Chapter Ten
ALIYAH FELT AS though she was floating among the clouds as Constantine carried her out into what turned out to be an open rooftop. The sky was clear, littered with glinting stars, but it couldn’t pull her attention away from him.
She didn’t know what to make of this man again. Didn’t know what to expect, or where she stood with him. Didn’t know how to protect herself from softening toward him all over again.
He’d arranged for her to play, knowing it was the thing she needed most. He’d celebrated her talent with everyone, showing her off to the world as if he was truly proud of her.
He teased her, cajoled her and apologized as if he genuinely regretted keeping her at a distance for the past two weeks.
His heart thundered under her palm as she renewed her promise to herself.
She would enjoy these moments with him, drown herself in the pleasure he was determined to give her, and when he lost interest—when he got bored with playing family man—she would walk away, hopefully with a child and with her heart intact.
Her eyes widened as he stepped into what looked like a glass-enclosed lounge.
The entire structure seemed to float above the city, surrounded by clear panels that gave them an uninterrupted view of the skyline around them.
The skyscrapers reached up like silent sentinels, their lights twinkling in the distance, while the cold night air mingled with the warmth of the lounge’s interior.
It was as if they were suspended in the sky, exposed yet isolated.
The low hum of the city was barely audible, just enough to heighten the illicit excitement of their secret space.
It felt dangerously public, and yet incredibly private—just the two of them, surrounded by glass, but detached from the world below.
The lounge itself was sleek and modern, with soft lighting casting shadows across the plush chaise longues. A couple of coffee tables held champagne chilling in an ice bucket, and a platter of fruit sat untouched.
She giggled as he gently placed her on the chaise. “Why does this look like a scene set for seduction? And here I thought you were being all spontaneous with me,” she mocked, taking it all in.
Whatever breath was remaining in her lungs escaped as he knelt in front of her, his broad frame pushing her knees apart.
A sudden gust of wind swept across them, tugging at her hair, pulling strands across her face.
He pushed them behind her ears with a gentleness that made an old ache crawl into her throat.
His saturnine features were stamped with desire as he looked at her.
The olive tones of his skin against the crisp white of his shirt made his physicality all the more striking.
The tensile strength of his body was evident even in the way he knelt in front of her—every muscle coiled with tension, the veins in his forearms flexing with the movement.
“Not seduction,” he said, clasping her cheeks with both hands. “I wanted to make up for making you doubt this. Doubt yourself.”
She nodded, realizing how big this was for him, for them. “I accept your apology, Constantine. Our signals crossed and misfired. And just so you know for the future, you didn’t hurt me. You would never hurt me—not in that sense.”
Something shuttered in his eyes as he looked up at her. “But you don’t trust me to not hurt you in other areas. Is that the distinction I’m hearing?”
She smiled, keeping her hand on his shoulder, needing that physical anchor. “I don’t want to fight tonight,” she said, her voice soft but firm.
“I agree,” he said, bringing her palm to his mouth. But instead of kissing the center like she expected, he rubbed his lips against her palm, letting her feel the bristle of his stubble. It aroused her as much as if he had touched her intimately.
“Constantine,” she began, leaning close and pressing her lips to the corner of his mouth.
He pulled back, and with one large palm pressing against her belly, gently pushed her back.
She searched his eyes for some clue into his mood. “I thought you were going to dispel my doubts through decisive actions,” she said, pouting.
He laughed, and his hot breath feathered over her lips.
It made him stunning to take in. It reminded her how little he used to laugh back then, how hard he worked to please her father, how he had so little time for himself and how he used those few minutes to make her laugh—to please her.
The time he’d been able to give her, once her father had officially decided he would be his heir, had been very little.
And yet, he had given her a lifetime of happiness in those few moments.
He had loved her, she realized, the expansiveness of it pressing upon her chest. She recognized it now with all the awareness, wisdom and awe of a woman—not the teenage girl with her own fears and insecurities clouding her view.
He had loved her like no one ever had. Maybe not even Julian.
And that was a prize to be cherished, even if it was in the past.
