The Power of the Legendary Greek - By Catherine George Page 0,53

smiled persuasively as the car started up outside. ‘We shall be alone in the house for hours, and you look tired. You need a rest. So do I.’

‘In that case, pour my tea on a flower bed or wherever. I’m hot, anyway.’

‘So am I, hriso mou,’ he said huskily, and picked her up.

‘I can walk now,’ she protested, but he shook his head and hurried up the stairs with her.

‘Too slow. Why waste time?’

There was so little of it before she left, Isobel was in full agreement as Luke carried her into her cool, airy bedroom and immediately began undressing her.

‘You’re in a big hurry,’ she protested breathlessly as he flung their garments in all directions.

‘Only over this part,’ he said, and knelt naked on the bed to lean over her, his eyes gleaming down into hers. ‘I promise to love you as slowly as possible.’

The words spoken in that husky, irresistible voice, coupled with the knowledge that they were alone in the big house in the hot languor of the afternoon, created an aphrodisiac effect new to Isobel. As with so many other things since her arrival on Chyros.

‘It’s so quiet, we could be alone in the world,’ she whispered, quivering at the touch of skilled, inciting hands.

‘Just the two of us, hriso mou, like Adam and Eve. But with no serpents in our paradise any more.’ He caressed her breasts, kissing her softly and nibbling gently on her lower lip, then as her lips parted his kisses became fierce and his hands more urgent and she threaded her fingers through his hair, holding him closer, responding with heat and fire which brought him to full, triumphant arousal. At last, when they were both trembling with the desperation to mate, he reared up over her, his face stern with the desire he was trying to hold in check.

‘I can’t keep my promise,’ he panted, and she gave him a smile the original Adam would have recognised.

‘Break it, then,’ she whispered, and gave a gasp of pure, unadulterated pleasure as he obeyed.

This time there was no gradual acceleration of their loving. Isobel was as wild as Luke from the start, and all too soon found herself throbbing in the throes of a climax which overtook her several seconds before his body collapsed on hers in his own convulsive release. She lay stunned as her heart began to slow down, but at last, when oxygen became a necessity, she pushed at Luke’s shoulders and in one movement he lifted himself from her and rolled so that she lay on top of him instead.

‘Better?’ he asked, smiling at her, lazy-eyed, as he held her in place, skin to skin.

‘I liked having you lie on me, but in the end I couldn’t breathe.’ She bent her head to kiss him. ‘Will you be able to hear when the car comes back?’

‘Spiro will gun the engine down to the house, making as much noise as possible,’ he assured her, grinning.

‘You told him to do that?’

‘No. Spiro is a man, and Greek. I had no need to tell him.’

Isobel sniffed. ‘I suppose he’s used to it.’

His eyebrow arched. ‘And what, kyria Isobel, do you mean by that?’

She felt suddenly very vulnerable, sprawled naked, and by the sudden tightening of his arms, with no hope of getting free. Her eyes fell, unable to meet the look of hot possession in his.

‘I have never brought a woman to the Villa Medusa before,’ he said with emphasis. ‘This is my private retreat. Or it was—’

‘Until I trespassed,’ she finished for him. ‘Let me up, please.’

‘No,’ he said flatly. ‘Not until you atone for doubting me.’

She eyed him stormily and tried to wriggle free, but he held her fast and too late she realised that her attempts to escape had such an inflammatory effect on him she was suddenly flat on her back again and Luke was holding her prisoner in an entirely different way.

‘All—right, I—believe you,’ she said with difficulty.

‘Too late. You must pay the penalty,’ he said roughly.

And, sooner than she would have believed possible, Luke was making love to her again, with an added edge that sent delicious thrills through her body as he claimed it with mastery which sent them both rocketing to another climax even more powerful than the first.

‘So do you believe me now?’ he panted as he pulled away, holding her so close against him Isobel could feel his heartbeat as his taut body began to relax.

‘Yes. I do. But you have