Chapter One
“CHAMPAGNE?”
Andie jerked back. The server waited with professional patience, his tuxedo nicer than anything she’d seen outside a movie.
“No, thank you.”
He moved on to the next cluster of guests, and she pressed herself against the wall. Through the archway, she could see her aunt Joyce laughing while in conversation with another guest, the sound tinkling like music.
Nothing like the woman who’d picked her up from the airport six hours ago, complaining about traffic.
The Bernard mansion overwhelmed her senses. In Kansas, the richest family in town lived in a farmhouse with a wraparound porch. Here in San Antonio, December meant a tree that scraped the ceiling and enough gold ribbon to wrap her entire apartment building.
She tried, she really did try to make herself feel comfortable, but everything and everyone around her seemed to belong to a completely different planet. She couldn’t understand anything they were talking about, and trying just made her head pound, more painfully by the second.
She needed air.
Or at least somewhere quieter.
A hallway stretched into darkness, promising escape. She slipped away, her flats silent on carpet thick as a mattress. With each step, the party sounds faded.
Thank goodness.
A door stood ajar. Beyond it, darkness and the smell of leather.
Perfect.
She pushed inside without thinking. Moonlight slanted through tall windows, revealing bookcases that climbed toward shadows. The sight drew her in, her fingers running over the textured spines. These books felt real and familiar, the one thing in this house that she could relate—
“This room is off limits.”
She nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound, spinning around but finding nothing. The voice came from nowhere. Everywhere. Dark and smooth with an accent she couldn’t place, like smoke given sound.
Her heart slammed against her ribs as the silence stretched, ominously. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt—”
“It was a joke, koukla mou.”
A figure detached itself from the deepest shadows, and she found herself gulping as she came face to face with the devil someone scary
Stop being a scaredy-cat, Andie!
The stranger was tall, taller than anyone she’d ever seen, and moved with the kind of grace that made her gulp anew. Maybe it wasn’t that she was scared, but there was just something about this man that made her think of sin...come to life.
She squinted in an effort to see him more clearly, but the moonlight proved frustratingly inadequate. But even though angles and shadows were all she could see, the weight of his gaze was palpable, and it became a struggle to keep still.
The man lowered himself onto the couch with deliberate grace, ankle crossed over knee. A desktop lamp was next to the couch, illuminating his features, and her throat tightened when she finally saw his face.
‘Too beautiful’ was Andie’s first thought.
This man was too, too beautiful, for anyone’s good.
His fingers tapped the cushion beside him once, and her body jerked at the unspoken command.
“Come sit next to me.”
No way.
“Or are you afraid I’ll bite?”
Absolutely.
But because she could be stubborn and proud—-
Her legs moved without permission, and she ended up seated at the far end, her back against the arm. She was playing with fire, but at least she was sensible enough not to draw too close to it.
“You can come a little closer, you know.”
She shook her head, and she could feel rather than see the way his eyes glinted in amusement at her response.
“Do I scare you?”
“I’m just...shy.”
“Shy...” He repeated the word as if it were foreign. “And you’re not lying about it, are you?”
The question so surprised her it had Andie forgetting the very shyness he found puzzling. “Why would I lie about being shy?”
“Why indeed.”
His tone was rather...strange, and her shyness faded even more, replaced as it was with a growing sense of curiosity. “Have you been surrounded by friendly people all your life?”
He startled her again, this time with a laugh that sounded terribly...rusty.
“No, unfortunately, koukla mou.”
She mentally repeated the words to herself. Kukla mu. She would ask for Google to translate that later for sure.
“If I had to describe it, I supposed I’ve always been surrounded by people who want to be friends with me.”
“So...you’ve always been popular.”
She saw him almost start to laugh again before stopping himself.
How weird.
And now his gaze had narrowed at her, almost as if he was gauging...what?
“Do you always say what’s on your mind?”
“No.”
His beautiful face turned expressionless, but curiously enough, it was at this moment that she found him rather easier to read.
Or maybe, it was more like a gut feeling.
She could sense his frustration and disconcertment.
It seemed that he found all of her answers unexpected, and he didn’t like that it was so.
“I never thought I’d meet someone like you, koukla mou.”
