The Greek's Forbidden Princess Page 9

  Amelie frowned. ‘What are you saying, Lambis? I don’t understand.’

  ‘No, you don’t, do you?’ His voice was husky. His hands closed around her shoulders, turning her to face him, pulling her so close she shivered as the heat of his big body encompassed her. ‘I’ve tried to resist you, Amelie. I thought I’d succeeded, but I can’t do it any more. Not when you’re so close, so...’ He shook his head. ‘Every time I see you I want to touch you, more than touch you.’

  Amelie’s eyes widened. Her breath caught as he lowered his head. His eyes, the colour of a storm cloud shot with lightning, captured hers.

  ‘There’s absolutely nothing wrong with you, Amelie.’ His breath feathered her cheeks. ‘The problem is me. And the fact I want to do this.’

  He hauled her up on her toes, wrapping powerful arms around her, then slanted his mouth over hers.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  HIS MOUTH TOUCHED Amelie’s, settled hard and demanding, his tongue probing till she—ah!

  Lambis’s thoughts fractured as Amelie’s mouth opened under his, sweet and willing. Almost as if she’d been going crazy too, trying to stifle a longing so great it turned him inside out.

  But that couldn’t be. After his behaviour years before she’d washed her hands of him.

  This was wrong, wrong, wrong.

  He knew it. His conscience pounded out the word with every frantic beat of his pulse. They’d regret this.

  Yet soaring delight undermined any hope of pulling away.

  He gathered Amelie in, exulting in her soft femininity against him, the scent of her, heady as spring after eternal winter. The taste of her. Her gasp of surprise and pleasure. He leaned in, delving deeper, senses exploding at the nectar sweetness of her mouth fused with his, her tongue sliding against his, almost as eagerly as he devoured her.

  Her hand rested on his chest, right where his heart pounded riotously. Then, in torturous slow motion, her other hand crept up his chest to slide beneath his collar, stoking his temperature to dangerous levels.

  He’d known from the first that Amelie was a threat to his resolve This gentle caress of skin on skin proved it. He shuddered with the effort it took to stand there, merely kissing, when he wanted her touch all over him. Wanted to touch her all over and more, far more.

  Her fingers slid higher, raking his scalp and the potent eroticism all but undid him.

  His knees went weak and great racking shudders ripped through him, cracking what was left of his self-control.

  ‘Amelie. Sweet Amelie.’ He cupped the back of her head, holding it still as he bowed her back over his arm, lost in the give and take, the thrust and parry of their voracious kiss.

  He could barely breathe, yet for the first time in memory his chest felt lighter, not banded tight by pain and regret.

  She did this to him. This wondrous woman. She kissed like an angel and—No, not an angel, but a woman whose blood sang with need like his. Who’d pent up passion too long.

  Lambis hauled her higher in his arms, felt her hand go to his shoulder for support as he lifted her off her feet and still it wasn’t enough.

  She was addictive. He’d always suspected it, from the moment he fell under the spell of her devastating smile and dazzling eyes, her lush body and charming personality with just the tiniest hint of diffidence when she spoke to him.

  There was nothing diffident about her now.

  Lambis backed her up against one of the columns supporting the arbour. Was that a hum of approval as he propped her up with his body? His massively aroused body. To his delight, she pressed closer, curving her pelvis against him. He shuddered, close to losing all willpower.

  He’d dreamed of Amelie, spent hour upon hour torturing himself imagining how it would be to kiss her, touch her, possess her. Yet reality outstripped expectation. This woman was eager, responsive, as sensual as any fantasy lover. More. She was somehow more than he’d ever dared imagine.

  The realisation was a blast of lightning to his frigid soul.

  His kiss turned slow, inviting her to melt into him. All the while his head swam. She was sunlight and joy. Warmth and life after the dark well of nothing he’d inhabited so long.

  Inhabited because that was his destiny, his penance.

  The thought filtered slowly into his fogged brain and he almost groaned aloud as it registered. For how could he pull back when Amelie kissed him like this? When her fingers dug into him needily as he pressed his hips to her belly?

  Because she deserves better.

