His grip loosened in her hair, his other hand loosely anchoring her against him as she caressed him roughly, learned every muscle and sinew.
She touched him everywhere, reveling in the tensile hardness of him. Traced up his rock-hard thighs, up toward his groin. And her palm found his erection—hard and long and so utterly arousing... Her breath jerked in her throat.
She had done this to Stavros. The harsh rhythm of his breath in her ears, that incredible stillness of him around her...
Goaded by a clamoring instinct, she shaped him with her palm, moved her finger down the length of him, a shiver spewing in her own muscles.
A guttural sound fell from his lips as he bucked against her hand. It lasted an infinitesimal breath but she knew he had almost surrendered then, that he had lost his rules, his very control then.
Only a second but it was still a victory.
He clasped her wrist in a vise-like grip. She looked up at him and smiled, feeling dazedly powerful, painfully glorious.
In this moment, with him...any pain would have been worth it.
Dark color filled his cheeks, his gaze haunted, agonized. “Why do you push me to the very edge, Leah?” His accent was coarse and uneven as he breathed the words into her temple. “Why do you fight me, deny me every step of the way?”
“Did you not like how I responded, Stavros?” she said shivering, and for a second, he clasped her in his warmth. If he had showed her tenderness...no, this was better. “You forced me to...to respond, just as you force me into everything. That kiss was about domination, not desire, not about taking tenderness.”
He studied her, his own gaze curiously empty. “And if I had asked?” Shaking his head, he stepped away from her. As if he didn’t want her answer. When he met her gaze again, his expression was shuttered. “You’re not wearing your ring.”
“It’s somewhere in my jewelry.”
“As long as you’re still bound to me, you will wear it.”
She stared in stunned silence.
“It would please Giannis too. And that matters to you, doesn’t it, Leah? So I don’t have to worry that you would talk about our little deal with him.”
“And when I’m...when I win our deal?” she forced the words out through the knot in her throat. That she would never see him again was like a lead weight in her chest.
“You will not abandon him, I know that.” Retribution, if she did, rang in his tone. “And I will continue to take care of the one man who means the world to me.”
* * *
Stavros left Leah without looking back, the image of her swollen mouth and dazed eyes burned into his brain forever. If he stayed another minute, he didn’t know what he would do.
He was unknown to himself the way he had reached for her, the way he craved her. In that moment, he had so desperately needed to claim something of her. Shuddering with frustrated desire, he wondered if she had given him anything that he hadn’t taken, wondered why it mattered so much, now.
One of these days, he would be releasing her from their marriage. He knew it as surely as the taste of her still floated on his lips.
Yet, instead of anticipating his freedom, all he suddenly knew was a keen urgency.
To understand Leah, to steal a part of her for himself even as she denied him.
CHAPTER NINE
WHY HAD HE kissed her?
The question haunted Leah endlessly.
What had driven her into giving in so easily?
If she closed her eyes, she could still hear his harsh breath, his softly spoken words...
Her fingers shook and her scissors slipped on the fabric. With a frustrated cry, Leah threw the scissors across the room and fingered the silk gently.
The sheer tulle she was cutting for the underskirt of the wedding gown was the most expensive fabric that she had ordered for her collection. At least, the amount of cloth she had ruined was minimal.
Carefully, she folded the fabric and tucked the tissue wrapping around it. She wasn’t going to get anything that needed focus done today.
More than a week had passed since the night of the party. The next evening, Stavros had left. She had had a feeling he had left because of the kiss.
There was something new—an intensity to his gaze now when he looked at her.
Walking to the rack, she took a cocktail dress in deep red. Threading the needle, she sat down on the couch and began piping the hem.