Chapter 20

Dimitri took Lauren’s groan as all the encouragement he needed. He bent toward her body, reluctantly breaking contact with her so that he could take her breast in his mouth, sucking hard as Lauren gasped and entwined her fingers in his hair. Her body was on fire, and he had done that to her, he had made her forget, made her think of nothing but him. Him and the sunset and beach and his body and hers, wrapped together on this porch, which was now his favorite porch in any country, anywhere.

He didn’t need confirmation from her phone that she knew the truth about him, but he was fairly sure she still didn’t quite believe what she’d been told. She probably didn’t even know what being a demigod meant.

Good thing, he was just the guy to explain it to her.

Not quite yet, though.

“Dimitri,” Lauren said brokenly, and he adjusted his hold on her again, pulling her out of the chair in one fluid motion until she sprawled on him as he lay back on the porch. Her hair had fallen loose from her bun and was drifting around her shoulders, her lips full from his kisses, her eyes glazed as she settled against him. She was too far away now, however, and he reached up to her, freezing as she laid a hand on his chest. She couldn’t seriously want to stop now. Not now, when he was about to explode from looking at her, when all he wanted was to roll her beneath him and bury himself in the wonder of her body.

Instead, she gazed down at him and smiled, her gaze raking his face, his body. “You’re so beautiful,” she murmured, drifting a soft hand against his cheek. He stared back at her, willing his body to behave, to do this her way, whatever fucking way she wanted if it kept her touching him, rocking against him, her long legs straddling him and pressing up against his cock with a rhythmic pressure that made his head swim.

“Please tell me you’re not simply teasing me,” she continued as her gaze fell away. Her hand dropped to his shirt, where her fingers knotted up the material.

He huffed out a short breath, moving his hands to her hips to seat her more firmly over him, knowing his erection was unmistakable through his gym shorts. “Trust me, I’m not teasing here. You—” He broke off as she reached for her own clothes, pulling her top up and over her head, bringing the bra with it. Her body gloriously bared in the setting sunlight was quite possibly the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen, and his control slipped that much more as she lifted her hands to palm her own breasts, her gaze fixed on his face as his mouth went dry. She swayed toward him and he reached for her, his hands sliding up her back to press her close as he kissed her breasts, her collarbone, her neck, and back down to her glorious breasts, full and heavy and his.

Lauren shuddered in his grasp, and his need crested again, until before he knew it, he was sitting up, scrambling to his feet with her tight in his arms, swinging her into the house as she laughed and held on. But he wouldn’t be fucking this woman on a porch. Not the first time. Maybe the sixth, but not the first.

The relative gloom of the villa’s living room was a balm to his senses, helping him to catch his breath. The room upstairs was much too far away for him to consider. The couch was too. Instead, he sank down onto the thick woven rug that covered the tiled floor, laying Lauren down as if she would break. She looked at him, dazed. He could get used to that look.

But for now, he couldn’t stand a minute more to be the only one wearing a shirt. He yanked off his tank top, and before Lauren could speak, he rolled back on top of her, stretching her hands high above her as he levered his body over hers. He reveled in the feel of her soft skin beneath him and tightened his abs in an attempt not to crush her.

“Hey—” She wriggled her wrists out of his grasp and brought her hands to his chest, her eyes wide as he braced himself above her. Releasing a purely feminine sigh, she trailed her fingers down his chest, feathering them along the line of hair that arrowed down between his pecs in a line that ended distinctly south of his navel. She followed that line like it was a map, not stopping until her fingers slid beneath the waistband of his shorts. She dragged the shorts low on his hips until the thick ridges of his hip bones were exposed, then slid her palms around his hips beneath his briefs, until her cool fingers cupped his bare ass. Pulling him into the vee of her thighs, she arched beneath him, giving him another heavy-lidded gaze. “I want you,” she murmured. “Please tell me I can have you.”

“You ask as if you don’t already know the answer.” He moved to the side and slid off her, his hands going immediately to her loose trousers. Unhooking the clasp, he peeled the soft linen back, marveling at the stretch of smooth skin bared beneath his hands. A thin line of silk lay against her skin, and he slid his fingers beneath it, not with the rough speed Lauren had used, but slowly, marking each sensation, each inch of skin that was revealed to his eyes, to his touch. As he pressed down, the material turned damp, and his own need ratcheted up in turn.

He shifted his gaze to meet Lauren’s.

“I, um, hope the answer is yes,” she said, and twin flags of color scored her cheeks, making her impossibly more beautiful.

“It’s most definitely yes,” he murmured, leaning close to brush her lips with his. He tasted the sweetness of her and was suddenly consumed with a need to taste all of her, completely. The incredible smoothness of her skin beneath his rough and calloused palm was at once exhilarating and terrifying. He could hurt her so easily, and yet she moved with a pliant grace that seemed to fit his hand perfectly, her body opening to him eagerly, almost needfully.

He sucked in a tight, controlling breath. Demigods could have sex like any ordinary mortal—and they were better at it, like they were better at most things than ordinary mortals. But unless he wanted to explain a hell of a lot more to Lauren right now than he had any patience for, he needed to go slower, easier. The sea behind him was already restless, eager to match his energy. He was in no mood for a swamping wave to come crashing up the sand.

Not yet, anyway.

He shifted his hand, expecting but not finding silken curls, then realized in a breath that the skin had been shaved smooth. His shaft seemed to swell to six times its normal size, and he schooled himself not to rip the material free right there. It did change his plans, though. It changed them significantly.

“Dimitri—oh,” Lauren’s word ended on a gasp as he drifted his fingers down the soft folds of her sex, pressing into her, his teeth gritting tight enough to break as he felt her wet heat against his fingers. She was ready for him, but as if there was any question, her hands were suddenly at her own waist, grabbing for her pants to shimmy them down further.

He batted them away easily. “No,” he murmured. “Let me.”