“Stop thinking about your girlfriend.” Varo grinned.
Nik snorted as he passed back. “You’re always thinking about yours.”
“Quietly, though. When you’ve got Aria on your mind, your thoughts might as well be a foghorn.”
Kieran chuckled. “He’s not wrong. You really like this girl.”
“I do. I really fucking do.” It wasn’t a lie, but an admission. It occurred to him that despite the secrecy around he and Aria, he could still ask his friends for advice about this. “Guys, how do you figure out... you know, feelings?”
The other men paused, the ball forgotten between them. They shared a look, their faces unreadable. And then, as if on cue, they both burst into laughter.
“What?” Nik demanded. “This is serious! I am ignorant! Help me!”
“Dios mio,” Varo wheezed, slapping his thigh—which, frankly, Nik thought was a bit much. “Oh, Nik. I really don’t know what to do with you.”
“I don’t know how you managed to catch her in the first place,” Kieran chuckled. “You’re so shit at this stuff.”
“I know I’m shit at this stuff,” Nik said. “I have no idea what I’m doing. I think I might—” he broke off, astonished at the words that had almost come out of his mouth. I think I might love her.
Actually, that would make a lot of sense. But he’d think about it later.
Correcting himself smoothly, Nik said, “I’m not sure if she likes me as much as I like her.”
Varo shrugged. “Probably not.”
“Thanks for the support.”
“I’m just saying! She’s too cool for you.” Varo dodged, laughing, as Nik kicked the ball towards his head. “Alright, calm down. She likes you. Of course she likes you. Anyone can see that.”
The words mollified Nik a little. Anyone could see it, hm? So it wasn’t just a figment of his desperate imagination.
“I do have some advice, though,” Kieran piped up. “I know you don’t think it’s a big deal, so you probably haven’t told her. But trust me, people care about this kind of thing when they’re in relationships.”
“What?” The ball rolled back to Nik, and he tapped it neatly at Varo.
“You should probably mention that you fucked Laurie. And G. And Varo. And Tom—”
“Okay, yeah,” Nik interrupted. “I get it.”
Aria already knew about Tom. She knew about everyone he’d slept with in this house—except his friends, because she hadn’t needed to know. They weren’t on his I regret it, steer clear list. They were on his That was fun list, or in Varo and G’s case, his Let’s do this again some time list. Would Aria care? Honestly, he wasn’t sure.
“You’re right.” Nik nodded. “I’ll tell her.”
“I can’t believe you haven’t already.” Varo grinned. “How the hell did you get a girlfriend, again?”
I paid.
“Speaking of...” Kieran’s dark gaze shifted to the right, his brows raising as he trailed off.
Nik looked over to find fucking Baxter looming over Aria, Laurie and G like a vulture. The slimy piece of shit. What part of That’s my only, solo, monogamous fucking girlfriend did that prick not understand?
“Woah, man,” Varo said quietly. “Relax.”
Which was when Nik realised he was clenching his fists hard enough to make his knuckles ache. He took a deep breath and released the tight grip, ignoring his friends’ stares. Nik rarely lost his temper—only on the pitch, and even then, it took a lot of fucking provocation. His mates would be wondering what the hell was wrong with him. They didn’t know how much he really hated Baxter, because Nik didn’t have the energy to talk shit.
“I don’t want him bothering her,” he said flatly.
“Okaaaay...” Varo replied. “Is he bothering her? I know Baxter’s a flirt, but I’ve never heard about him crossing the line.”
“I don’t know. I just don’t fucking like it.” His eyes settled on the ball at his feet, and an idea winked into his brain like a lightbulb.
“Nik,” Varo said slowly. “Whatever you’re about to do…”
Nik ignored him, moving back a few spaces to give himself a run-up.
“At least let Varo take it,” Kieran sighed. “He’s the striker.”
“You think I can’t hit him?” Nik asked.
Varo rolled his eyes at Kieran. “Now you’ve done it.”
“Bet me.”
