An emptiness that echoed inside her.
She’d been a fool. A blind, unthinking fool.
There was nothing here for her. She knew it now, without his words. Yet he said them anyway. And each syllable was like a nail hammering into her vulnerable, foolish heart.
‘I don’t want your sympathy,’ he said. ‘There’s no place in my life for that.’ He drew in a mighty breath and paused.
‘But I’ll take your body, Sophie. Every gorgeous centimetre of it. I want to lose myself in your softness. I want to forget the world for an hour. For a single night. But that’s all. It’s oblivion I want, Sophie. Sex and ecstasy and simple, animal pleasure. Nothing else. Not feelings or tenderness. No relationship. No future.’
He swiped his thumb over her nipple, once, twice, deliberately, while he stared down at her with a face darkened by pure need. She shuddered in unwilling response to his touch. Her body was so weak. She was appalled not by the ferocity of his stare, but by the shameful realisation that she still wanted him, still responded to him, even though he’d made it unequivocally clear that he didn’t want her. That any warm, willing female body would satisfy him right now.
And she felt ashamed of what she’d done. Of how she’d responded to him so uninhibitedly.
‘So, Sophie. Will you give me what I want? What I’ve craved ever since I saw you? Will you give me sweet oblivion?’
Sophie opened her mouth. Tried to find the words. Any words that would end this. But nothing came. She gaped at him, still feeling the echo of desire thrumming through her body, remembering the ecstasy of their mutual need.
But now she felt cheapened by it. He’d made her feel like a whore.
She’d reached out to him, wanting to help, to ease his pain and share his burden. And, she realised with brutal honesty that cut through all her instinctive excuses, she’d craved his affection, had wanted to build a relationship, however fragile, with this complex, difficult man who’d taken control of her life from the moment he stalked into it a mere week ago.
Yet all the while he’d seen her as nothing more than a convenient female body. Lips and breasts and hips to be enjoyed for a moment’s pleasure then discarded.
He didn’t want her. Didn’t need her. Not her brain or her heart or the person she was, still trying to come to grips with her life.
She drew a shuddering breath, ignoring the bone-deep pain that lanced through her chest.
At least he was honest. She should be thankful he’d spelled it all out for her now, before she’d been swept away by his ardour and by her own longing. A longing for love, she now realised, turning her head away, unable to meet his piercing stare.
His hands tightened around her ribs, their span heavily possessive. ‘Is that a no?’ he drawled. But she heard the urgency behind his contempt.
And, lord help her, it wouldn’t take much for her to give in and offer him what he wanted. Not when her body responded to his as if they were soul mates. She didn’t doubt for an instant that physically it would be glorious.
And then how would she feel? It didn’t bear thinking about.
Sophie slid her hands down from his shoulders and shoved with all her might. She had to get away. Now.
For a few fraught moments he didn’t budge. She didn’t have the strength to shift him, despite her growing desperation.
And then, abruptly, he stepped back, his eyes shadowed and unreadable. Her hands fell to her sides.
She didn’t remember running down the hallway to the sanctuary of her room, of locking the door, or stripping off and standing under a shower so hot surely it must cleanse her.
All she knew was that she’d left her self-respect behind with Costas Palamidis.
CHAPTER NINE
COSTAS PACED THE sitting room, flicking another impatient glare at his watch. Where was she? The sun was already riding low in the west and still she hadn’t returned.
Sophie had been out since early morning. Surely she should be back by now?
He paused in front of the picture window, scowling as he stared out at the silver-grey olive grove and the glitter of the sea.
She’d sneaked down for breakfast almost before the staff was awake. Slipped out of the house and told the housekeeper merely that she would be out for the day.
And she’d taken Yiorgos with her. He didn’t know whether to be glad she wasn’t alone or furious with jealousy.
It was no good. He had so little control where Sophie was concerned. She intruded on his thoughts all the time. She was there in his mind when he carried Eleni on his shoulders down through the orchard to the sea. And there as he’d tucked his daughter in for her nap, fielding her interminable, sulky questions about where Sophie was today and why she hadn’t come to play.