“I feel like I don’t deserve the words until I’m able to get rid of all my fears…and I can give you the words back.” A tentative smile touched her lips. “Once I’m ready to tell you the words, then you can say it back. Okay?”
Theo. God. What kind of punishment was this?
If she would never ask him again about how he had become attracted to her, then he might never have to hurt her again by speaking of the past.
If she wanted their engagement to remain a secret, then there were also fewer chances for her to find out the truth about Mairi.
And most importantly of all…
If she didn’t want him to say those three words, then he might never need to lie to about loving her.
“Nik?”
She was doing it again, he thought once more, and his chest became hollow with pain as he thought about the way her soul kept reaching out to his. And through it, her heart heard the fears his own heartbeat drummed, and she was once again unknowingly striving to draw him out of the darkness even if it might be at the expense of her own light fading.
Theo.
If he spoke the truth now, she would still be hurt, but the pain would be less than what it could be if they did end up married…and Schuyler were to find out he had only come to want her for the wrong reasons.
Schuyler placed her hand on Ioniko’s cheek. “Am I asking too much?”
And he heard himself say, “No.” He took her hand and pressed his lips to her palm. “You’re not.” Because the truth was, all that she was asking of him could only hurt her and no one else.
“This isn’t how I imagined life with you would be,” Schuyler confided to him over two weeks later as she turned around to feed her gorgeous Greek billionaire a roll of Philadelphia maki.
It was a lazy Sunday evening, and they were in her living room, seated on the rug in front of her TV, binge-watching the last episodes of The Witcher while they demolished their second tray of salmon-wrapped rolls.
“Shall I make a guess on what you likely expected?” Ioniko’s voice was droll. “Excessive drinking and partying, rocking and rolling with the richest degenerates in town…”
“I…I…” A sheepish smile broke over his beautiful little doll’s lips. “I did think along those lines, ne—” Anything else she had to say was swept aside by the mouth that covered hers in a deep, hard, toe-curling kiss.
Oh God.
And then it started all over again: her throat tightening, her heart hammering away, and her senses swimming as his hands started to move over her body.
Sometimes, Ioniko liked to take it insanely slow. Other times, it was as if waiting another second would kill him…
Just. Like. Now.
She could only whimper as he whipped her pants off and literally ripped her panties away. Bye, Underwear #18. And then he was sinking into her, still fully dressed in his three-piece suit, and oh God, she just loved it this way, too.
She loved it every way with him, but if she had to choose, this had to be one of her favorites: seeing him so wildly in need for her that he was completely shorn of his legendary and sophisticated cool, and all that was left was an intensely sexual man who wanted to fuck the brains out of her.
“Schuyler…”
There was nothing sexier than hearing Ioniko Vlahos say her name with his thick Greek accent, and her body instantly arched as her pussy started to quiver under the pounding thrusts of his cock.
“Oh, Nik…”
And while she had yet to figure this out, it was the same for Ioniko. His name on her lips was an erotic trigger, and the moment he heard it, a growl rumbled past his lips, and his hands slipped under her body to cup the sweet, full cheeks of her ass. “You make me want to ruin you, koukla mou.”
Passion-clouded eyes locked with his. “Do it,” she whispered. “Ruin me—aaaaaaaaaaaah.” She could no longer speak, could only gasp as his cock started plunging into her, so hard and fast that in moments her eyes began to roll back…
“Nik.”
She sobbed his name out as she started to cum. A few seconds later, and his hips were grinding down hard, his cock releasing so much cum that she could feel it starting to trickle down the inner side of her thighs. Oh God, there was so, so much. The thought had her shuddering, the inner muscles of her vagina tightening, and she felt his powerful body jerk as she unconsciously dug her nails into his back.
And then—
Her eyes widened.
Surely…
She gulped.
Surely, she was just imagining…
Her dazed eyes lifted to his.
His cock stirring inside of her—
Schuyler had her answer when his glittering green gaze met hers.