His Mistress by Blackmail

She believed him. He’d just proven that he was supremely skilled at everything he undertook. The simple—although in hindsight it was never going to be simple—kiss she’d planned had turned into so much more. Now she was torn between leaving Xandro’s bed and begging him to do it to her all over again.

‘Don’t overthink it, Sage.’ His tone was a touch graver. Perhaps in warning?

‘That’s easy for you to say,’ she replied, her mounting agitation hard to contain.

‘It isn’t,’ he said. ‘I’m having a hard time understanding why you’re like a drug in my blood.’

Any feminine power she could’ve garnered from that admission was wiped out by the fact that he engendered the same feeling in her. Perhaps more. ‘Because I’m not your usual type?’ she tossed out.

‘Yes,’ he admitted without hesitation.

A twinge flared from the vicinity of her heart. ‘Is that supposed to make me feel better?’

‘It’s supposed to tell you that this was as irresistible for me as it was for you and ease whatever anxiety is going on inside you.’

Despite cautioning herself not to overreact, her heart lurched.

‘Unless you’re regretting it?’ he added, his eyes narrowing on her face.

She slowly shook her head. It might have been a temporary aberration but, ‘No, I don’t regret it.’

Satisfied with that, he rolled over and tugged her close. With her head on his shoulder and her hand on his chest, a little of Sage’s anxiety diminished, enough for her to conclude that this after-sex thing wasn’t so bad. She’d return to her room eventually, of course, but for now there was nothing wrong with enjoying the moment. The voice that warned her that these excuses were getting easier to accommodate was ruthlessly suppressed as she closed her eyes and basked in the sensation of his hand rubbing her back and hip.

She must have drifted off to sleep because when she opened her eyes again Xandro was leaning over her, toying with her hair.

‘Distract me, pethi mou. The beast in me that’s dying to take you again is in danger of overpowering the part of me that knows you need a little reprieve.’

At her immediate blush, he groaned and buried his face in her neck. ‘That blush is most definitely not helping.’

Sage wanted to ignore the throb between her thighs and give in to the same mounting need. But at the same time she yearned to delve a little deeper beneath his surface. ‘Tell me about Ayia Hera,’ she suggested.

His whole body stiffened against hers. ‘That wasn’t what I meant by distraction,’ he said coolly as he flung himself away from her.

Stung, she pulled the sheet over her body. ‘I’m fresh out of after-sex banter then.’

Tense silence settled in the room. She was debating whether it was time to beat a hasty retreat when he tugged the sheet out of her grasp. ‘Don’t hide yourself from me.’

‘Don’t be an ogre then,’ she threw back, but she let him pull her back into his embrace.

He sighed. ‘Was it too much to hope you’d forgotten I mentioned it?’

‘Your description of the sunsets made an impact.’

‘Sunset. One. I was there for twenty-four hours ten years ago.’

She frowned. ‘But...isn’t that where your family is from?’

‘It’s where the man who fathered me lives.’

Her frown deepened. ‘You said you had no family remaining.’

‘I don’t. He may have sired me, but he’s dead to me,’ he said through gritted teeth.

‘Then why do you sound upset when you talk about him?’

Narrowed eyes glared at her. ‘Stop analysing me.’

Irritation and the sensation that she didn’t like him this closed-off made her snap, ‘Why? You have no problem pointing out all my faults and prying my secrets from me.’