“Demetrius, oh, gods, I need you.”
He lifted his head, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and flipped her onto her stomach so fast she gasped. Cloth rustled behind her, and then his hands slid under her torso, cupped her waist, and lifted. His warm, hard chest pressed into her spine, his strong bare thighs met the backs of her legs. One hand slid down her front and into her folds to tease her all over again. And his mouth, those sweet and tempting lips and that insanely erotic tongue, caught her earlobe and suckled.
“Should I bind your hands, like you did mine last night?”
Bind her? Oh, yes…His hot breath trailing her neck sent a shiver of delight through her whole body. His fingers teasing her flesh pushed her hips forward and back. His hard length pressing against her ass drew a moan from her lips. “Yes. Oh, yes, I don’t care what you do. I just need…”
“What?” He nipped her earlobe with his teeth. But it didn’t hurt. If anything, the bite felt…electric, amping her need higher still. His fingers slid lower, deeper, inside, and she moaned as he filled her. He teased her breast with his other hand until her nipples turned into stiff aching peaks. “Gods, you’re so tight. Need what, kardia? Tell me.”
“You,” she managed. She found his strong thigh with her hand and squeezed. “I need you. Now. Right now.”
His fingers left her sheath. He tilted her forward, and she gasped as her body shifted, but the arm of steel wrapped around her torso kept her from falling. And then his cock was sliding along her slippery folds and she didn’t care about anything anymore. He could put her in any position he wanted, do whatever he needed to her body. As long as he found his way inside her, that was all that mattered.
He pressed against her opening. Pushed inside just an inch. Slid back out. “Is this what you need?”
“Oh, yes.”
“Say it.”
Her body quivered. “I need you, Demetrius. Fill me. I want to feel you.”
He did, in one powerful thrust. Unlike last night, this time it didn’t hurt. It was the most exquisite feeling in the world. As if her body was made just for his. He was hard where she was soft, strong where she was fragile, and with every deep plunge, her climax barreled closer.
With one hand she gripped the arm wrapped tightly around her waist; with the other she clamped on to his thigh as he moved inside her. She moaned with every rock of his hips, with every drag and pull. Turning her head to his, she kissed him deeply, moving with him, against him, then nearly came apart when his fingers found her clit and he flicked in time with his thrusts.
“Yes, yes,” she mouthed against his lips.
“Here?”
“Yes. Oh, yes.”
“You like me fucking you here?”
“Yes.” Oh, gods, his voice, telling her what he was doing to her in such a basic way, was so damn erotic. No one ever talked to her that way. No one ever dared. “Yes. Please…don’t stop.”
Her climax steamrolled its way toward her, but just as she reached the peak, he pulled out, twisted her around again so she fell against the blankets on her back. She groaned her frustration, but he captured it with his mouth, and then he filled her all over again in one mighty thrust. And she forgot everything but this, here with him, right now. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, her legs around his back, and held on as he drove harder, deeper, as he kissed her as though he couldn’t possibly get enough. Not ever.
“Now, kardia,” he whispered. “Come for me now.”
She was powerless to do anything else. Her climax slammed into her with a force that stole her breath. Her whole body arched as spirals of light and electricity rippled through every cell, dragging his name from her lips. He thrust again and again, faster, longer, and grew impossibly hard inside her. She heard his own cry of release and marveled at the way every muscle in his body turned to stone beneath her hands, against her skin, inside her body.
Seconds passed in silence as if they were frozen in time. Finally, he dropped his head against her shoulder and dragged air into his lungs. “I…oh, man…”
A smile twined its way across her lips as she ran her fingers through his hair and tried to regulate her own breathing. She pressed a kiss against his temple. “Me too.”
He pushed up on one hand and looked down as if judging her words for honesty, and in that moment, with his hair mussed, his face relaxed, and his body sated, he didn’t look a thing like the cruel, unfeeling guardian she’d known most of her life. Here, now, like this, he was simply the ándras she’d fallen in love with.
His gaze slid from her face to her breasts, and heat built in her veins all over again under the searing look. And then his gaze moved lower, to her abdomen, where it hovered. He pushed up. “Hold still.”
The heat of his body was gone before she could stop him. He crossed the floor, his nakedness reflecting the flickering candlelight as if he were a statue carved from marble. He reached for the rag from the table.
Isadora looked down at her belly and saw the evidence of his release all over her skin.
“Here.” He knelt by her side and used the rag to wipe away the remnants of his pleasure, then tossed it back across the room and eased down onto his side, tucking his arm under his head and pulling her into the curve of his body. “That’s better.”
Isadora wasn’t so sure. Confused as to why he hadn’t finished inside her, she ran through their lovemaking in her head, searching for something she’d done wrong. But she couldn’t find a single moment that hinted of him not wanting her, not needing her as much as she’d needed him. Then she thought back to his infuriated reaction this morning. After she’d ridden them both to a blistering climax. After he’d finished inside her, then realized what he’d done.
You don’t want to have a child with me.
Why would I?
She swallowed hard, and a shiver of doubt gnawed at her greatest fear. All this time she’d thought his coming back here tonight was a sign he was ready to take a step forward with her. Start anew. Make the greatest leap of faith there was. But she was wrong. This wasn’t a beginning. It was an ending. The sweetest, most painful ending she’d probably ever experience.
Misreading her reaction, he reached for a blanket from the edge of the pallet and tossed it over their naked bodies. But he didn’t pull away, and he never once let go of her, as if he couldn’t bear the thought. He stroked her arm, her side, her stomach with his soft fingers and whispered the sweetest words in her ear, ones that, considering what she now knew, brought tears to her eyes.
“Sleep, kardia. You need your strength for the morning. We both do.”
She closed her eyes tight. But she didn’t sleep. She worked simply to keep from crying. Because her heart, which moments before had been so full, felt as if it were now leaking from a pinprick deep inside her chest.
Tomorrow she did need her strength. She was going home to Argolea. Finally. But somehow, instinctively, she knew he wasn’t going with her.
Chapter 20
He was in heaven. Or the Elysian fields. Or wherever it was the blessed heroes went after they died. Glancing down at Isadora asleep in his arms, Demetrius figured, considering who and what he was, this was probably as close to paradise as he was ever going to get. And because of that he should be enjoying the moment rather than worrying about what came next.