The Love Islands Collection. Jane Porter

then just as fast as the kiss happened, it was over, with Nikos breaking it off and stepping back, muttering in Greek.

      She’d bet a thousand dollars he was cursing again.

      She looked up at him, and he looked grim as anything. Clearly he was regretting the kiss.

      She fled. It was that or collapse in a puddle on the kitchen floor.

      In her room, she locked the door and leaned against it, legs still shaking.

      What just happened?

      She’d never felt anything so consuming...pleasure and hunger and something else, something so intense that it continued to ripple through her in hot, dizzying waves.

      Desire. Lust. Need.

      Georgia exhaled slowly, trying to get control, needing to clear her head, and yet all she could feel was the pressure of Nikos’s body against hers and the feel of his mouth...as well as his taste.

      He tasted like heat and honey and licorice.

      She’d never tasted anything like it. And God help her, she wanted more.

      * * *

      Nikos headed out at dawn to run his mountain. It was what he did when he wasn’t calm, and couldn’t think.

      He put on running shoes and forced himself to run up his mountain to the top, where he’d put in the landing strip for his planes, and then at the top, he did wind sprints across the tarmac, letting the Cyclades northwesterly wind buffet him.

      By the time he was finished, he was exhausted. The beast had been subjugated. He could return to the house without fearing for Georgia’s safety.

      He couldn’t hurt her. He couldn’t scare her. He must not disgust her with his sexual appetite.

      That didn’t mean he didn’t still want her—he did—but he wouldn’t break her door down to put his mouth on her taut nipple or kiss behind her knee until she opened her thighs for him.

      As a boy he’d been fascinated by sex. As a young man he discovered he was quite good at it...pleasing women, making them sigh, making them come. He’d never imagined that you could like sex too much. It hadn’t crossed his mind that he liked it too much, at least, not until he married Elsa and everything he thought about the world was wrong.

      Correction, everything he thought about himself was wrong.

      He’d thought in the beginning she was just inexperienced. He imagined she’d just need time to get used to married life, but it only got worse with time. She’d close her eyes when he kissed her and then turn her head away when he entered her; she’d hold her breath, waiting for his “animal side” to end.

      Nikos had fallen in love with a woman who didn’t love him, or even like him. It was a disaster from the start, and by the time the marriage was over, he loathed everything about himself.

      And now Elsa’s doppelgänger was living in his house, her belly round with his son, and he’d kissed her, and the kiss had been potent.

      He wanted...

      He wanted her.

      But he couldn’t have her. He couldn’t. Even a monster like him could see why she was off-limits.

       CHAPTER SEVEN

      THE KISS CHANGED EVERYTHING.

      Georgia had thought they’d formed a tentative friendship, but that was gone. Nikos avoided her like the plague—including skipping drinks at sunset—and even dinner for two nights after the kiss.

      After two more days of punishing silence, Georgia went in search of him, which wasn’t easy. He wasn’t in his bedroom or the library. She circled the house, visiting each of the patios and terraces, as well as the pool. She returned to the house and checked all public rooms before going back to his bedroom. The staff said he was here; he hadn’t left Kamari, which meant he was somewhere else on Kamari.

      Georgia went out for a walk, determined to track him down. She finally found him on one of the more rugged paths that circled the mountain.

      He’d been running, and his gray shirt clung to his damp chest. He was breathing hard as he drew to a stop on the gravel path. “What are you doing out here?”

      She shrugged, not about to tell him that she’d been looking for him for almost an hour. “Getting some air.”

      “This isn’t one of the garden paths. You shouldn’t be this far from the villa.”

      “I’m less than a fifteen-minute walk from the house.”

      “But no one could hear you if you needed help. You need to stay close—”

      “Stop it. I’m not going to do this with you.”

      He shoved black hair back from his brow. A ruddy flush colored his cheekbones, and his dark eyes sparked. “I didn’t know you had an option.”

      She was fed up with his behavior. “I’m beginning to understand why you required a surrogate to provide you with an heir. No one else would have your baby.”

      He wagged his finger in front of her face, nearly tapping her lips. “Is your mouth good for nothing but insults?”

      She would have bitten his finger if she could. “Who do you think you are?”

      “Your host and home for the next trimester.” He leaned toward her, and his head dropped, his voice a deep rumble in her ear. “So I would try a bit harder to be cordial.”

      Heat radiated off him and she could smell the salt of his skin, and somehow on him, it was a good smell, but she didn’t like his attitude and wasn’t about to be scolded by him when he’d all but abandoned her for the past four days.

      She shoved her hand against his chest to back him off but only managed to gain a couple of inches. “Please tell me that not all Greek men are as barbaric as you.”

      The corner of his mouth lifted. His eyes, with that curious ring of espresso, glowed hot. She wasn’t sure what she saw there—frustration, yes—but there was something else, something powerful and seductive.

      “I’m not asking you to be a submissive.” His deep voice rumbled from his chest. “Just work with me.”

      “I’m trying! Can you not see that? It’s why I’m here now. Why I went looking for you—” She broke off, realizing what she’d said.

      He’d heard it, too, and he said nothing, content to just look at her, study her. Georgia felt the energy spark and grow. His dark eyes said things she knew he wouldn’t say aloud. There was a chemistry between them that always simmered but had been teased to a flame now.

      He wanted her. He found her attractive. And the attraction wasn’t one-sided. She found him physically desirable, but this wasn’t about love or long term. It was lust, plain and simple.

      His word came to her—carnal.

      She thought she was beginning to understand. He wanted her, and he’d bed her, and it would probably fulfill every sensual, sexual need, but that was all it would be. He wasn’t going to want a relationship with her after the baby was born. And for that matter, she didn’t want one, either. There was no future.

      This...attraction...was potent, but it was only a distraction. It was just something that would pass the time.

      But maybe that was a good thing.

      Maybe that was the right thing.

      Maybe she didn’t want anything from him but this...the sparks, the heat.

      From the moment she’d arrived there had been something raw and physical between them. They’d clashed over rules and she’d struggled for control, but she understood now that her struggle was resisting him.