CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Juliette

N EED SLAMS INTO me as Gavriil molds his lips to mine. I don’t bother to think, to acknowledge that this attraction is dangerous. Too dangerous.

Right now, I just want to feel.

This kiss isn’t like the shock of unexpected desire from our wedding. Isn’t the desperate hunger from earlier. This kiss is intimate, tinged with a surprising sweetness even as he takes charge and lays a hand on my bare back. I inhale, breathe in the taste of him as his fingers dance up and down my skin in a long, slow glide. More sweetness. Unexpected. It ignites the fire just as his ravenous touch did earlier.

Before I can think too deeply, his lips move from my mouth to the curve of my jaw, then down my neck. My breath escapes as he finds a previously unknown sensitive spot halfway down. He chuckles, the husky satisfaction trickling across my shoulder and down my spine. A pulse begins between my legs, a throbbing that makes me restless and try to press myself more fully against him.

“Patience, Mrs. Drakos,” he murmurs against my back before gently biting the tender skin. This time, his use of my married name excites, arouses.

“No.”

His chuckle turns to a laugh. He picks me up then, arms about my waist, and lifts me so I’m looking down at him. Midnight moonlight kisses his face, making him look like an otherworldly being in the pearly light. Sharp lines contrast with the slight smile on his full lips and the brightness of his eyes.

“I’m taking my time, Juliette.” His arms tighten around me. “This morning, I took from you. Tonight, I’m going to give, so don’t you dare try to rush this.”

The words shock me even as they wind their way through my veins, leaving behind a tangle of emotions I’m not ready to deal with.

Not wanting to lose this moment, I lean down and renew our kiss. He groans as my tongue teases his lips.

“Is this your answer?” he growls against my mouth.

When I nod, he deftly tosses me up, swinging my legs out and catching me in his arms before I can do anything but gasp. My arms fly around his neck and I hold on, my heart pounding. I look up and he’s watching me with a smug smile. I can’t help it. I throw my head back and laugh. I’m being held in the arms of a billionaire on a balcony overlooking Paris at midnight. If someone had told me six weeks ago that this would be my life, I would have told them they were crazy.

The amusement disappears as his eyes darken. If someone would have told me, too, that I would be willingly going to bed with Gavriil Drakos, I would have laughed until my sides hurt.

Now, there isn’t a single other place on earth I’d rather be.

Gavriil carries me through to the living room, past the grand piano and the elegant couch where he had laid me earlier and into his room. Like mine, it’s a mix of ivory, gold and deep blue. Ornate, expensive, yet regal, sophisticated. His bed is the same size as mine, slightly raised on a platform with another balcony that overlooks the Eiffel Tower. It’s dark now, the iron glinting silver beneath the moon.

He sets me on my feet, captures my hand in his and brings my fingers to his lips. He kisses each one until electricity is humming from my fingertips through my arms and winding down to that pulse between my legs.

His hands slide under the straps of my dress and slip them down over my shoulders. A moment later I’m bared from the waist up. His eyes heat up as he gazes at my breasts for the second time that day.

“Beautiful.”

I’ll never hear that word again without thinking of him. Of earlier, when admiration melded with apology. And of now, when he makes me feel like the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen.

He pulls me to him as he lowers his head to my breasts. My head falls back, hair brushing my bare skin as I moan. He sucks, kisses the tender skin, moves between them as he uses his tongue and lips to stir me into a storm of chaotic need.

Has it been mere seconds or long, delicious minutes since he started to undress me? Even as he continues to worship my breasts, his hands undo the zipper at the back. The dress falls in a soft whisper in a pool of periwinkle blue at my feet. The only thing giving me any coverage now is the scrap of white lace I pulled on earlier to give myself the boost of confidence, knowing I was walking the streets of Paris in sexy lingerie.

And now, as his lips part and he sucks in a ragged breath, I’m even more grateful I chose it.

He hooks a finger in the band and slowly, ever so slowly, slides the lace down over my thighs. A moment later, I’m naked under his heated gaze.

“Theós, eísai ómorfos.”

I don’t need to know Greek to feel the wonder in his voice. It banishes any lingering shyness, emboldens me to reach up and hold out a hand.

“I want you, Gavriil.”

He strips off his clothing with deft, sure movements. My body burns as he reveals tantalizing golden skin, muscled arms, chiseled abs shaped by his daily swims. The bed dips as he kneels. When he covers my body with his, I can’t stop the sound of satisfaction from slipping past my lips. I run my hands down his back, the first time I’ve touched him so intimately. I love the heat of his skin, the muscular strength beneath my fingertips.

