She struggled to focus. ‘I don’t want you. Don’t you understand that? Where is your pride?’ Surely that, if anything, would get through to him.
He looked up, his head still bent over her hand. His eyes were so hot she felt their incendiary heat burn deep inside as he met her gaze.
‘Agapi mou, you need me as much as I need you. I was a fool yesterday to think I could ever walk away from you.’
He leaned closer, looming over her, and she fought the absurd impulse to bury her head on his shoulder and wrap her arms tight round him.
‘Yiorgos will see us.’ She was desperate for anything that would stop his inexorable assault on her senses. On her self-control.
‘Yiorgos is already walking to the house.’ His breath was hot on her face as he leaned closer still. ‘We’re on my private property. No one will disturb us. And anyway, the tinted windows give us privacy.’
Privacy for what? Her mind raced as she read the raw desire in his stark features.
‘No!’ Frantically she shoved against the rock-hard wall of his chest. But it was like pushing against unforgiving granite. ‘I don’t want—’
His mouth on her lips stopped her voice. His tongue stroked against hers, inviting the response that shivered just a breath away. He leaned into her, pressing her back into the soft corner of the padded seat, his hands roving, skimming her body as if frantic to rediscover her.
He didn’t use force. If he had she would have been able to fight him.
But the devious brute used gentle, erotic persuasion. And that weapon, in this man’s hands, was unstoppable. Sophie didn’t have a hope.
She tasted him in her mouth, inhaled the tangy scent of him, felt the shiver of delight wherever his hands caressed. The fiery heat of his body was like a magnet, drawing her closer, inciting a passion so strong it overruled every last remnant of her will-power.
Their night of intimacy had merely set the seal on the emotion that had been growing inside her over the past weeks.
This was the man she loved. The man who’d stolen her heart. So bold, so strong. Handsome, tender, protective. The most sensitive, daring, passionate lover a woman could wish for. Her weak body, even her mind, worked against the memory of the devastating pain he’d inflicted on her.
No matter how far she ran. Even if she escaped back to Sydney, she’d never be free of her feelings for him.
He only had to take her in his arms, seduce her with the incredible tenderness he wielded so easily, and all her defences shattered.
She sighed into his open mouth as his hand brushed her breast, teasing, tempting, till she pressed forward and felt his palm close round her.
Her hands locked round the back of his neck and she didn’t protest as he pushed her down against the seat. She sensed the urgency in him as his breathing changed, the rhythm of his heart hammering against hers quickened. His hands grew heavier, more urgent as they stroked her, lingering on the buttons of her shirt.
Sophie knew what he wanted. Here, in a parked car in broad daylight. And, lord help her, she wanted it too. Just one last time.
She’d regret it later. But she had no more lies left inside her. She couldn’t pretend any longer.
He’d won.
She turned her head and nuzzled the hollow of his neck, breathing deep of the masculine scent of his arousal. His skin was steamy with the energy of sexual excitement.
‘Sophie?’ He lifted a hand to her cheek, his thumb brushing the skin below her eye.
‘Ah, Sophie mou. Don’t cry. Please don’t cry.’ His voice was a hoarse groan of pain.
She blinked and registered the scalding tears spilling down her cheeks. Tears for her discarded hopes.
There was a surge of movement. Strong hands, an even stronger body against hers. And then she was sitting up. But not on the luxurious limousine seat. Instead she was cradled on Costas’ thighs, sitting sideways across him, pulled in close against his massive chest, her head resting on his shoulder and his arms wrapped tight around her.
He was trembling, his whole body tense and shivering beneath hers.
‘I hurt you.’ His words were a whisper against her hair. ‘I’m sorry, Sophie. I’ve been a monster. I don’t ever want to cause you pain again.’
She felt a hard sob well inside her at the sincerity in his husky voice. He might not want to hurt her but he couldn’t help it. It was inevitable when she craved so much more from him than he could give.
Wordlessly she shook her head and leaned closer to him. Ridiculous to find comfort in the embrace of the man who was at the core of her unhappiness, but so it was.