Page 28

He didn’t hesitate. He took her mouth like a forbidden apple, greedily devouring it.

Her pulse lurched so hard, her heart skipped a beat. Her nerve endings stung throughout her whole body. But she clung both arms around his neck, arching to feel as much contact with his body as possible.

His free hand roamed her waist, then moved to her lower back and down to her tailbone. He pulled her hips tighter into his pelvis, so that the firm shape of him pressed insistently through the linen of her dress and her panties grew damp while he feasted on her mouth.

His busy lips slid to her throat, sending streaks of fire into her blood. He nuzzled beneath her ear and made her knees go weak, then he set his teeth on her earlobe, leaving a sting of a near bite before he sucked to soothe.

Her breath was gone. Her loins ached. All of her was hot, hot, hot.

“I can’t…” See. She couldn’t stand. She could only weakly hang on to him as she grappled to regain control of herself.

“No earrings,” he murmured, bringing his mouth back to hers. He kissed her again, slow and thorough, wiping her mind again before he released her. He stayed with his nose brushing hers, seeming to memorize her flushed face and trembling mouth. “Shall I buy you some?”

“Hmm?” She licked her lips, trying to firm them into a line to quell the buzzing sensation within them, but they felt swollen and she was panting. All from a single kiss.

“Is this real, glika mou? You really are very sensual, aren’t you?” He relaxed the hand behind her back, allowing her to rest her hips back into the wall while he found a tendril of hair that had come loose from her bun and twirled it around his finger.

“Are you acting?” Horror washed through her as awareness of his very collected amusement collided with her instinctive, wanton behavior.

“I think you felt that I wasn’t.” His mouth twisted with self-deprecation. “Not entirely.”

Not entirely.

She blushed, but her stomach hurt. He’d been hard last night and had turned away with barely a word in her direction. He wasn’t as thrown as she was today, either.

She sent a nervous glance toward the car where Tassos stood, profile averted in what looked like a deliberate attempt to give them privacy. How humiliating.

“Come. I want to adorn those delicious earlobes of yours.” He pushed off the wall and caught her hand, bringing her along to the next shop.

Alia followed in a daze, only realizing he was pulling her into a high-end jewelry store when they were buzzed inside. A security guard stood sentry by the door, but she barely noticed him, too dazzled by sparkling gemstones, gleaming cases and mirrors reflecting bars of white light.

“My ears aren’t pierced.” She touched one as she tried to pull herself back together in the cool of the air-conditioned shop. “I don’t wear jewelry.” Even cheap bangles had been an unnecessary expense. She had heart palpitations every day while wearing the valuable diamond rings that Khristos had given her.

“You’ll need something for when we’re out.” Spiro began asking about options for unpierced ears and soon they were offered a selection of stunning clip-ons and ear cuffs.

“Spiro.” These were genuine stones. They had to cost even more than the evening gowns he’d ordered. “I can’t.”

“Can’t decide? Try these for daywear.” He chose a pair of cuffs made up of three yellow-gold bands. The middle one was encrusted with diamonds and the bands were offset so the arrangement simulated stacked rings in a conch piercing.

Before the clerk could remove them from their tray, Spiro was pointing at something far more elaborate.

“I like this for formal wear.” It was a full ear cuff with a long, elegant twist of platinum that would wrap behind her ear and drop a square diamond where the top of her ear met her scalp. Another square diamond glittered midway, disguising a clasp that would hug the edge of her ear, then five stones in graduating sizes formed a line as it swept down to her earlobe. It was a piece of art that had to cost six figures.

Alia was speechless even before he nodded that they would take the matching bracelet and two other clip-ons that were “suitable for dinner parties.”

They would all be packaged and delivered within the hour, he was assured.

“You can return those, right?” Alia asked as they walked to the car.

“If you don’t like what I chose, you should have said.”

“I don’t know what you want from me,” she snapped, halting on the sidewalk so Tassos wouldn’t overhear. “I know what men expect when they buy me dinner, but you made it clear last night that you don’t want sex so what are you doing? Because—”

“The photographer is still watching us,” he said in a chilly voice that was completely at odds with his indulgent expression. “If you turn this into a public argument, I will be very displeased. Get in the car. We’ll talk about this later.”

* * *

Spiro loathed that he needed a nap when they got home. All he’d done today was wave his hand like an emperor sparing and dispensing with gladiators, but he barely got his shoes off before he was asleep on the bed.