“You feel incredible.”

He kisses me as he places a hand between my thighs. I arch into his touch as he murmurs against my lips.

“Juliette, I don’t want to wait. I need you.”

I can only imagine what those words cost him. Gavriil isn’t the kind of man to need anyone. But right now, in this moment, he wants me. Needs me.

My legs part. Steel presses against tender flesh. And then he slides inside my body and reality slips as a pleasure so intense it borders on pain charges my every nerve. He fills me to what feels like the breaking point. As he slides in, my body clamps down.

“Christ, Juliette.” He sucks in a breath. “Don’t move.”

I realize just how close to the edge he is. Even though I’m drowning in sensations, I can’t resist shifting my hips, savoring the feel of him inside me even as he glares down at me.

“What?” I ask with a teasing smile.

His answer consists of him pulling out and then sliding back in with one long, slow stroke that makes me bow off the bed.

“Tease,” I gasp.

“Temptress,” he replies before he lowers his head and consumes me again.

We find our rhythm as if we’ve been making love for years instead of just encountering each other for the first time. That incredible pressure builds again, pressing on my skin from the inside out, filling me with a burning tension that eclipses anything else I’ve ever experienced. Through the haze of desire, he kisses me as if he’ll never get enough of the taste of me.

“Gavriil!”

My world detonates and I come apart in his arms.

Gavriil

I feel her body tighten around me as she reaches her peak. She cries my name again, her hands gripping my shoulders, head thrown back, eyes closed as a blush sweeps over her body. I can’t hold myself back any longer, don’t want to. I groan her name and follow her over the edge.

I manage to brace myself on my forearms above her and roll to the side so I don’t crush her as I drift down from the most intense climax I’ve ever experienced. We lie there on the bed, our heavy pants mingling, sweat cooling on our skin. She turns her head and looks at me, her eyes barely open, a smile lingering on her lips. Satisfaction, yes. But also contentment. It moves me.

I reach out and smooth hair back from her forehead. Her smile deepens, her mouth curving up and making her eyes crinkle.

Emotions war in my chest. The same want that’s been plaguing me, apparently unsated by what we’ve just shared. An unexpected thread of tenderness, one that I quickly smother as I kiss her forehead and give myself a moment to rein in my thoughts before I look her in the eye again.

I will never be able to give her anything but this. Moments of pleasure. Nothing concrete. Nothing permanent. Later I will remind her. Make sure we’re on the same page. Given her feelings toward me before we went to bed, I doubt anything has changed for her either. But on the off chance our Paris confessions and frantic lovemaking shifted something between us, then we’ll have to go back to the way things were when we first arrived in France. Organized outings in public, distance in private.

Not my first choice. But I won’t be like my father. I won’t pretend to be anything but what I am. I won’t pretend to offer the world on a string before snipping it with casual cruelty and walking away without a backward glance. Juliette deserves more than that. So did my mother. So did the countless other women Lucifer used and discarded.

But as I pull Juliette’s naked body closer to mine, I vow not to bring anything up tonight. To ruin the aftermath of our first time together with more unkindness. She’s had enough of that from me. I may be damned tomorrow, but when it comes to the physicalness, I’m going to give into my every desire tonight.

As she curls into me, shock registers.

“What is it?” she asks.

“We didn’t use a condom.”

“I’m on the pill.”

“I’ve never not used protection myself before.”

The admission seems to touch her. “Well, I promise I’m safe. And healthy.”

“As am I.”

“Then stop worrying.” She says it so matter-of-factly I can’t help but smile. She yawns and stretches her arms, then starts to roll away.

“Where are you going?”

“To my room. I didn’t think...” Her voice trails off, and then she shrugs. “I just didn’t want to make any assumptions.”

I roll on top of her and pin her to the mattress.

“You’ve just been made love to in one of the most expensive hotel suites in Paris.”

She smiles. “Every woman’s fantasy.”

“Exactly.” I lean down and skim my lips along her jaw. “How can I let you go without seducing you at least once more?”

I’m using humor to hide that I want her again. That I’m not ready to let her leave my bed. Later, yes. I don’t sleep with lovers. It’s too intimate.

But I mean what I say. I can’t let her go. Eventually, yes. Just not yet.

Her eyes widen. “Again?”

I shift my hips, let her feel my body already stirring again at the thought of sliding in and being surrounded by her.

A sigh escapes her lips. “Well, if you insist.”

As she wraps her arms around my neck and presses her breasts against my chest, I banish the fear, the questions, everything but the feel and taste of my wife in my arms.