Like a kick in the gut, looking at her hit him hard. Dancing with the cat, head thrown back, long, slender throat arched and exposed, clad only in deep violet curve-hugging silk.
Watching those hands stroke Rosebud’s fur and remembering them on his own skin…seeing her eyes closed, her hips swaying…he itched to touch her. Craving rocketed through him—no slow syrupy desire, but raw, jagged desperation.
He opened the screen door and stepped inside.
She sensed his presence and whirled to face him.
The storm’s energy intensified as lightning cracked the night. Thunder rumbled in the distance.
Lexie clasped the cat before her like armor. Her eyes widened, her pupils grew huge as she saw him standing in her doorway. She didn’t speak.
Her longings came to life before her, as if conjured up by a voodoo priestess. Sweat dampened his T-shirt, revealing the curves of every muscle she couldn’t see. Her gaze caressed the bronzed hardness where she could. Razors of desire sliced, treacherous and deep, as she imagined licking up each rivulet of salty promise.
Dominic’s nostrils flared as her scent drifted to him on the quickening breeze. His gaze devoured the gentle swell of her breasts as lace curved to barely cover her nipples, plunging into the sweet valley between and disappearing behind the cover of the cat held in front of her like a shield.
She was going to need better protection than a cat.
He stepped forward, propelled by raw hunger too long denied. Driven by dreams of rapture. Heated to a burning pitch by the ache of trying to deny what was real.
He was real. She was real. They were here, together, on this storm-tossed night. He would sort it all out later. For now, he had to touch her or lose his mind.
He stalked her like the predator he was.
“Nikos—Dominic…” She held up her hand as if that would stop him.
“Nikos,” he rumbled, stepping closer.
She skirted a chair, placing it between them. “We have to talk.”
“Not now.” He moved toward her again, sure steps leading him to what he now knew was inevitable.
If Lexie didn’t understand that, he would show her.
She stepped away again. Rosebud yowled.
“Put the cat down, Lexie. She can tell what’s going to happen, even if you are too stubborn to admit it.”
Her nostrils flared. Her eyes sparked in temper.
He found himself smiling.
“I don’t know you, Nikos. I don’t know who you are.”
“No words, Lexie. Not now. Words are the enemy.” He reached out, sliding his fingers into her hair as he pulled her close. “Touch me. We will talk, but right now I have to touch you.” He lowered his head, his breath whispering across her lips. “Let me back into the magic, Lexie. Forget everything but who we were that night.”
His eyes darkened with pain and longing and hunger. With every fiber in her being, she wanted that, too, wanted to go back to the magic.
But Max… “Nikos, I can’t—” Her voice trailed to a whisper as she studied him.
He looked so tired, so careworn. The wolf standing outside the fire, hungry and alone. She thought of all of the people who depended on him. Her own doubts crowded in, the sense she’d had from the first that he was special, that he could be the one—
“I need you, Lexie.” Exhaustion colored his voice and she realized that even this indomitable man could be vulnerable, that the lone wolf needed rest, needed solace.
Nothing could have moved her more. Again her instinct that he knew nothing of the theft reared its head. The man in front of her was not a thief—in her heart she knew that as deeply as she’d known anything. And she’d told Max what she knew. Max himself had told her not to take this on her shoulders any longer, that he would go forward now.
This man’s touch mesmerized her, sent slow, sweet, molasses-thick longing swirling through her veins. She needed him, too.
He brushed her lips, murmuring something in a mixture of languages, something raspy and impossibly erotic.
When she opened herself to him, winding her arms around his neck, he groaned his hunger and despair.
As he drew her sweetness into him and drank from the clear waters of her crystalline spirit, he pulled her against him, wrapping his arms tightly, wanting to absorb her.
He lifted his mouth just a fraction. “I am starving. Let me have you.” He growled a warning. “Hold back nothing. I want it all.”
