She looked glorious, infinitely breathtaking.
She had already somehow pierced him, the truth lingered on his lips. The thought of that vulnerability, of sharing that much with her made his gut clench.
Clasping her cheek, he lifted her to face him, his pulse pounding in his veins. The sound of her sharp breath was like a balm to him. “Are you so thirsty for my blood then, pethi mou?”
“Yes.”
Her resounding answer sent a shiver through to his very bones. It was as though seeing Giannis had peeled off that facade of hers.
“Are you satisfied, Stavros? Have I risen in my worthiness in your eyes?”
The thunderous roar of his heart, the curling heat in his muscles made it harder for him to whisper the one question that had been battering at him all day. He felt as if a huge truth was within his grasp, as if the real Leah was within his reach. And in that moment, he would do anything to have it.
To have her, to know her, to feel her...
If he had her, would the strange turmoil inside him stop?
“When has my opinion of you begun to matter, Leah?” he whispered softly, the words burning on his lips.
He felt her instant recoil in the stillness of her form, in the way the very air around her seemed to suspend and freeze.
A violent energy burst from her limbs. Lifting the hem of that heavy, voluminous dress away from her legs, she faced him. A flash of a toned thigh met his gaze and he looked away guiltily, the depth of his hunger for her shredding his control.
Her hair whipped around her face, the swish of her dress adding to the harsh exhales of her breath.
The uncaring mask back in place, she mocked him with that practiced glare in her eyes, with that biting edge to her tone. By hiding from him what he so desperately wanted to see.
“You know what, Stavros? Scratch that answer. I don’t care whether I could hurt you or not. I don’t give a damn about you. I did what you asked of me, I made sure Giannis is happy. I played the part of an heiress and his loving granddaughter to the hilt. Which means I’m one step closer to achieving my freedom. That’s what I care about.
“Tell me what will make the next month go faster so that I can see the back of you. Tell me what is next so that I never have to talk to you ever again.”
A dangerous fire burst in his belly.
How dare she put on this mask again? How dare she deny him even the merest hint of the real her? How dare she sink under his skin and yet deny him the same satisfaction?
How dare she turn him into this man teetering on the edge of his control, and walk away so blithely?
Before she could get to her feet and escape, because he had no doubt that she was about to escape, he clasped her wrist and tugged her down.
She fell onto her haunches, her shoulders knocking against his chest. For the first time in his life, Stavros gave in to every irrational urge, every desperate want. “What are you afraid of, Leah? Me or yourself?” he taunted.
Primal satisfaction pounded through him, the increasing frenzy of her movements telling him he had hit the mark. “I’m not afraid of you,” she said, twisting her upper body to get away from him. Ended up torturing him further with the slide of her body against his.
“Then face me, Leah,” he whispered, driven by some reckless urge to prove that his opinion mattered to her, that he mattered to her.
Just as she was beginning to matter to him...
* * *
She couldn’t let him touch her, she couldn’t let him kiss her.
If she let him touch her tonight, if she let him hold her tonight, something inside her would break. She would pour out the whole wretched truth, she would blurt how lonely she had been...
If she let him see the real her, she would have no shield, no armor against him. And even in the fragility of her emotions, Leah knew she couldn’t let Stavros close.
“Why are you acting like this?”
Her arms ached with the effort it took to hold herself so stiffly in the circle of his body; every inch of her hurt to stay unaffected in the warmth of his rough embrace.
“Like a man acts with his wife?”
She fought back stupidly hot tears, knowing that she didn’t stand a chance against that claim.
When she pushed against his wrists again, he grabbed her hands this time. Laced her fingers through his and pulled her forward. Her hip touched his rock-hard thigh and she bit down on her lip.