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Chapter 373

Author: Blaze Nukko
last update Last Updated: 2024-10-29 19:42:56

When Cassia woke the next morning, her stomach muscles felt tender. She must have sensed something because just as she came fully awake, her door opened. Calix. Dressed and looking fresh and bright. Clean shaven. Her belly tightened and she pulled the sheet up around her neck.

He walked in and opened the curtains that covered the French doors leading onto her veranda. He stood looking out for a minute, hands stuck deep in his pockets, and then turned around. "How are you feeling today?"

"Much better," she said, "thank you." I’m—’

He slashed a hand in the air. Don’t say sorry, Cassia; you couldn’t help it. You must have some kind of sensitivity to liqueurs. Maybe the shellfish

You mean a sensitivity to the past!

She watched warily as he came close to the bed. He looked so tall, imposing, and masculine.

‘I’m afraid I have to go to London for a couple of days. One of our ships has had a mutiny of sorts among the crew…’ His mouth quirked. ‘It would appear that only I can sort it out.’

Cas
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    Unmistakable pride shone from Thea’s face. The past took on a different hue immediately. The person that Calix had become when his father died had been born out of great responsibility and necessity; not a greedy desire to make money. Cassia felt ill again. She looked at Thea with stricken eyes.‘My parents…they threw him out of the house. I’ll never forget it.’Thea nodded. ‘I thought so.’ She shook her head at Cassia’s look. ‘No, he didn’t tell me, but I knew something bad had happened over there. He never mentioned your family again. And, in truth, you, your parents, your cousins were all the family he really had.’Cassia felt numb. more than numb. She’d known they’d always been close, but he’d always seemed so... self-sufficient. He’d always held something back. He’d never talked about his own family. Not really. For the first time, she could see how it could have been possible for her parents to judge him so harshly if they’d felt they hadn’t known him that well.It was so much w

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    And suddenly, it didn’t matter right at that moment why she was there, because all Cassia was aware of was his thigh between hers and how she ached to feel more, to experience him fully. She could have tried to run away, but she might as well be running from herself. Maybe if he’d come out with clothes on, maybe this heated insanity wouldn’t have taken over her body and soul... But to have seen him naked...With a guttural, broken moan of something in Greek, he bent his head and took her mouth in an onslaught so savage and so passionate that Cassia’s head almost exploded with the feeling. Electricity coursed through her body. Unable to resist the overwhelming need, she strained to meet him on tiptoe, wrapping her arms around his neck. She ached to be closer and welcomed his thigh between hers, trapping it. She could feel the moist expression of her lust between her thighs, moistening her pants, and she moved subtly against him. The pulse between her legs beat for release.He tore his

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    He saw a glistening in her eyes, and then she reached up and pulled him down on top of her, her hands on his shoulders, blindly searching for his mouth.When he pulled back, the brightness was gone from her eyes, as though he’d imagined it. From length to length, they touched. He was careful to keep his full weight off her. There was a possessive heaviness between her thighs. He skimmed a hand down her chest, fingers circling her breasts. They thrust upward, two perfect mounds with small, pebble-hard tips. As his hand closed around her, fingers teasing, pulling at the peak, he could see her back arch and stomach contract.‘Calix…please…’He bent down, and his mouth and tongue laved and suckled. First one breast, then the other. Her hands clutched his head, directing and guiding him.With his other hand, he reached down over the soft mound of her belly, felt the flare of her hips, and went under her knickers. The hair was soft and springy. He took her knickers with him and could feel her

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    Calix said nothing for a while on the drive to wherever he was taking her. Cassia was wary. She’d made her getaway from the bedroom that morning as an act of self-protection. Could he be angry because she hadn’t been there when he’d woken up? But surely that’s all he’d wanted? Sex. She wouldn’t be surprised if he’d expected her to go back to her own room afterwards, to come to him only as some kind of concubine. And then she coloured as she remembered how tired she’d been afterwards, how she hadn’t been able to move another muscle…She looked over. His profile was grim. His jaw was stern. She felt like reaching across and kissing that jaw, making him relax and teasing him into a smile; like the one she’d seen earlier, which had been for Thea, not her. He hated her. She knew he did. Despite what he’d said, he had to. She represented such an awful time in his life, when everything had conspired against him and he’d been totally alone against them all. She had to turn and look away again

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    When he probed, she sighed; his tongue touched the seam of her lips, and she opened a little more. But still he didn’t enter. Her nerve ends tingled, and her blood hummed. She lifted her hands to his shoulders, trying to tell him silently that she was giving in, acquiescing, and then she knew exactly what he wanted. Tentatively at first, she darted her tongue forward in an erotically innocent foray, touched his mouth, traced his lips... and then delved into that dark moistness of his mouth, feeling emboldened and heady when his tongue finally met and tangled with hers.She felt a hand under her loose top cup on one breast, a thumb pad running back and forth over her nipple. Her tongue thrust harder, and she arched her back, pressing her breast into his palm. And then, as if a light switch had gone on, he pulled back, put his hands on her shoulders, and looked deeply into her shocked, glazed eyes.‘See? That’s all we need to worry about…for as long as it lasts, we’re going to be marrie

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    Despite her best efforts, she knew she was close to tears again, and she turned away again. Even though they were in a park in the middle of Athens, the city lay somewhere beneath them, silent. She willed him away, willed him not to touch her, and he must have felt it because he didn’t. She found herself speaking quietly and quickly.‘After Mum and Dad died, I had no interest in the business. I never had. You know that. Even if you say you didn’t. I gave my uncle those shares. I didn’t sell them. I couldn’t.’ She turned around again and as he was closer than she’d anticipated, she backed away another step. ‘What kind of person do you think I am?’Stupid question, Cassia...He felt at a loss, amazed at her passionate reaction. Her expressive eyes shining blue and green. And I thought, "The kind of person most of us would be in that situation, who would demand every penny of their inheritance..."‘Cassia—’"I'd already gotten a loan, and Rastus only gave me enough to cover the interest.

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    His hand smoothed its way down her collar-bone to the space between her breasts where her heart was beating steadily, and speeding up when he shifted them subtly and a leg came over hers, nudging them apart. The frisson of awareness, the hunger and need after a night of love-making scared her with its intensity. Today they were going back to Paris. Back to reality, back to the cruel, harsh world of media and photographers and reminders that all was not what it seemed.She turned her head and opened her eyes. Her pain was buried deep and hidden inside her. He pressed a kiss to her lips, long and lingering, and drew her up on top of him so that her breasts were crushed against his chest. His hands spanned her waist and moved her up and then down slightly, where she could feel the powerful thrust of his erection.She was already wet and ready for him. She slid her legs on either side of his hips and rocked back gently, coming up slightly, and sucked in a deep breath when she felt him thr

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    Clearly embarrassed, Aaliyah determinedly changed the subject to Hazem and how fast he was growing. But although Kate smiled and made token conversation, her mind was whirling. If Malika’s family had expected her to marry Ahsan, was she the woman he had been engaged to years ago—the woman Jamila had said he had loved? But, if so, why had they not married? It didn’t make sense, and she brooded miserably as she stared at Ahsan. He was smiling at Malika and clearly enjoying her company. Perhaps they had argued and broken off their engagement. Was he now regretting his lost chance to marry a beautiful, clever Arab girl who would have made him the perfect wife?From that moment on, the party became a blur of faces and stilted conversation with people she had never met before. She was sure they viewed her as an oddity, with her pale skin and vivid hair—and her glaring lack of sophistication. But until his father had recovered, Ahsan was king, and one of her wifely duties outside of the bedr

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