Chapter Two #2
‘You seem nervous,’ Aristide commented as he closed his arms round her again, still finding it difficult to disconnect from a need to touch her continually.
More than just lust, more than he would allow himself to feel, he finally recognised.
He would handle it, of course he would, by being sensible, by walking away afterwards as he always did.
A tight smile curved her lush pretty mouth. ‘I haven’t done this much,’ she muttered apologetically.
For the first time in his life, Aristide wished he could’ve said the same and as soon as that bizarre thought occurred to him, he shut it down fast, tugging her into his arms and kissing her, before lifting her and bringing her down on his bed.
‘I want you so much, angelos mou,’ he husked, detaching her bra with a skilled hand.
‘Me too,’ she managed unevenly, stretching up to taste his mouth again, already addicted. ‘What language is that?’
‘I’m Greek, born and bred.’ Aristide was distracted by the small, pretty breasts he had unveiled, dipping his head to catch the hard little button of a pink nipple between his lips and dally there.
Tabby writhed, that first touch more than enough to set fire in her already overheated body.
Long fingers tugged at the peaks of her sensitive breasts and her hips rose, catching her breath suddenly a challenge, her heart racing.
And then he traced the heart of her, scoring the tender flesh still shielded by her panties, setting a flickering flame to the tingling nerve endings there.
‘I need to be inside you,’ Aristide groaned half under his breath, wildly impatient as he could never remember being before.
He skimmed off her last garment, exploring the delicate damp flesh, teasing her clit and inserting a finger.
By then, she was gasping, twisting and turning under the onslaught of more delightful sensation than she had ever dreamt would feature in her first experience.
And then he was reaching for protection, tearing it open with his teeth, leaning back from her to use it and she really could not help seeing that there was rather more of him than she had expected.
She tensed, bracing herself even though she knew she should relax, and then he was sliding over her, lifting her up to him and her whole body was screaming with impatience for his next move even though she was nervous.
He eased into her slowly, with more care than she could have hoped to receive, but still it burned a little, stung as that part of her stretched to accommodate his invasion.
‘Thee mou…you’re so tight.’
As he lifted her to him, he plunged his hips and a stark jolt of pain raced through her, disconcerting her, startling her, and she gave a little gasp between clenched teeth, thinking that that had hurt more than she had been prepared for.
She tucked the knowledge away fast, fighting to get back into the moment and still savour the other feelings.
Like being so close, so connected to him and she liked that.
And the worst was over, past, she reckoned, a truth proven by the reawakening of those sensitive sensations at her core as he shifted position and with one ruthless twist of his agile hips sent a current of pure pleasure shooting through her whole being.
Brilliant dark golden eyes assailed hers in a collision she felt to her very marrow.
Her heart pounded and then he was moving.
Sensation raced through her in ever surging waves until she was straining frantically to reach some distant peak of perfection.
But before she could reach that peak, he eased off her and flipped her over to change position.
A little whimper of complaint escaped her because she would have dragged him back by force had he dared to walk off at that point.
Every fibre of her was pleading for that ultimate end goal.
He drove into her again. Hard. Deep. She was struggling to catch her breath, her heart banging so hard she was afraid it would burst and then suddenly it was happening for her, every sensation merging into a wondrous whole that blew her away.
Fireworks detonated low in her belly and blissful pleasure washed through every nerve cell.
Shaken by everything she had felt, she felt him reach completion as well.
She slumped down on the bed and then slowly eased round onto her back again.
Aristide vaulted off the bed in a rage. The condom had split, the condom she had insisted he use. He snatched up the discarded wrapper and checked the expiration date with a vocal growl of disbelief. ‘You gave me an expired condom to use! What sort of a scam is this?’
In shock at the angry words, Tabby emerged from her stupor, suddenly feeling very naked and exposed.
She slid off the bed to grab up her dress, putting it on over her head fast to feel covered again.
Covered, the way you wanted to be when under attack.
And that was how she felt: under attack at the least likely moment, when she was completely unprepared for the development.
‘Expired?’ she repeated chokily as he tossed the wrapper down on the bed between them rather as an official would produce Exhibit A in a courtroom.
She lifted it and saw that he was correct from the date stamp.
How long had she carried that item in her purse?
Evidently longer than she should’ve done and she was only now recalling that she had invested in that box while she was at university.
‘I’m sorry… I should’ve checked,’ she muttered awkwardly, discreetly retrieving her bra and panties, digging the first into her bag and sliding into the second because she refused to travel home bare beneath her dress.
‘And on top of that, you were a virgin too, weren’t you?’ Aristide prompted tautly.
Tabby paled. ‘I don’t think that has any relevance here but, for the sake of clarity…yes, I was.’
