Chapter 12
For Tallia, the next two days passed at a snail’s pace. Despite his assurance that he would return the following day, Costa was gone all the next day and the one after that as well. He didn't call her, but he must have spoken to his staff because on the second day Ari informed her during breakfast not to expect Costa back.
With very little to occupy her time, Tallia lounged on the terrace trying to read one of the books she had brought with her. It was slow going- a dull slog, even if the book was actually quite amusing. Her heart just wasn't into reading.
She wandered down to the beach, taking her time on the treacherous path. When she finally reached the water, exhausted and out of breath, she was alarmed to find only a tiny swath of sand to stand on. A storm was brewing on the sea, and the waves were surging up over the beach and onto the rocks.
Knowing her limits, she didn't linger long by the water as the breakers began to roll in, lapping hungrily at her toes, while the sky turned a leaden gray. By afternoon lightning was flashing across the distant horizon, and the beach was completely submerged beneath pounding waves.
High above the water the house felt snug and secure, but Tallia noticed Ari and his father drifting around the property, securing lawn chairs and windows as if they were expecting a proper storm. Tallia was faintly surprised, as she had not thought the islands were subject to much harsh weather during the summer months.
She stayed in her room for the rest of the day. The cold air made the terrace unpleasant, and her mood turned morose. Calamini brought her dinner to her on a tray and clucked sympathetically as she drew the curtains. Calamini was probably of the opinion that the weather was depressing her.
If Costa had called, Tallia would have felt better, but his utter lack of contact spoke volumes. She felt like a fool for imagining there was something more than plain lust between them, that he might have developed a sort of fondness towards her. At some point, she realized, she had forgotten she was an interloper in his domain, an uninvited guest.
The more Tallia dwelt on the situation the more it seemed to her that his attentions were merely those of a man taking advantage of a convenient arrangement. She blushed every time she thought of how easy she made it for him, she certainly showed no restrain where he was concerned and fell into his arms with only the slightest effort on his part. Costa probably thought she was looking for a holiday fling and he was happy to oblige. Tallia had heard numerous stories over the years of girls who came to Greece on holiday and had brief affairs with the locals to amuse themselves. Some of the nurses at the hospital, when they learned of her vacation plans, even suggested she do so.
Tallia found the idea of a holiday fling utterly repugnant, but it was probably so common Costa thought nothing of it. She was here, she was willing, and he was obviously more than capable. Mortified at the idea that he believed she was some loose tart who could shag a complete stranger, she began to pray he would remain in Athens for the rest of her stay on Seleni.
When he didn’t call that night either, Tallia, somewhat bitterly, fancied that was probably exactly what he intended to do all along. Thinking how gauche she was, and knowing Costa must have noticed her lack of experience, she imagined he found her utterly boring. She certainly was nothing like the sophisticated women she knew, from what Fidelio told her about his brother while she was in hospital, he dated.
No man could be very excited by a girl who fell into his arms like ripe fruit, without putting up the slightest resistance or even attempting to lead him a merry chase. She had been listening to Emmy talk about her love affairs over the years and knew men liked bold women, women who could challenge them and flirt. Tallia felt hopeless in comparison, and abandoned, because Emmy had yet to call once since leaving Seleni.
At least Emmy is having fun, she told herself.
Tallia then sternly reminded herself that that was the point for their coming to Greece. She was only here to get out of the hospital and recuperate. Having a shag with a hot Greek certainly never crossed her mind before she met Costa.
Knowing that she was not the type to have a purely physical relationship, Tallia wondered that she must have lost said mind to ever think she could catch the eye of someone like Costa. A man so good-looking, a man who exuded sex appeal, was sure to draw every female eye around him. It was not lost on her that even Emmy had been drawn in by his charisma. Fidelio was handsome- tall, lean, dark haired, and dark eyed, but next to his brother, he looked like a callow youth. Costa had both the looks and the steely personality to draw a woman to him and make her start weaving ridiculous fantasies about permanently capturing his attention.
Tossing her book aside in irritation, sick to death of obsessing about the man, Tallia wished she weren’t such a fool. She didn’t know what had possessed her to make a cake of herself with Costa. She cringed inwardly each time she thought of how quickly she fell under his spell and imagined he was laughing at her right now, probably while having a ball in Athens with some beautiful woman much more suited to his lifestyle.
