The Savakis Merger (15 page)

Callie’s heart squeezed for the pain mixed with pleasure she read there.

Instinctively she reached to cup his face, to offer the comfort of a kiss, but he moved too fast.

One moment he was there, staring down with the eyes of a tortured man. The next he’d dropped to his knees, hands spanning her waist as he suckled her left breast.

Her moan of ecstasy shuddered through the cubicle as he drew out pleasure so sharp she thought she’d faint. She cradled him, arching forward to meet his lips, his tongue, his teeth. Delight speared her and she shook, grateful for the wall at her back, hands propping her up.

Then he moved once more, nipping tiny erotic bites at her waist and belly that sent flashes of electricity jagging through her. Callie’s head thudded against the tiles as weakness invaded her very bones.

Too late she realised his intentions. Broad hands pushed her thighs apart. Her eyes widened as she felt his hot breath between her legs.

‘No!’ Her head jerked forward and she met his arrested gaze. ‘Don’t.’

For a moment her brain seized, absorbing the sight of him there, kneeling like a supplicant before her. Heat twisted in her chest and her heart thundered.

‘No?’

She shook her head, her hands pushing at his shoulders. Her reaction was purely instinctive.

‘I don’t…’ Her words petered out under his unwavering stare. How gauche she must seem in her inexperience. ‘I haven’t ever…’

His gaze seared hers as the water cascaded around them, drumming on the tiles. His expression was unreadable.

‘Then allow me.’ He waited only a second for her response but it stuck to the roof of her mouth, like her tongue.

Then it was too late. Damon leaned in and nuzzled her in that most secret place. Sensations assailed her: sharper, more acute than she’d ever experienced.

Callie’s fingers curled into claws as his tongue flicked out and traced a fiery path of ecstasy right at her core. She shuddered and clung to him, dazzled by the intensity of what he made her feel. Again and again. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. Could only sag back against the tiles as rivulets of fire burned through her, igniting the most exquisite reactions.

She’d never dreamed…

‘Damon. Please…’ Her keening cry choked into silence as, like a red-hot lava flow, the momentum of pleasure built to an unstoppable surge.

Her knees gave way as sensation exploded, racking her body with wave upon wave of delight.

She shuddered and collapsed, sated and trembling as aftershocks of pleasure reverberated again and again. Her mind was a dazed whirl at this stunning new experience. At the gift he’d given her.

Hazily she was aware of Damon moving, holding her close, his solid body warm against hers. She sank against him, boneless in his embrace.

‘Thank you,’ she whispered against his broad shoulder as another aftershock hit her. Her words were slurred.

‘It was my pleasure.’ His voice was a deep rumble she felt through her chest as he held her to him.

But he didn’t let her sink into oblivion. A moment later the suck of his mouth on her nipple shot exquisite pleasure through her, echoing the pulse of her fading climax. She jerked in his arms, zapped by a jolt of electrical current.

‘And it’s not over yet,’ he said as his hands circled her waist and lifted her off her feet.

Callie’s eyes snapped open as she felt slippery tiles at her back again.

She looked down into fever-bright eyes, a furrowed brow and a mouth drawn in a tight line of concentration. She barely had time to register that she was no longer standing when he stepped close, under her.

‘Lift your legs,’ Damon ordered in a hoarse, unrecognisable voice.

Gripping his shoulders, Callie complied, her knees encircling his hips as he lowered her, with excruciating slowness, till they joined.

Her breath stopped on a gasp of astonished delight.

She’d thought herself sated. Yet even that lightning bolt of ecstasy hadn’t satisfied her as this did—the two of them together as one, inextricably whole.

Callie leaned in, wrapping him closer. She was open to him and part of him so completely. Emotion welled, filling the hollow place where fear and defiance and loneliness had resided so long. She wanted to please him as he had her. She wanted to give him—

The abrupt, urgent rocking of his body against hers blasted thought from her brain. Instinctively she clung tight, curving herself round him to counter and enhance each hard thrust. His hands slid down to clamp her hips and he sank his teeth against her neck in a tender bite that sent rockets of heat corkscrewing into her veins.

Callie’s eyes were closing as a shadow of movement across the room caught her eye. In the far mirror wall she saw Damon, all superb male power, his buttocks clenching with each upward surge. His biceps huge and solid as he held her. Pale legs encircled his dark skin, pale fingers grasped his wide shoulders.

Together they looked…they looked…

One final potent thrust and the conflagration engulfed them both.

A roar of triumph rent the air. Damon pulsed urgently within and her muscles contracted hard, welcoming and encouraging.

Sensation erupted as she rode the powerful wave of pleasure with her lover.

She clasped him close, their hearts thundering together, completion shuddering through them, binding them as one. Callie knew moment after moment of purest joy, then awareness began to slide and she slumped against him.

Eventually, dimly she became aware of the drumming sound ceasing, of the pounding water ending. Still she clung to him, not wanting to dispel the magic encompassing them.

Gentle hands, strong hands moved against her. Plush, warm towelling enveloped her. A voice murmured in her ear, drawing her back to reality.

‘Relax your legs, Callie.’ Firm pressure forced her to unlock her ankles and let her legs slip down. Taut muscles groaned at the release of pressure and she trembled.

Her feet touched the ground but she couldn’t stand. She was sinking out of his hold when powerful arms scooped her high against a chest that still thundered, like her own.

‘I’m sorry,’ she mumbled. ‘I can’t seem to—’

‘It’s all right, Callie mou.’

She lifted weighted lids to see Damon watching. He wore an expression she barely recognized: tenderness mixed with puzzlement. And more that she was too weary to comprehend.

Her lips curved as rare peace filled her. She turned her face into him.

Her palm rose to the slick warmth of his chest.

