bead.
He ran his finger down the center of her body, over her sternum and between her ribs, lingering on her belly button and then stopping at the waistband of her skirt.
He slowly traced the same path upward again. This time his fingers feathered under the full globes of her breasts, coming very close to touching her nipples. A shaft of desire pierced Ava, shaking her.
She needed more. She wanted more. Her heart beat so swiftly and loudly she was sure he could hear it. She scraped her fingernails lightly down his chest. He groaned, the sound rumbling from his chest. He leaned back and braced himself on his elbows.
His muscles jumped under her touch. She circled his nipple then scraped her nail down the center line of his body, following the fine dusting of hair that narrowed and disappeared into the waistband of his pants.
His stomach was rock-hard and rippled when he sat up. He pulled her closer, until the tips of her breasts brushed his chest.
“Ava.” He said her name like a prayer, holding her against him.
His hard sex nudged her center and she shifted on him, trying to find a better contact. It was impossible with the layers of cloth between them.
He kissed his way down her neck and bit lightly at the base. She shuddered, clutching at his shoulders, grinding her body harder against him.
His big hands cupped her buttocks and urged her to ride him faster. Guiding her motions against him, he bent his head and his tongue stroked her nipple. Then he suckled her.
Everything in her body clenched. She clutched at Christos’s shoulders, rubbing harder and faster against his erection as her climax washed over her. She collapsed against his chest. He held her close.
Ava hugged him to her and closed her eyes, reminding herself that this was just sex. He’d walked away from this once before, leaving her shattered and broken. But, right now, with his strong arms around her, it felt as though she’d found her home.
Six
A va reached down, stroking Christos through his pants. He was so hard he could feel his pulse between his legs. He was close to losing it all. Not exactly the suave playboy image he liked to maintain, but with Ava all bets were off. They always had been. She was a fire that he’d never been able to control.
He lifted her chin and captured her lips with his. She sighed and wrapped her arms around him. When he looked down at her, tears were visible in her pretty blue eyes.
“What’s the matter?”
She shook her head. “Nothing. It’s just…I’ve dreamed of this for so long.”
“Making love with me?” he asked. “ Moro mou , you are easy to please.”
“I guess I am,” she said. “When it comes to you and Theo, I think I have everything a woman could want.”
He felt a twinge of something close to anger at her mention of Theo. Not directed at the boy, but directed at Ava, because he still couldn’t accept her insistence that he was the boy’s father. And at his brother, because Stavros had known how much Christos was into Ava that summer, and he should have stayed away from her.
“What is it? Why does your face get all tight when I mention Theo?”
“I hate the fact that…”
“That you don’t believe that you’re his father?”
He lifted her off his body and set her on the bed, no longer in the mood to linger there with her. He reached for his shirt and drew it on as he paced across the room to the wet bar.
“Christos.”
“Yes?”
“You must be coming to believe me, right? Why else would you marry me?”
He shook his head. Even he knew better than to tell her that he was marrying her for the Theakis heir and, well, hell, for the sex that had always been incredible between them.
“What will it take to convince you?” she asked at last.
He glanced over his shoulder, noting that she’d drawn her sweater back on. She had her hands on her hips and he knew she was angry with him.
Too damn bad.
He was angry, too. Things had been going well between them. “What