It was gorgeous, granted, as was everything Nelios owned. And it resembled a small floating city. As they rounded it, she caught glimpses of jet skis, swimming pools, sun-lounging decks and even a helipad—all the bells and whistles a billionaire could want.
‘Are you finally rendered speechless,yineka mou?’
My wife.This particular endearment secretly thrilled her. As did the careful way he lifted Angelos’s portable cradle, then turned to hold his hand out to her to help her off the launch. It didn’t matter that half a dozen staff and crew waited to assistthem. It made Vayle feel special. Which made the yearning deepen into a wish for…more.
She bit her lip as she followed him on board the super-yacht, then up a flight of stairs onto the first of many sun-splashed decks. They had a long day ahead of them. And the little scheme she’d concocted bubbled all sorts of warnings at the back of her head as the hours passed.
Nelios slanted her increasingly frequent looks as they swam, lunched and played with Angelos, telling her she wasn’t hiding her nerves very well.
‘What’s going on in that mind of yours?’ he drawled after returning from putting Angelos down for his afternoon nap. ‘You’ve been jumpier than a hot bean in the last hour.’
He handed her a fresh glass of fruit punch and helped himself to mineral water. When he raised the sunscreen bottle, she swallowed and nodded, watching him walk in a loose-limbed, drop-dead hot prowl towards where she stood against the railing.
They were anchored just off their private beach, on the widest deck of the super-yacht, surrounded by loungers, a bar and a pool for when it got too hot and they wanted a dip. They’d circled Apeiron earlier and he’d pointed out the various places for diving, snorkelling and which beach was the best for all-day sun.
She bit her lip, wondering how best to phrase her crazy idea. In the end, it came tumbling out. ‘I want to amend our rule. Not break it entirely, just…tweak it a little.’
He stilled behind her, the hand with which he’d been about to apply the lotion hovering an inch from her shoulder. Staring up at him, Vayle couldn’t tell how he felt about that, his face a carefully neutral mask.
‘In what way, specifically?’ he intoned then, low and deep. His voice had taken on that timbre ever since she’d dropped herwhite beach kaftan to reveal the burnished orange bikini she wore underneath. The pre-wedding spa pampering her wedding coordinator had insisted on, and the pockets of sunshine she’d enjoyed since Italy, had added a warm glow to her skin. And her secret thrill had increased after seeing Nelios couldn’t take his eyes off her.
When both hands slid down the slopes of her neck to circle lotion into her shoulders, it made it easier for her to say a little more vehemently than she’d intended, ‘I don’t want to completely change the “no sex” part.’ An assertion that didn’t go unnoticed when his eyes narrowed and the hands gliding down her spine paused just above her bottom before reversing their journey up her spine.
‘Are you attempting to convince me you didn’t enjoy sex with me?’ he asked silkily, with more than a hint of mocking disbelief laced in there.
‘Not at all,’ she hurried to say, the effect of his hands on her making her voice husky and many parts of her body tingle and unfurl and dampen. ‘On the contrary, I enjoyed it a little too much. Which is why I’m still advocating abstaining, but with a small amendment.’
‘That doesn’t make any sense,agapiméni,’ he stated indolently.
‘Does it not? I’m told liquid morphine and sky-diving are some of the best highs ever to grace this earth. But do you see me hankering after either of them?’
His breath seemed to stall. Then he caught her elbow and turned her round so he could start on her arms. Those done, he dropped to a crouch in front of her and began on her legs.
And once he had one foot propped on his knee, applying sunscreen in slow, spine-melting strokes, he glanced up at her with hooded eyes. ‘Are you saying you fear an addiction to me,glikia mou?’
Well…she’d stepped right into that one, hadn’t she? She tried to shrug her way out of it. ‘An addiction to the act—not you. There’s a difference.’
His nostrils flared. ‘I fail to see how there is. And you should think carefully before you suggest sex with another man will be the same as with me. Because, for one thing, you will never get the chance to find out.’
Since the very thought of it made her skin crawl, and she didn’t see the point in aggravating him any more, she waved him away. ‘My point is, you should be pleased I’m troubleshooting this problem before it gets us both in trouble.’
‘Speak for yourself. I’m extremely adept at self-control.’
That he took vast pleasure in informing her of that, riled her. It made her immediately want to put that titanium control to the test, even if it was to teach him a lesson.
Before she could talk herself out of it, she was unhooking the clasp of her bikini top. Letting it loosen, she pulled it off and tossed it away.
He stiffened, his nostrils flaring wide before pinching in a sharply drawn breath. ‘Vayle, what the hell are you doing?’ His voice was oiled gravel, grinding desire into her bloodstream.
‘What does it look like? I’m testing your famous control, of course.’ Last night she’d convinced herself making Nelios snap was the best way to kick down if not all of his guard, at least some of it. Enough so she could push through to him, make him see past what he thought was broken to consider a different perspective. One that included him…them…having a semblance of a pain-free life. One in which she wouldn’t be so terrified to admit what her heart was telling her—that she felt more for him than was anywhere near wise, even if she wasn’t going to back away from that revelation. Yet—unless she knew all hope was gone.
She’d taken a chance once and opened her heart to affection when she could’ve remained mired in bitterness from her father’s rejection. And she’d found a family who’d cared for her. Maybe lightning would strike twice. If she was brave enough to let it?
His head whipped about, even though his staff knew better than to interrupt them. When he was satisfied there were no prying eyes, his scorching gaze returned to her. His laziness evaporated as he slowly surged from his crouch, his eyes fixed squarely on her chest as he tossed the sunscreen lotion aside and braced his hands on either side of her, caging her in.
‘And how do you mean to do that?’ he rasped.
Good question. Now she was half-naked and burning with the inferno in his eyes, she seriously questioned what she was doing. But the thought of backing down, of scooping up her top and retreating, rubbed her the wrong way.