The dam burst within her. Rushing waters of desire surged and overran all her reasons, all her questions. She let need deluge her, drench her, pressing her body so closely she could feel his sweat soaking into her skin. With what small movement he allowed her, she brushed her breasts along the hard wall of his muscled chest.
He responded as if she’d jolted him with a live wire, moving his mouth away from hers to torture hot kisses over every inch of her skin. His wicked tongue teased and tormented, his long, gifted fingers bedeviled and seduced.
Not close enough, Dominic anguished. I cannot get close enough. His hands slid over the smooth curve of her hip, cradling her sassy behind as he pulled her against him, aroused to a fever of jagged, piercing need.
Greedy, yet dying to make it last, he gritted his teeth and sucked in air in a desperate bid for control. He pulled his hands away for a shuddering, dangerous moment and struggled to slow down.
“Lexie…I need you too much.” He had to touch her…had to. He took one finger of each hand and slid them under the straps of her chemise, clenching the muscles of his abdomen against the ragged edges of a composure fraying worse with every moment that passed. As he slid the straps off her shoulders, he placed a gentle kiss where each one had touched her delicate skin.
Lexie was having none of his self-denial. She all but crawled over him inch by inch, her nails digging into his skin as she responded to the depth of his hunger.
Dominic gave up all pretense of restraint. He devoured her mouth with his own, while he scooped her up in his arms, never breaking the kiss. He tore himself away for one desperate moment and growled, “Which bed?”
With no hesitation, she chose the one that would bring them closer to the storm. They would be surrounded by an energy field almost as strong as the one that crackled and flashed between them.
“Outside.”
He grinned, the slash of white teeth brilliant against his bronzed skin. “Ah, Lexie, you’d make a good pirate yourself.” He covered the ground quickly, coming to a halt out on the porch, where they contemplated the majesty of the thundering sky.
But not for long.
No longer trying to fight their deepest longings incited hearts with desire too long suppressed. Fears of the future added fuel to the intensity of the flames.
Lexie’s skin rippled with goose bumps as the quickening breeze stirred. She released herself to the man she craved, letting his kisses follow the wind as it caressed her body.
Gently, ever so gently, he laid her on the swinging bed, slowly rocking it as he stood beside it, knowing his heart was in his eyes. Her own generous heart spoke as she opened her arms to pull him down. Lexie poured a tender oil upon the raw edges of his mind, soothing and healing the pain that had not ceased since he’d left here so few days, yet eons ago.
As he dragged the silk down her body, he covered each inch with cherishing kisses, as if in prayer and blessing. He’d never felt such raw need…ached with such tenderness. He filled his hands with her flesh; he stroked her satin skin, soothed and aroused with his tongue. But over it all, beyond anything he’d experienced, the night glistened with something stronger, richer. Something he didn’t dare name.
Lexie’s skin burned, it thrilled, it wept at his touch. His hot tongue, his silken kisses, the whisper of the wind as it skimmed her flesh, all galvanized her, sent her soaring to another realm. The storm within her matched the building fury of the storm outside—and Nikos was the sorcerer, calling fire from the sky. His strong hands spread her open, ranged over her
as his fingers traced her hidden folds, sliding within her deepest secrets. When he lowered his head, licks of fire danced over her nerves. When she felt the first sultry touch against her most sensitive flesh, she writhed in a longing so strong it was painful.
“Nikos…Nikos…” Her head rocked from side to side as the bed rocked beneath her. She lost her bearings in the unspeakable bliss, the needles of her compass confused by the storm. Dizzying rapture overcame her, exquisite ripples of pleasure sluicing over nerve endings aroused beyond bearing. Without the will to resist, she followed her pirate to ecstasy.
Dark satisfaction filled Dominic as he watched her fly on the wings of delight. It was almost enough to give this to her. He could almost ignore the inferno inside him—somehow giving to her had become more important than satisfying himself.
