Page 36 of Contractually Wed

“It’s what you wanted all along?”

“Yes.”

“If you promise that—”

“He will never forgive you.”

“Someday, he will realize that I protected him, that I did only what was best for them. But for now, it will be over.”

“He will never realize that, never give you what you’re seeking.”

“What I choose to believe is my prerogative,ne?” she said, imitating his gruff tone. “So, tell me, will it be over?”

“Will what be over?”

“Your...revenge. This pursuit of his destruction.”

“You’re not signing your stock over to me. What I want will be mine, soon.”

“Yes, we’ve established that, Apollo. And really, I’m just...”

“Just what,agapi?”

“I’m thinking of what I want my life to look like in a few years. Thinking of whatI wantfor the first time,” she said, giving free rein to the emotions sitting like a tight fist at the center of her chest. It was easier when she wasn’t looking into that unfathomable gray gaze and wondering if she’d one day drown. “I haven’t ever, you know. Thought about what I want, where I want to live, how I want to work and—”

“Let me know when you figure out the specifics.”

“Why?”

“So that I can give it to you.”

Jia shivered at the steely resolve in those words. Apparently, there was no doubt in his head that he wanted to be married to her for the distant future.

She didn’t know what to make of that certainty. Was this chemistry and compatibility enough for him? Did he truly think they could last a lifetime with their pasts so murkily tangled and their foundation built on a cold arrangement? “That’s an ambitious promise,” she finally said, running her fingers over the coarse hair on this forearm.

His laughter spread ripples on the back of her neck. “You married a man for whom nothing is impossible. I thought you understood your commitment to me.”

She could feel his frown like a burn on her cheek as he fully turned toward her, almost angry that her emotions, and she, dared to not follow his dictates. And that made her smile. Because underneath all the ruthless bluster and grumpy dictates, her husband hid a heart of gold.

One hairy, muscled leg thrown over hers, he pulled her closer, and his mouth descended to her neck. That spot where once he kissed her, she lost all reason and logic and self-preservation.

She arched her neck as his teeth grazed the sensitive spot, dampness blooming between her thighs, as easily as if flipping a switch.

“All this talk of your restlessness has made me restless. Only one thing would cure it,” he said, each word pinging over her skin.

“It’s always only one thing with you,” she said, stretching into his touch.

“I want to be inside you,” he said, laving the bite with his tongue. Breathing the words into her skin. “Now. Say yes,agapi.Parakalo.”

When Jia might have turned toward him, he stopped her, one arm crisscrossing between her bare breasts, and the other hand coasting down her side, waist to hip to thigh, finger slowly creeping across her lower belly. Tiny trembles began to skitter across her flesh like ripples on water.

“You’re distracting me and it won’t...” she whispered, but the thought never fully formed as he dipped his fingers into her folds.

She jerked as he pinched her clit, and traced every inch of her aching flesh until her wetness coated his fingers, and then he told her how it felt when he was inside of her, and how she clenched tight when she thought he might retreat, and how he thought it couldn’t get better when he came inside of her but it did. Every single time, it got better.

Words and fingers and lips...he used them all to drive her out of her skin.

She wanted to protest—she wanted to talk to him—but God, the man was enormously talented and Jia moaned as he speared her with two fingers.

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