The Maid's Best Kept Secret (The Marchetti Dynasty 1)

Maggie’s heart hitched. ‘I’m sure that’s not true.’

They settled into a companionable silence, the sound of Daniel feeding the only thing breaking the silence. It felt intimate in a way that she hadn’t felt with Nikos before.

When she’d finished feeding him she put Daniel on her shoulder and stood up. ‘I’ll put him down again.’

She went back into the bedroom and winded and changed Daniel before putting him down. He was already fast asleep. She felt wide awake now, and couldn’t stop thinking about how Nikos had looked at her as she’d fed Daniel.

She’d fully expected that Nikos would have gone to bed, but she found herself going back to the living room. He was still there. He was lying on the couch, shoes off. Arm above his head. Was he asleep?

Maggie went over and closed the French doors. Ni

kos hadn’t moved. She couldn’t help standing and watching him for a moment, even though she felt like a voyeur. He looked so much younger in sleep...his brow smoothed. She felt an urge to place her fingers against his lips and stepped back before she could do something stupid.

But as she was turning away her hand was caught.

‘Where do you think you’re going?’ His voice was a rough growl.

‘I thought you were asleep.’

Nikos tugged her down onto the couch beside him. He came up on one elbow. She could feel his gaze on her as he brought his hand up and flicked open the couple of buttons on her nightdress that she’d just closed.

It had to be the most un-erotic piece of clothing—a white cotton nightdress with buttons strategically placed to make it easy to breastfeed—but suddenly it felt like the most provocative thing in the world.

Nikos looked at her as he put his hand underneath the cotton to cup her breast. She sucked in a breath. It was still sensitive after feeding. But deliciously so.

He brought his hand up then, catching her hair and looping it around his fingers, tugging her down towards him until she was flat against his chest and her mouth hovered above his. Their breaths intermingled. He was like steel underneath her.

‘Do you want this, Maggie?’

It freaked her out how much she wanted him. All the time.

She nodded.

He reached up and their mouths touched. She groaned. He speared her hair with his hands, angling her to make the kiss deeper, more explicit. Maggie wanted to rub herself against him like a needy cat.

Urgency gripped them both. Nikos pulled back for a second, grabbed her hips and pulled her on top of him so that her thighs fell either side of his hips. She wasn’t wearing any underwear. He reached down and found this out for himself. They both gasped.

Maggie unbuttoned his shirt, needing to feel his chest. Nikos undid his trousers, lifting himself up to pull them down. And then she felt him there, released and hot and hard against her hungry flesh.

He opened the rest of the buttons on her nightdress, releasing her breasts into his hands, and she rose over him and took him in her hand as she guided herself onto his rigid length.

Her hands were spread on his chest as she rode him, tentatively at first and then with more confidence, biting her lip against the spasm of pleasure as he touched a point deep inside her.

He massaged her breasts, coming up to take one nipple and then the other into his mouth. That sent her into a frenzy, and her movements became less slick, more frantic, as she chased the peak that teased her...

She must have sobbed, or pleaded or something, because Nikos clamped his hands on her hips and took control, holding her still while he thrust into her over and over again until she collapsed against him and pressed her mouth to his in a desperate kiss, pleading silently for him to stop and yet never to stop.

And then it came—the moment when everything went still and taut before a quickening rush of pleasure so intense that she could only submit to its power and wait for the storm to pass.

When Maggie woke the next morning she was back in her bed, with only the vaguest memory of Nikos carrying her there. Daniel was awake and kicking his legs happily in his cot. She lay there for a moment, wondering if actually that had been a particularly intense dream last night.

But, no. Her body was tender in secret places.

She turned on her side and looked at Daniel, recalled seeing him in Nikos’s arms. Emotion gripped her again. And something almost fearful.

The force of need she felt around Nikos and the fact that it wasn’t diminishing was overwhelming. She’d heard that desire burnt itself out eventually, but this didn’t feel as if it would ever burn out. For her. But would it for Nikos?

Of course it would. It had to be a fluke that he still wanted her. Some weird aberration.