by Tara Pammi
Nikos Demakis would tempt any woman.
She was about to leave the private lounge when a bartender walked in to serve cocktails. The easy smile in the bartender’s eyes boosted her flagging spirit. She took a sip of the cocktail as he left, placed it back on the table and started moving to the steamy number playing softly. She was not going to let Nikos’s indifference to her ruin her evening any longer.
* * *
Refusing Venetia’s friend’s blatant invitation, which held zero interest for him, Nikos pushed his way through the crowd. His frustration must have been apparent because more than one group of people jumped out of his way.
He had severely underestimated Venetia’s determination, her envy for Lexi. Before meeting her, he would have called Tyler and his fickle mind the root of Venetia’s insecurity. There was no such doubt in his mind now.
Lexi might not be gorgeous, or sophisticated, or wealthy, yet there was something about her that made one look deep inside and come away wanting. He perfectly understood what his sister must have felt.
In four days of his security team and Nikos himself following several leads, there was no information about where she and Tyler had gone. He was beginning to believe his sister would return only when and if she wished it.
In the meantime, Savas was tightening the screws further, Theo Katrakis was ready to start discussions about the board and then there was Lexi, who with her mere existence was spinning his life out of control.
Four days of Lexi, waiting alongside him worried about what Venetia would do to her blasted friend, four days of Lexi looking at him with those big, blue eyes.
You want me, Nikos? You got me.
Never had a woman’s acceptance to have sex with him, which put in those base terms felt like an insult to her, never had such simple words moved through him with such power.
He walked up the steps to the private lounge. He halted outside the entrance and pushed the door open.
She was moving in time to the music slowly, her short white skirt displaying her toned legs perfectly. Soft revolving lights from outside the lounge revealed her laughing mouth and warm eyes in strips and flashes. The delicate curve of her neck came into view next, the silver of her earrings glinted.
The sleeveless black leather vest hugged her, displaying the curves of her small breasts. With her hands up and behind her head, she moved so sensuously to the music that lust bolted through him. Every time she turned, that vest moved upward, flashing him with a strip of her midriff.
A lush smile played on her lips and she was totally lost in the moment. He closed the door behind him and she turned slowly.
Her eyes rounded in her delicate face. He waited for her to drop her gaze, shy away, but she held his gaze, even as a dusting of pink streaked her cheeks. She was different, and not just because of how she was dressed, but the tilt of her chin, the resolve in her eyes.
“Did she—” Lexi nodded toward the dance floor “—know anything about where Venetia could have taken Tyler?”
“We have no idea who’s taken whom.”
She frowned. “Tyler is unwell, has no money or connections, and the last I saw him, he was determined to not hurt Venetia. Are you the one with amnesia or him? Because you seem to have forgotten everything that happened four days ago completely.”
She walked past him and the whisper of her scent had his gut tightening in a burst of need. His body was oversensitized to her presence, wound tight in anticipation of wanting her, driven to the edge by having her near and not taking, or touching. And yet he had stopped himself.
He had spilled Tyler’s indiscretion with Faith in a perverse moment of selfishness, acting directly against his own larger purpose of having her here.
It was a weak, impulsive, juvenile, completely uncharacteristic move.
And suddenly, his control over this thing between them, his control over his spiraling desire for her, over the maelstrom of emotions she released in him, was more important than anything else.
Because even his worry over Venetia hadn’t blunted his awareness of this woman. “No, I haven’t forgotten.”
Her blue eyes held that same shimmering honesty that he had come to expect from her. “That woman, she wanted you. Wherever we go, there is always at least one woman who wants you.”
Her statement was in reality a question. For the past four days, he had been only thinking of himself.
She had obviously taken his distance to mean that he didn’t want her anymore.
His desire for her was a near-constant hum in his blood. And it was the very intensity of it that had shackled him. Lust had ever been only a function of his body until now, not his mind or heart. “I don’t want her or any of them.” He knew what she wanted to hear, yet some devil in him wanted her to ask, wanted to hear her admit it again.
Now, when she wasn’t still reeling from the truth about Tyler; now, when it was only Nikos that she saw. And nothing else.
Her teeth clamped on her lower lip, she straightened her shoulders. And rose to the challenge. “Are you still interested in me?”
He laid his palm horizontally on her rib cage, felt her heart race under his fingers. “What do you think?”
She pushed herself into his touch, her gaze challenging him. “Then what are you waiting for?”
“You want this because you’re angry with Tyler, hurt by what he did.”
“I’m not hurt by what he did. If I didn’t have to worry about you, I could actually be enjoying this glimpse into your filthy rich life right now.”
Furious surprise rolled through him. “You are worried about me?” The question hurled out of him before he knew.
“Of course I am. Anyone with eyes can see how much you love Venetia, how worried you are about her. That night after they left, you spent the whole night looking for her. And I...” She took a deep breath, “I don’t want anyone to be hurt at the end of this. Not Tyler, not Venetia and definitely not you. And I don’t know how to tell you to not worry so much, how to make you see that she’s far stronger than you give her credit for. She saw me kissing Tyler, Nikos, and she didn’t crumble.”
