Page 24 of Reclaimed By His Billion-Dollar Ring

He always could. Even when he was just a penniless student. No woman could resist him... Least of all me...

She turned on her back, letting her hair float out around her, and lifted her face to the westering sun, feeling its rays warming her cheeks even though the water was keeping the rest of her cool. As she drifted, arms splayed out for buoyancy, eyes closed against the bright sun, cradled by the warm Aegean sea, a memory seeped into her synapses.

A memory she could not hold at bay.

A memory she could not resist...

Even as she had not been able to resist Nik.

Their first night of passion...incandescent...unforgettable...

He’d been wooing her for a week. Seducing her slowly but surely. She knew it—welcomed it. Gloried in it. And now, this Friday night, she pulled out all the stops for him.

She and Georgia had been shopping, each determined to dress up for the evening, giggling as they made their choices.

Georgia wore a mini-dress, showing off her long legs, but Calanthe had opted for a vermilion floaty, calf-length peasant-style gathered skirt and an embroidered blouson, worn off her shoulders, and espadrilles to make her taller. She was letting her glorious hair cascade freely down her back. And when she saw the look in Nik’s eyes as she approached she knew with every female instinct that tonight...oh, tonight...the kisses she had come to yearn for would become so much more...

When the lively meal finally ended, and only the hardcore students remained, she and Nikos stood up from the table. Georgia and Dave were leaning close, heads together, murmuring sweet nothings to each other, and she was glad for them.

Gladder still for herself.

Was she in love? She didn’t know. She only knew the wonder that netted her and the way her heart lifted every time she saw Nik. The way her pulse quickened, her breathing became shallow, and the way she longed for him to sweep her up to him, wind his strong arms around her, bend his mouth to hers...

And she knew that he, and he alone, was all that she wanted and craved...

They wandered through the warm Aegean night, his arm around her waist, she leaning into him, down the cobbled streets to where his little pensione was. He was taking her to his place, for she knew that Georgia would want the room they shared in their own little apartment for herself and Dave.

And she was ready for this—totally, completely ready.

He kissed her in the doorway, slow and sensuous, arousing, then asked, ‘Is this what you want? You must be sure, Calanthe.’

His dark eyes poured into hers.

She wound her arms around his neck.

‘Yes,’ she breathed. ‘Oh...yes!’

He smiled and led her indoors, up the narrow wooden stairs. Inside his room it was warm, but a thread of cooling breeze came through the open window overlooking the harbour. The narrow bed awaited them—with just room for two.

He turned her to him, smiled down at her. ‘This week,’ he said huskily, ‘has been an eternity.’

Then slowly, very slowly, he eased down the loosely gathered neckline of her blouson, slipping it over her shoulders...exposing her breasts...lowering his mouth to graze their ripening mounds.

She gave a moan of pleasure, leaning back, and felt her nipples cresting. Each gliding soft caress of his mouth, of the tingling tip of his tongue as it laved her, sent ripples of exquisite bliss through her.

Her moan came again, and then, as he lifted his mouth away from her, it became a cry of loss.

He smiled. ‘Oh, sweet Calanthe, the feast has only just begun...’

And he showed her.

He slid the blouson from her...slid down, too, the gathered skirt, so that it fell in a dark pool to the floor. She stood there with only her wispy panties remaining. He reached out a finger to her, never taking his eyes from hers, and ran it along the waistline of the material. She thought she must die of bliss.

But the bliss, like the feast, had only just begun.

He eased the material down and she stepped out of it. Her heart was beating like a drum, her pulse throbbing in her veins. She heard his breath catch.

‘So beautiful...’ There was a husk in his voice...a rasp.

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