“Nik,” Kieran scoffed, “we’re not placing bets on this juvenile—”
“5000 Euro,” Varo interrupted. “Ten if you get his head.”
“Done. Kieran?”
There was a long pause, followed by a deep sigh. “I’m in.”
Nik grinned. Then he hoofed it.
The ball arced through the air so beautifully, he almost came. Christ, that was a perfect feeling. But not as perfect as the laughter that ripped from him when the ball smacked Baxter squarely in the back the head.
Baxter staggered, caught his balance, clutched his head, and spun. “What the fuck?” he bellowed.
“Sorry, man,” Nik shouted. “Thought you’d catch it.” Beside him, Varo dissolved into peals of laughter.
And so did Aria, metres away, her hand slapped over her mouth and her eyes bright.
The boys messed around with that football for hours—long enough that Aria should’ve been bored, or irritated by the afternoon sun. But when her mind wandered from the contents of her sketchbook it found plenty of entertainment in watching Nik. He was shirtless and barefoot, running around the grass with a focus that was somehow turning her on. When beads of sweat slid down her spine, she imagined the same moisture caressing Nik’s skin. When they rolled between her breasts, she imagined his tongue licking them off.
Fuck. She felt like she’d been permanently wet for the past two days. Aria was surprised she hadn’t started walking funny, her clit felt so swollen and sensitive. If she didn’t do something about this, she’d end up losing her head. She could barely think straight.
Which was concerning, really. After all, she was at work. Concentration seemed vital in her position. Which made it her professional duty to handle the throbbing pulse of desire that had taken over her body. Right?
Right.
Aria stood, picking up her sketchbook. “Sorry guys, but I’m going to head upstairs. I think I’ve had too much sun.”
“Oh, no, babe.” Georgia leapt up and pressed a hand to Aria’s brow, even though she practically had to jump to reach. “Are you alright? Do you want me to come with you?”
“No, no! I’m fine. I’m just going to rest.”
“Shall I tell Nik?”
“God, no. Honestly, I’m fine. I’ll just have a little sleep before we head out.”
“Alright then, love,” Georgia allowed, with one last worried look.
“Au revoir,” Laurie murmured airily, calm and catlike as ever.
Aria hurried off into the house.
She climbed the first flight of stairs steadily. On the second flight, her steps became a slight jog, and by the third and final one, she was practically running. She rushed into the bedroom and shut the door behind her, shivering and feverish all at once. Electric anticipation rolled through her as she hauled her suitcase out of the wardrobe and pulled out the sleek black box where she’d stored anything sex-related ever since her awkward teenage years.
The sox’s contents had changed a little since then. There were condoms, lube, the usual—but now she had an impressive collection of toys, too. And since she’d been purposefully, painfully celibate for months now—since November—those were the stars of her show. She put the sox down at the foot of the bed and studied its treasures, the sweet-sharp ache between her thighs worsening which each second. Finally, she pulled out a purple Rampant Rabbit, tracing a finger over the long curve of the dildo, then the ‘ears’ attached to its shaft, designed to vibrate against her clit.
She was already wet, but she rifled through the box for some lube anyway; there was no such thin
g as too wet, after all. She caught sight of a little bottle lurking under her butt plugs
Then the bedroom door opened.
Chapter Ten
Shit, shit shit.
The vibrator landed back in its box with an ominous thunk as shock loosened Aria’s fingers.
Nik stood in the doorway, looking pretty fucking surprised himself. “Georgia said you…” He frowned, stepping into the room, shutting the door behind him. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing!” She said brightly, looking around for the sox’s lid. Where the fuck had she put that thing?
“Aria.” Nik’s tone was calm and steady as he came closer. “What is that?”
Well, there was really nothing for it. Slapping a smile on her face, Aria turned around and sat on the box of toys. She just… sat. There was a hideous creek, and she felt the poor thing give under her enormous arse, but she kept her smile firmly in place. “What’s what?”
Nik’s lips twitched with the effort of holding back his laughter. “The thing you just sat on.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said primly.
He studied her awkward perch on the bed, clearly skeptical. “Get up, then.”