“You think that’s the only sign of her weakness? She saw my father shoot himself. It has hurt her in ways I can’t understand.”
She clasped his hand with hers, willing him to look at her. A shaft of sensation traveled up his arm. She was so tiny, so delicate compared to him. “Tyler won’t let her do anything, Nikos. What happened between him and me, it was just as much my fault. He would never do anything to hurt her.”
“He was ready to walk out on her. That’s what I said he would do.”
“Yes, but because he wanted to do the right thing by her. Doesn’t that tell you something? Or are you just too stubborn to see it?”
“I’m not discussing them with you.”
“Don’t. Believe me, I don’t want to, either. Venetia’s probably having the time of her life, and here I am, stuck with you. You hold me responsible for everything that’s happening—”
“I don’t hold you responsible for any of this. I just don’t trust you to tell me if Tyler contacts you.”
Lexi clamped her mouth shut. There was no point in even denying it. He knew her too well. “Okay, fine. But I don’t have a phone and I don’t think I can even sneeze on the island without you knowing, so can we stop with you dragging me around like unwanted baggage?”
“Unwanted baggage, thee mou?”
“You look at me as though you want to open a space portal and throw me through it. Do you understand what it took for me to say those words to you last week?”
He tugged her hands higher and tighter as his lower body pressed into hers. Lexi closed her eyes and fought for some much-needed oxygen. Her skin felt as if it was on fire, her limbs molten with longing. “Ever since I realized what a pathe
tic idiot I have been all these years, I have also realized that I’m not completely without appeal.”
He grinned and she pressed on, growing bolder. When he smiled like that, she wanted to roll over in the warmth of it. She wanted to press her mouth to his and revel in it. “I might not be packing in the boob and leg department and probably hold little attraction to a man with refined tastes like you, but there are other fish in the sea. Cute, dimpled, down-to-earth fish like Piers, for example, who find me attractive and wouldn’t dream of calling me any names in a million—”
His muscled thigh lodged between her legs and Lexi whimpered. For a man so big, he was so incredibly well-coordinated. Just the thought of all that finesse and power focused on her had her tingling in all kinds of places. “Who the hell is Piers?”
“Piers is the bartender who’s been serving me cocktails.”
“And he likes you?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
His teeth clamped tight, he nodded. And she had the strangest notion that he hadn’t liked what she had said. Intensely. “So help me understand, thee mou. Just any man with a working...” His gaze glimmered with a dark amusement. “Any man will do for this new risk-taking life of yours?”
She pushed at him, fighting the heat spreading up her neck. She was not going to back down from this. So she just evaded. “You’re being purposely crude.”
“Sex is all you want from me?”
“I... Yes, of course.” She was getting good at lying. But then it was easy, because she didn’t know what else she wanted from him. And she didn’t want to know, either. She had never feared her feelings before or what they drove her to. But with everything she had learned about Tyler, with everything Nikos made her face, she preferred to not have any feelings right now. “You said it yourself. Sex should not be complicated.” And she wanted it with the most complicated man she had ever met, whatever he thought of himself.
Nikos ran his thumb over her lower lip, his gaze drinking her in. Stepping back from her, he shrugged off his leather jacket. The V-necked gray shirt stretched tight across his muscled chest hugged his lean waist. “There should be a sign somewhere here. Find it.”
Frowning, Lexi stared at the door. Shaking her head, she looked around the lounge. Tension pinged across her skin as she found it.
Do Not Disturb.
Her heart jumped to her throat. She held up the matte sign just as Nikos walked back in.
Meeting her gaze, he smiled. “Hang it on the doorknob and close the door.”
The cardboard sign slipped from her fingers. Her skin tingled as his gaze stayed on her, challenging. Molten heat flared through her as she realized his intentions. Her knees shook, her entire body felt like a pool of liquid longing and anticipation.
She looked around the room to the huge glass to her right that gave a perfect view of the dance floor and the crowd below. She was not a virgin. Granted, the two times she had slept with Tyler had been almost painfully awkward. But with the tremble in her knees, the soft but persistent tug in her lower belly, she might as well have been one.
“Here? Now?”
Nikos came to a halt with an arm’s length between them, his gaze devouring her. He handed her the champagne glass. “Yes, here. Now. Is there a problem?”
Suddenly, Lexi felt hyperaware of everything around her. Her skin, the ratcheting beat of her heart, her breath rushing in and out, the din of the crowd below and Nikos—tall, gorgeous and within touching distance.
He moved to stand behind her. His hands landed on her waist, spanning it with his long fingers. She could feel every finger, every ridge of his palm on her skin.
“That glass is one-way.”
His words rumbled over her skin. Lexi turned to look at him. “They can’t see us?”
The heat from his mouth seared through her skin, his fingers slowly kneading her hips. “No.”
She sucked in a much-needed breath. His hands moved to her rib cage and held her tight against him.