“I understand.” She didn’t belong in his world, and it would be silly to deny this. Everyone here, her own aunt and this stranger included, were all glamorous and glossy, and a million times richer, literally.
“I don’t think you do.”
Instead of being hurt or offended, the way he bit the words out with a tone of impatience only added to her confusion. Why did she keep rubbing this man the wrong way?
“You’re different from everyone else here because you don’t seem to care about what others think.” His lips twisted in a smile that somehow hurt her heart.
How weird.
It was just so, so weird, how this stranger had the power to make her...feel.
“And you probably don’t even want to be my friend.”
Oh.
“Do you?”
“I...I...” Were all rich people like him? That was the most unbelievably awkward question anyone had asked of her, and she just didn’t know what to say.
“Do you want to be my friend, koukla mou?”
All he was asking was to be his friend, but the way he said it turned the word into something else. Something darker and more terrifying. Something forbidden but oh so very...tempting.
Fire, Andie! He’s the most dangerous kind of fire there is, and we’re the type to run away from such fire, not play with it!
She jerked to her feet...at the same time his phone buzzed, and something flashed over his sinfully attractive features. He must be expecting the call...but instead of answering his phone, he also rose to his feet, and her heart started twisting itself in knots.
They were about to part.
Weren’t they?
And weirdly enough, the thought...hurt.
“You’ll have to be on your own from here.”
His voice was tight, but she couldn’t tell if it was because he hated having to say the words...or hated having to leave her
Stop it, Andie! You’re imagining things, and it’s not helping! So just stop!
She dragged air into her lungs in an effort to clear her thoughts. He seemed to be waiting for her to say something, so...
“I’ll be fine, thank you.”
“Let’s hope that’s true.”
He suddenly started towards her, and her heart began to race. “Um—” She wanted to tell him to stop advancing, but instead she found herself backing away. The room seemed to have shrunk in a blink. It was suddenly hard to breathe, and—oomph!
Andie found herself trapped between the wall and his body, his palm pressed flat against the textured panel beside her head while his other hand caught her chin. His scent wrapped itself around her like a cage, his heat enveloping her body like invisible chains.
He slowly tilted her face up, but she refused to meet his gaze.
“You don’t want to look at me?”
She shook her head, not trusting herself to speak.
“Why not?”
Instead of answering, she tried to break free, but this only made his grip tighten ever so slightly, his hold on her gentle but unbreakable at the same time. It was like being captured by someone who could snap her neck or stroke her cheek in a blink, whichever he was in the mood to do.
“I’m not going to hurt you, koukla mou.”
Yeah right.
“I simply want to say goodbye—”
Yeah right x 2.
“—and make sure you do not forget me.”
His words made her panic, and she pressed her hands against his chest, intending to shove him away—
Oh.
It was her first time to touch a man—any man—this way, and she was startled by the muscled hardness of his body under his shirt. She suddenly felt as if she had crossed a line, and there was no going back from here—
Oh no.
He was suddenly pulling her close.
Closer and closer and closer.
Until her soft curves were molded against his big, hard body, and no, oh no—
Her body jerked in shock at the way the tips of her breasts had tightened into aching points.
She needed to get away.
Now!
But when she opened her mouth to cry out—
That was when his mouth took hers, his lips claiming her first kiss so, so thoroughly that it had her toes curling involuntarily inside of her shoes.
His tongue swept into her mouth like she had always been his to possess, and the taste of him—mint, darkness, and danger—had her knees knocking against each other as her senses reeled.
His body urged hers back against the wall, and this time, oh, this time, every inch of them was plastered against each other, and so there was no way not to feel the hard length of his arousal pulsing against her belly through their clothes.
A whimper escaped her at the way secret parts of her started to ache. She couldn’t understand how this was happening to someone like her. And someone like him. They were strangers. And they were different. They were leagues apart. This made no sense at all, but instead of wanting the kiss to stop—
Nooo.
She barely managed to keep herself from crying out in protest when he suddenly stepped back.
All she could do was stare up at him in a daze, and she would have crumpled at his feet if not for the wall she found herself leaning against.
He gazed back at her, his expression brooding, calculating.
“Sweet dreams, koukla mou.”