  That, finally, slashed through desire, through a wanting so great he didn’t know how he managed to lift his head from hers.

  The rush of oxygen into starved lungs hurt. So did the waft of warm air brushing his lips. He opened his eyes and his heart stilled.

  Amelie’s head rested back on a column, her throat arched at an abandoned angle, her lips plump and red from his kisses. A flush covered her face and throat and a tiny tic of a pulse shimmered at the base of her neck.

  She was utterly glorious. A feast for the senses.

  Lambis couldn’t resist. He pressed his lips to the corner of her mouth. When she turned towards him offering her lips, she made his poor, crippled heart leap. The temptation to taste Paradise one more time was immense.

  He had just enough sense to pull back and kiss his way across her jaw and down her neck, revelling in the little breathy sighs that set his groin hard.

  The trouble was, at the base of her throat was more bare skin and from there the slope of her beautiful breasts.

  Shaking with effort, not quite believing he’d finally found the strength to do it, Lambis stepped back, lowering Amelie till her feet touched the ground. His hands locked around her hips, securing her till he knew she could stand. Somehow his hands slid up to clasp her waist. He’d been right. Despite her height and gorgeous curving femininity, Amelie was so slim he could almost span her waist with his big hands.

  It was that reminder of her vulnerability, of the disparity between them, that finally forced him to end this.

  She’d come to him seeking help not sex. She hadn’t asked for this, no matter how unwittingly she’d tempted him these past days.

  Days? Years it had been. Years of torture as he felt himself under her gentle spell yet knew they could never be together.

  ‘Amelie.’ It was a croak, barely intelligible.

  Her eyelids fluttered. A tremor passed through her, then those brilliant jewel eyes met his and Lambis felt a heavy punch to the solar plexus. Not just need this time, but pain as he registered the question in her expression.

  She swallowed then swiped her lips with her tongue. Did she taste him there? He knew he’d never eradicate the taste of her from his senses. It would torment him for years to come, when he was back in his own sterile world.

  ‘Lambis.’ Even the sound of her saying his name tested his resolution to let her go. Her hand moved against his scalp, a slow caress that sent tingles of sensual delight skittering across his flesh.

  Amelie frowned, tilting her head to survey him from a different angle.

  ‘Talk to me. Why...push me away then kiss me like that?’ Her voice was delightfully uneven, as if she were as thrown by this as he.

  She deserved the truth. He’d always been honest with her, just not totally honest.

  Some things had been better left unsaid.

  ‘Why did you kiss me?’ Her brow twitched and her mouth twisted. ‘Because you’re bored and I’m convenient?’

  ‘No!’ His hands tightened convulsively on her waist. ‘You can’t believe that. Convenience has nothing to do with it.’

  These feelings were anything but convenient.

  Amelie’s eyes held his for what seemed an age. But she didn’t move to break free and, selfish as he was, even knowing he shouldn’t, Lambis revelled in the lithe heat of her narrow waist in his hands.

  Nor did she remove her hands. One still splayed against his chest, the other clamped on his skull. Because, like him, she couldn
’t bear to break away? Now there was a bit of wishful thinking!

  ‘You’re attracted to me?’ Her chin angled and Lambis realised how much her straight talking cost her.

  ‘Attracted?’ He shook his head, feeling his features settle into implacable lines. ‘I’ve wanted you from the moment I saw you.’

  He couldn’t hide it any more.

  Amelie flinched, shock widening her eyes. She would have drawn away except he wouldn’t let her.

  She was going nowhere.

  The aching hunger he’d tried to bury rose up, obliterating everything. His brain screamed he needed to release her, but his body acted on a primitive level that overrode conscious thought.

  Instinct told him to forget conversation and claim the woman he’d craved for years. Take what, surely, her kiss implied she’d willingly give.

  His hands twitched. To pull her close? To push her away? Lambis was on a knife-edge, battling for control.

