One shuddering breath. Another.
Sophie forced the air down into her lungs. She felt the excruciating stab of pain straight to her heart.
She knew now why Costas had slipped away. And stayed away all day. As far as he was concerned nothing had changed. And there was nothing more to be said between them.
Sex. That’s what I want. That’s all I want.
She slammed her hands over her ears but nothing could stop the hateful memory of those words echoing in her head.
I want to forget the world for a single night. Sex and ecstasy and animal pleasure.
Scalding tears welled in her eyes as she remembered how ferociously he’d responded to her last night. Just how much animal pleasure he drawn from her willing body through the long hours of darkness.
When she’d stupidly thought they were making love.
No relationship. No future.
The words were a death knell to her fragile hopes.
She’d been a fool last night, carried away by the strength of her need. By her love for him.
Stupidly she’d believed that because she felt far more than lust, Costas must now too. But nothing had changed for him.
She choked back the bitter taste of despair.
She knew exactly where she stood with Costas Palamidis.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
COSTAS MANOEUVRED THE car around another swooping curve on the road home. He kept the powerful engine at a moderate speed, unwilling to follow his inclination and floor the accelerator. There was no need to hurry, he assured himself. That would be a sign of weakness.
He was a man who’d always prided himself on his strength of character. And he would not weaken now. No matter how great the incentive.
But he permitted himself a smile at the thought of the delicious temptation awaiting him at home.
Sophie.
Generous and ripely seductive. A revelation even to a man of his experience. Never had he possessed a lover who turned night into glorious, dazzling day for him. Who made his blood sing and his senses swim. Who stripped him bare of all civilised refinement and reduced him to mindless ecstasy.
Was it any wonder he’d been careful to keep his distance today?
A man needed to retain some control, some perspective. He couldn’t allow a love affair, however delightful, to cloud his judgement. He had responsibilities. A daughter to care for. A multinational business to direct.
No. He needed to remember that a lover could not be permitted to take over his life.
He’d woken to the pearly dawn light and to a sense of such fulfilment, such peace and such fizzing anticipation, that it alarmed him.
Hell, it had terrified him! He could admit that to himself at least.
He’d felt the smooth curve of Sophie’s waist beneath his palm, smelt the love-scent of her, heady in his nostrils, and knew he never wanted to leave her.
Hell! What sort of nonsense was that?
An illusion left over from the starlight when she’d come to him like a goddess out of the darkness. When she’d been the lover he’d yearned for. Absolute perfection.
He shook his head, to clear it of the fantasy that even now clouded his thinking.
She’d played havoc with his thought processes. With his self-control. For a while there she’d even tempted him into thinking he needed more from her. Something other than sexual satisfaction and the blissful, mindless release it brought.