‘Your bottom is perfect. You are perfect. Even my father adores you,’ he said as he bent his head and kissed her neck. ‘You are playing an important part in his recovery and I’m grateful for that. Don’t think I don’t know that you are the reason he’s eating properly, and has swapped his wine for juice and water.’
‘I adore him.’ She pulled away slightly and gave a faltering smile. ‘In fact, I envy you.’
‘You do?’ His eyes narrowed. It was the first time she’d shown any interest in his financial status.
‘Yes, you’re incredibly lucky. I’d do anything to have a father like yours.’
It wasn’t the comment he’d been expecting, and it took a moment for her words to register. ‘You envy me my father?’
‘Yes.’ She looked into his eyes and then frowned slightly. ‘Why? What did you think I was going to say?’
Deciding that this was one of those occasions when it was best not to be honest, Angelos stayed silent, but she breathed in sharply and stepped away from him. ‘You assumed I envied you your wealth.’ She watched him for a moment and then gave a little laugh. ‘You still don’t know me at all, do you?’
‘It was a natural assumption. No one has envied me my father before.’
‘I’m sure they have. He’s lovely.’ There was something in her wistful tone that caught his attention.
‘Is your own father alive?’
He saw her sudden tension, and then she pulled away from him. ‘He and my mother didn’t—’ She stopped. ‘They didn’t stay in touch. I have no idea where he is now.’
‘You’ve never tried to trace him?’
She stilled, her back to him. ‘No.’
‘Is he the source of your insecurities?’ Angelos put his hands on her shoulders and turned her to face him. ‘Is he the reason you have a low opinion of yourself?’
For a moment she didn’t answer, and then she raised herself on tiptoe and brushed her mouth against his. ‘Just kiss me, Angelos,’ she murmured huskily. ‘Stop talking and kiss me.’
He realised just how little he knew about her life, but the blood was pounding in his head and the touch of her mouth against his drove all rational thought from his head. Since when had it become a challenge to concentrate on anything?
All he wanted to do was rip her clothes off and explore her lush, spectacular body in minute detail.
Driven by the thunderous force of his libido, Angelos tumbled her back onto the bed and brought his mouth down on hers, his hands swiftly removing her clothes from her deliciously squirming body.
‘Angelos, please—’ Her soft whimper of desperation removed every last scrap of his self-control and the need to satisfy his sexual hunger took precedence over everything else.
With something close to desperation he came down on top of her and immediately she parted her legs, her silky-soft thighs brushing against his as she arched expectantly.
Responding to an urge so powerful that it went far beyond anything he had experienced before, he thrust into her soft, damp core, her immediate moan of pleasure adding still more fuel to his passion. She was hot and tight and he was so overwhelmed by how good she felt that he drove deep in his need to satisfy the almost agonising attack of lust that gripped him.
Her nails dug into his shoulders and she gasped his name one more time and then he felt the orgasm ripple through her body, drawing him over the edge.
His world exploded and he thrust hard, swallowing her whimpers of ecstasy with the demands of his mouth as he emptied his body into hers.
In the aftermath, neither of them spoke. Neither of them was able to speak.
After what seemed like an age, Angelos rolled back against the pillows and gathered her against him, unwilling to let her go even for a moment. ‘Tell me why you were working as a cleaner.’
She didn’t answer immediately. ‘It was the only job I could find when I arrived in Paris.’
‘Where were you before Paris?’
‘Buenos Aires. I worked with horses for a while.’
‘Presumably that’s where you learned to tango?’ He suddenly discovered that he wanted to know everything about her. He wasn’t comfortable with the knowledge that he knew so little of her life. ‘And before that?’
‘I travelled in Peru. And before that I was in India, Australia and New Zealand…’