  ‘I find that hard to believe. You never said or even hinted—’

  ‘I remember that first time we met.’ His voice was a growl, hoarse as he recalled the effort it had taken to hold back all this time. ‘I was with Irini when you walked in.’ He’d been ready for a beautiful woman, but the reality had transfixed him. ‘You wore a sleeveless white dress, belted at the waist.’ That tiny waist he held now. ‘There were green leaves all around the bottom of the skirt and little cut-outs between the leaves. You wore the same pearl pendant.’

  The sun had caught her hair, turning it to gold, and she’d glowed with an inner radiance that had beckoned with a terrible, unstoppable power. She’d looked fresh as a spring morning and that smile of hers, the dancing delight in her eyes as she’d chatted so easily about the upcoming royal wedding, had cracked the icy carapace around his soul.

  Even in those first moments, before he’d discovered she was as beautiful inside as out, Lambis had realised Amelie had the power to make him hunger and, worse, hope. That, above all, had convinced him she was best avoided.

  Her eyes looked huge and when she spoke her voice was hushed. ‘You remember that?’

  ‘I do.’ He remembered everything.

  ‘I don’t understand.’ Her beautiful mouth trembled. She looked so lost, as if he’d suddenly proved the earth was flat and the sun circled the moon.

  ‘It’s simple,’ he murmured. Devastatingly simple. ‘I want you, Amelie. I always have.’

  Lambis couldn’t resist any more. Not when he read such hurt and confusion in her face. He leaned in and gently, so gently he shook with the effort of control, brushed his lips across hers.

  * * *

  Amelie’s eyes fluttered closed as his mouth, soft and warm, touched hers. Instantly that tingling rush of heat filled her, that unstoppable longing.

  She should pull back, demand answers.

  But there was magic in his caress. In this butterfly-light kiss that made her want to lean closer and offer herself.

  His hands tightened on her waist and shuddery delight surged. She’d never been held quite like this. Lambis’s big hands around her made her feel small and feminine, sexy and...desirable. Amelie wasn’t an innocent. She’d had a lover. But Jules’s youthful fumblings had never made her feel like this.

  She slid her hand to the back of Lambis’s head and pulled him to her, opening her lips and inviting him in. It was an invitation he accepted without hesitation, invading her mouth, and making her body come alive.

  It was a miracle. Lambis and her. She’d wanted him so long. Liked and admired and desired him. Years of putting on a brave face hadn’t cauterised her feelings. Even rejection hadn’t ended those.

  She was straining against him, rising on her toes, eager for more, when belatedly her brain began to work.

  Lambis wasn’t pulling her close but holding her off him, even as his languorous, impossibly sexy kiss invited her to lose herself completely. It was as if he seduced her, but at a careful distance.

  This was the man who’d rejected her three years before.

  Was she so under his thrall, all he had to do was crook his finger? There’d been no explanation, nothing but the bald statement that he’d always wanted her.

  The fact he remembered the day they’d met, as she did, sliced through caution and sent her spinning straight into yearning. Amelie put her hands to his shoulders, trying not to savour their hard strength as she pushed against them, levering herself away.

  His mouth lifted, leaving her breathless and shattered, gulping air. Her mouth throbbed and her peaked nipples strained against her bra, still seeking contact with his solid frame.

  ‘Let me go.’ Her voice was strangled, raspy, yet he heard. She felt him tense, his fingers digging against her ribs.

  Then abruptly he stepped back, leaving her bereft and swaying. She still felt the imprint of his big hands at her waist and the rich taste of him on her tongue.

  It had been tough, years ago, accepting his rejection with her head high. But this, standing so close, knowing he too felt this incredible pulse of attraction, tested her to the limit. His eyes shone with a silver light that promised passion and Amelie wanted it, so badly it shocked her.

  She rubbed her hands up her arms.

  ‘What’s going on, Lambis?’ He owed her an explanation.

  His expression didn’t alter. He looked down at her with the intensity of a mountain eagle surveying its prey. Did he see the way her flesh prickled on her bare arms? The way her nipples puckered hard and tight?

  Amelie suspected Lambis saw that and much more. All those tiny signs of arousal she didn’t even recognise, but he, a man with such a powerful sexual aura, must. Despite his air of self-control, of distance, there was no mistaking Lambis Evangelos for anything other than a sexual being, a man of strong passions.

