“There you are,” he muttered as he reached for her. His touch was possessive and urgent as he clasped his hands on her hips and pulled her close. “I had back-to-back meetings but you were on my mind all day.”
“Stergios!” She frantically pushed at his audacious hands but he managed to capture her fingers. “Someone will see us.”
“I don’t care.” His voice was low and seductive as and he guided her off the gravel path. “I can’t get enough of you.”
Her spine bumped against the rough bark of a tree. Anticipation fluttered in Jodie’s stomach when she saw the glitter of lust in Stergios’s eyes. “Your family will think I’m a bad influence on you.”
“They believe you’ve tamed me. Domesticated me.” He raised her arms above her head, holding her wrists against the tree trunk. A slow wicked smile pulled at his lips. “If they only knew the truth...”
Her skin flushed as she remembered how she’d driven him to the height of ecstasy just before dawn. His response had been aggressive and primal as she’d held him spellbound. “Mairi will banish me from this house,” Jodie warned as she arched against Stergios.
“I go where you go,” he reminded her in a husky growl. Stergios leaned into her and she yielded against his hard, masculine body. He teased her with the featherlight touch of his mouth as she tried to capture his tongue.
“You drive me wild,” Jodie confessed as she tore out of his grasp and thrust her hands into his dark hair before she kissed him with a rapidly building hunger.
They had been married for five years and her desire for Stergios burned brighter than on her wedding day. Every intimate touch, heated debate and unguarded moment brought them closer. Jodie trusted this man with her heart, her body and her most private thoughts.
“And to think I had wanted a shy and compliant wife,” Stergios murmured as he bunched the hem of her dress in his hands. “A woman who wouldn’t distract me.”
“You’re the one who changed the course of my life. I didn’t know I could be this happy.” She hesitated and whispered, “It frightens me sometimes.”
Stergios lifted his head. “Because you’re afraid it won’t last?” he asked as he let go of her crushed dress. “That someone or something will try to steal your happiness and destroy it. Or are you afraid of what you will do to protect your happiness?”
“All of it.” Jodie looked away. “Am I that transparent?”
“Only to me.” He gently cupped her face with his large hands. Her breath caught in her throat as he held her gaze with his intense brown eyes. “Because I know how you feel. It scares me how much I need you in my life. I will do anything to protect this. To protect us.”
“I know.” He had proven it to her throughout the years. They both had made choices, sacrifices and compromises in the name of love. “But one day we will be tested.”
“Then we will face it together, pethi mou. When I’m weak, you will be strong for the both of us. When you’re scared, I will protect you. I will be with you during your best and worst moments. And through it all, nothing will stop me from loving you,” Stergios vowed before he claimed her mouth with a ravenous kiss. “Nothing.”