Page 16 of Contractually Wed

“I imagine that would bother the all-knowing Apollo Galanis.” Sarcasm dripped from every word. “What is it that you don’t get?”

“Why did it hurt you this much? By your own admission, chemistry is not a big deal.”

She looked away and then he was there, too close. Her nostrils filled with his cologne and sweat, the air around her suddenly warm with his body heat. His fingers landed on her cheek again. It took everything she had to not lean into the touch, to not give herself over into his hands.

Two fingers became his whole palm. He clasped her jaw and tilted her face up. Warm lights flickered in gray eyes, reminding her of her favorite lighthouse on the bay back home. “Why?”

Something about the way he said the one word got under her skin. She licked her lips, willing her body to stay strong. “Everything else between us is for others. You and my father and Rina and the company and that decades’ old revenge, all of it is tainted and twisted. But this attraction between us...it’s mine and real and it was the only thing that kept me going.”

Her breath became a balloon as she waited for him to push her away, to call her a sentimental fool, to remind her of the terms of their engagement.

Instead, his eyes searched hers, as if he wanted to plumb the very depths of her. His large hand spanned her jaw until the pad of his thumb rested against the pulse at her neck. She could feel its thrashing beat against his flesh, begging for something she shouldn’t want.

“I should very much like to kiss you, Tornado. Now.”

“To seal the deal now that you know I’m actually good? To keep me compliant enough so that I’ll give it my all? To give me just enough to keep me panting—”

His lips fused with hers, and a shuddering breath left her, leaving trails of agony in its wake.

“Because you’re right, and this is too good and too real to not celebrate,” he whispered against her mouth and there was no turning back.

Jia rubbed her lips against his, and his hands wandered from her neck to her shoulders to her hips. He pulled her flush against him, her arms went around his shoulders, her fingers sank into his hair and he was kissing her as if he meant to devour her whole.

It was different, this kiss, rough and heavy with three weeks of desperate wanting.

Hewas different, and it showed in how he licked and nipped at her lips, how he demanded access and swept his tongue through her mouth, how he lifted her until she wrapped her legs around his waist as if it was a move they’d performed for years.

His unfiltered need stoked hers. His mouth at her neck, trailing down to the valley between her breasts, made her breath shallow out. Jia writhed herself against his growing shaft, her mouth dry, her head dizzy with pleasure. He was hard and thick and she wanted more.

Pressing her back into the wall, Apollo rocked his erection into the cradle of her thighs, hitting the exact spot where she needed it. How she needed it. Her eyes nearly rolled back in her head at the pressure building, roiling. God, she might come just dry humping him like this and she didn’t even care and...

Suddenly, the door to his private office flew open and four women of varying ages stood in the entryway, eyes wide in their faces.

“Apollo!Shame on you,” said the oldest woman, and Jia wanted to sob because her release was flying away and her lower belly felt empty and abandoned and she thought she might never get the one thing she’d given herself permission to want from her husband.

Apollo released her legs from around his hips with a muttered curse, and still holding her, straightened her top and jacket with gentle care. Jia hid her face in his chest. His quick buss at her temple and harshly whispered reassurances made warmth curl through her. And she wondered, in that lust-heavy haze, if protecting her wasn’t simply protecting his asset but something more.

Just a sliver more.

Just a teensy bit particularly-about-her more.

Her knees trembled when her feet hit the floor, but he held on, and Jia had the craziest thought that he would always catch her, no matter what. And the thought was both exciting and terrifying.

“Apollo! Explain this! At once!” the older woman repeated in fractured English.

Jia snuck a quick look at him and was bemused to see a strip of dark color streak his cheeks.

She turned but remained behind him, reluctant to meet people who’d hate her on sight, just when she was getting used to him. There was no doubt who these women were.

“Hello, Mama. Hello, Christina, Chiara, Camilla.”

When it became clear that Apollo wasn’t going to budge from his place—he couldn’t even if he wanted to for Jia was clinging to him like a jellyfish—his mother advanced into the room while one of his sisters closed the door.

“You arrive in Athens three weeks ago and don’t even tell your family. You don’t bring your new bride to meet us. And when I come into your office to give you a piece of my mind, I find you kissing some teenage...”

“Floozy,” one of the sisters supplied helpfully.

Apollo’s mother shook her head, and Jia’s respect for the women grew, along with the hysterical chuckle in her chest.

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