He goes still, the look in his eyes getting sharper. I’m naked and bound and beneath him, and I should feel weak, helpless and in his power, yet I don’t.
I can see the hunger in his eyes and I know how badly he wants this, how badly he wants me. He’s in my power now and as he used pleasure to get me to do what he wants, I’m using it to get what I want now.
Do you really understand what you’re asking him to give up?
Only then does a fragile thread of doubt wind through me. His father died and his mother sold herself to repay the family debt, and I saw in his eyes how that affected him. He’s damaged, just as I have been damaged, and who am I to tell him what he should give up?
Except he wants it from the person I love most in the world, wants to destroy him, and I can’t let that happen, no matter how badly Rafael has been hurt. My brother, too, has been hurt, has been damaged. His need to grow Vulcan has more to do with protecting me than actual greed, and by taking me from him, Rafael has started a war he has no concept of.
Revenge won’t help him, just as my brother’s guilt hasn’t helped him, and if I allow it to go on, this might affect the child I’m carrying, and the next generation will carry the same damage.
I can’t let that happen. It has to stop somewhere. It has to stop with me.
‘I’ll give you whatever you want,’ he says, his voice hard. ‘Except that.’
‘That’s sad,’ I say steadily. ‘Because that’s what I want.’
A muscle flicks in his jaw as he stares down at me and, obeying some instinct, I shift beneath him, a slow undulation of my body. His attention flickers at the movement, and I see the flames in his eyes burn higher. He’s hungry for me, I know that. But is he hungry enough to give me this?
‘I could just take what I want now,’ he growls, his hot temper showing in his voice. ‘While you’re tied up and unable to stop me.’
It’s an empty threat and we both know that. He won’t touch me if I don’t want him to. ‘You could,’ I agree. ‘But you won’t.’ And I make another undulating movement, lifting my chest so the tips of my breasts brush the cotton of his T-shirt, and then my hips, pressing the needy heat between my thighs to the hard ridge behind the zip of his jeans.
‘Fuck,’ he mutters, the look in his eyes glazing. ‘Olympia…you don’t know what you’re asking for.’
He’s wrong. I know. ‘I don’t care,’ I murmur. ‘Those are my terms. Now make a decision and put us both out of our misery.’
He stays there, statue-still, fury and frustration blazing in his dark eyes, and for a moment I wonder if I’ve been too hasty with my demands. If he wants his revenge on Ulysses more than he wants me, but then he mutters another curse and gets off the bed.
But he’s not leaving. He claws his clothes off with impatient hands and then he’s back on the bed again, the sun shining through the windows showing me every glorious inch of his naked body. Hard, carved muscle, velvety olive skin, a scattering of crisp black hair across his chest. He’s the epitome of male beauty. Michelangelo would have loved to sculpt him. He would have put David to shame.
My breath escapes as he kneels between my thighs, his hands sliding beneath my rear, the heat of his palms against my hot skin making me gasp.
‘Your promise,’ he growls as he lifts my hips. ‘All the words, dragonfly.’
‘Yes,’ I say shakily, already trembling with anticipation. ‘Yes, I’ll marry you, Rafael. I promise.’ I hold his gaze. ‘Your turn.’
The muscle in the side of his jaw flicks again, anger clear in his eyes along with the heat of desire. There’s a silence and I know he’s struggling with the words. But I want them and I won’t give him what he wants until I hear them, and he knows that.
‘I’ll leave your brother alone,’ he grits out. ‘I promise, Olympia.’
He doesn’t wait after that. He grips my hips and I feel him press into me, sliding deep inside, and the intensity of the sensation almost strangles me. I cry out hoarsely, the press and stretch of him incredible.
He growls and begins to move, deep and slow, making me writhe, pulling against the headboard, wanting to touch him. He leans forward, looking down at me, and I’m lost in the darkness of his eyes. He’s hypnotic, mesmerising, the thrust of hips sending pleasure spiralling through me, layer upon layer of it.
He’s merciless, he sends me over the edge and then builds me up again, making me scream and pant, until I’m nothing but a creature made out of desire and there is nothing in the world but him.
And when I explode for the second time, he follows me.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Rafael
I’m lying in bed, Olympia’s warm and very naked body sprawled over mine, her hair a silky black storm over my chest as I sift long strands of it through my fingers.
I want to be furious about the promise she made me give her, to leave that bastard brother of hers alone, but she surprised me. I wasn’t expecting her to shoot back a demand of her own, though I should have. She told me she wasn’t a doormat, and even though I didn’t need the reminder, I clearly underestimated her.
It was only that lying beneath me, naked and hungry, she should have been at my mercy. I didn’t think I’d end up being at hers and yet she got that promise out of me somehow. I could have taken what I wanted—she wouldn’t have been able to stop me, not with her hands tied—and I’d told her so. Yet she’d only looked at me and said with absolutely no doubt in her voice that I wouldn’t, as if she knew me better than I knew myself.