“No, thank you,” she clipped out. “I’m not feeling very well.”
All at once, concern softened his features. Nik sank to his knees in front of her, then winced.
“Are you supposed to do that?” she asked, remembering the recurring injury that he claimed was just fine. It probably wasn’t quite so fine after he’d spent all day playing football.
“Probably not. Doesn’t matter. Are you okay? Georgia said you felt weird.” He smoothed a hand over her hair like she was a fucking kitten or something. “Do you want a drink? Are you hungry?”
Well, now she felt bad. He actually seemed worried. “Um, no. No, I just need a rest.”
Nik nodded slowly. “Why don’t you lie down?”
“I will.” Her voice came out a bit too high and squeaky.
He arched a brow, suspicion creeping into his gaze again. “Okay.”
There was a pause. Apparently, he was waiting for her to move. Aria, meanwhile, was trying to figure out how to make a box of dildos disappear. Why had she even bought the fucking thing?
Oh, yes; because she was incredibly horny at the best of times, and he was gorgeous enough to make the issue almost unbearable.
“Aria,” he said, “what is that?”
“What is what?” she snapped. He couldn’t see the sox she was currently crushing to death, could he?
No; Nik’s gaze wasn’t even close to her arse. He was staring at the suitcase she’d dragged out of the wardrobe—or rather, at the lid of the sox, sitting beside it on the cream carpet.
“Oh,” she said quickly, “that. It’s… nothing.”
His smile turned predatory, a cocky glint lighting his eyes. She could tell just by the look on his face that he was taking this interaction as a challenge.
Which did not bode well for her.
“Nothing?” he repeated. “So it’s definitely not the lid of the box you just sat on?”
“I’m not sitting on anything,” she said stiffly.
“You’re not?”
“No! Good Lord. Sitting… on a box… why would I possibly do such a thing?”
“Sweetheart. Move, or I will move you.”
“Fuck off,” she scowled. “You can’t—” Aria broke off as she remembered that, yes, he could. He’d already proven he was strong enough to throw her around. Fuck. “You put a hand on me and I’ll bite you.”
Grinning, he leaned in until their noses almost touched. “Don’t tease, moro mou.”
“Nik…”
“If you want to bite me, you can. You only ever had to ask.” She became uncomfortably aware of the fact that he was only wearing a pair of swimming trunks, his chest bare. And she was only wearing a bikini, for that matter. A bikini whose top he was now staring at openly, because her nipples were hard enough to cut diamonds. They only got harder when he released a low, heavy breath that almost sounded like a moan, dragging his teeth over his lower lip.
“I should warn you,” he murmured, his voice rough. “I bite back.”
“Menstrual cups!” she blurted out.
Nik looked up with a blink. “What?”
Yes, Aria. What???
“Um… In the box.” Her words blurred together awkwardly. Her heart felt like it might burst out of her chest and flop around on the floor like a fish. How the fuck could one man be so disarmingly, stressfully sexy? “My menstrual cups,” she repeated, “are in the box.”
He paused. Then, rather than blushing, or stuttering, or—the ideal scenario—leaving the room, Nik said, “The box you supposedly are not sitting on.”
She sighed. “Obviously, I’m sitting on a fucking box, Nik. And the corners are starting to hurt, so if you could just piss off—”
“What,” he cut in casually, “is a menstrual cup?”
Oh, dear. She really hadn’t thought this through. Good thing she refused to be embarrassed about good, old-fashioned menstruation. “Well, it’s a little silicone cup thing that you kind of… fold up, and shove up your vagina—you know, like a message in a bottle—and then it pops open again, kind of like those tents kids play with, and it catches the blood—when you’re on your period, I mean.”
He stared. “I… have never heard of that.”
“It’s all the rage. Very environmentally friendly. And much more convenient than tampons.” All true; all irrelevant to her current situation.
Nik cocked his head to the side. “And you expect me to believe, Aria, that you are so horribly embarrassed about your little cups, you sat on a box to stop me seeing them?”