It was only ten o'clock, but she shut off the lights, deciding to go to sleep early, if only to escape her own tumultuous thoughts. The sky outside her window was blacker than black and sporadic bursts of rain lashed the windows, punctuated by bursts of lightning. Thunder grumbled over the house incessantly, as if the storm were gathering but refused to break.
She lay sleepless and miserable for a long time, crying a little and calling herself an idiot for letting herself get so overwrought over nothing. Eventually she must have dozed off, because it was hours later when she woke with a start. Confused by the luminous dials on her little travel clock, she lay in the unfamiliar bed and got her bearings.
Deafening thunder shook the house, and Tallia felt very small and lonely as rain pounded against the windows. It was past four in the morning, and the storm was apparently breaking right above her. Snuggling deeper under the covers, she let her eyes drift half closed as sleep lured her back down into the murky depths of forgetfulness, despite the racket outside.
Without warning her door flew open and she bolted upright, clutching the sheet to her chin in fright. All of a sudden, it occurred to her that she was alone in the house. A big dark shadow filled the doorway, and she almost shrieked in terror until she realized it was Costa striding towards her. She recognizing his sleek movements a moment before a burst of lightning illuminated the room and revealed his tense expression.
He was dripping wet and shucked his jacket, tossing it over a chair by the door. He slicked a hand over his wet hair and dried his face on his sleeve. Tallia's breath almost strangled her as she watched him yank off his sodden jumper next and drop it onto the floor as he came to the bed without breaking stride.
"Agapate," he murmured, and sat down on the edge of the bed as if it were perfectly normal for him to come to her like this in the middle of the night.
"Costa," she whispered, dropping the sheet and opening her arms to him as all her fears and doubts flew from her head.
He was cold and slightly damp as he enfolded her in his arms and jerked her hard against his chest. The breath hissed out of her in shock at the feel of icy rainwater dripping from his hair onto her face and breasts. Her thin nightclothes were soaked in seconds and goose bumps roughened her skin.
Tallia forgot her discomfort in the instant Costa’s mouth crashed down on hers, and he thrust his tongue deep without warning. His hands were hard on her shoulders, clutching her to his chest, his mouth insistent and cruel. She whimpered when he unexpectedly bit her lower lip with stinging force.
Costa didn't seem to hear or care that he was scaring her. He pushed her down on the bed with enough strength to knock the breath from her lungs, and then bent his mouth to her throat. Tallia gasped as he scraped her skin with the sharp edge of his teeth from the hollow beneath her ear to the curve of her shoulder, nipping at her in stinging little bites that burned. He sank his teeth into her shoulder and gave her a little shake that seemed to loo
sen her very bones and sent a burst of moisture flooding down between her thighs.
"Oh God," she groaned, feeling as if he brought the storm into the room with him. Perhaps he was the storm, she thought frantically as he sucked all the air out of the room when he drew hard on the flesh he held between his teeth.
His open mouth moved lower, feasting on her as if she were his prey. Tallia clutched at him, but he was all hard, smooth muscle, and she could only tangle her fingers in the loose cotton of his shirt and hang on for dear life. There seemed no stopping him or even slowing him down.
She felt his fingers glide over her shoulders, peeling the straps of her camisole down and sweeping the garment to her waist. When the cotton caught on the swell of her hips, he tore it in half without the slightest effort and swept it away along with the soft cotton briefs she wore.
Grabbing at his shoulders, Tallia thought to steady herself or even push him away. But one look at his dark, hard face, and she knew there would be no gentling him. Costa's mouth was drawn tight, his eyes black and glittering in the dim light of the storm. He looked as he had the day he took her out in his black sports car, like an ancient Greek warrior. His expression offered no mercy, and she sensed he had none for her tonight. Tonight he wanted her, and he meant to have her.
When he lowered his head to claim what he had laid bare, his mouth was hot and demanding on her breast. Tallia’s breaths came in explosive bursts as he ran his tongue around one painfully distended nipple and then drew the aching tip of her breast into his mouth. He sucked on her strongly, taking most of her breast into his mouth, and then let her flesh slide slowly out again, flicking her nipple with his tongue in a way that sent heat licking across her nerve endings. When he bit her tortured breast with his strong white teeth, she jerked beneath him, having never experienced such startling sensations.
