lust, she fought to answer him. ‘Don’t count on it. I have a few rules of my own. This is one of them.’
The very tip of his tongue traced her lower lip, again with the fleetest of touches, and the fiery blaze of need raged through her. ‘What’s another?’
‘Not to get involved with the boss.’
‘Hmm, that’s one I agree with.’
‘Then...what are you doing?’ she asked plaintively.
‘Proving that this isn’t more than temporary insanity.’ His voice reflected the dazed confusion she felt.
‘Won’t walking away prove the same thing? As you said, this might not be exactly wise.’
‘Or this is nothing but a no-big-deal kiss. It’ll only become a big deal if we aren’t able to handle what happens afterwards.’
No big deal. Was it really? And would it hurt to experience just a kiss? They were both clothed...well, he was technically only half-clothed...but she could put the brakes on this any time she wanted...couldn’t she?
‘Afterwards?’ she blurted.
‘Yes, when we go back to what we are. You’ll continue to be the aficionado who runs my business life and I’ll be the boss who demands too much of you.’
‘Or we could stop this right now. Pretend it never happened?’
A hard gleam entered his eyes. ‘Pretence has never been my style. I leave that to people who wish to hide their true colours; who want the world to perceive them as something other than what they are. I detest people like that, Moneypenny.’ His mouth dropped another centimetre closer, his hands tightening around her waist as his eyes darkened with hot promise. ‘It’s why I won’t pretend that the thought of kissing you, of being inside you, hasn’t been eating me alive these past few days. It’s also why I know neither of us will misconstrue this. Because you’re above pretence. You’re exactly who you say you are. Which is why I appreciate you so much.’
He kissed her then, his mouth devouring hers with a hunger so wild, so ferocious, it melted every single thought from her head.
Which was fortunate. Because otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to stop herself from showing her reaction to his stark words; from blurting out that she was not even remotely who he thought she was.
SAKIS FELT HER moan of desire shudder through her sexy body and groaned in return. Theos, he’d been so determined not to be seen by another woman in the work environment in the way that Giselle had portrayed him in court and in the media that he’d deliberately blinded himself to just how sexy, how utterly feminine and incredibly gorgeous, Brianna was. Now he let his reeling senses register her attributes—the hands’ span soft but firm curve of her bare waist underneath his fingers; the saucy shape of her bottom and the way the supple globes felt in his hands.
And Theos, her mouth! Delicious and silky soft, it was pure torture just imagining it around the hard, stiff part of his anatomy. Sure enough, the image slammed into his brain, firing the mother lode of all sex bombs straight to his groin.
He wanted her with a depth that seriously disturbed him. He wanted her spread underneath him, naked and needy, in endless positions...
She gave a hitched cry as his tongue breached her sweet plump lips and mercilessly plunged in. He was being too rough. His brain fired at him to slow down but he couldn’t pull back. He’d had a taste of her but somehow that first taste had demanded a second, a third...
He pressed down harder, demanding more of her. His hips ground into her lower body until he was fully cradled between her thighs but even that wasn’t enough. His hands cupped her breasts and another shudder raked through her as his fingers tweaked her nipples. Blood roared through his ears at the thought of tasting them, of suckling them, tugging on them with his teeth.
When her hands finally rose to clutch his bare shoulders, when her nails dug into his skin, the rush of lust was so potent he feared he’d pass out there and then.
What the hell was happening here?
He’d never been this swept away by lust, even when he’d been in the clutches of his hormones as a young adult. Sex was great. He was a healthy, virile male who was rich and powerful enough to command the best female attention whether he wanted it or not. When he wanted it, he went all in for the enjoyment of it.
But never had he experienced this urgency, this slightly crazed need that threatened to take him out at the knees.
And they hadn’t even left first base yet!
Brianna opened her mouth wider to accommodate his rough demand. One hand left his shoulder and plunged into his hair, scraping his scalp as her fingers tightened.
He welcomed the mild pain with a glee that seriously worried him.
He’d never gone for kinky but with every scrape of her fingers his erection grew harder, more painful. God, he was so turned on, he couldn’t see straight.
Which was why it took a full minute to realise the fingers in his hair were pulling him back, not egging him on; that the hand on his shoulder was pushing him away with more than a little desperation.
‘No!’ The force of his kiss smothered the word but it finally penetrated his lust-engorged senses.
With a shocked groan, he lifted his head and staggered back.
Brianna stared up at him, her ragged breath rushing through lips swollen with the force of his kisses. But it was the expression in her turquoise eyes that froze his insides. Besides the shock mingled with arousal, the apprehension was back again.
Self-loathing ripped through him like a tornado. He might not have understood why she’d been terrified the first time, but this time he knew the blame lay squarely with him. He’d fallen on her like a horny barbarian.
He clenched his fists and took another step back. His chest rose and fell like a felon in the heat of pursuit and he dimly registered that he hadn’t bothered to breathe since he’d first tasted her.
‘I...think this has gone far enough,’ she said, her eyes darkening as they fell to his chest and skittered away.
Sakis wanted to refute that, to growl that it hadn’t gone far enough. But he would be speaking from the depths of whatever insanity gripped him.
Insanity...
Was that what he’d scornfully professed he wanted to test?
Well, now he knew. His gaze dropped to her mouth again and fresh need slammed into him.
Damn it...He knew, and yet he wanted more. Of course, ‘more’ was out of the question. Brianna held far more value to him as his assistant than she would as his lover.
Potential lovers were a dime a dozen. He only had to scroll through his diary...
The thought of doing just that for the sake of slaking the lust-monkey riding him made his mouth curl with distaste. He wasn’t his father, taking and discarding women with barely a thought between incidents, not caring about who bore the brunt of his actions.
Sucking in another breath, he forced a nod.
‘Ne, you’re right.’ He licked his lower lip, tasted her again and nearly groaned. He clawed a hand through his hair and fought to regain the control that had been all but non-existent since he walked into the gym, fully intent on a mind-clearing workout, only to find her contorted in a highly suggestive stretch that had fried his brain cells. ‘Let’s chalk it down to the pressure of the past seventy-two hours.’
A look passed through her eyes before her lids lowered. ‘Is this how you normally deal with a crisis?’
He gave another tight smile, whirled away and came face to face with his image.