“Please, Constantine, I need to feel you inside me. Ruining me all over again,” she whispered, without hesitation, without second-guessing herself.
“We have all the time for that,” he said. “But first, I want to taste your desire for me. At the source.”
The words hung in the air, explicit enough on their own, but they sent a flush of heat through Aliyah’s body. She blushed, the heat flooding through every cell in her. The blasted man, it seemed, thrived on building her anticipation.
“I asked for it once before, but you denied me the pleasure of it,” he said, his tone full of teasing, but not complaint.
Aliyah sighed, her breath a ragged sound as she fought the words that wanted to tumble out.
“I was a goddamned fool then, Constantine. I didn’t know what I had in…
I didn’t know myself.” The bitterness in her words almost seemed to poison the sweet air around them, making the crisp night feel heavier, colder.
But she couldn’t take it back, no matter how much it hurt to admit it.
Constantine frowned, even though she knew it was exactly what he thought of her, what had pushed him to trap her here, what had made bitterness root in him, changing him completely from the sweet, hardworking boy she had known once.
Her family had warped him, corrupted him, and it was a loss she would never get over. Never stop grieving. But she didn’t want them to dwell in the past, not even for a second.
Not tonight. Not when she could feel his body pressed so close to hers, his presence overwhelming her senses.
Leaning forward, she sank her fingers into his hair, feeling the warmth of his scalp under her fingertips, and pressed her lips to his.
Once again, she wanted to escape, to slip into oblivion, but he wouldn’t let her take it. He pulled her back into the moment, back into the heat of him, with a kiss that was both gentle and full of need.
A learning. A coaxing. A new meeting between them. He kissed her as if she were precious, as if he wanted to steal her from herself, as if it was the first time they were kissing.
He kissed her as if she was the sweetest thing in the world, and he needed it. All of it.
All of her.
Aliyah pushed her tongue into his mouth, desperate for the kiss to numb her mind. Desperate to be free of the past, the guilt, the regrets. She needed to drown in this, in the sensation of him, in this new connection between them.
“Slow down, fterouga,” he said, his voice rough but assertive, then danced his tongue against the tip of hers. He nipped her lower lip, his teeth grazing her skin before he licked at the sting. His tongue swept through her mouth with a heat that felt like it was branded into her soul.
This time, it was she who pulled back. Her chest rose and fell with heavy breaths. She cleared her throat, determined to say her piece. “But I am not a coward anymore. I want whatever you give, Constantine. However you want to slake your lust, I want that too.”
“No, you’re not that woman anymore. I’m beginning to see that,” he said, his voice gravelly, every word laced with a hunger that matched her own. “I like you like this, wife.”
“Like what?” she asked eagerly, voice trembling, craving his approval, his praise, anything he would give her.
“Bold. Wanton. Unapologetic about what you want from life. From me.”
She nodded, her heart pounding. “From myself too.”
“Aliyah, it’s clear that I—”
She pressed her palm to his mouth, cutting him off. “No, I don’t want to dwell on the past.”
“The present, right,” he said, with an arrogant smirk that made her want to lick him up. He tapped her knee. “Lift that cute ass so I can pull these pants down. Then spread your legs. As wide as you can for me, agapi. Show me what I’m working with. Show me how badly you need it.”
The command in his voice sent shivers down her spine, making her skin tighten, making her pulse race. He pressed the pad of his thumb to the pulse at her neck, his touch igniting every nerve.
Aliyah bit her lower lip, looking around the glass-walled lounge.
The city stretched out before her, the towering skyscrapers rising like silent sentinels in the distance.
From where they were, high above the world below, it felt as though they were in a cocoon of their own, separate from everything else.
The lights of the city flickered far beneath them, but the distance made everything feel faint, irrelevant.
The cool breeze from the open rooftop brushed her skin, the contrast of the fresh night air and the heat of Constantine’s body only adding to the illicit excitement of being in the open—exposed, yet hidden away from the world.
“Here? Now?” she asked, her voice low, tinged with both hesitation and excitement.
“Why not?” he said, pressing a quick kiss to her lips. “Under the sky, with the stars as witnesses to my apology.”