Costa made a low, hungry sound in the back of his throat and set on her other breast, tormenting it with the same demanding suckling and nipping. Tallia arched on the bed beneath him, moaning and squirming as he pressed the heel of his hand into her stinging flesh. He alternately massaged and plucked at her aroused nipples, while his mouth moved back and forth between the two small, firm swells.
Never once taking his mouth from her breast, he stripped off his shirt and then his pants, climbing on top of her to straddle her hips, wearing only a pair of silk boxers. He was breathing hard, his chest heaving. When he finally lifted his head to gaze down at her, his full mouth was as red as she imagined her nipples must be they were so sensitized.
Very deliberately, he flicked each pouting nipple with an appreciative finger, making her flinch beneath him at his almost careless touch. He soothed the hurt with his big, warm hands, molding his palms to her breasts, watching his fingers as he played with her nipples, rolling them between his rough fingertips.
Tallia panted and trembled beneath him, painfully aroused, held in thrall by his dark eyes and possessive touch. She felt oddly divorced from her own body, like a stranger watching from a distance. What Costa was doing was a shock to her system, so far beyond her experience that her mind was having trouble catching up with the sensations bombarding her body.
His touch was hot and demanding, but almost impersonal, as if she were a body he were merely using for his own enjoyment without any care for her feelings. Lowering though the thought was, Tallia could not find the strength to tell him to stop. She was fascinated by him and had been since the moment she saw him. His rough lovemaking mesmerized her completely.
As she lay docile beneath him, she discovered she liked the way he dominated her with his big body. Costa made her feel so intensely female every inch of her ached. She was caught in the grip of the sweetest longing imaginable.
Sliding a hand up to mold around the curve where her shoulder met her neck, Costa bent forward and took her mouth in a hot, wet kiss. His tongue flicked over her lips, coaxing her panting mouth to open for him, and then delving inside purposefully. His other hand glided over her ribs, splaying wide across her belly, before continuing downward at an agonizingly slow crawl. The calluses on his palms abraded her skin with an erotic friction, and Tallia's breath hitched and shuddered as he cupped the space between her legs in his palm and pressed down firmly.
Moaning into his mouth, she shook beneath him, so aroused she was almost crazed with it. She spread her legs for him, feeling only the mildest twinge of embarrassment at her wantonness, silently asking for more… for everything.
Costa, the devil, kept rubbing her between her legs with the heel of his hand while thrusting his tongue in and out of her mouth suggestively. He shifted above her as her legs fell open for him and eased himself between her thighs. Bracing his big knees far apart, he spread her out for him wide, leaving her completely open and vulnerable to anything he wanted to do to her.
Tallia writhed in a volatile mixture of desire, fear, and self-consciousness. With an almost reverent touch, Costa’s fingers drifted down over her silken curls, stroking the soft hair ever so lightly before he dragged his thumb heavily across her mound and pressed it down into the deep, moist cleft between her legs.
Tallia tore her mouth from his, gulping in a great gasping lungful of air as her temperature skyrocketed. If he had been rough and careless before, now Costa moved as slowly as molasses and the contrast was maddening. Very deliberately, he captured her face with one hand and brought her lips to his. He slid his tongue deep into her mouth and curled it around her own while his thumb sketched a lazy circle over her clitoris, coaxing the little bud from its protective folds and making it swell and throb.
Lower still, between her quivering thighs, she felt his fingers against the wet lips of her sex, rubbing the slick entrance to her body. Tallia twisted on the bed, her hands fisting in the sheets as he explored her, teased her, and drove her insane with his lazy, unhurried caresses.
When he pressed two fingers into the opening of her vagina, her hips shot off the bed, and she took him eagerly inside. Costa groaned at the wet sound of his penetration and pushed deeper still, his tongue mimicking the motion of his hand and thrusting slowly into her mouth.
Tallia thought she would die from the pleasure, and then he abruptly stopped, his body going rigid over hers. Opening her eyes she found Costa staring at her in shock, his eyes wide and stunned as he drew back to look her in the face.
"Agapate, you are virgin!"