Page 17 of His Forgotten Wife
“I think you’ve made me enough offers, thank you,” she quipped, sinking deeper into her chair and throwing her head back. The long, graceful column of her throat drew his attention.
Everything about her was a fascinating mystery he wanted to unlock and play with. For the simple pleasure of knowing her like no other man did or ever could.
He shot to his feet, planted himself behind her chair, and gripped her temples. With a surprised grunt, she jerked beneath his touch but he pressed down. “Relax, Dahlia.”
Her fingers wrapped around his wrist, the touch jolting through him like the fireworks his cousins had lit an hour ago. “That’s not…necessary,” she whispered, eyes widening into dreamy pools.
Ares’s body reacted with a vivid image of those same fingers wrapped around his shaft, squeezing him hard.Christos, he had never reacted like this to a woman’s innocent touch. Not that he let any woman touch him, innocent or otherwise.
“As you’ve made abundantly clear,” he said, his words sounding husky, “I demand a lot from you,ne? So maybe it’s time for me to care for you.”
A serrated laugh escaped her lips, coated with disbelief.
He turned his fingertips in tight circles. Her laughter cut off.
“Don’t worry, Dahlia. I’m only doing this because I know you will pay it back in efficiency and loyalty.”
“Now that’s the boss I know.”
Smiling, he pressed the tips of his fingers into her temples and dragged them past her hairline into her thick hair. When he rubbed gently, a moan slipped out from behind her clamped lips. The sound pinged over his nerves, shutting out everything else around them.
He clamped his muscles to stop himself from bending down and tasting that moan straight from her lips. It was as if all the hormonal, uncontrollable urges of puberty were hitting him now, in one day.
“Think of the next few weeks as a break, a fun adventure. Who knows? My family might drive me so crazy that even I could join in.”
Her brown eyes sparkled with mirth. “You? Fun?”
“Why not? Christina and the new CTO have things well in hand. And I can’t manage more than an hour or two of work before these blasted headaches set in. Why don’t we treat this…engagement period as a holiday?”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
“Give me one good reason you can’t spend a month sunning yourself on a glorious beach, eating good food and taking in the sights. You’ll spend maybe an hour or two with me for work. When we return to New York, you can begin your perfect man search again. That’s my offer.”
She sighed and the rise and fall of her breasts mesmerized him. “We’ll be muddling all the lines between us. Lines you have always insisted stay in place. Also, I doubt how much fun you can really be.”
“Be honest, Dahlia. Are you worried that you might end up realizing that there’s no perfect man for you out there but me?”
“What?” Swatting at his hands, she shot to her feet. Her words were a breathy whisper as she studied him. “What do you mean?”
“I got you good, didn’t I?” He grinned. “And you keep saying I don’t know how to have fun.”
Words, and curses he thought, sputtered from her lips as she stepped toe to toe with him. His fingers itched to pull her against him, to absorb all that outrage into his own body. To soothe and pet and coax her into giving him her complete trust again.
Because he had a feeling he’d had it once, utterly. And somehow, had managed to lose it.
Christos,had he ever noticed how perfectly she would fit against him? Was this sudden bout of awareness of her as a woman some byproduct of how close he had come to his death?
It struck him then that he didn’t mind this sudden tension between them as much as he should.
All he cared about was that life was both comforting and fascinating when Dahlia was around and there was no way he was going to give her up.
CHAPTER FOUR
Send me your fun list.
Wet hair drippingfrom her shower, Dolly stared at the text.
It had been two days since she had arrived at Ares’s family home in Corfu. Most of which she had spent unwinding.