“They can’t see us or hear us. This is what I want, Lexi. Are you ready for it?” Warm breath feathered over her ear, before he ran his tongue over the outer shell.
Lexi clutched his forearms, a shiver running through her.
She turned in his arms and looked up at him. His brown gaze dark, his aquiline nose flared. The liquid desire in his eyes, the feel of his rough palm over her bare arms, it was everything she wanted. Slipping from his grasp, she took the sign from the floor. She had no idea how she did it with her legs shaking beneath her, but she hung the sign and closed the door.
CHAPTER NINE
NIKOS STRUGGLED TO hold the lust rocketing through him in check and failed completely. She closed the door and stood there, the line of her back an inviting temptation. The strip of flesh exposed between the hem of her short skirt and her knee-high boots was the most erotic thing he had ever seen.
A shiver took root in his muscles. His nerves stretched taut, he felt as if he was the one taking a risk, as if he was the one who was new to sex.
He settled down into the luxurious sofa bed with his back against the wall. She turned around and leaned against the wall. Pink streaked her cheeks. Her mouth pursed and then opened.
“Come here, agape mou.”
Her shoulders tensed, and he thought she would flee in a streak of white and black.
Instead, she walked toward him, her gaze unmoving from his.
Doubts and questions pummeled through him with every step she took. They were as strange to him as the strength of his desire.
There was no shyness in her gaze, but there was no boldness, either. This was important to her, whatever lies she spouted. And that realization tempered his desire. She didn’t know how to play by his rules.
He fought the protective urge that rose up inside him, shoved it away with a ruthlessness that had helped him survive, and win, against all odds.
He needed to stop making this moment more than it was. She wanted him. He wanted her. He wasn’t going to change himself, wasn’t going to start wondering about her feelings just because she was different.
That was the cause for his conscience ringing like a bell inside him.
She was different from the women he usually slept with.
Not one of them had made an effort to know what was beneath his ambition or his drive. Or maybe there hadn’t been anything worth knowing before. She was the first person who had looked beneath the surface, who had realized that a man, with fears and wishes no less, existed beneath it all. Even after everything he had done to manipulate her, made her face, she wished him well, she worried about him.
He took her hand in his and pulled her down to the sofa. He leaned back on the wide sofa bed so that she sat between his legs. His gut felt tight with want, every muscle in him poised for pleasure and possession. He wrapped his hands around her midriff, and kissed the crook of her neck. She tasted of lemon soap and vanilla. He closed his eyes, praying for control. She was so delicate under his touch, she felt breakable in his hands. And even through the anticipation coiling within every inch of him, lust heating through his blood, Nikos admitted one thing to himself.
He didn’t want to hurt her. The sentiment was both strange and strong.
* * *
The soft flick of Nikos’s tongue against her neck knocked the breath out of Lexi’s lungs. He was like a tightly toned fortress of need. And yet he held her loosely, as if she would break.
Every press of hard muscle, every caress of his fingers, fueled her own need. She laced her fingers through his and held on tighter. Throwing her neck back, she gave him better access, liquid longing bursting into life inside her. “Kiss me, Nikos.”
With agility she couldn’t believe, he flipped her easily until she sat astride him. His hands remained on her knees. She moved to steady herself, and inst
antly, her aching sex rubbed against the hard ridge of his erection.
The sound of their mingled moans, desire and need, lust and want, reverberated in the room around them.
His mouth found hers in a fury of want; his hands on her thighs limited her movement severely. She struggled in his hold and moved over the hard ridge of his arousal.
“No, thee mou,” he said, before capturing her mouth again.
He didn’t kiss her like he had done at the pool. He kissed her softly, slowly, as though he had all the time in the world, as though there was no intensity to his need at all.
His tongue licked her lower lip and pressed for entry. Sinking her hands into his hair, Lexi let him in. Pleasure, unlike she had ever known before, bloomed in the pit of her stomach and arrowed downward.
Needing more than he was giving her, she clasped his jaw and forced him to look at her.
“More, Nikos,” she whispered, her words falling over each other.
In response, he sucked her lower lip into his mouth with incredible gentleness. She sneaked her hands in under his shirt and found hot skin. The minute she touched his nipple, he jerked back and pulled her hands out.
Every time, she got closer to him, he held her off.
Lexi pressed a desperate kiss to his mouth and slipped out of his lap. She swayed on her feet before she found her bearings, her body thrumming with unfulfilled desire. Color streaking across his cheeks, Nikos looked up. A stamp of lust tightened his features, but it was just that. A shadow.
Because it was control that reigned over him.
Something snapped inside Lexi. She had wanted to start living her life; she wanted to take a risk. And going to bed with Nikos Demakis was one. On every level there was. He had a hundred lovers where she’d had one. But even more than that, Nikos was a risk because he refused to let her hide, because he refused to let her shrink away from the truth, he didn’t coddle her.
And she didn’t want that to change.
She hugged her arms, and forced the words out. “This isn’t what I want.”
