caressed the sensitive skin beneath her ear and along her nape, leaning in to ask, “When can we leave?”
A punch of unfettered desire clenched her middle. Her shoulder burned under the weight of his hand resting there. When he grazed his lips against her cheek her throat locked, she was so overcome by hunger.
“You’re killing me,” he said in a loaded voice. “Tell me. An hour? How much longer?”
She couldn’t speak, could only lift her face so he could see how helpless she was to the feelings he incited in her. A muted ringing filled her ears and she realized it was her, trembling amid all this fine gold.
His tormented expression hardened into fierce excitement. “Now.”
If he had swung her into his arms, she wouldn’t have felt more swept away. He turned them toward the room and she wished they could disappear without speaking to anyone. This passion between them was nothing she felt shame over, but it was too personal and concentrated to endure a gauntlet of teasing over it.
Before they could move, Demitri lurched in front of them, unkempt, wearing a smear of lipstick on his cheek. “Hey, I’m ready to claim my dance with the bride.”
“Too late,” Theo said with only a hint of smugness. He waved away whatever Demitri tried to say. “Redeem yourself by making our excuses. We’re leaving.”
She thought Demitri might have tried to say something, but Theo stole her out a side exit. From there they broke into a run like schoolchildren and were both laughing and breathless when they tumbled into the elevator.
“We should at least say goodbye to Zephyr,” she protested as Theo crowded her into a corner, his grin so boyish and lighthearted she grew dizzy.
“If there’s any male getting more attention from women than my brother this week, it’s our son. He won’t miss us.”
Curling his fists against the walls of the elevator, caging her in, he inhaled deeply without actually touching her, then growled in frustration when the elevator stopped, jarring them both into a small stagger.
“I know I’ll appreciate the privacy once we get to Rosedale, but right now it’s too damned far away.” He pushed back and held the doors for her.
The wind had come up and whipped around them as they crossed to the helicopter. A uniformed pilot touched his cap as he helped Jaya up the stairs.
“You’re not driving?” she asked Theo.
He gave her a look as he settled beside her in the passenger cabin. “We call it piloting,” he drawled, accepting a glass of champagne from the flight attendant that he passed to Jaya, but declined for himself. He picked up her free hand and set a playful bite on the knuckle of her ring finger. “I knew I’d only be thinking of you at this point. Not the right headspace for getting us anywhere alive. This is Nic’s crew. They make the trip all the time. Plus, all the pre-flights are done.”
She saw the advantage to that as they lifted off the second her seat belt clicked into place. The attendant moved to the copilot’s seat and lowered the lights. Minutes later they were high enough and far enough away that the city and sky blended into a blanket of pinprick lights. The moon sat fat and smiling a bluish glow.
Theo touched her chin, bringing her around from staring into the silver-laced waves and captured her mouth with the velvet heat of his. She opened to his pressure, tongue seeking the dampness of his, their union growing deep and wet between one startled breath and the next. Her hand sought the back of his head, urging him to kiss her harder as waves of delicious heat rolled down to the center of her, flooding sensations between her thighs, making her ache.
They were in another world, a bubble of white noise and shadow, straining against their belts as they twisted to be closer. She brushed at the lapel of his jacket, burrowing to his vest and seeking a way past it only to be thwarted by the silk of his shirt.
He groaned and skimmed his hand from her knee up her thigh, over her waist and cupped her breast, thumb circling over silk to tease her nipple. She wriggled in her seat, the erotic sensations building in her loins so intense she gasped and pulled away.
“Please stop.”
“Damn, I’m sorry.” He sat back, his face stark with self-recrimination as he closed his hands into fists on his armrests. “I misread you.”
“No, you didn’t.” She threw her arm across him, face tilted against his shoulder so her whispered words could reach his ear over the din of the helicopter blades. “I’m afraid I’m going to...I can’t. Not here, like this, with people right there who might know.”
Theo’s hands opened to clench into the ends of his armrests. She could feel the strain and flex in his biceps and across his chest as he nearly rent the crash-proof seats apart. His head tilted back and the sound he made was animalistic, somewhere between fury and helplessness.
When she started to pull back in alarm, he trapped her hand against his chest where his heart slammed. They sat like that until the bird landed on the lawn of a dark estate. An English mansion waited with stately patience, seeming out of place on this Greek island, but who cared? It was Nic and Rowan’s home, a gift of privacy for their wedding night, but Jaya barely saw any of it as Theo whisked her up the steps, past a housekeeper who said something about calling if they needed anything and practically booted her out the door.
“Are you cross? You seem angry,” Jaya said, backing away from him in the dimly lit lounge.
“Because I almost lost it up there along with you? Hell, no, I’m going insane.” He dragged at his clothes, shedding sword and bowtie and shoes as he stalked her. “Are you afraid of me right now?”
“What? No, not really, but—oh!” She came up against the bottom stair, surprised he’d steered her this way. “You seem really, um... What if the housekeeper comes back and finds your clothes all over the house like this?”
“She won’t come back uninvited.” His vest hit the floor. “Keep going.” He jerked his chin at the upper floor, urging her to back up the stairs.
“You’re kind of being, um...” She didn’t know what the word was, but he was making her nervous. Not genuinely afraid, but she knew what a small animal felt like when stalked by a cat.
“Aggressive?” he prompted. “Impatient? I’m trusting you, my lovely bride. Keep going. One of these bedrooms is made up for us.”
“Trusting me? To what?” She hurried down the hall ahead of him, sending anxious glances over her shoulder as he followed at an implacable pace. “What do you mean? Oh! It’s so nice of them to do this...”
She entered an expansive bedroom where the scent of the sea wafted in through open balcony doors with the sensual push of each wave reaching for shore. Tea lights floated in glass globes of colored water, bringing a magical glow to the white sheets and sheer curtains around the canopied bed. An array of treats awaited on a side table beneath silver covers, but she didn’t lift the lids, too aware of the half-naked man, his hands lowering his fly as he stepped through the door and left it half-open.
The low light burnished his muscled chest and flat stomach, accentuating his abs. She found herself shaking too much with excitement to be able to remove so much as her grandmother’s heavy ring from her forefinger.
Theo moved toward her like he was a missile finding its target. His chest filled her vision and his aggressive masculine scent filled her nostrils, making her dizzy. Without thinking, she impulsively smoothed the narrow line of hair that arrowed down the center of his torso to his navel and lower to the exposed skin behind his loosened fly.
“I, um, don’t know what you mean about trusting me,” she said.
He sucked in a breath that pulled all his stomach muscles taut. He cupped the side of her face and made her look at him.
“I’m trusting you to tell me if I’m coming on too strong. Have you reached your limit? You’re shaking.”