Page 14 of Penniless Cinderella for the Greek
She leaned towards him and placed her hands on his shoulders. Her breasts swung forwards and he clenched his fists to stop himself from cradling the plump mounds in his palms.
‘This,’ she whispered against his mouth.
And God help him, Dimitris could not deny it. But hemustresist Savannah. She was the only woman to have ever breached his defences and he could not risk getting close to her again. But knowing the danger did not lessen his craving.
She was such a fool. She should have known that challenging the iceman would result in her humiliation. Dimitris’s hands lay on his thighs, and he made no attempt to touch her. His mouth was a rigid line beneath her lips and his eyes had narrowed so that Savannah had no idea what he was thinking. Only the laboured rise and fall of his chest gave a clue that he was not as unaffected as he wanted her to believe.
Frantic to evoke a reaction from him, she nipped his lower lip with her teeth. His lashes flew open and the hard glittering desire in his eyes caused her heart to miss a beat. Dimitris swore and clamped his hand to the back of her head as he opened his mouth beneath hers and the kiss exploded between them.Finally.
Savannah’s limbs turned to jelly. She had initiated the kiss, but Dimitris took charge of it, sliding his lips over hers with thrilling mastery. A sudden loud clap of thunder sent shockwaves through her and raindrops as big as pennies spattered against the deck and lashed her skin.
Without breaking the kiss, Dimitris levered himself out of his chair and wrapped his arm around her waist to steady her. He towered over her, and she arched her neck while he continued kissing her and kissing her with a hunger that made her wonder if he had missed her through the long years apart as much as she had missed him. Of course he hadn’t, her common sense piped up. He was responding in the same way that any male in the prime of his life would when a woman had thrown herself at him.
The rain was falling harder, and Dimitris’s black curls were plastered to his brow. He caught hold of her hand and pulled her after him across the sodden lawn towards the house. Lamps had been switched on in the drawing room and their harsh brightness was an unwelcome return to reality after the concealing darkness outside.
Savannah felt the beginning of a headache that was probably the result of the wine. She only occasionally drank alcohol, and the wine had loosened her tongue and her inhibitions. But then Dimitris drew her into his arms, and she was only aware of him. His hands burned her skin and she ached for him to kiss her again until they were both ablaze in the inferno.
His midnight-dark eyes were as unfathomable as the deepest ocean. ‘What do you want from me, Savannah?’
‘One night with you. No strings and afterwards we walk away with no regrets.’
Her voice was surprisingly steady considering her outrageous request. But she needed to do this. She was sure she remembered her very short affair with Dimitris through rose-coloured lenses. If she slept with him again she would realise that their relationship hadn’t been the life-altering experience she’d let herself believe for all this time.
His expression was as enigmatic as always, but his hands gripped her waist harder, and she sensed his shock and something more primitive that made her heart kick in her chest. ‘Why?’
‘There is unfinished business between us. If you had stayed in London and we’d continued seeing each other perhaps our relationship would have petered out. But you left abruptly, and I couldn’t forget you. You have been a splinter under my skin, and I want to be free of you.’
Dimitris raised an eyebrow. ‘It’s the first time I’ve been likened to a splinter.’ His voice deepened and the hard glitter in his eyes sent a tremor through Savannah. ‘But I agree we have unfinished business to resolve.’ He stepped back from her and held out his hand. ‘Come with me?’
Part of her wished he wasn’t making it her choice. It would be easier if he swept her into his arms and carried her off to bed. But Savannah knew that this had to be her decision. When she put her fingers in his, the flare of hunger in Dimitris’s eyes told her that beneath his coolness a fire raged. Without another word he tugged her after him out of the room and across the hall to the stairs.
She was breathless when they reached the second-floor landing, but from nervous excitement rather than exertion. His bedroom was overtly masculine with sleek, dark wood furnishings, a huge bed with a black leather headboard and, of all things, a mirror on the ceiling. Savannah tried not think of how many other women he must have made love to on the bed. Her face grew warm as she imagined herself and Dimitris lying on the satin sheets and looking up at the reflection of their naked bodies.
Anticipation and a sense of disbelief that this was happening and she was actually going to have sex with Dimitris made her feel strangely lightheaded.
‘Savannah?’ There was a question in his voice as if he thought she had changed her mind.
Keen to disabuse him of the idea, she put her hands on the front of his shirt and started to undo the buttons. Her fingers were shaking, and she took a deep breath. She didn’t want Dimitris to guess that she was relatively inexperienced. ‘You should get out of your wet clothes before you catch a chill.’
‘There’s not a chance of that happening. I’m burning up,’ he said hoarsely when she spread his shirt open.
His skin felt like warm satin beneath her palms. The whorls of black hairs on his chest were thicker than she remembered. He had been handsome when he was younger, but now he was breathtaking, so big and male—and aroused, she discovered when he tumbled her down on the bed and lay beside her so that they were hip to hip. She felt the unmistakable bulge of his erection beneath his trousers.
Dimitris claimed her mouth in a kiss that was intensely erotic but also poignantly evocative of when they had been lovers all those years ago. Savannah couldn’t stop shaking as she acknowledged the enormity of what she was about to do. Not to mention how enormous he was, she thought with slightly hysterical humour. Was she making a mistake?
Doubt swirled in the pit of her stomach. Should she tell him that she hadn’t made love for ten years, and he was her only lover? But he might reject her if she admitted her inexperience. The whole point of sleeping with him was a form of exorcism to free herself from the hold that Dimitris had over her. She just needed to get on with it, Savannah told herself as she kissed him feverishly, pressing her pelvis closer to the tantalising length of his manhood.
‘Youareeager,’ he drawled. ‘And so am I. You are very beautiful, Savannah.’
He traced his hands over her trembling body and stroked his fingertips up and down her spine, soothing her as if she were a restless colt and he was her master. Savannah’s limbs felt heavy as she gradually relaxed. Her cheek was resting on Dimitris’s chest, and the powerful beat of his heart made her feel safe in his arms while the storm raged.
This was wrong. Dimitris shoved away the thought that it felt incredibly right for Savannah to be in his bed. The glow from the lamps gave her skin a pearlescent sheen. Her hair was a cloud of spun gold on the pillow and her mouth was lush and tempting. He cupped her breast and felt the hard point of her nipple jutting beneath her bra. Desire kicked hard in his gut, and his erection pressed painfully against the zip on his trousers.
His conscience insisted that he should not have brought her to his room. He should have been stronger and resisted the urgent drumbeat of desire pounding in his veins. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been so turned on by a woman that his self-control was threatened. It had been the same ten years ago, a voice in his head taunted him. On the night of Savannah’s eighteenth birthday he’d been blown away by her transformation from a shy waitress to a beautiful, sexy woman.
The image she had projected that night had been an illusion, Dimitris brooded. Beneath her seductive party dress she’d been innocent and unworldly, and when he’d made love to her he had been grimly aware that she deserved a better man than him. He hadn’t told her that he’d been to blame for his parents’ deaths and Eleni’s injuries. Selfishly, he had enjoyed Savannah’s adoration, even though he’d known that the future she’d hoped for with him would never happen.
But she was different now, he assured himself. Older and more experienced.Theós, she had propositioned him and suggested they have sex with no strings attached. Unfinished business. He’d agreed because she had been in his mind for a decade, and he wanted to move on. The chemistry between them had always been white-hot and even though he’d been furious when he’d found her at a hotel with his sister’s fiancé, his body had responded on a primitive level, and he’d felt a searing attraction to Savannah.
