He caught her up to him and banded one arm around her waist. His laser-like gaze scoured her face as if he was trying to read her innermost thoughts. ‘The way you say my name... You are dangerous, Pearl mou.’
Laughter, long suppressed under the pain of just existing, scratched from her throat. ‘Wow...I’m dangerous? That’s a first.’
‘What have other men called you?’
The question sobered her up. Familiar humiliation threatened to crawl over her but she determinedly pushed it away. Tonight was her night, her choice. She refused to let thoughts of past failures intrude.
‘What do you think they’ve called me?’
‘Breathtaking. Stunning. A beauty Aphrodite herself would be jealous of,’ he breathed against her neck as his lips caressed her skin. ‘Your hair is incredible, the colour of a Greek sunset.’
Perla’s breath hitched in her lungs. Unbidden, tears sprang into her eyes. Blinking wildly before he spotted them, she forced herself not to be drawn in by the seductive words.
‘Am I close?’ He lifted his head and rubbed his stubble—as rough as she’d imagined it would be—against her cheek.
Liquid heat melted her insides.
‘Not even a little. But don’t let that stop you.’
‘Beautiful Pearl, I want to see your hair spread over my pillow. I want to bury myself in it, strangle myself with it.’ The hoarse litany made her draw back and stare at him. Once again, his face was stamped in pain. But, alongside it, desire, strong and unmistakable, burned right into her soul. ‘Does that frighten you?’
‘I want to say no, but I am a little frightened, yes. I’ve never done this before but I want to. Very much.’ So badly she couldn’t think straight. The need to forget, just for a short while, what faced her in the next few days, was so strong she couldn’t breathe for the need of it. ‘Right now, I’m so desperate for you I don’t know how long I can stand it.’
‘Then stay. I will give you everything you desire.’ About to kiss her again, he suddenly froze. ‘Unless you’re not free to be with me?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Is there a lover or a husband?’ came the tight, throaty demand.
The arrow of guilt that lanced through her made her freeze too.
This is your night. Yours! Tomorrow will come soon enough.
‘I’m free to be with you, Arion. I’ll stay with you tonight if you want me to.’
His suite was probably the last word in luxury; the fixtures and fittings ones she’d probably have ogled if she’d had a chance to take even a single note.
But with Arion’s mouth on hers, his fingers in her hair and his body pressed close and hot against hers, Perla didn’t notice one single thing about the third-floor suite, except that the RS button he’d pressed in the lift stood for Royal Suite.
She did notice the large red velvet sofa he laid her down on the minute they entered his suite’s pitch-sized living room. Although the memory of it disappeared once he’d shrugged off his jacket and tie and freed his shirt from his trousers.
His chest once he unbuttoned his shirt instantly made her mouth dry, then flood with longing as she stared at hard contours and smooth bronzed muscles. Hairless and divine, his stunning beauty made need she’d never known pulse through her.
But that was a fraction of what she felt when he dropped his trousers and stepped out of his cotton boxers. His erection stood strong and proud...and big.
Just then, the enormity of what she was doing hit her between the eyes.
She was about to lose her virginity to a complete stranger.
CHAPTER TWO
A DEEP SHUDDER ripped through Perla and she barely stopped her teeth from chattering like a wooden marionette in a child’s hand.
The sound she made as Arion, the man she had no knowledge of a mere hour ago, came towards her made him pause and frown.
‘Are you cold?’ he asked.
She was anything but. She shook her head, forcing a laugh. ‘No. I’m a little nervous. I haven’t—’ She stopped. What was the use of telling him of her inexperience? Whether she pleased or disappointed him, she’d never set eyes on this gorgeous man again. They were using each other to forget their pain, to hold the darkness at bay. This wasn’t the time to spill innermost secrets. It was the time to forget they existed. ‘It’s nothing.’
He nodded as if he understood. Then he took a single step forward, and angled himself over her. ‘I’ll make it good. I promise,’ he vowed, and she forgot everything else.