ROMAN CARRIED ALLIE across the sand. He ignored the tension bleeding into her body the farther they got from the waves. Too much time to think. They were being so damn careful not to edge too close to subjects that would put them at odds with each other, but he craved that part of her as much as he wanted the rest. Allie wasn’t just the beautiful siren who looked so at home in the sun and sand, with the turquoise water creating the perfect backdrop.
She was a strong woman who hadn’t let circumstances beyond her control beat her. She’d fought tooth and nail to accomplish so much in such a short time, and it was a fucking tragedy that it hadn’t gone according to plan. He didn’t want her to lose Transcend any more than she wanted to lose it, if only because he now recognized the pain it would cause.
Roman would go to extraordinary lengths to save Allie from whatever pain he could.
He padded up the porch steps and headed straight for the bedroom. She wouldn’t thank him for ruining their good mood with serious talking, and she might go so far as to leave if he tried to broach the forbidden topic. There wasn’t a damn thing Roman could do to change that, and he wasn’t used to being so effectively painted into a corner.
He couldn’t use words to reassure Allie.
But he could use his body.
“Roman?” The hesitance in her tone killed him.
He set her on her feet but didn’t release her. Naked and wet from the ocean, she really did look like a siren who’d been sent to tempt him. Allie blinked those big blue eyes. “Are we okay?”
“Yeah.” Not as okay as I want us to be. He liked Allie. He admired her strength. He wanted to bolster it, to be the immovable object she could lean on when she needed it. If there was one thing he was sure about when it came to the woman in his arms, it was that she didn’t allow herself to rest, to pass the burden on to another.
He wanted to bear all her burdens, at least for a little while.
Roman framed her face with his hands and stroked his thumbs over her cheekbones. “I want it to be just us while we’re here. No past, no worrying about the future. Just you, Allie, and me, Roman. Two people enjoying their time together.”
“That sounds good.” She bit her bottom lip. “But I don’t know if it’s possible to just put all that aside and pretend it’s not there.”
“Aphrodite.” He kissed the spot on her lip where there was still an indent from her teeth. “Nothing exists but us. The goddess of love and her Adonis.”
She laughed a little. “You know that myth didn’t end happily, right?”
“It’s Greek mythology. There are no happy endings.” He shifted to kiss her stubborn chin. “Fuck them. This is our story.”
Her hesitation was so brief, it might not have existed. “Yes. Tonight. The next three days. You and me. I’m in.”
As much as Roman didn’t want any kind of limit, he knew when not to push his luck. Allie had given him more than he’d hoped, and he’d have to be happy with it. “I’m taking you to bed now.”
“Finally.” She gave a dramatic sigh. “I thought we’d never get to the good part.”
“All of it is the good part.” He walked her back to the bed and laid her down, leaning over her. “Tell me what you want. Your wish is my command tonight.”
“Just tonight?” There it was again, the slightest hint of vulnerability.
Not just tonight. Always. Promises he had no business making rose, pressing against the inside of his lips like live things. He’d known he wanted Allie, but the realization that he had only three days left with her pulsed up inside him, desperation building with each heartbeat. He looked down at her, her open expression of need cleaving into his chest as if she’d actually struck him. I don’t want to lose you. He swallowed hard. “We’ll start with tonight and see how it goes.”
Her grin brought out an answering one from him. “Kiss me, Adonis.” She arched up, pressing all of her body against all of his. “Touch me. Hold me. Fuck me.”
There was no room in this night for fucking. They’d passed that point days ago, though he couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment when Allie went from a gorgeous woman who drove him out of his mind to a woman whose inside was just as compelling as how she felt when she rode his cock. It wasn’t just sex between them, no matter what lies she told herself.
Maybe it never had been that uncomplicated.
Roman joined her on the bed and kissed the long line of her neck. “Here.” He shifted to the side so he had full access to her body, and moved to the curve of her shoulder. “Perhaps here.”
She shivered. “I could think of a few places I’d like.”
“I bet you could.” He urged her onto her side so he could fit himself against her back. The position gave him free reign, and he wasted no time cupping her full breasts, weighing them in his hands. “Open your eyes.”
She obeyed and froze when she met his gaze in the reflection of the windows across from the bed. The deep darkness outside and the single lamp he’d left on inside created a mirror of the glass.
Roman pressed an openmouthed kiss to the back of her neck and retreated just enough for his breath to ghost over the damp skin. She shivered and arched her back against him, pressing her breasts more firmly into his hands. “That feels good.”
