Page 26 of Contractually Wed

In a shimmery copper satin dress with flimsy straps and simple bodice that rippled like dark water when she came down the steps, Jia had looked soft and pretty as if she’d been tamed for one evening. And he liked that. Liked knowing that her true wildness was all his.

Only his.

Against the shimmery satin of her gown, her skin glowed and her tattoos stood out. The one at her collarbone, a bird in midflight, looked like it was fluttering its wings with how fast her pulse beat at her neck. Her hair pulled back and put up, called attention to the fine bones of her face, drawing out the fragility she hid beneath her tough attitude. Was that what her sisters and mother had already seen?

And had he, the arrogant fool, once thought her anything less than stunningly beautiful?

When she was almost to the bottom of the stairs, he noted the necklace nestled at her throat. The leaves and the pendant shone brilliantly against her skin, almost blending into the tattoo on the other side.

Catching his gaze on her neck, she smiled. A tremulous, hopeful one that he’d never before seen on her lips. He had never felt such feral satisfaction as he did at that moment, at seeing her sweet joy, knowing that his gift pleased her. Not his first million, not when he’d won multiple awards, not even when his goal of nearly two decades had finally been within reach.

The boisterous arrival of his extended family had saved him from examining the feeling too closely.

And now, as he walked up the stairs to his suite, he wondered at how that feeling still persisted, at how smoothly and irrevocably Jia seemed to fit into every aspect of his life.

He found her in the large claw-foot bathtub, in relative darkness except for a few beams of moonlight and a couple of flickering candles. The ceiling was all glass, which meant one could sit in the bathtub and view the stars. It was one of his favorite features in the house.

Candlelight and moonlight seemed to battle to bathe her silky skin in an ethereal glow.

As he closed the door behind him and leaned against it, her eyes opened. Shadows danced there and he wondered if the evening had exhausted her. His family could be a lot.

No, withdrawn, he amended, on second thought.

Why, he thought with a fierce protectiveness he had never known before. If someone had said unkind words to her because of who she was, they would face his wrath.

He had always wanted to provide for and protect his family, especially after Papa’s death, but this was different. This feeling had its claws deep in his bones. Was it simply his new determination that he would own everything about her?

“Hey,” she said, clutching her trembling lower lip between her teeth.

Pushing off from the door, he started unbuttoning his shirt. “Can I join you? Or would you like to play the tired-tonight-honey wife card?” he added, desperate to make her laugh.

She smiled and it just touched her eyes, pushing back the earlier shadows. “I thought that was when you wanted to avoid sex.”

A lick of fire came awake in his veins as her hazy gaze swept over his bare chest and lingered over his fingers at the band of his trousers. He unzipped and kicked off those and his boxers. Her mouth fell into an O, on the wave of a soft, helpless gasp.

As if tuned into that husky pitch of her, his cock grew to stiff attention.

“So you’re not averse to it,” he said, grinning. Pleasure was a river dragging him along in its undercurrent and he didn’t want to let up, not even for a breath.

“Not when you give it so good.”

He laughed, desire and a strange kind of joy fizzing through his veins.

“Plus, I have been given loads of advice, from your grandmother to your aunts as to how to manage you.”

“That sounds ominous,” he said, sliding into the tub.

It took a moment for her legs to settle between his, her feet ending up on his thighs. He grabbed one and kneaded the high arch.

She let out a hiss of pleasure, head thrown back. Water droplets clung to her long neck, inviting his mouth to lick up. “Christ, Apollo, is there anything you aren’t good at?”

She sounded so put-upon that he grinned. “Was anyone unkind to you? My aunts and cousins can be blunt and voluble.”

“No, if anything, they were all extra kind and open. Like I said, giving me all kinds of tidbits as to how to manage you.” She punctuated that by drawing on his chest with her foot. “Apparently, I have saved you from a horrible, loveless existence.”

When he tracked his fingers up her ankle, she pulled back with a giggle.

“Then why the shadows in those beautiful eyes,matia mou?”

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