Free The Greek's Acquisition by Chantelle Shaw Page B

and slanted his mouth over hers. He remained poised for timeless seconds while their breath mingled. Then he captured her lips in a feather-soft caress, slowly at first, gently. She tasted of champagne, and the feel of her soft mouth beneath his made his heart pound.
    She made a little choked sound and stiffened, but he tightened his arms around her, drawing her inexorablycloser to him. Wildfire excitement shot through him when she opened her mouth so that he was able to explore her with his tongue.
    Molten heat was coursing through Louise, suffusing her entire body with delicious warmth. Her breasts felt swollen and heavy and her nipples tingled as they were crushed against Dimitri’s chest. She was conscious of a throbbing sensation deep in her pelvis—a restless ache that drove her to press her hips against his rock-hard thighs.
    He kept on kissing her and kissing her, his mouth moving hungrily over hers, demanding a response which she gave unresistingly.
Stupid
, taunted a voice in her head,
weak and pathetic. Where is your pride?
But she ignored the voice, pushed it to the back of her mind while her body capitulated to his exquisite seduction, and she slid her hands to his shoulders as he deepened the kiss to something so erotic that she trembled in the circle of his arms.
    Voices shattered the magic and snapped Louise back to her senses. People were heading towards them along the walkway. She pulled out of Dimitri’s arms, breathing hard. Her mouth felt bruised, and she lifted her fingers to her lips and felt their swollen softness.
    Dear heaven, what had she been
thinking
? All evening she had been haunted by memories of their brief affair years ago, but that was no excuse for her to fall into his arms. Life had moved on—
she
had moved on—and the past was history.
    ‘You shouldn’t have done that,’ she whispered, dismayed to realise she was shaking from the firestorm of passion he had evoked in her.
    ‘But you didn’t stop me.’ His eyes glittered, and his smile was faintly mocking, but the hand that gently brushed a tendril of hair back from her cheek shook slightly, and Louiserealised with a jolt that he was no more in control of his emotions that she was.
    She shivered again—a combination of reaction to his kiss and being deprived of the warmth of his body. But this time he kept his arms by his sides.
    ‘We should go.’ His voice was suddenly terse.
    They were both silent as the lift whisked them back down to the ground. It was nearly midnight, Louise saw when she glanced at her watch. She was glad when Dimitri hailed a taxi. She was still stunned by that kiss, mortified when she remembered how she had responded to him. She should have given him the big freeze, hung on to her dignity. But instead she had melted in his arms as if she had spent the past seven years missing him—which she certainly had
not
, she assured herself.
    They had barely discussed the sale of Eirenne, she remembered as she stared out of the taxi window.
Why
hadn’t she stuck to business over dinner? And what had induced her to agree to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower with him when she knew full well that it was one of the most iconic venues in Paris, the city of lovers? The romantic atmosphere was no excuse for the fact that she had practically eaten him. She felt hot with shame when she recalled how she had clung to him.
    The taxi drew to a halt and she climbed out onto the pavement after Dimitri, frowning when she realised that they were not at her apartment—which was where she had assumed they had been heading. She glanced at the grand front entrance of a well-known hotel and then at him, her eyes questioning.
    He gave her a level look. ‘Do you want to join me for a drink? We can continue our discussion on the possibility of me buying Eirenne.’
    Persuading him to buy the island was the only thing thatmattered—the only realistic chance of saving her mother. Yet Louise knew it would be the height of stupidity to