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“Me, too.”

The gleam of his teeth flashed before he snatched one quick kiss, then a second one that was deeper. Hungrier.

His sure hands arranged her legs at his waist and he leaned on an elbow, guiding the tip of his erection against her slick folds, parting. Seeking. Pressing.

She bit her bottom lip and held her breath as the world stopped. She told herself to relax, but how could she when he felt so imposing? So thick and implacable, stretching tender tissue with a slow determination that made her brace for pain.

There was only a small sting and a sensation of increasing fullness. The intimacy was so profound, tears arrived in her eyes. He kissed her and she felt the release. Not sexual, but the full surrender of herself. I’m yours.

Did he feel it, too? He gathered himself and his grip on her tightened. He began to rock his hips, crashing lightning through her, building a rhythm that tossed her into a wild storm of erotic sensations. Raw noises escaped her and a feverish need gripped her. She couldn’t kiss him deeply enough. Her mouth, her body, her soul… They were all his. Take me.

It was delirious yearning. Sharp, greedy need and animalistic pleasure and such an acute sense of being one with him, she couldn’t bear it. She arched and the world exploded into white light.

She wasn’t even in her body any longer, but she felt his whole being gather. His hard shoulders tensed. His hips crushed her own and he shook, filling her with pulses of rapture that echoed against her own.

This is it, was her single faint thought. This is where I belong.

CHAPTER NINE

Was there any better sleep aid than sex?

Spiro woke to the brightness of morning sunlight against the cracks in the cabana curtains. He felt as though he was dragging himself back out of his coma. Except today, there was no confusion. He remembered exactly where he was and knew immediately that the female form snuggled so closely to his side was his wife.

Alia.

Her arm was across his chest, her leg across his waist, her hair snagged on his stubble. Her robe was their only blanket, but it was all they’d needed.

He wanted to let her sleep.

Truthfully, he was growing hard and wanted to make love to her again, but they’d done that when birdsong had woken him a few hours ago. Alia had winced a little before melting around him in a way that was highly addictive, but she was still tender and new to this.

So he ought to have let her rest, but he cupped her neck and pressed his lips to her hair.

“Asteri mou,” he said softly. “I’m getting up.”

She drew a startled breath, rolling away and blinking with disorientation, then quickly grabbed at the slipping robe to keep herself covered.

“Too late for shyness,” he assured her with a glide of his hand over her hip and waist. “But go ahead and put it on if you’re worried about the housekeeper seeing you.”

“What time is it?” Her eyes widened in horror.

“Oh, we are well and truly caught acting like newlyweds. At least she can be honest if Lambros questions her.” He dropped his legs off the edge of the mattress.

“Is that why you did this here?”

The edge of suspicion on her tone abraded his otherwise very good mood, reducing what he had thought was a near-perfect performance on his part to something premeditated and tawdry.

“It was a joke.” He scowled over his shoulder. “If I thought my housekeeper would tell anyone what I do in my own home, she wouldn’t be my housekeeper. And we did it here, agapi mou, because I didn’t have the strength to carry you up the stairs.”

“Don’t call me that when you’re only being sarcastic.”

“Then don’t insult me.” He rose and stepped from the curtains, greeting the sunlight and any potentially prying eyes without apology for his nudity.

Since there was a shower right here, he used it, turning in time to see Alia hurry up the outer stairs, robe firmly belted around her.

* * *

This was the side to being a newlywed that Alia hadn’t imagined—the one where she now knew her husband more intimately, on a physical level, but felt she had revealed too much of herself.