Page 12 of The Billionaire's Last-Minute Marriage
‘I don’t dislike it exactly. I just have some sensitivities. And I don’t particularly enjoy kissing, but I could improve it with time and practice.’
Time being the one thing they didn’t have much of, he thought with a slight frown. Practice, however... He cleared his throat, self-consciously readjusting his suit jacket. ‘Would that make things easier for you? Practising?’
She thought for a moment, her lips pursing into a delicate bow shape. ‘I suppose we could try it. Do you mean like, holding hands and posing for photographs? Or kissing...?’ she added tentatively.
‘Maybe just touching one another, for a start,’ he suggested gruffly, feeling an unfamiliar tension tighten his abdomen. Call him egotistical but he’d never had to entice a woman to touch him before and yet this one seemed ready to run away screaming.
She frowned, running her tongue along her bottom lip. Her usually fair complexion had been graced with a rosy-pink blush high on her cheekbones and her lips taunted him with their fullness, slick and inviting. A scant few inches were all that separated him from claiming that perfect mouth, a gesture that would be solely for performance’s sake, of course.
Still, he was reluctant to look away, as though they both stood frozen in time.
He lifted a hand and cupped her cheek and her eyelids with their ridiculously long lashes fluttered shut. Her perfect, usually creamy skin was hot and flushed under his hand and before he knew what he was doing, he touched his thumb against the sensitive flesh and she seemed to vibrate at the touch. He’d bet good money that underneath her eyelids, her pupils would be dilated with desire.
He hoped so. He wanted her to feel this too, even if they both knew nothing could come of it. He wanted to know that he wasn’t alone in it. It was simply the veil of her control that had such a hold on him, the façade she portrayed. He wanted to know if it was real, or if deep down she was made of flesh and blood and lust just like him.
That would be enough, he told himself. It had to be.
But then, his shy little fiancée opened her eyes and what he saw there rocked him to his very core. Raw desire, pure and unbidden, burned in her gaze like molten silver. Xander felt his throat run dry, his palms flexing and tightening against her skin with the sheer effort of not pulling her closer to claim that fire for his own.
This wasn’t real, he reminded himself. They had an audience to prepare for and an act to maintain but if this was all acting, then, good God, she was doing an award-worthy job.
‘You’re so good at this,’ she whispered. ‘Touching me.’
Xander fought against the roar of primitive desire that surged within him like a tidal wave. He had always been painfully selective in his dating life, preferring to wait for true attractions to take hold, which sadly for him were few and far between. He needed mental stimulation, not just physical, in order to feel drawn to a woman.
Four months of ignoring the pull towards this particular forbidden fruit weighed heavy upon him and he railed against the unfairness of chemistry. Why now, why this woman?
But as his mind fought against his own rapidly shredding control, he had missed the gradual softening of the woman in his arms. Without warning, Pandora made the choice for both of them, closing the remaining distance and pressing the sweet softness of her lips against his.
CHAPTER FIVE
OFALLTHEtimes that Pandora had wondered what kissing her boss would be like, she had never imagined herself being the one who initiated it. She had also not imagined it being so...right.
Because that was the only way that she could describe the feeling that came over her the moment their mouths connected. As though she had always kissed him. And that was just ridiculous, right? How on earth could she feel as if she had kissed someone before?
But even before her mind could continue to worry and overthink, in true Xander fashion he took control. His hands moved to her waist and tightened their hold, pulling her closer so that their chests didn’t have an inch of space between them.
He angled his mouth against hers, deepening the intimate touch and sliding his tongue against the seam of her lips in a firm but gentle request for entrance.
She felt her body begin to tense, suddenly overwhelmed in the face of the complex sensory onslaught. As though he knew exactly what she needed, one of his hands moved to cup her jaw. The firm touch served as an anchor, holding her steady. The press of his skin against the sensitive area behind her ear was like being touched by a live wire, filling her with electric heat and urging her to take everything he offered.
The moment she opened her lips, Xander growled, a deep primal sound low enough that only she could hear. His fingertips pressed ever so slightly against her pulse point, and the action felt so possessive and raw that her entire body shivered in response.
The rhythm of his tongue was a smooth invasion, deepening and demanding more with each slow thrust. Heat pooled low in her abdomen and yet she didn’t pull away. She didn’t feel threatened or overwhelmed, in fact she gave as good as she got, reaching up to lace her hands around his neck. The impulse to run her fingers through the crop of salt-and-pepper hair at the base of his neck was strong but she hesitated, wondering if it might be too much.
She couldn’t resist. She had always wondered how it would feel under her fingertips, if it would be hard and spiky, or bristly and rough, but no, it was silky soft like down. A shiver ran through her body again and she heard herself hum low in the back of her throat with approval, delighting in the various onslaught of sensory wonderment taking over her entire body.
He seemed to like that sound, his body moving against hers. Hardness against soft.
And he most certainly was hard, going by the taut ridge that she could feel against her thigh. Just as she began to wonder what it might be like to press against him, right there, he pulled back, and she almost growled herself.
Their eyes met for a split second, as they both simply stared at one another like opponents on a battlefield, breathing heavily. It dawned on her that it had always felt as if they had been in a battle of some sort, but perhaps she had misunderstood exactly what the context was.
She had always assumed he hated her. But could hatred produce this kind of heat?
He opened his mouth as though he planned to speak, then closed it just as quickly, his nostrils flaring and his breath still coming in hard gusts. Was it her imagination or were the tops of his cheeks slightly flushed? The idea that she could make the unflappable boardroom titan Xander Mytikas blush was a ridiculous one, and yet the evidence was rather shockingly stacked against him.
Who on earth was she? She had always detested kissing every time she had tried it as a teenager in her vain attempts to appear young and popular. Before she had given up on trying to fit in. It wasn’t that she never felt romantic feelings or sexual desire, it was simply that every time she had tried to act on it, it had felt like struggling to understand an impossibly difficult language. She’d been called too intense or too cold. Never just right.
