Chapter Nine #3
One of her palms pressed against his chest as they moved to the slow beat in complete harmony. As if oceans of distance and more than ten years of time hadn’t made any difference to their bodies.
“That comment about earning Rose’s protection angered you.” Her voice turned husky, with a note of confusion as she continued, “I do not wish to fight with you, Constantine. Not after everything today. It does wonders to my bruised heart to hear Papa’s praise. Thank you for that gift.”
“I couldn’t stop him, even if I wanted to.” He pulled back a smidge and looked into her eyes. “Do not put so much stock in this new…change in your father, Aliyah. I’m afraid it will not last long.”
Her fingers flicked at some nonexistent dust on his lapel even as laughter spilled her from her ruby-red lips. “But I should trust you, right? Even though you play one game after another with me?”
His fingers spread to cover more of her, his body operating separately from his brain. “Since you have thrown your lot in with me, yes. And no, I haven’t played any games with you.”
“Arranging for me to do a concert, arranging this party, leaving me behind at their house after ruining me so thoroughly, followed by two weeks of radio silence, arranging my stay at the hotel…these are not all neat little tricks to confuse poor, naive, pampered me? Not a power play? It’s a good thing I’m too cynical now to fall for your tactics. ”
He swallowed as a misstep on his part crushed her breasts against his chest. “I had to travel immediately after the wedding,” he said, the smooth lie rolling off his lips. “Forgive me if I don’t spend my days worrying about your comfort and whereabouts.”
Even that dismissive answer didn’t distract her as she went on. “Were you at the concert tonight?”
He nodded.
She sighed. “Why didn’t you—”
“You and your father are making too much of a selfish trick I played.” He rushed on, forcing himself to say the words. “I simply wanted to see if you were any good. If it wasn’t your late husband’s generosity that built your career.”
“Right,” she said, not remotely fazed by his cruel declaration. “What if I hadn’t been any good? Wouldn’t it have been a dent in the halo you project as Constantine Xenakis?”
“My halo can take the hit,” he said wryly. She was a witch, this beautiful, clever, bold wife of his, not anything ordinary, and she was weaving her bloody spell on him.
Her soft laugh filled his veins. “Of course, I forgot,” she said, spinning her finger in a massive circle around her own head. His mouth twitched, a warm glow burning in his chest. “Why didn’t you accompany me to the party here?”
“You are full of questions tonight, poulaki mou.”
She shrugged. “I have no idea when I’ll be granted your company again. So I must get it all out now.” Something gleamed in her amber eyes, gone before he could catch it. “I think I’m beginning to see why you spoke of never letting me go. It’s like keeping a leashed pet at your beck and call.”
“Enough, Aliyah. You will not provoke me tonight like you did at the greenhouse.”
“Ahh… I wondered when we would make our way to that. Have you grown prudish with age, Constantine?” She leaned in and rubbed her cheek against his before pulling back.
“Because that sounded like you are claiming that I seduced you. On our wedding night, of all days. Is that why you’ve kept me at a distance for two weeks?
Because you’re afraid I might debauch you again?
” Her tone went all lazy and husky at the end, wrapping itself around his cock, as palpably as if she had stroked him with those brilliant fingers.
“I…” He cleared his throat. “I did not like my loss of control.”
Two pretty spots of pink appeared on her cheeks and there was a slightly damp sheen over her upper lip that he wanted to lick away, party guests be damned. He could feel the slight hardening of her nipples against his chest too.
Christos, she was burning for him, and he had avoided her for two whole weeks because he felt guilt for how he had used her.
“And this realization came to you after the fact?” she managed to say.
Sending his palm up her spine, he pulled her closer. “I was too rough. You were clearly upset and—”
“I wanted it rough and mindless. I verbalized it well enough, even for your sense of honor.”
“And yes, but after, you looked so…”
“My brain was mush with all the good chemicals from the three orgasms you doled out, Constantine. And I wanted to be out of it, remember? You simply delivered what I asked for. Went above and beyond as you usually do. So why the damned guilt?”
She twisted in his hold, rubbing all of her soft curves against him, raising the already simmering hunger in his blood. Not that he would let her go.
Christos, she was an already an obsession in his head, in his blood. She always had been.
“Rewrite it in your own damned head however you wish,” she bit out, eyes suddenly damp. “I don’t give a fuck. But it’s stuck in my head as a pretty wonderful time.”
She twisted again and he pressed his mouth to her temple. “Hush, fterouga, I didn’t mean to ruin it for you.”
Her amber eyes shot daggers at him but there was hurt there too.
“That’s precisely what your agenda is for this marriage, isn’t it?
Fool that I am, I keep forgetting to arm myself against it.
You want to torment me for the good things and the bad things and you made me think…
” A frustrated sound rose out of her. But full of grace as she was, she swallowed it away.
Constantine loosened his hold on her but not fully. Keeping his arm draped around her, he clasped her hand in his. “Come with me.” When he didn’t shift, he whispered, “Come, poulaki mou. I promise to reward you for your…patience with me.”
Chest rising and falling, she gave him a small nod.
Exhaling roughly, he made a beeline out of the ballroom. No one stopped them, wisely.
Aliyah jerked her hand out of his clasp just as the elevator car closed, enclosing them in a gilt-edged mirror.
“What did I make you think, Aliyah?”
Cutting her gaze, she angled her body away from his. As if she needed to protect herself from him. The gesture cut through his ego and his resentment, leaving those jagged parts of him he didn’t like exposed.
Slowly, he wrapped an arm around her from behind and pulled her close. Stiff as a board, she came at last.