The Cozakis Bride

Nik gave her a slashing smile that turned her heart over.

Nothing. She wanted nothing but Nik. In the back of her mind she knew it was a mistake, but that terrible hunger for him, fanned to a white-hot heat by his undeniable desire for her, was infinitely stronger. Nik cast off his shirt to reveal a magnificent hard muscular torso. His skin was the colour of living bronze. Black curls of hair hazed his pec­toral muscles, petering down to a silken furrow over his hard, taut stomach. She ran out of breath as he unzipped his trousers. Unlike her, he had not an ounce of inhibition, and he moved with the lithe grace of a natural athlete. She liked watching him; she had always liked watching him. Little brown owl, she recalled painfully. But he was just so beautiful...

How could any other man have attracted her after Nik?

Nik had been the ultimate. But Nik had betrayed her, and would surely betray her again, yet still she watched and waited for him, feeling terrifying vulnerable.

'Why have you gone so quiet?' Nik murmured thickly, studying her with hot golden eyes.

Olympia emerged from her increasingly frantic thoughts and her sea-jade eyes widened as she focused on him. He was wearing not a stitch. And all that she had ever been curious about was now on view. She was stunned by the sheer size of him. Her face drenched with colour and she twisted her head away, but the image of him stayed with her, an image both threatening and exciting.

'I could be forgiven for thinking that you've never seen a guy stripped before!' Nik loosed a roughened laugh. 'Or did you find out a long time ago that some men turn on for that little hint of modesty and shyness?'

'That's not funny!' Olympia shot back at him, wounded by his derision and suddenly self-conscious, torn by con­flicting needs.

Nik came down beside her and pulled her into his arms. 'I was out of line...but there's something going on here I don't understand. It's spooking me.'

She was more nervous than he had expected, she inter­preted, but he wouldn't say that in case she read the com­ment as another attack. And tears stung her ears, because finally she was facing the fact that she wasn't in control any more. He threw himself back against the pillows, car­rying her with him. She was engulfed in him, her breasts crushed by the hard wall of his chest, the hot, musky scent of his skin flaring her nostrils.

'I'm not a bastard in the bedroom,' Nik murmured rawly.

She shivered, the heat of his lean, powerful body per­colating through her, the sharp ache of hunger intensifying, 'No?'

'No...so stop shivering,' Nik urged, knotting long fingers into her hair and tugging her lips hungrily up to the urgent demand of his.

And that kiss was pure naked seduction. He made love to her mouth, dipping his tongue between her readily parted lips to tantalise and torment. Her heart hammered, her tummy clenched and she twisted against him. He shifted in a fluid movement and lowered his dark head to find an achingly sensitive nipple. And she gasped, her back arching against that fierce tug of response she could not withstand.

'I want this to be good for you,' Nik intoned thickly. 'I want to be the best you've ever had.'

And even his dark rich drawl made her quiver. At mind-blowing speed Olympia found herself plunged into a world of sweet sensation, and all the time she was getting hotter and more restive. The feel of his hands on her tender breasts, the knowing expertise of his caressing mouth drove her wild. He traced her feminine mound beneath the thin silk panties and she almost passed out with excitement.

'Please...' she moaned.

Burnished golden eyes held hers then. He said something rough in Greek.

'Nik?' she muttered in a daze.

Lush lashes veiled his gaze. Stripping her of the last barrier between them, his fingers found the damp dark curls at the juncture of her thighs. She twisted and tossed beneath that intimate exploration. The fire inside her was voracious now. She was lost entirely in the hot, teasing torment of Nik's skilled foreplay. She couldn't breathe, couldn't speak, and her body spoke for her, her hips writhing. The need he had taught her to feel had become so powerful it hurt.

Like a lithe dark golden god, Nik came over her and slid between her parted thighs. 'You're so eager...so out of control. Now I finally know how easy it must have been for Lukas to take what should have been mine!'

His tone more than his words made her passion-glazed eyes widen. She gazed up into smouldering golden eyes. Lukas! The name jarred, but she hadn't caught enough of what Nik had said to understand. All that she grasped was that Nik was angry.

