Page 22 of The Billionaire's Last-Minute Marriage
‘I want to do more than tell you.’ He leaned forward, his hand cupping the underside of her jaw.
Pandora felt the needy heat within her flare to boiling point just from that small contact. This was scandalous, what they were doing. It was wrong. Her eyes were glued to his lips, as though she were transfixed by him. Nothing new there then, she reminded herself. She had felt the inexorable pull towards this man from the moment they’d first met.
But when he was her boss, the line between wrong and right had been very black and white back then, so keeping him at arm’s length had been an easy decision.
Xander Mytikas would never have done something so wrong as kiss his plain little assistant. He had been her boss. She had been off-limits.
But that line had been erased and the one that separated them now seemed faded and broken and easily stepped over.
She met his eyes, their cerulean blue filling her with fizzy warmth, and she almost felt the urge to run. But then he slid an arm around her and held her, her chest pressed so deliciously against his. She took her time staring at the perfect square angles of his jaw and how it met the curve of his ear surrounded by jet-black close-cropped hair liberally speckled with grey, which made him even sexier in her eyes.
All week, she had resisted the urge to run her fingers through his hair. She had despised herself for the impulse that constantly nagged at her awareness whenever he leaned closer over the boardroom table and ran his hand through it as he thought over a particularly difficult point of the negotiation.
She had promised herself that she was strong enough to withstand this pull she felt towards him. She had not banked on the fact that he might feel it towards her too.
Feeling bold, she reached up to the nape of his neck and splayed her fingers through his hair, centimetre by delicious centimetre. It was cool to the touch but smooth as silk, just as she remembered from the last time she’d had her fingers in it. She knew exactly what Xander smelled like. She had been unable to remove the memory of him and his delicious scent from her mind.
And yet it felt right somehow. As if she had always known how it would feel to touch him so intimately. He didn’t move to stop her when her other hand moved up the side of his neck to glide along the stubble on his jaw.
‘You’re stroking me.’ He growled huskily, leaning into her touch.
Even though they were alone with no possible reason to be playing their parts, she was plagued with uncertainty. She didn’t want that darkness in his eyes to be fake. She wanted that darkness to be hers alone, a result of his powerful attraction to her. An attraction that they both felt.
Feeling foolish, she slowly slid her hands back to rest on his shoulders.
‘I wasn’t asking you to stop.’ Xander took her hands in his and laced her fingers under his own at the back of his neck. He leaned down and pressed his lips against the side of her neck and all thoughts exited her mind.
He murmured something to himself under his breath. His eyes closing as if on a prayer.‘Months.’
She heard the last word clearly, considering it was growled against her skin like a curse. She felt the vibration of it, of him, as though she’d absorbed it into her. He stilled, breathing heavily, and she could feel the hesitation in him. But he didn’t move to back away, if anything he leaned further into the delicious embrace of their bodies.
Pandora felt vulnerable and powerful all at once with the way Xander’s hooded gaze roved over every inch of her body. The top two buttons of her white shirt were undone, her lacy bra peeking out.
‘I wanted you from the first moment I laid eyes on you. I’m no better than Zeus.’
She reached up, cupping both hands around his face and feeling the heat of his skin under her fingertips. ‘I wanted you too. You’re nothing like him, Xander. I’m not your employee any more. I’m your wife.’
The word seemed to light a fire in him and before she could think, he was spreading her legs wide and stepping into the space between them, all the better to undress her...
Xander looked at the dazed expression on Pandora’s face and fought the urge to kiss her again, hard and fast. Thinking she might not be ready for that just yet, he settled for bending down and laying a series of hot wet kisses along her naked midriff, tracing a slow path upwards until once again they were on an even eye level.
She was shy without her clothes, not quite meeting his eyes and,Christos, if it didn’t drive him even more wild. He shrugged off his suit jacket and pulled at the shirt on his back, hearing the pop of a few buttons and the ping as they hit the floor. He didn’t care, only pausing long enough to pull it off the rest of the way.
Pandora looked up at him and her eyes traced over his naked chest with slow intensity, her mouth opening to form a little O shape.
‘You’re so perfect,’ she whispered.
Xander paused, looking down to find her eyes filled with such raw desire he thought he might come on the spot. When she touched the rippling muscles on his abdomen, he felt himself shudder. What was she doing to him?
Breathing heavily, he grasped her wandering hand and took it captive, holding it above her head while he finally leaned down to claim her mouth. She gave back as good as she got, holding onto his grip with her other hand and digging her nails in ever so slightly. That hint of pain was enough to tip him over the edge of his control.
His heart pounded in his ears like a war cry, his body demanding the satisfaction of conquering this beautiful, lush bounty. Something pushed against the walls of his subconscious, warning him to hold back, to take a moment, but then her hands moved to grip his waist, pulling him to her, and his body reacted instantly, pulsing forward against her soft core.
Christos.
Too much fabric, his mind roared, and he reached down for the zip of his trousers, fighting the urge to rip them off completely. She joined the frenzy, both of them pulling at his clothing until finally his skin was just as bare as hers. Then he was on her once more, pressing her back onto the sofa and coming over her to lie chest to chest, skin against skin. She opened her mouth to speak but he was already kissing her again, already sinking his free hand into her hair and laying claim to her as their bodies moved against one another with building urgency.
He communicated with each writhing thrust against her thighs that there was no time for words, no time for anything but the primal force beating between them, demanding more. There was no time for anything but this. He had to have her, right here, right now.
