From One Night to Wife

She stifled a cry, causing him to stop for a moment, but she didn’t dare open her eyes and look at him. She wanted to believe he loved her so much that he was consumed by the same fierce need that engulfed her.

‘Don’t stop,’ she gasped as she moved against him, feeling his fingers grip her hips as a groan of pleasure left him.

The wildness which exploded within her was so powerful that she moved quickly against him, setting the pace and regaining the control she wanted.

‘Serena...’ he growled as he rained kisses over every part of her body he could.

She moved frantically, a need so wild pushing her to a dizzying height she’d never been to before. So high she was scared to let go. Each thrust he made into her pushed her higher still.

‘Nikos!’ she gasped, sitting up on him and throwing her head back. The sensation was so acute she could hardly think as he filled her, moving with her in this new and exciting erotic dance.

The whole world shattered around her and she heard him shout out. But she had no idea what he said, and nor did she want to know. The sensation of falling to pieces didn’t stop and her body shuddered with an ecstasy that overwhelmed her completely.

‘Nikos, I love you...’

* * *

Nikos wrapped his arms around Serena as she fell against his chest. He couldn’t believe he’d been so forceful with her. Each time they’d made love he’d been gentle—cautious, even. But her teasing had pushed him over the edge, driven him wild.

He’d let her think she was in control, that she was leading him, because he’d enjoyed it. But then it had all become too much, and now her heart was pounding so hard he could feel it.

As cooling air slipped over him he wondered if his heart had stopped beating all together. Then the words she’d gasped aloud, full of pleasure, finally registered.

I love you.

He could scarcely breathe, and as if she sensed the change in him she moved to sit on the edge of the bed, her green eyes wide and, if he wasn’t mistaken, misting with tears. She didn’t say anything else. Instead she waited for him.

A still calmness settled in him, pouring over the passion that had rushed through him moments ago. She couldn’t love him. She mustn’t love him. He didn’t want her love. It would only end in disaster.

‘I love you, Nikos,’ she said again, in a tremulous whisper that pushed him further away than ever.

‘Love?’

He was out of bed faster than he’d ever tumbled a woman into it and pulling on his jeans. Her horrified expression should hurt him, or at least make him feel guilty, but it didn’t. He had to keep her at a distance—and not just for her sake.

That fact that he didn’t feel any guilt proved he was incapable of loving anyone and completely unworthy of love. It backed up everything he’d felt—all the pain and anguish—from the day his mother had left. As a young boy he’d thought he was unlovable, and now, as a man, he certainly was.

‘Yes, Nikos, love.’

Her voice was firmer now and her chin tilted defiantly as she straightened her dress, pulling the straps up to cover the body which had just given him such pleasure.

‘You don’t know what love is. You have no idea of its power to destroy, its ability to render a person helpless.’

He crossed the room and turned on the main light, hoping to instil some sense into their conversation—one that he really didn’t want to be having.

‘That’s unfair.’ She jumped up from the bed, her anger coming off her in waves.

‘Serena, you’ve grown up in a safe family, experienced the lighter side of love.’ That was something he had been denied the day his mother had walked away. His half-English mother. And now he was about to take an English wife. Would she too walk away? Deny her child love as he had been denied? Was that the reason for his doubts and reservations?

‘You know nothing of my childhood, Nikos.’

She virtually hissed the words at him and he paused for a moment, frowning in concentration, trying to recall just what she had said about her family. The only thing he really knew was that her sister was desperate for a baby. That was the only reason she was here now. To help her sister.

‘You’re close enough to your sister to know how badly she wants a child, to have accepted my offer of help.’ Anger mixed with confused emotions was making his voice sharp, but she didn’t flinch.

‘I only said yes to marrying you because I was overwrought with guilt. I had been accidentally given what Sally most wanted—the baby she’d been trying to conceive for years. How could I live with that?’