and heat, he was so male. Her five-inch stilettos made up for the height difference between them until she was perfectly molded against him. Muscular thighs straddled hers. His granite chest grazed the tips of her breasts, making her nipples tighten and ache. And against her belly... Maledizione, his arousal was lengthening and hardening.
Damp heat uncurled between Tina’s thighs. A whimper flew from her mouth—a needy and desperate plea for more. She clenched her thighs on instinct. “I do not even use my hands or my mouth. Yet you’re damp and ready for me, ne?”
Breath shallow, she fought for control over her body, over the hunger he lit so easily. “As you said, it’s why other men follow me around. I’m hot and uninhibited in bed, si? I could always match your sexual appetite and we both know it’s insatiable. That I’m like a bitch in heat right now is not a point in your favor. You give good sex, Kairos. It was the one place where I was happy as your wife.”
A lick of temper awakened in his silver eyes. “Tell me, Valentina. Do you get hot like this for any other man? For the fool lying in the bed behind us?” He twisted his hips in that way of his.
His erection rubbed against the lips of her sex and she jerked.
Pleasure was a fork in her spine, setting fire along her nerves. She could feel that thick rigidness inside her, could see the tight control etched onto his features as he moved inside her. She craved the softening of his gaze, the few moments of the real Kairos, tender and caring, that she used to glimpse after he found his release.
And she still wanted that man. Like a puppy that had been kicked but still came back for more.
His mouth was at her cheekbone and his stubble chafed her lips. A wet, open kiss at her pulse. “I have other uses for you, wife...along with a few more months in my bed.” His hands moved to cup her buttocks and pulled her against his hardness.
His mouth trailed lazily along her jawline, heading for her lips—the depth of her want, the fire along her skin—and she could taste the release in her fevered muscles.
“Admit defeat, Valentina. You can pretend all you want but your best bet is to be a rich man’s trophy wife. It is not a bad role for you. Accept your limitations. Adjust your expectations. Just as I did when your brother Luca stood in the way of the Conti board CEO position. I want nothing more from a wife, and who knows? You can maybe even persuade me to give this marriage another try.”
He was angry she had walked out.
No, not angry, she realized, running shaking hands through her hair.
He was furious with an icy, cold edge to it. Every word and caress of his was meant to provoke her with its cruelty. She’d never seen him like that.
It was more temper than she’d seen of him in all of their relationship so far—and, by God, she’d done every awful thing she could think of to provoke it.
But he wasn’t asking her back. He didn’t want to give their marriage another chance. He didn’t want to give her a chance.
No, all he wanted was a sop to his male ego. All he wanted was to punish her for daring to leave him, for calling him out on his ruthless ambition.
That pain gave her a rope with which to climb out of the sensual haze. To deny herself what she’d never been able to before—his touch.
“Please, Kairos, release me.”
The moment the words were out of her mouth, he let her go. Pupils drenched with lust, he stared at her as if he couldn’t believe she could put a stop to it.
Shaking but determined to hold herself up, she met his gaze. “What do I have to do to get you to agree to a divorce? To get you to leave me alone?”
He looked taken aback but recovered fast. “Three months as my wife.”
“Why? Why do you need me now? Other than because you want to punish me for walking out on you?”
“I have a debt to pay to Theseus.”
“The man who brought you home from the streets, the one who adopted you?”
“Ne.”
“And for this, you need to have a wife?”
“Yes. His daughter Helena—”
“Is causing trouble between you and him? You want me to take her on? I don’t understand how your wife’s presence will help...” The words trailed away from her lips as she saw his closed off expression. A mocking laugh rose. “Non, I’ve got it, I think. The daughter wants you and you want to say no without hurting anyone’s feelings. How noble of you, Kairos.”
His brow cleared, relief dawning in his eyes. “Theseus deserves nothing less from me.”
The depth of his sincerity shook Tina. She had never seen Kairos feel that strongly about anyone or anything. Except wealth and power and the amassing of it.
“This is the only way you get your divorce, Valentina.”
“You cannot drag me back into that life against my will.”
“But I can fight the divorce proceedings. Make your life into the media circus that you suddenly appear to abhor. And even worse, one wrong word or move from me toward you will bring forth your brothers’ fury upon me and their interference in your life...if you truly intend to make it on your own, that would be hell.”
Tina stared at him, amazed despite the anger pouring through her. He was calling her bluff about all this—the new direction she wanted to take in life.
She was damned if she answered it, damned if she didn’t. She didn’t want to spend another moment with him and yet he had left her no choice.
She sighed. “You will release me when things are clarified?”
“When things are clarified to my satisfaction, yes. No sooner. I’m warning you, Valentina, I want a perfect wife. No tantrums. No reckless escapades. You could even leave with the fat settlement the divorce will award you with the satisfaction that you’ve truly earned it. A novel feeling, I assure you.”
“And if I sleep with you to earn it, you will have truly made me a whore, si, Kairos? Will your dented ego be repaired then? Because, hear me out, Kairos. My body might be willing but my heart is not.”
The growl he swallowed down filled her with vicious satisfaction.
Valentina smiled for the first time in nine months.
Now all she’d have to do was convince herself of what she had told him.
WHAT DO I have to do to get you to leave me alone?
She truly wanted out of their marriage.
The realization moved through Kairos like an earthquake as he stared down at her sleeping form in the rear cabin of his private jet.
He’d only thought of how he would punish her when he found her. How good she would feel under him once again. How he would provoke her temper until she came at him all explosive fury and uncontained passion.
But she’d done nothing of the sort.
Oh, she’d lost control a couple of times and given him back as much as he’d deserved, but that was nothing to the Valentina he had known.
It was as if he was looking at a stranger.
If I sleep with you to earn it, you will have truly made me a whore.
Christos, only she could find such an appalling twist to what he had suggested.
But then since he was blackmailing her into his bed, was it any wonder that she had fought dirty?
He