“I’m just getting started.” He lightly pinched her nipples, rolling the tight buds between his fingers. “I love how rosy your skin gets when you like what I’m doing to you.”
She lifted her head and frowned. “The reflection isn’t that damn good.”
“No. It’s not.” He skated a hand down her stomach and hooked her thigh, lifting her leg up and setting her foot behind his legs. It left her open for him and he delighted in her shiver. “Cold?”
Allie reached back to run her fingers through his hair. “I’m burning up. Touch me, Adonis.”
He loved it when she called him that. It was something they alone shared. Something special and meaningful. Roman dragged a single fingertip over the inside of her thigh, teasing her. “Where do you want me to touch you?”
“You know where.”
“Mmm. I might.” He palmed her pussy, and cursed when he found her warm and wet and wanting. “This is where you want me.” He traced her opening. “Where you’re aching with need.”
“Yes.” She shifted her hips to guide him, but he nipped her shoulder. Allie hissed out a breath. “Bossy.”
“Always.” He spread her wetness up and over her clit and circled the little bud of nerves with the pad of his finger. “You love it.”
“Maybe.”
“Definitely.” Roman pushed two fingers into her, stroking her leisurely while he watched her face. Her sinful lips parted and her blue eyes went hazy. “My Aphrodite.” He released her long enough to reach over and snag a condom.
“Let me.” Allie turned in his arms and plucked it out of his hand. She ripped it open and then gripped his cock. A stroke. Two. The desire in her eyes a match to the furnace inside him. “You shouldn’t be this perfect, you know? It’s got to be a mathematical improbability.”
He barked out a laugh. “Not perfect. Never that.” He had more than his share of faults. He always had. Too selfish. Too driven, often at the expense of his relationships. Too stubborn by half.
“Well, obviously.” She rolled the condom over him, taking her time. “I was talking about your cock, Adonis.”
That surprised another laugh out of him despite the fact she started stroking him again. “Quite the backhanded compliment.”
“Only if you want to look at it that way.” She nudged his shoulder, pushing him onto his back. Allie climbed on top of him and ran her hands up his chest. “Seriously, though. You don’t have a single physical imperfection. I’ve never had a man take my breath away just by looking at him, and you do.”
He looked at her, this woman that he’d never planned on. She was trying so fucking hard to keep as many barriers up between them as she could. Easier to focus on the physical than to admit that he might not be as evil as she’d assumed. To admit that she liked him for more than his ability to make her come hard enough to see stars.
Allie positioned his cock at her entrance and sank onto him in a slow movement. Her eyes fluttered closed and her pink lips parted. “Oh, God.” She rolled her hips a little, adjusting. “I always think I can anticipate how good it will feel, and I’m always wrong.”
“Because it’s me.”
Her eyes flew open and she frowned down at him. “What?”
“You lose your fucking mind every time I touch you because it’s me. Just like I can’t keep my goddamn hands to myself when I’m in the same room as you. We make each other crazy, and yeah, some of that has to do with how smoking hot you are. But it’s more and you know it.” He reached between them to circle her clit with his thumb. “I’m not a glorified dildo or a blow-up doll. I’m me.”
* * *
Allie stared down at Roman. All she wanted was to lose herself in the perfection of the moment, of how good it felt to have him inside her, his big body between her thighs. She didn’t want to turn this into something it wasn’t supposed to be. Too little, too late.
“I know it’s you.” As if she could detach the man from his body. She couldn’t. She’d tried. Roman’s personality was just as overwhelming as his good looks. “Damn it, I see you.”
Driven by the pounding pleasure in her blood, she shifted, swirling her hips a little in a move that made them both gasp. “I see you,” Allie repeated. “You’re not a bad man, no matter how much you pretend to be.” He might not be a good man, but that wasn’t something she could determine inside of a week.
Liar.
She leaned down to kiss him, answering the temptation of his mouth as much as she wanted to silence the little voice inside her. You won’t be able to take this back. It’s already complicated and it’s only going to get more so. She didn’t care. She’d worry about complications when she came to them. All that mattered in that moment was removing the flicker of hurt she’d seen in Roman’s hazel eyes.
She tasted the ocean on his lips, felt the warmth of the sun in his skin. Roman was like this island personified, beautiful and more than a little bit wild beneath the carefully cultured exterior.
“It stopped being just sex with you. You know it. I know it. We’re still not talking about it.”