'What's wrong?' she gasped.

'Nothing...you're the perfect partner. Hot and willing.'

And, pushing his hands beneath her, he entered her then, in a powerful thrust, and she was so caught up in the new­ness of sensual invasion she couldn't concentrate. But a split second later she experienced a sharp, jagged pain, and she jerked in dismay under him, a startled cry escaping her.

Nik stilled, pushed himself up and swore in Greek. He studied her with fierce intensity. 'This can't be!'

Already the pain was ebbing, allowing her to unlock her tensed muscles.

'You can't be a virgin!' Nik gritted.

Olympia gulped. 'Nik, please...'

Clenching his teeth, Nik groaned with fracturing control, sinking deeper into her, forcing her tender flesh to yield more fully. And the sensation was so unbearably pleasur­able that Olympia rose against him with a surprised cry of response. His hungry gaze blazed over her and suddenly he came back down to her again, to drive into her with long powerful strokes. The storm of desire was unleashed again as if it had never been interrupted.

And it was like nothing she had ever imagined. Caught up in the wild primitive rhythm he set, she was over­whelmed by intense excitement. Heart hammering, body burning with the onslaught of that fierce pleasure, she let him push her higher and higher towards the peak she craved with every sobbing gasp she uttered. And when she hit that ecstatic height, wave after wave of shuddering release en­gulfed her shaken body.

In the aftermath, she was simply stunned. She held Nik close, a crazy kind of joy already beginning to pierce the sense of peaceful satiation. She felt him brush a soft kiss across her brow like a caress. It felt so good to be in his arms, to share in the sort of intimacy she had never known before. Now, at the back of her mind, she was registering that Nik had actually recognised that he had been her first lover. Somehow, at her age, she hadn't expected there to still be any actual physical barrier. So she hadn't thought of that possibility or of what a difference it might make to their relationship. But now it occurred to her that Nik would surely have to accept that she had not betrayed him with Lukas ten years earlier.

In an abrupt movement that took her aback, Nik pulled away from her and sprang off the bed. With a frown, she flipped over. He yanked the bottle of champagne out of the ice-bucket and uncorked it, his lean, bronzed profile fever­ishly flushed and taut.

'Surprise...surprise. And of course you didn't warn me I would be the first. No doubt you imagine that being a virgin...technically speaking...wipes the slate clean!' Nik bit out in a charged undertone as he sent the champagne foaming down into a single goblet.

&n

bsp; Noticing that his hand couldn't hold the goblet steady, Olympia sat up, clutching the sheet to her breasts, and sim­ply stared, utterly disconcerted by this renewed attack.

Nik tossed back the champagne as if he was relieving a desperate thirst with water. He snapped the empty glass back on the table and finally looked at her, eyes as black and stormy as a wild wintry night. 'No wonder you were so quiet in bed. Did you think I'd be at your feet crawling and begging for forgiveness now?' he demanded rawly.

'I honestly don't know what you're talking about—'

'Like hell you don't!' Nik was ashen beneath his dark golden skin, his superb cheekbones rigid as he surveyed her. 'This changes nothing. Obviously Katerina interrupted you and Lukas before you could take full advantage of your sordid encounter. But it doesn't make you innocent. You still betrayed and dishonoured me...you still behaved like a shameless little whore without an ounce of remorse!'

Olympia was shaken by his reinterpretation of events, and for perhaps the very first time she registered a reality she had been reluctant to confront. 'You really do hate me...' she whispered in sick distress.

'After what you did to me, what did you expect?' As he hauled on his trousers, Nik loosed an unsteady laugh that sent a cold shiver down her spine. 'You covered us all with shame.'

Olympia was now pale as milk, but she still recalled that kiss he had brushed across her brow in the aftermath of their lovemaking, a salutation which to her had signified both tenderness and affection. 'But you...you just made love—'

'You think that was making love?' His expressive mouth curled with derision. 'I just consummated our deal, Olympia. You still excite me like mad, but what we shared is called sex. And, as I promised, we both enjoyed the experience, but don't start looking for anything more than that from me!'