CHAPTER 27

"The way you dress is perfect for you, Ash. I like knowing that the rest of the world looks at you and sees what appears to be a coolly elegant woman, but I know that under the prim facade is a body made just for mine that responds with an uninhibited passion that delights me." His knuckles continued to brush up and down over her sensitized nub. "And sometimes you dress more provocatively than I think you intend to."

"You don't believe Iintend to provoke you?" She could barely breathe, much less think with the way he touched her and the sensual timber of her voice saying such intense words just for her.

"I do not believe you have any idea how very sexy I find both the prim little suits or clothing like the dress you had on last night."

She'd wanted to be sexy the night before. It had been on purpose, but he didn't know that? "Why do you say that?"

"If you did, you would never have questioned the passion between us."

A man's brain was certainly a mysterious puzzle, especially Nikos'. "Was I supposed to read your mind?"

He shrugged. "I hope you now have a better basis to draw your conclusions from."

"I suppose I do." She grabbed his wrist, stopping that tantalizing touch that was melting her brain and other body parts. "I felt the passion in you before…leashed," she got out, "but I doubted my instincts when you did nothing to act on it."

"And now?"

She took a deep breath, but it didn't help get her senses under control. Her breasts felt full inside the lacy cups of her bra and the breath actually made them move against the silky fabric, arousing her further. She bit back a moan and closed her eyes, trying to find her control in blackness behind her lids. "Now I concede that we are very good together that way."

If only she knew whether, or not, he was that good with every other woman he'd been with. She knew how special it was for her, but what about him?

For her, last night…even right now…was a totally unique experience, but maybe he always found that much satisfaction in the act of lovemaking. She wanted to believe otherwise, but deceiving herself as to the meaning of sex with a man had broken her heart once before. She refused to do that to herself again.

He stood up from the table and came around to lift her to her feet. She was so close to his body, she could feel his heat, but they were not quite touching except where his big hands cupped her elbows. Her eyes opened of their own accord, taking in his heated brown gaze.

He caressed the sensitive area of her inner elbow with both thumbs. "Let us go be good together again, hmm?"

"So we are done talking about your father?"

"Yes." He cupped her face, tilting her chin with his thumbs. "We are done talking at all, I think."

"I suppose I can live with that," she husked. Her body was clamoring for his touch, but she fought the urge to press into him.

She wanted to play it cool, not to give too much of herself away. But that hope disintegrated with the first brush of his lips against hers. The brief contact zinged through her like an overload of electric current, making her body jolt and stiffen and her lips part and beg silently for more.

He gave it to her, covering her mouth with his completely, taking possession and yet inviting her to share in it…to make it mutual. And she wanted that, too. She needed to know that she was branding him as hers as effectively as he had marked her as his. He accepted the tentative slide of her tongue and invited her to go further. It was amazing.

Where had he learned to make love so completely with nothing more than lips against lips? Or had he been born with the ability? Nikos was a special man, part of her insisted it had to be inherent to him. The other part of her tried very hard not to be jealous of the women who had come before.

He kissed down along her neck and she shivered. "Nikos?"

"Hmmm?" He nibbled at a particularly sensitive spot, making her whole body shake with reaction.

"You know the whole don't have sex with virgins unless you're married to them or very close to it thing you've got going in your brain?" She wasn't sure where the words came from or the ability to speak coherently enough to voice them, but they came from that part of her brain that was not properly protected when he touched her.