A Deal with Demakis

“I don’t want to leave.”

He covered the distance between them and smiled. With his hands on her shoulders, he tugged her closer, and smiled. “It’s okay. I shouldn’t have started this here. I know you are new to all this...” He pressed a furious kiss to her mouth, his lips clinging devouring, until she couldn’t breathe. That’s what she wanted—his passion. “It’s not the end of it, either.” He pulled back, and this time he didn’t sound so steady.

She pushed his hands away, her heart stuttering to a halt. “Stop trying to protect me, Nikos. You’re acting just like Tyler.”

His gaze blazed with anger. “I don’t know what you are talking about. But you should know this. No man wants to hear the ex’s name and definitely not like that.”

“Then stop acting like him.”

A curse fell from his mouth. “Explain.”

“You are doing what you think I want. You’re not being yourself.”

“That’s the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.”

“I’m not going to break, Nikos. I want honesty between us, whether it is in the way you make love to me, or when it’s time for you to say we’re done. You are controlling yourself, wondering if I will break, wondering if you will hurt me.”

He pushed his hair back, and Lexi noticed he was not as in control as she thought. This was not the Nikos that had pushed her into admitting how much she wanted him. Something had changed in him; something had changed between them, and she didn’t know what.

“I won’t be responsible for hurting you. Despite everything I proposed and did, I never intended to.”

“Then tell me...no wait, show me what you like. Do this...” She moved her hand between them. “Make love to me the way you would do it with Nina, or Emmanuelle.”

He jerked back from her as though she had polluted the air by speaking those names in this moment between them. “Christos! Stop comparing yourself to them. I cannot forget everything I know about who and what you are.”

Lexi bit her lower lip. Warmth that had nothing to do with desire and lust flew through her veins. He was making concessions for her. She didn’t want him to, but she couldn’t help being affected by it, either. “You’ll hurt me more if you are not yourself, Nikos. I believe that Tyler... He only slept with me because he thought it would make me happy. I can’t bear the thought that you are doing the same...”

“Theos! I can’t think straight with wanting you. I’ve never spent so much time thinking about it instead of just doing it.”

Her heart stuttered and started. She couldn’t speak for the breath caught in her throat.

She was terrified of what she was doing, of where she was going with him. But mixed in with that fear was also a sense of rightness. She covered the distance between them and pulled him down for a kiss.

His lips were soft and firm against hers, his hands on her waist lifting her off the ground. His tongue delved into her mouth, seeking and caressing, his hands on her buttocks tucking her tight against the V of his legs.

Pulling her hands up, he slowly guided her to the wall behind him. A slow smile curved his lips. “You want to know what I like?”

“Yes.”

“I would like for you to tell me what you want me to do. You have to ask me for it, thee mou.”

Her gaze flew to him, heat streaking her cheeks. For some reason, he was pushing her, expecting her to back out of this. She had no idea why. But she wouldn’t let him win. “Fine.”

She unbuttoned the metal clasps on her vest and the leather fell away inch by inch to reveal her heated skin. Her fingers were steady despite the butterflies in her stomach. There were at least a hundred people on the other side of the glass. But it was the darkening of Nikos’s gaze that spread desire like wildfire through her. Her small breasts felt heavy, her nipples rigid and chafing against the lacy silk of her bra.

The sound of his jagged breaths filled the room. “I can’t wait to touch your breasts, Lexi. I have been going out of my mind thinking about them.”

He ran his knuckle over the strap of her bra, his gaze hungry and hard. Without touching her, he bent and licked the upper curve of her breast. Lexi jerked and arched her spine greedily into his touch.

His forearm kept her against the wall, stopping her from leaning into him. “Sorry, thee mou. I forgot my own rules. Now if you want something...”

She looked up at him, every nerve in her tuned tight. Her mouth was dry but need triumphed over shyness. She pulled his hand to her mouth and kissed his palm. “I want—” she swallowed at the need rippling through her “—you to...touch my breasts.”