  ‘Tell me!’ Long repressed pain vied with recent anger. ‘You say you’ve always wanted me, yet for years you’ve avoided being alone with me as if I was tainted—’

  ‘No. Not that.’

  Her chin hiked up. ‘You rejected me. I didn’t imagine that!’ Oh, he’d been kind, or as kind as you could be when telling a woman you weren’t interested. ‘Either you lied then or you’re lying now. I want to know which.’

  He hefted a deep breath and rolled his head as if easing taut muscles. ‘I didn’t lie, though I was tempted. You have no idea how much I wanted to make love to you.’

  Amelie folded her arms at her waist, holding in the trembling excitement his words evoked. ‘You’re right. I have no idea. You told me it was better if we didn’t spend time together. That it would be a mistake to get close.’

  She fought to keep the hurt from her voice. The memory of her tentative hopes and how he’d dashed them made her feel sick.

  Lambis looked immovable, not lover-like, with his muscles bunched, his jaw set.

  ‘You wanted a long-term relationship. You wanted someone to fall in love with. I couldn’t be that man.’

  Amelie’s throat seized. By the time she’d confronted Lambis, she’d already been a fair way towards falling in love with him. Had he known?

  ‘Let me get this right. You were attracted but—’

  ‘I am attracted.’ The timbre of his voice wove, deep and seductive, around her bones. ‘That never changed. I’ve always wanted you, Amelie.’ The searing intensity of his stare scored her flesh and made her heart hammer. ‘But I can’t give you what you want. I couldn’t promise hearts and flowers and a lifetime together.’

  ‘Hold on!’ Amelie raised her palm, cutting off his words. ‘I never asked for a lifetime together. I told you I was attracted and asked you to stay on in St Galla so we could get to know each other.’ It had taken courage to reveal her feelings to the enigmatic man who was her sister-in-law’s friend.

  ‘You’re saying you wanted a quick lay? A one-night stand?’

  ‘No!’ Why twist her words?

  ‘Exactly.’ He nodded as if she’d proved his point. ‘You’re not that sort of woman. You want a family, someo
ne to build your life around.’ Something flickered in his eyes as he uncrossed his arms and dropped them. ‘You didn’t talk about a permanent relationship but that’s where you hoped it would lead.’

  He was right. She had hoped.

  As for a family—was that so wrong? At twenty-nine her body clock ticked louder. She’d long ago realised that what she craved most wasn’t pomp and glitter, or even the love of her people, though she treasured that. It was to love and be loved for herself, as a wife and mother, not a royal princess.

  ‘So you rejected me because...?’

  ‘Because I’m not the man you want. I can’t give you that and I won’t lie and pretend I can.’

  Amelie frowned, resenting that he’d withheld vital information from her, apparently for her own good, like some paternalistic...

  ‘You can’t know that. You haven’t even tried.’

  As Amelie watched there was a change in the man before her. She couldn’t put her finger on it but it was as sure as a shadow blocking out sunlight. There was a flicker in his eyes and he stared down at her with none of the heat that just seconds before had made her blood sizzle. It was as if a light had gone out inside.

  ‘I did. Once. It didn’t work.’ Lambis’s voice rang hollow. It sounded so empty a shudder raced across her nape. ‘I can’t promise any woman love. It would have been criminal to let you believe I could.’

  Questions tumbled in Amelie’s head. But the stark, bereft look in those piercing eyes stopped her tongue.

  Suddenly she remembered Irini talking about her childhood friend, saying he deserved his business success, not simply because of his drive to succeed, but because he needed something good in his life. When Amelie had queried her, she’d clammed up, saying only that Lambis had faced private problems but preferred not to talk about them. Irini being Irini, she hadn’t betrayed his trust and gossiped.

  Which left Amelie where?

  ‘You don’t want love? A family?’

  ‘That’s not for me. It can never be.’

  This time, fleeting as it was, she recognised the emotion that slashed across his face like jagged lightning. Pain. No, anguish. Her chest cramped in sympathy. No matter the persona he presented, Lambis was a man who felt deeply rather than not enough.