Then the world slipped away and all Callie’s cares with it.

CALLIE woke alone.

It was early morning, judging by the light rimming the curtains. She swept the bed with her hand. It was warm from Damon’s body. His spicy scent mingled with the musky fragrance of sex, making her weak, remembering.

Emotion catapulted through her, feelings so potent yet so jumbled they barely made sense. Through the long night they’d been lovers. To her overwrought senses, her befuddled brain, it seemed lovers was the right word. That they’d shared more than mere sex.

There’d been tenderness, a generous warmth that had transported her back to that magical afternoon on the island, when the whole world had seemed brighter because of Damon. When for the first time everything had seemed right.

Was she fooling herself again?

Callie forced drooping eyelids open, as if morning light could oust the fantasies lingering after a night of bliss.

She ached in places she’d never before ached. Her body was replete, her limbs heavy. Yet energy zinged in her veins as never before. She wanted to leap out of bed and dance, to climb a mountain top and shout her joy.

In Damon’s arms she’d felt…cherished.

Callie stared at the indentation on the empty pillow beside hers. What did it signify?

Her burgeoning happiness fizzled as if doused in cold water.

It didn’t take a genius to work it out. It meant he’d had what he wanted and now he was getting ready for the day ahead. A day in which again she had no part.

All that had changed was this time, instead of making do with an embrace that left them both unsatisfied and on edge, Damon had enjoyed her body to the full. Several times.

She meant nothing to him but carnal pleasure. And of course, an added twist to his revenge on the Manolis family.

She satisfied his ego.

She’d spent years satisfying her husband’s ego.

Yet Damon was infinitely more dangerous than Alkis. Damon got closer to her long-buried emotions. He’d stripped away the façade behind which she hid, the veneer of cool sophistication that concealed the needy, vulnerable woman.

It was just imagination, hormones, forbidden fantasies that made last night seem special. She couldn’t let that cloud her determination to remain aloof and preserve herself from the devastation he’d inflict if she let him close.

She had to do what Damon did so well—separate sex and emotion.

Compartmentalise her life and keep her feelings locked away. He’d never suffer romantic daydreams about her.

Callie marshalled her resolve. She would be strong. Damon would never realise how profoundly he’d affected her.

How for a short time he’d reawakened naïve, girlish dreams of happily-ever-after with a man who seemed perfect for her. Caring and patient when she was in pain. Tender yet powerful and outrageously seductive in bed.

Spinning threads of wonder and ecstasy that stopped her thinking straight.

Allowing her control. The right to choose. She blinked furiously. How precious that had seemed last night.

Yet there’d been no choice. She’d been utterly ensnared by his potent seduction. Unable to escape. And he knew it.

The man she’d fallen for was a fantasy. He was not Damon. She had to remember that.

Callie would go her own way as soon as she could. Carve a future for herself. Despite her lack of qualifications or work experience, she’d find a job and save. No matter how many years it took she’d earn enough to start her business, achieve her dream. She’d live her own life.

It would be all right.

Why, then, did her eyes mist with hot, prickling tears as her hand slid over that empty pillow? Why did her lip wobble so she had to bite down hard to keep it still and stifle the wrenching sob of pain that rose in her aching throat?

This was what she’d feared. Not the physical intimacy, though she’d known moments of doubt last night as Damon led her down paths, to experiences that were completely new. It was the sense of being swamped, overwhelmed by a force stronger than herself, that threatened to steal her identity.

The force binding her to Damon was stronger than blackmail. Her craving for tenderness had become a shackle, tying her to a man who would never care for her.

Callie would resist it. She refused to be a victim any longer.

Damon whistled softly between his teeth as he towelled his hair. Even the cold shower, necessary to keep his libido in check long enough to get out the door to the office, hadn’t doused his buoyant mood.

She was his. At last Callie was his. She was as delicious as he remembered.

More. She was…more.

He’d never felt so jubilant after a night with a lover.

His hands stilled as the thought flashed into his brain that Callie wasn’t like his previous women.

He ignored the idea. It was simply the result of supreme sexual satisfaction. Sex had never been this good. Callie was more than anything he’d ever imagined.

It had been tempting to stay in bed, consigning his morning’s meetings to oblivion.

Far too tempting.

Damon prided himself on his willpower. He hadn’t got where he was by getting sidetracked. He didn’t intend to start now. Especially when, for all her sweet abandon, he knew remaining would be a measure of her power over him.

No woman had that sort of power.

He turned to drape the towel over a rail then froze as a thought lodged.

He felt more pleasure, more excitement finally having Callie where he wanted her than at acquiring Manolis Enterprises. That had once loomed above him like an unreachable goal.

A woman, this woman, meant more than the goal that had sent him into business all those years ago.

Hair prickled his nape and a twist of something like apprehension coiled in his belly.

Impossible!

Swiftly he dressed, holding at bay the subversive snippets of thought that threatened to distract him.

How his lust for business success had faded this last year or two.

Outstripped now by his lust for one woman.

No! He wasn’t a one-woman man. Not yet. Not till the time came to settle down and start a family.

How Callie had been everything he’d expected, yet different.

Unexpected. In some ways almost innocent.

Could it be? After years of marriage? After the way she’d come to him the first time: so easy and uninhibited?

No, it was a tactic she’d used to excite him. Her apparent surprise and inexperience in the shower just showed she could pander to a man’s fantasies—playing the role of shy ingénue to complement her obvious sensuality.

Yet his hands slowed on his shirt buttons, remembering the look on her face as he’d knelt before her: trepidation mixed with excitement.

She’d acted like an inexperienced virgin.

He knew for a fact she was anything but that.

Deftly he tucked in his shirt and reached for a comb. The surge of heat in his groin, the warmth in his chest slowly dissipated.