a thousand miles away.
Lexie, you’re here. Lexie, I wanted— The words hovered at the edge of his normal reserve.
But this woman wasn’t Lexie. A stranger stood stiffly, the short skirt of her red suit revealing legs he could still feel wrapped around his waist—
But every line of her body said, “Hands off.” Something was very wrong, but it wasn’t a discussion to have right here. What a damnable complication to an already difficult situation. With years of practice, Dominic buried his thoughts behind a granite mask and put out his hand. “Pleased to meet you, Ms. Grayson.”
Still reeling from the discovery, Lexie blinked in shock. He wasn’t going to admit that they’d met. It shouldn’t surprise her. Others had found her easy to leave.
A dull ache hollowed out her chest. The man called Nikos had been merely a figment of her imagination. This man was cold as stone. Dominic Santorini must be laughing up his sleeve. Everyone in Austin—shoot, half the country—knew who he was.
Everyone but a fool like Lexie, the woman who seldom read a newspaper or watched TV. Who, despite her protests, had turned out to be naive, after all.
She wanted to turn around and run as hard as she could, back to safety, back to home. But he was already there, like the air, touching every part of her refuge. She had to make her stand here. She couldn’t let this defeat her. It was simply an embarrassment, she told herself. She couldn’t dwell on it.
She needed the job. Now, more than ever, she needed to help Max, her true friend.
Summoning up every ounce of strength within her, she took his offered hand, only to be jolted to her toes by the lightning bolt of his touch. For one flicker, his ebony eyes glowed hot with memory. She couldn’t help the brief tightening of her hand on his. She felt the warmth of his skin and remembered how that hand had felt on her body in the heat of—
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