“Well—”
“Last night you told me about the time you lost a vibrating egg up there and had to lay it like a chicken.”
Her cheeks flushed. “I was drunk!”
“Barely. What’s in the box?”
“Oh, for Christ’s sake.” She’d had quite enough of his knowing stare and his sexy smirk. Plus, the corners of the sox were really digging into her bum, and frankly, he was right—she wasn’t embarrassed about anything. Not bloody menstrual cups, not the various items she’d lost in her vagina, and definitely not the toys she used for her perfectly natural activities.
All of which inspired Aria to stand up and snap, “It’s my sox. Are you happy?”
Nik stared down at the slightly squashed box on the bed. Or, actually, at the assortment of sex toys inside it. “Your what?”
“My sox. My sex box. Get it?” He didn’t reply. He didn’t even look at her. He appeared to be mesmerised by the dildos. “Me and Jen made it up,” she added, “when we were younger.”
“Jen,” he said finally. “The friend who got married on the day we met.”
“Yes.”
He fell back into silence, but she didn’t think he was considering Jen and Theo’s holy matrimony. In fact, if his mind was behaving anything like hers, he’d be thinking about that kiss. Their first. The one that had carved out a place for itself in the dirtiest corners of her memory, where it radiated a constant, thrumming pulse of heat.
That kiss, Aria decided woefully, was where all of her problems had begun.
Problems? If problems came with a gorgeous fake boyfriend and enough money to give you your dreams on a platter, the world would be a far better place.
Okay, true.
She ran her tongue nervously over her lip ring as Nik reached out and—oh, God—picked up the purple vibrator she’d dropped. He stood, his eyes on the thick dildo in his hand. Then he ran his thumb over the rabbit’s ears and asked, “What is this for?”
Aria couldn’t decipher his tone, but she managed to sound lighthearted as she replied, “Figure it out.”
He looked up, something dangerous glittering in his eyes. “Why don’t you explain it to me?”
Aria bit down on the insides of her cheeks, barely resisti
ng the urge to press her thighs together. Something about that low, smoky voice was flooding her pussy with need, swelling her already sensitive clit. Surely he wasn’t coming on to her right now, was he? No. He just like to tease. For all his supposed playboy ways, she had yet to see any evidence that Nik understood seduction. Not when he was on the receiving end of it, at least.
She didn’t usually mind his flirting, but right now she was too close to the edge for games. Time to lighten the mood. Aria injected a spark of humour into her voice and nodded at the toy as she said, “Intimidated?”
“No,” he replied. Simply. Instantly. He didn’t sound cocky, or even confident—just unconcerned, as though he couldn’t imagine why he would be.
Considering the glimpse of him she’d gotten last night, Aria wasn’t surprised. The memory dragged her traitorous gaze south, just for a moment—which was long enough to notice the unmistakable bulge straining the front of Nik’s shorts, the flushed head of his cock visible above the waistband.
Her knees almost buckled.
Maybe he saw, because he reached out and slid an arm around her waist, pulling her close. The side of her body pressed against Nik’s chest, his lips grazing her shoulder, his hard cock pushing into her hip. He ran his mouth up the length of her throat, his tongue gliding over her skin.
“Fuck,” she breathed, the pulse of desire between her thighs becoming a pounding rhythm.
“Did you sneak up here to play with yourself?” he asked, obviously amused.
“Clearly, I did,” she gritted out.
“Were you going to lie in this bed—our bed—and make yourself come, chrysí mou? Without me? I should make you pay for that.”
She dragged in a shaking breath. “Why?”
Nik’s mouth sucked gently at the base of her throat for a moment, sending little arrows of sensation flying through her veins. Then he released her with a mocking tut, and said, “I don’t think you understand how much I—how much I’m willing to do for you, Aria. I certainly won’t let you fuck yourself.” He put the toy on the bed, then cupped her cheek in his hand and murmured, “I’ll do it for you.”
Her mind unravelled like a spool of thread dropped to the floor. “You’ll… do…”
Sweet on the Greek_An Interracial Romance Page 8
