Modern Romance December 2016 Books 1-4. Кейт Хьюит

want you too. Very much so.’

      ‘Then why not?’

      ‘It will complicate things—’

      She glanced down at her rucked-up shirt, her legs sprawled across his lap, the hard and intriguing bulge of his arousal against her calf. ‘Things are already pretty complicated.’

      Angelos let out a groan and leaned his head back against the chair. ‘Talia, you’re going to kill me.’

      ‘Then surely it will be a pleasant death?’ Some inner vixen emboldened her to press her palms against his chest, stroking the hard planes of muscles, teasing his nipples. She ached to touch him, and the evidence of his response as he groaned again and his body stirred was utterly thrilling. She leaned forward, her hair brushing his cheek, and pressed a kiss to his lips. ‘Please, Angelos,’ she whispered, ‘don’t make me beg.’

      He caught her face in his hands and forced her to meet his fierce gaze. ‘If you’re sure?’

      ‘Of course I’m sure.’

      Angelos stared at her for a long, hard moment and then he nodded. ‘All right, then. Come with me,’ he said, and in one fluid movement he caught her up in his arms and strode from the study, up the stairs and to his bedroom.

       CHAPTER FOURTEEN

      ANTICIPATION RACED THROUGH Talia as she hooked her arms around Angelos’s neck and held on. He entered his bedroom, kicking the door closed behind him, before he deposited Talia on the huge bed, its dark silken sheets slippery beneath her.

      She stared up at him, her eyes wide as he began to unbutton his shirt. She’d seen his bare chest before when they’d gone swimming but she’d never seen him like this—eyes dark, liquid and burning with intensity, his long, elegant fingers slipping his buttons out of their holes, his gaze never leaving hers.

      She let out her breath in a shaky rush and wondered if she should tell him how untouched she was. But surely he knew? Since she’d confessed to living like a hermit for seven years?

      ‘You’re not having second thoughts?’ Angelos asked in a low voice.

      ‘No, of course not.’ Her whole body throbbed and ached with the need to feel him again. Touch him again.

      ‘I don’t have any birth control,’ he told her, his hands stilling on his shirt as his gaze widened in realisation. ‘I’ve never...’ Talia gaped in astonishment as a light blush touched his cheekbones. ‘I haven’t needed any here.’

      ‘I’m on the pill,’ Talia assured him. She’d been on it since she was sixteen, to regulate her heavy periods. ‘And as for...other stuff, I’m not...that is, I’m...’ She was trying to tell him she was a virgin, but Angelos cut her off with a nod.

      ‘So am I.’ Somehow she didn’t think he was talking about virginity. ‘Clear,’ he clarified, and she realised she must have been looking blank.

      ‘Oh. Right. Well, then...’ The moment for telling Angelos she was a virgin had passed. Talia didn’t want to ruin the mood, and he seemed like the kind of man who might scruple at taking a woman’s virginity.

      ‘It’s all good,’ he said, his smile turning wolfish as he finished unbuttoning his shirt and shrugged the crisp white cotton from his glorious shoulders. Talia was glad not to have to explain, especially since she seemed to have lost the ability to speak or even to think. Angelos, with his hair rumpled, his eyes burning and his chest bare, was an utterly magnificent sight.

      She watched, her mouth dry and her heart pounding, as his hands went to his belt buckle, and then stopped.

      ‘Don’t...’ she breathed, and he frowned.

      ‘Don’t what?’

      ‘Don’t stop,’ she clarified on a groan and, amazed at her own audacity, she reached for him, her fingers sliding around his belt buckle so she could tug him towards her.

      He put one arm out to brace his fall, landing beside her on the bed, his body lean and hard, hot and bare. Gently Talia skimmed her fingers along his chest, her fingers brushing the crisp dark hair, teasing, questing.

      ‘I’ve been wanting to do this for a while,’ she admitted on a laugh, and then because she couldn’t keep herself from it, she pressed a kiss to his chest. Angelos groaned and rolled onto his back, taking her with him.

      ‘You are so very sweet.’

      ‘I’m... I’m not sure I’m very good at this,’ she confessed, which was as close as she was willing to come to admitting she was completely inexperienced.

      ‘Trust me, you are very good at this,’ Angelos said. He slid his hands under her T-shirt, his palms exquisitely rough against the smooth skin of her back. With one swift tug he had the shirt up and over her head and she struggled to pull it off, laughing breathlessly until her naked breasts came into contact with his chest and then she gasped in the sheer pleasure of the sensation.

      ‘Oh...that feels good.’

      Angelos grinned up at her as he started to tug off her shorts. ‘We’re just beginning.’

      Another tug and her shorts were gone, and she lay before him completely naked, utterly exposed, and yet she felt no nervousness or vulnerability. She basked in his appreciative stare, the way his pupils flared as his gaze roved over her.

      He reached out and cupped her breast, his thumb moving slowly over the peak. Talia arched up helplessly to meet his hand.

      ‘You are so beautiful,’ Angelos rasped, his eyes dark with desire.

      ‘You’re beautiful,’ she answered on a gasp, and he laughed softly before he put his mouth to her breast and Talia gasped again, her hands fisting in his hair, as pleasure rippled through her in exquisite shocks. ‘Oh...’ She sucked in a hard breath as he moved his mouth to her other breast. ‘Oh, I didn’t know...’

      He lifted his head to glance at her, lazily amused. ‘Didn’t know what?’

      ‘That you could feel...’ She trailed off, overcome, because Angelos was giving her so much, showing her so much. If she hadn’t come to Greece...if she hadn’t been able to feel this way, to know you could feel this way...

      It didn’t matter that it would end in a few weeks or even that night, Talia told herself fiercely. It didn’t matter if she left Greece heartbroken and alone. She had this, and it would be enough. She would never regret it.

      ‘Talia...’ Angelos propped himself up one elbow as he looked down at her, his smile soft, his expression unbearably tender. ‘Talia, are you all right?’

      She realised how close she was to weeping, not with sorrow, but with sheer emotion. With joy. ‘I’m fine,’ she assured him, and kissed him hard, wrapping her arms around him, pressing her naked body to his. ‘I’m completely and utterly wonderful.’

      Angelos caught her up in the kiss, his tongue tangling with hers as his arms came around her, clasping her to him.

      He flipped her onto her back, making her let out a sudden laugh of surprise, and then slowly he slid his hand down her body, savouring each dip and curve before he pressed his palm to the juncture of her thighs.

      Talia let out a little yelp of shock and Angelos glanced at her, one eyebrow quirked in question.

      ‘That feels...’

      ‘Good?’ he finished as his fingers touched her more intimately than she’d ever imagined.

      ‘Yes,’ she gasped as her hips arched instinctively. ‘Yes...’

      She felt her body convulse as pleasure ripped through her in deepening waves, so an instinct she hadn’t even known she’d possessed took over, driving her forward. She grabbed Angelos’s