‘I don’t aspire to sleep with virgins,’ Aristide informed her with scorn.
‘And between the expired protection and your virginity, you’ve pretty much got the market covered when it comes to suspicious circumstances.
’ He studied her with hard dark accusing eyes as if they had not been as intimate as two people could be only minutes earlier.
His attitude in the aftermath of that intimacy was like a slap in the face, only she suspected it hurt more than the slap would’ve done. ‘I didn’t realise,’ she said with determined dignity, ‘that being a virgin was a hanging offence.’
‘You could’ve told me. A normal woman would’ve warned me but you chose not to and that silence, combined with the expired safeguard, would make any man doubtful of your motivation!’ he condemned angrily.
Tabby raised a dark blonde brow. ‘I’m afraid I can’t imagine what possible motivation I could’ve had other than the obvious…having sex with you,’ she completed coldly, getting her armour on now, beginning to recover from her rude awakening to his opinion of her.
‘You’re not that na?ve, nobody is, not these days!’ he shot back at her. ‘I’m a very wealthy man and I refuse to be a target for women who wish to enrich themselves at my expense—’
Tabby’s rarely roused temper flared up in white-hot flames of fire inside her chest because she had had more than enough of his toxic assumptions about her character.
‘Oh, if that’s what you’re worried about, I can free you of your fear,’ she assured him almost sweetly.
‘I’m getting married in seven weeks to a man who’s…
I assume…just as rich as you. I don’t need to trade my virginity like a commodity, Mr Romanos, or run the risk of pregnancy to entrap any man.
Rather an old-fashioned accusation that, don’t you think?
In fact if the contraceptive mishap were to result in consequences, I’d be the one in a serious fix! ’
Aristide listened in growing disbelief. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing!
She was getting married, she was engaged to marry some other man in a few weeks and yet she had let him take her to bed?
None of that made sense to him. If she was engaged, why had she still been untouched?
He was shocked, appalled, and he was so angry as he pulled on clothes that he was shaking with the force of his emotions.
‘So, you’re a cheat as well as everything else,’ he breathed tightly.
‘Goodnight, Mr Romanos. Can’t say it’s been nice because, like other men I’ve met, you’re not quite what you seem to be on the surface,’ Tabby fired back at him with hot cheeks and a strong desire to push him fully clothed into the nearest weed-clogged pond.
‘I’ll take you home…’ Aristide addressed her rigidly turned back as she reached the front door.
‘No, thanks.’ And with that calm retort, Tabby walked out of his penthouse apartment and finally felt able to breathe again.
‘Tabitha…’
She turned her tousled head and arrowed glacial blue eyes back at him as she awaited the lift.
‘If there should be consequences—’
‘Forget it,’ Tabitha murmured pleasantly. ‘I wouldn’t come begging to you if I was down to my very last penny and starving. That’s a promise.’
Aristide strode back indoors and closed the door quietly when he wanted to slam it.
What the hell was Tabby Blessington playing at?
Well, he intended to find out. Pulling out his phone, he texted her name and address to the private investigation agency he used and requested a full report on her.
He was angry, frustrated and, yes, there was dissatisfaction too at the manner in which he had discovered her true nature.
She had cheated on her fiancé with him. Acknowledging that reality, he told himself that he should be grateful to be made so swiftly aware of her capacity for deceit.
Tabby travelled home on the Tube, had a shower and went straight to bed.
She longed to phone her twin and tell her what had happened but she cringed at the image of her having made an outsize fool of herself.
There she had been, all sentimental and romantic about Aristide Romanos in spite of the fact it was only meant to be a one-night stand.
No, she decided, she would take those short-lived girlie dreams to the grave with her.
She had asked to be hurt, she told herself with self-loathing, she had turned out to be much more vulnerable than she had ever believed herself to be.
And why, when he had insinuated that she was after him for his money, had she responded with the news that she was due to marry another rich man in seven weeks?
Why hadn’t she foreseen that he would naturally assume that she was a faithless cheater into the bargain?
He hadn’t wanted to be her first lover either.
There was something insulting about that, but it would be perfectly understandable if he simply preferred more experienced partners.
And she had na?vely supposed that he wouldn’t notice her innocence!
No, Aristide had been a disaster, but at least she had accomplished her goal. She squirmed in her bed, still aching, telling herself it served her right. She would probably confess all to Violet in a few months, once the crushing humiliation of her encounter with Aristide had faded a bit.
And the condom had let them both down. She had to worry about that as well, she reminded herself.
But she brushed off that concern because she literally could not even begin to imagine being pregnant.
Why borrow trouble when she was in a big enough mess as it was with a stranger bridegroom-to-be to meet at the altar in only seven weeks’ time?