He hesitated but finally nodded. “I can play the patient hunter, Aphrodite. We won’t talk about it tonight. Maybe not for the next three days. But we will talk about it.”
That was what she was afraid of. “Guess you really are Adonis,” she murmured against his lips.
“Only when it comes to my Aphrodite.”
She didn’t want to talk anymore. Every time he’d spoken tonight, he’d chipped away at the fragile balance she’d worked to keep in place. Boundaries were there for a reason and, damn it, Roman seemed determined to trample all over them. He’d stopped playing by the rules, but he hadn’t pushed so hard that she could call him on it.
Do I even want to call him on it? What’s the harm in enjoying this?
It won’t last.
What if it does?
She kissed Roman again, pressing her body into his. She rode him slowly, not worried about the destination. They’d get there eventually. They did every time. No, right now what Allie wanted was to be fully present in the moment. Right there. With him. The rest of the world could wait.
He dug a hand into her hair and grabbed her ass with the other, guiding the long slide of her strokes. Sweat slicked their skin, and the drag of her nipples across his chest made her moan. So good. Everything about them was so good. Nothing else mattered but how his tongue moved expertly against hers, the feeling of him inside her, big and full and almost too much, and where he would touch her next. “I need more.”
He rolled them, and the second her back hit the soft mattress, Roman began to move. He rolled his body like the waves they’d just been playing in. Smooth and steady and hitting all the right places. He ground his pelvic bone against her clit, the friction drawing a moan from her lips. His big body kept her pinned even as he wrapped himself around her. All she could feel was Roman. All she knew was Roman. The feel of his strong hands gripping her hips, the pounding of his cock between her thighs, the little curses he uttered with each exhale.
Glorious. So incredibly glorious.
“Yes. There. Don’t stop.”
“Come for me, Aphrodite,” he growled against her neck. “Come for your man.”
She was too lost to the pleasure of what he was doing to her to think too hard on his words. Or that was what she told herself as she buried her face in the curve of his neck and orgasmed hard enough to shake the earth on its axis. Roman pounded into her, wild with a need she felt to her very soul.
This isn’t going away. I don’t know if it’s real or not...but I want it to be.
Roman tucked her against him and held her tightly, as if he expected her to leap out of bed and flee into the night. Considering how hard her heart pounded in a way that had nothing to do with the outstanding sex, she wasn’t sure his fears were unfounded. “I don’t know how to do this.”
“Do what?”
She kept her face pressed against his chest. It was easier to be honest when she wasn’t looking directly into those hazel eyes. “This. You. Us.” Us. One little word, but it somehow changed everything. The realization that this wasn’t simple vacation sex had been growing inside her every time Roman touched her. Every time she came with his name on her lips.
He smoothed a strand of her hair back from her face, tilting her head up so she could see him. “Why do you have to do anything at all?” There was something in his expression, something tight and guarded despite his warm smile.
“What’s wrong?”
He hesitated and sighed. “Look, Allie, I like you. A lot. But I can tell that this whole thing freaks you out, so I’m trying to not put any pressure on you while we’re here.”
While we’re here.
They wouldn’t be on West Island forever. Hell, they wouldn’t be here this time next week. This thing they had was temporary. She knew it and he knew it. Allie took a careful breath as the knowledge settled in her chest like a stone. They had an expiration date. There would be a time in the very near future when she’d no longer have the right to spend her nights tangled up with Roman.
I have to shore up enough memories during these last few days to last me a lifetime.
The thought made her want to cry, but she shoved the feeling down deep. There would be plenty of time for tears later. Right now, the only thing that mattered was gorging herself on everything Roman. On the little touches. On his kisses. On the feeling that rose inside her as she came apart around him.
“Aphrodite?”
She tangled her fingers in his hair and pulled him close for a desperate kiss. She put all her frustration and fear into the slide of her tongue against his. Three days. She had so much living to pack into three tiny twenty-four-hour periods.
Roman pulled her closer yet, his big hands cupping her ass and grinding her against him. He broke the kiss to nip at her jaw. “This is what you need, isn’t it? Not to think anymore.”
“Yes.” He always seemed to know what she needed, even when she couldn’t put it into words. “I just want to feel you. To be here and present and not worried about what happens when we get back to New York.”
“Consider it done.” He captured one of her nipples in his mouth, sucking hard. “Trust me, Aphrodite. I’ll take care of you.”
For the next three days, she finished silently, even as he rolled her onto her back and began kissing his way down her body. She couldn’t bear to think about what happened after.
So she didn’t.