Until she opened her eyes and the heat of her gaze pulled him down to burn with her, turn to ashes in the red-hot blaze. She tore at his clothing in urgent demand, sliding her hands slowly up his chest as she pulled off his shirt. Her fingers stroked along the waistband of his shorts, and he gasped as she wrapped those delicate fingers around him. She pulled him down on the bed, then moved to reverse their positions.
“It’s been too long since my hands have been here,” she teased, eliciting a groan of pain and pleasure. She grazed her nails lightly over his body, with lazy, catlike clawing. He sucked in a harsh breath of violent need.
“Lexie…” He couldn’t find the words.
She arched a flirting eyebrow, slicking her tongue over her lush lips, then trailed one long, sizzling wet path down his belly, one torturous dip into his navel. As she nipped with her teeth, she soothed with her tongue, all the time letting her nails torment and delight. When she encircled his shaft with her lips and caressed the full sensitive weight beneath, his hips moved of their own accord, all sense of control lost.
She looked like a warrior princess, the storm-clouds building behind her. Lightning exploded at her back as she drew him into her spell.
He stood it as long as he could, the vicious torment. When she threw her head back and laughed in delight at his growl, he grasped her waist and lifted her, groaning at the prospect of filling her. She stopped, perhaps as galvanized by the sensation as he was. He couldn’t help what he said next.
“Home…this is home, Lexie.”
Her eyes filled with tears as she nodded. Her lips trembled as she placed a finger on his. He sucked gently upon that long, delicate finger for an endless moment too precious to last.
Then the fever claimed them.
He reversed their positions and towered over her, holding her face in his hands as he possessed her. He held her gaze with his own as he let go of the last remnants of logic, knowing only that he was crazed to have her, that the roaring in his head obscured all reason.
All he could see was her, all he could feel. In a deep growl he warned her, “I want it all, everything you have. Do you understand? Everything, Lexie.”
She lifted trembling hands to stroke his brow, and Dominic knew then that he would consign the rest of his life to the flames of hell to keep her, if that’s what it took. A savage need to make her his own rose within him. He pulled her close but never let his gaze leave hers as he reached deep within his own heart to find the man worthy of this woman’s generous spirit.
The heavens crashed around them, and he drove within her like a man possessed.
Lexie gripped him tightly, wrapping those long legs around his waist as she feasted greedily on his mouth. The sky lit up with flares of lightning; the thunder matched the roaring of their blood.
She sobbed as she shattered; he poured himself into her, crying out her name. As Lexie and Dominic found their way back to their own private paradise, the heavens opened up.
And the healing rain began to fall.
Chapter Ten
Her head pillowed on his chest, Lexie slept cuddled against him. Outside, the fierce storm had blown itself out, a gentle, steady rain falling, the air blessedly cool for the first time in months.
The breeze whispered across the patio. Goose bumps rose on her skin, and he tugged her closer, rolling them to cover her with his body to keep her warm. He pressed a kiss to her hair, his heart too full. He ached. He wanted. Reason and regret danced a ragged two-step and wouldn’t be brushed aside.
He shouldn’t have come. She was everything he’d remembered—and more. Both generous and greedy, she’d responded to his touch as though she were made only for him, fervent with a need that matched his own as if she felt the same desperation to return to the bliss they’d once shared—
Before it was lost to them forever.
Desperation. Guilt. Longing. They had been there in the green eyes, in the clutch of fingers, in the depths of her kiss.
He didn’t want to know.
But he had no choice.
Dominic wanted nothing more than to lock them both away forever in Lexie’s magical kingdom, the only place he’d ever found peace.
But duty called.
Beneath him, she stirred and sighed softly. His body leaped in answer. Casting away reality for another moment, he bent his head to nuzzle her throat, smiling against the hum of her pleasure.
“Mmm…” She sighed again, one graceful arm stretching above her head.
He lifted his head, greeted by sparkling green eyes. Gently, almost reverently, he brushed a kiss over her lips. “Good morning.”
She smiled, and it was like the sun breaking out. “Good morning.”
