She tilted her head to look up at him. Her gray eyes were bright and shiny, and they chipped at the edges of a heart frozen centuries before by necessity and by design.
Uncomfortable, he moved away from her. 'Feeling better?'
Grace wiped her tears away and cleared her throat. She didn't know what had made Julian come after her, but it had been a long time since anyone had comforted her when she cried. 'Yes,' she whispered. 'Thank you.'
He said nothing.
Instead of the tender man who had held her just an instant ago, he was back to being Mr. Statue, his entire body rigid and cold.
Drawing a ragged breath, she moved past him. 'I wouldn't have done that if I weren't
She knew he would follow, so she dutifully headed back to her room and climbed aboard her tall pineapple plantation bed where she snuggled beneath her thick comforter.
Sure enough, she felt the mattress dip under his weight an instant later.
Her heart quickened at the sudden warmth of his body next to hers. Worse, he instantly curled himself against her back, and draped one long, muscular arm over her waist.
'Julian!' she said with a warning note in her voice as she felt his erection against her hip. 'I think it might be best if you stay on your side of the bed, and I stay on mine.'
He didn't listen as he leaned his head down to hers and nibbled a small path along her hairline. 'I thought you wanted me to come ease your aching loins,' he whispered in her ear.
Her body on fire from his nearness and the scent of sandalwood that filled her head, Grace blushed as she remembered her words to Selena. 'My loins are just fine, and are quite happy as they are.'
'I promise you, I could make them much, much happier.'
Ooo, she didn't doubt it in the least. 'If you don't behave, I'm going to make you leave the room.'
She looked up at him and caught the disbelief in his eyes.
'I don't understand why you would send me away,' he said.
'Because I'm not going to use you like some nameless boy-toy who has no purpose except to serve me. Okay? I don't want to be intimate with a man I don't know.'
His blue eyes troubled, he finally withdrew from her and settled down beside her.
Grace took a deep breath as she tried to calm her racing heart and tame the fire in her blood. Goodness, he was a hard man to say no to.
Closing her eyes, she recited her boring litany. She
Julian propped the pillows up behind his back and looked over at Grace. This would be the first time in his exceptionally long life that he spent a night with a woman without making love to her.
It was inconceivable. No woman had ever pushed him away before.
She rolled over with another handset like the one she'd shown him downstairs. She pressed a button and turned on the TV, then lowered the sound of people talking.
'This is for the lights,' she said, pressing another button. Immediately, the lights turned off, leaving the TV to cast shadows on the wall behind him. 'I'm a pretty sound sleeper, so I don't think you'll wake me.'
She handed him the handset. 'Good night, Julian of Macedon.'
'Good night, Grace,' he whispered, watching the way her soft hair fanned out over the pillow as she snuggled down to sleep.
He put the handset aside and watched her for a long while as the light from the TV flickered across the relaxed planes of her face.
He could tell when she finally fell asleep by the evenness of her breathing. It was only then that he finally dared to touch her. Dared to trace the gentle outline of her soft cheek with the pad of his forefinger.
His body reacted with such violence that he bit his lip to keep from cursing. Fire streamed through his blood.
He'd known stabbing desires all his life-first a hunger in his belly for food, then a burning thirst for love and respect, and finally the demanding one in his loins for the wet sleekness of a woman's body. But never, never, had he experienced anything like this.
It was a hunger so strong, so raw, that it threatened his very sanity.
And all he could think of was spreading her creamy, silken thighs and planting himself deep inside her. Of sliding in and out of her body over and over until they both screamed out their release in unison.
Only that would never happen.
Julian moved farther away from her. To a safe distance in the bed where he could no longer smell her sweet feminine scent, feel the heat of her body beneath the covers.
He could give her pleasure for days on end without stopping, but for him there would never be peace.
'Damn you, Priapus,' he snarled, speaking the name of the god who had cursed him to this fate. 'I hope Hades is giving you your full due.'
His anger dulling, he sighed and realized that the Fates and Furies were certainly giving him his.
Grace came awake with a strange sense of warmth and security. It was a feeling she hadn't experienced in years.
Suddenly, she felt a tender kiss against her eyelids as if someone were brushing lips against her lashes. Warm, strong hands stroked her hair.
She bolted up so quickly that she bumped heads with him. She heard his hiss of pain. Rubbing her forehead, she opened her eyes and saw him giving her a ferocious frown.
'Sorry,' she apologized, sitting up. 'You startled me.'
He opened his mouth and placed the pad of his thumb against his front teeth to check if she'd knocked them loose.
Worse, she couldn't miss the flick of his tongue as he tested his teeth with it. The sight of his incredibly white straight teeth that she would love to have nip her…
'What do you want for breakfast?' she asked, distracting herself from her thoughts.
His gaze shifted to the deep V of her dorm shirt. Following the line of his gaze, she realized that from the way she sat he could see all the way down to her embarrassingly pink Mickey Mouse underwear.
Before she could move, he pulled her across his body and claimed her lips.
Grace moaned her pleasure into his mouth as his tongue did the most wicked things to hers. Her head spun at the intense kiss, of his warm breath mingling with hers.
And to think, she'd never liked kissing.
She must have been crazy!
His arms tightened around her. A thousand flames fanned out over her body, burning her, inciting her, as they pooled into the molten zone between her thighs where she ached for him.
His lips left hers, and he trailed his tongue over her skin, searing a path to her throat where he made circles over her collarbone, her earlobe, her neck.
The man seemed to know every erogenous zone on a woman's body!
And better still, he knew how to use his tongue and hands to massage them all for maximum pleasure.
He breathed gently into her ear, sending waves of chills throughout her body, and when he stroked her inner ear with his tongue, she shook all over.
Her breasts tingled and swelled and tightened into hard nubs that begged for his kiss.
'Julian,' she moaned, unable to recognize her voice. Her mind wanted her to tell him to stop, but the words lodged themselves in her throat.
There was so much power in his touch. Such magic. It left her aching for more.
He rolled her over, pressing her back against the mattress. Even through his pajamas, she could feel his erection, hard and hot, against her hip as his hands cupped her buttocks and he breathed raggedly in her ear.
'You must stop,' she told him at last, her voice sounding weak.
