The irises of his eyes widened as though he hadn’t been aware of what he was going to say. He ran a hand through his hair.
“Then you better start thinking about answers. Are you done with me? Do you want me to leave and stay somewhere in the village? Was this a onetime deal? Because if it was, I would have liked some notice because there’s a lot of stuff I wanted to do and I was so overwhelmed, I didn’t get to do anything.”
“Overwhelmed?” A curse fell from his lips, and he turned toward her. If any more hardness inched into his face, he would be a concrete bust. “Did I hurt you last night?”
“What? Of course not,” she said, heat gathering like a storm under her skin.
“You were very—”
Hitching on her toes, she covered his mouth with her hand. The velvety edge of his lips was a sinuous whisper against her skin, the stubble on his cheeks making her wonder how it would feel against other places. Every little thing about the man sent her senses tingling. “I enjoyed every minute of what we did last night. The question is, did you?”
This time, a slow smile curved his mouth. “You couldn’t tell?”
“Honestly? I can’t remember anything except thinking I could die happily. And today, I’m drawing my clues from the fact that you’ve been gone all morning and now you’re staring at me as though you wish I were invisible. With your wealth, you can probably make me. I did see an ad for an invisibility cloak on eBay last week, so—”
“You are talking nonsense.”
“I think something in my brain got warped last night. Your presence now makes me think of nothing but sex, and I’m trying to cover that up—”
“With nonsense.” He nodded. He pushed her against the wall, his jaw tight. “I had the hottest, most intense orgasm of my entire life last night. It took every ounce of self-control I possess to not wake you up just so I could have you again and again. Knowing that you had no panties on under that skirt...I don’t know how I resisted you at all.” The words hummed on the air around them, the feral intensity of it sending warmth stealing into places she didn’t want to think of right then. His mouth took on a rueful twist. “Every time I closed my eyes since this morning, I can hear those long whimpers you make just before you come, taste you on my fingers.
“Is that clear enough for you?” He flicked his tongue over the rim of her ear, his softly whispered words stroking her need hotter and higher.
Lexi would have crumpled to the ground if he hadn’t been holding her upright. A rush of wetness gathered at her sex. And all he had done was talk. “Now if you’d just looked like a man who got laid last night and enjoyed it, then I wouldn’t—”
“It was glorious sex, agape mou.” He let her go, his mouth narrowed into a straight line. “And I feel better than fantastic given that my sister is still missing, and my grandfather is using it as an excuse to deny me what I want.”
The fever he incited instantly cooled, and Lexi took a staggering step back. Of course, Venetia. Her mouth felt clammy, her stomach tying itself in knots.
I’m so sorry, Lex. Just give me a few days and I’ll bring Venetia back.
The small note that had been left on her side table under a cup of dark Greek coffee fluttered in front of her eyes. The shock of finding it, especially in Tyler’s almost illegible handwriting, still pulsed through her.
Having read it close to fifty times in two minutes, Lexi had torn it up into small pieces, her heart in her throat. It was obvious Venetia didn’t want to return and Tyler didn’t want to hurt her.
Lexi felt a flare of anger at the both of them for doing this, for deceiving Nikos and for dragging her in between. This thing between her and Nikos, it was a temporary madness, she knew that. Still, she wanted to do nothing that would hurt him.
And she had a sinking feeling that that’s what was going to happen in the end.
Pushing her hair back from her forehead, she caught the sigh escaping her lips. There was nothing to do but wait. “What is your grandfather refusing you?” she said, her dislike of Savas Demakis a bad taste in her mouth.
“He and his cronies are refusing to vote me in as the CEO. The fact that I didn’t protect Venetia is a weapon Savas is wielding to its full extent.”
“I don’t understand. Venetia and your company are entirely different things. How does he propose you stop your twenty-four-year-old sister from living her life, short of locking her up and throwing away the key?”
His pointed gaze told her she nailed the truth on its ugly head. “He must know you would never do that to Venetia.”