Then the phone rang.
Lexie groaned. Dominic cursed. “Leave it.”
She smiled. “Okay.” Slender fingers slid into his hair—
Then she went stiff at the sound of a voice on her recorder. “Max—” She sat up quickly. “Something sounds wrong.” She turned to him. “I’m sorry, I have to—”
Dominic rolled over and let her go, silently cursing Max to perdition while willing his unruly body to behave. He studied her delectable bare backside as she answered the phone, smiling as she groped for a throw on the sofa and wrapped it around her.
He wanted to see every inch of her sweet flesh, damn it. He stood and strode toward her, determined to do his part to get her off the phone.
Then he saw her eyes flash in alarm as he approached, saw guilt flare as she turned hastily and lowered her voice to a whisper. Heard the name Josh.
And reality slugged him right in the jaw. Max? Her friend was in it with her? What the hell was going on?
He whirled and headed back to the porch, jerking on his pants. One glance at the bed and a million images rose up to taunt him, memories so sweet and hot they smote him right in the heart.
His promise to Bradley be damned. He was going to clear this up right now. He could not wait another minute. No matter how he feared what he’d learn, he had to know. Now.
When he walked back inside, she’d hung up. She was making coffee, her movements jerky. When she spilled coffee grounds out of nerveless fingers, her shoulders sank as though the weight of her secrets had finally broken her. Her head dropped and he could see despair in every line of her frame.
He didn’t trust his own reactions anymore. He wanted to go to her, wanted to comfort her too badly. Such a lapse was dangerous for a man such as him. He didn’t have the luxury of blind faith.
He needed facts. No matter what they were.
“Lexie, are you spying on me?” There. It was out.
She turned too slowly, guilt stealing over her face, and his heart sank like a stone.
“Tell me why. What did Kassaros promise you?”
Her face was a study in confusion. “Who’s Kassaros?”
Anger ran roughshod over his dread. “Don’t play coy with me. What did he offer you to help him take Poseidon down?”
“What?” She shook her head as though to clear it. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about the man who wants to destroy my business. The man who used Ariana—devastated her—because
he hates me so much. What did he give you for spying for him? And what is Max’s role in all this?”
She clutched the throw at her breasts, her brows knitted in confusion, anger stealing over her face. “You—you think I’m out to hurt your company?” Her voice sharpened. “You think—after what we—” She gestured toward the porch, toward the bed. “You think I could work to destroy your company and then sleep with you? That I’d sleep with you to get information?”
Waves of insult rolled off her, her green eyes sparking with outrage and despair. “How could you?” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “If you could believe that of me, then I was more wrong than I knew. You did steal Max’s software, didn’t you?”
Caught up in the maelstrom of heartsick despair and roaring anger, it took a minute for him to comprehend her words. “What? What are you saying?”
“Your graphics for Legend Quest. The software to create them was stolen from Max.”
“That’s impossible. The design team wrote that software.”
“No, they didn’t. I saw Max’s Easter egg with my own eyes, on Josh’s computer.”
“No. Absolutely impossible. I would know—” Then it hit him. “You have been spying.”
The guilt he’d seen before rippled over her features.
“Bradley was right.” Leaden despair settled into his heart. He turned away, raked fingers through his hair.
“I had to help my friend. Poseidon is huge and powerful. He’s only one man.”
All he could hear, all he could think, was that he’d been a fool. Again.
He whirled. “How long? How long have you been spying? Do you know what can happen to you? You can go to jail for what you’ve done.”
Green eyes sparked. “So can you. You stole Max’s dream.”
“Even you cannot get away with calling me a thief. I am no thief. Nothing has been stolen. You are wrong.”
An odd sort of relief leaped into her gaze. “You didn’t know.” She closed her eyes. “Thank God. I was so afraid—”
All Dominic could think about was the devastation it would wreak on his company if she were right. She could not be right. Legend Quest was too important, the timing too tight.
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