The Greek's Hidden Vows

CHAPTER TEN

ALEXIS DRESSED FOR Costas’s party with equal parts anticipation and dread. Luckily for her, the dread had been given little room to grow over the past few days, but especially in the frenzied hours leading up to the festivities.

Nevertheless, she’d caught herself in quiet moments wondering if, despite all the precautions she’d taken, she’d set herself up for a life-shattering heartache. One set to surpass the last disastrous episode, which now seemed such a non-starter compared to what she had with Christos.

And what did she have, exactly?

Those searing, portentous moments of dread quickly dissipated when he pulled her into his arms in their bed at night. And, as much as she knew she was sinking deeper into whatever this emotional quagmire was, she’d welcomed him. Craved his lovemaking. While clinging on to the belief that things would go back to normal when they left the island.

Except...

Normal didn’t appeal any more. Normal came with a Christos-shaped hole that—

‘Are you ready, matia m—’

She spun around at his voice, then froze at the look in Christos’s eyes as he stood in the doorway to her dressing room. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘You look...stunning,’ he said, his voice hoarse and his attention...transfixed.

Alexis couldn’t stop her smile or the pleasure that filled her heart. The dove grey dress edged with silvery crystals was a halter-neck design that moulded her figure from chest to thighs before dropping in an eye-catching fall of silver sequins at her feet. ‘Then I guess the dress is doing its job.’

His lips twisted and he moved with a quiet urgency towards her. ‘It’s not the dress. It’s the woman inside it.’

‘I...thank you.’

His nostrils flared then, as if breathing her in. ‘A woman I want to be inside right now,’ he added thickly, one hand reaching out to cup her nape.

‘Christos...’

He lowered his head, brushed his lips over hers. ‘Thee mou, I don’t know why you do this to me,’ he muttered, his voice almost bewildered.

One small part of her leapt in delight, while the other wondered where her willpower had gone. Why she continued to stand there, an open flower absorbing the power of his sun without caring if she got burned.

Because she would get burned. That note in his voice that questioned his own craving of her was a warning not to hope. But he was cupping her shoulders, drawing her to him with ruthlessly carnal intent that made her tremble from head to toe.

‘I want you,’ he growled against her lips.

‘Christos...we need to be—’

‘Nowhere but here right now. I need to be inside you.’

The raw words sent another hot shudder through her. And when he walked her back against the cool wall of her dressing room, she was his willing captive. When he drew up her dress and tore off her panties, she lost the ability to think. ‘Hold up your dress for me, agapita.’

Her hands shook as she complied. And between one breath and the next, his trousers were undone, her legs were around his waist and he was driving hot and hard and mind-melting inside her.

His mouth covered hers and their tongues commenced a decadent rhythm to match the one due south. Then, their movement catching the corner of her eye, Alexis twisted her head. Christos followed her gaze and, together, they watched in the mirror as he thrust into her over and over.

But underneath the wicked hedonism of it, she caught something in her own eyes, something that went far beyond desire. Something sacred and precious she should’ve kept concealed but was now out in the open. So she quickly shut her eyes. When she exploded, her scream was muffled by his kiss, followed by the hoarse groan of his own release, before their urgent pants filled the room.

He lowered her to her feet and she was still coming down from the addictive high when she felt a cool touch against her throat. Her gaze dropped to see brilliant gems gleaming in his hand. Her breath caught as he fastened the diamond necklace around her neck, trailed a string

of kisses along her jaw, before rasping in her ear, ‘This is what I came to give you.’

With her hair up in an elaborate knot the stylist had spent almost an hour on, her neck was exposed to highlight the magnificence of the diamond choker. ‘Oh, it’s beautiful.’ Her fingers shook as she reached up to touch it. But then the realisation of how deeply she was being drawn into this altered reality hit her hard. ‘But I can’t accept it. It’s...it’s too much.’

Displeasure hardened his eyes as he slid his semi-hard erection out of her. ‘You’re my wife. It will be expected.’

That hollow space inside that had never quite gone away expanded, and hurt poured in. The kind of hurt she knew she only had herself to blame for. ‘Of course, how silly of me to think it would be for any other reason. Well, since you put it that way, how can I refuse?’