The Santorini Bride

She should have felt self-conscious, irritated at her loss of control, at having, almost literally, been putty in Theo Savas’s hands. But she didn’t.

She felt warm, cosseted, safe. Well loved.

Loved? No, she knew there wasn’t any of that. And she didn’t expect any.

She would have expected it with Julian, had she ever shared such intimacy with him. But she had learned her lesson. Sex was sex. And it could be mind-blowing. She smiled a little and shifted in Theo’s arms.

He didn’t let her go but held her gently in the circle of his embrace. His hands stroked over her whole body, smoothing down her back, tangling in her hair. Slowly he eased back so he could look into her face.

One black brow arched. “So? Mind-blowing?” A self-satisfied grin touched his lips.

Oh, yes. But Martha knew instinctively that Theo Savas didn’t need any more arrogance than he already possessed. “Not bad.”

Both black brows went up, then down. “Not bad?” He was clearly indignant.

Martha grinned. “All things considered,” she said. “Yes, it was quite good.”

“Right,” he growled. “Let’s see you in action then. Come on.”

And he reached around her and shut off the water, then pulled back the shower curtain and stepped out onto the bath mat. Somehow the less-confined space made Martha even more aware of his lean athletic body, of flat planes and sharp angles and very obvious arousal. She tried not to notice. It was like trying to pretend it wasn’t snowing in the middle of a blizzard.

She was still gaping—and trying to look as if she weren’t—when he wrapped a towel around her and began to dry her off.

“I can do that,” she said quickly.

“No doubt,” Theo brushed her off. “But I intend to. And then you can return the favor.”

“I can? I mean—” she tried to sound both blasé and sultry “—of course.”

Theo slanted her a grin, as if he knew she was anything but. Then as he continued his task, his grin faded and the intent, absorbed look reappeared in his gaze.

She thought she felt a fine tremor in his fingers through the soft terry of the towel. He stroked gently and thoroughly, though her body was dry almost before he touched her. The heat generated from within could have evaporated every bit of moisture in a matter of seconds. And the thought that she was soon going to be drying him only added wood to the blaze.

“My turn,” she said abruptly before she ignited from spontaneous combustion. And she grabbed the other towel from the rack, then began to stroke his shoulders and upper arms. The towel was a vibrant sea blue and against his skin it seemed to deepen his already dark tan. It was soft and rough where his shoulders seemed hard and smooth. He stood still under her ministrations, his chest rising and falling shallowly as she moved the towel lower. Soft yet slightly wiry hair spread across his chest and arrowed down his abdomen. She followed it.

He swallowed. His muscles tensed.

Something heady and powerful coursed through her as she watched his reactions to her merest gentle touch. She had never done this with Julian. Had, oddly, never even thought about it.

Now slowly and deliberately she dried Theo’s sides and turned him around so she could dry his back.

“I can do that.” His voice was ragged.

“Huh-uh.” She clutched the towel and pushed his arm so he would comply. “You dried me. Now it’s my turn.” She wasn’t giving this up for anything on earth.

The look Theo gave her promised something she wasn’t quite sure she understood, but it made her both hot and determined at the same time. She gave him an expectant look, tapped her foot and waited.

A corner of Theo’s mouth twitched, but at last he turned. His back was broad and deeply tanned. He had no tan line at all which was intriguing. There was a lot about Theo Savas that was very intriguing indeed.

Martha rubbed the towel across his back, down his spine, over the hard curve of his buttocks and down his legs. They were as strong and hard-muscled as his arms.

She could understand now why any magazine reporter just looking at the physical Theo Savas would call him “the world’s sexiest sailor.” He would only have had to bare his body and the contest was won. Was that what he had done? Had they seen him nude? Her heart caught in her throat.

She crouched down and ran the towel down hair-roughened legs, then up again along the backs of his thighs. Down and up. Up and down. He shifted his feet. She ran the towel along the insides of his thighs.

Was that a hiss of breath between his teeth?

Martha swallowed. Then, “Turn,” she directed him.

Theo turned.

She was staring straight at—

“I think that’s dry enough.” His voice was a harsh rasp. And abruptly she was hauled to her feet, the towel was tossed aside, and the next thing Martha knew, Theo had scooped her into his arms and was carrying her out of the bath and straight to his bed.

She felt another moment’s gratitude that he had so thoroughly eradicated all signs of her parents. She wasn’t sure she could have gone to bed with Theo if it had been their bed. But thank heaven—and Theo—every trace of Aeolus and Helena Antonides was gone.

The room was pure Theo. If pure was a word you could ever use with Theo Savas, she thought, a smile touching her mouth.

But she didn’t have time to ponder that further as he flicked off the lamp and came to drop down on the bed beside her. The room was lit by the moonlight spilling through the open window so she could still see him, silver and shadow, as he lay on his side next to her. She felt his hand come to brush over her hair, then down her arm. Then he leaned toward her and began to kiss her ear, her neck, her shoulder.

And then it began again—the slow escalation of passion, the tender touches, the light strokes, the nibbles and kisses. And again her blood heated, her need grew. She shifted, moaned. Her fingers lifted. She wanted to touch him, but she didn’t know if she dared.

“Touch me,” Theo said, his voice ragged.

And eagerly, Martha did. It was like being given permission to have whatever she wanted in the candy store. She touched him lightly at first, a little uncertain as she began to learn the contours of his body that was so different from her own.

When she began a new mural on a surface she had never worked with before, she had to experiment, had to learn how it accepted the paint, how to apply the colors, how to achieve the effect she desired. It was like that now. She was touching, nibbling, stroking, learning his responses as she learned in her work.

Theo was more responsive than wood, than plaster, than brick, than anything Martha had ever painted. She could make Theo groan. She could make his body tremble with need, could make his muscles tense, could make him bite his lip as he attempted to rein in his passion, to control his desire.

Martha didn’t want him to control it. She wanted him to lose control just as she had in the shower. She wanted to bring him the same pleasure he had brought her.

And so she became bolder. Her hands found him, stroked him, touched him—until he could stand it no longer.

And suddenly he was over her, sliding between her legs and plunging in and—

Martha stiffened in shock.

And so did Theo.

At her body’s sudden resistance, he went rigid and—for an instant—absolutely still. Even in the moonlight his astonished, incredulous expression was one she would never forget for the rest of her life.

And then it was replaced by one of desperation, as he could no more control his expression than he could control the need that swamped him.

She knew he couldn’t stop even if he wanted to. Which he probably did, but it was too late. Theo shattered in her just the way she had shattered in the shower.

And then, still trembling, he rolled off the bed and onto his feet, glaring down at her and demanding furiously, “What the hell d’you think you were doing?”