PrideandSurrender by Julia Devlin Read Free Book Online Page A

flicked to
my mouth, clinging for a moment before he sighed and handed it to me.
    Our fingers touched and a jolt of awareness ran up my arm.
Damn chemistry. It was so strong between us, almost a live, tangible thing. It
messed everything up, made him impossible to resist.
    For today, I decided, I didn’t need to think about it. The
truth was I wanted to be with him. In this moment, I wanted to forget
everything but him. I wanted to forget all the reasons I was sure he’d hurt me.
I’d been aching for him and now he was here.
    I’d treat it like the gift it was. For now.
    I unwrapped the paper that held the lunch he’d brought me.
It was a girl sandwich, stuffed full of vegetables and some sort of white
spread on multi-grain bread. Suddenly my stomach growled and I realized how
empty it was. I took a bite, it was delicious and I moaned with appreciation.
When I swallowed, I said, “This is so good.”
    “I got it from a store by my office, the girl at the counter
insisted you’d love it.” He toyed with a lock of my hair as he smiled down at
me.
    “Aren’t you eating?”
    “I will later.” He chuckled. “I’m assuming you don’t want
stray crumbs falling over your face.”
    “True enough, but I can get up.” I moved to sit up, but the
palm of his hand flattened over my stomach, pushing me back down.
    “Don’t even think about it.” His thumb stroked the under
curve of my breast and my nipple beaded as though begging to be touched. “I’ve
pictured you lying like this a million times, and you’re not ruining it for
me.”
    I blinked up at him. “You have?”
    “Yes, Juliet. I have.” He trailed a finger over my ribs,
between the swells of my breasts, over my collarbones before shifting strands
of my hair through his fingers. “I don’t just want your body—although I want
that almost to the point of desperation—I want you . All of you.”
     
    The afternoon passed with a laziness I hadn’t experienced in
a long time. To my surprise, Christos was fun to be around. As the hours
slipped by, so did my guard and I found myself relaxing. In all the ways I’d
pictured being with him, lying comfortably on a beach wasn’t one of them.
    He told me about his family, his mother and father who’d
come over as Greek immigrants to rear him and his two younger sisters in
America. He entertained me with stories of summers in Greece and even managed
to slip in wanting to take me there. He said his family lived in a tiny village
off the sea and it was the most beautiful spot in the whole world, and I
believed him.
    I listened with rapt attention, asking him questions I’d
always wanted to know but never dared to think I’d get a chance to ask. His
parents were still alive and he went to their house for dinner every Sunday
night. He was close to his sisters and their families. He had three nieces and
two nephews who he adored and lavished with so many gifts he’d been admonished
by his sisters.
    He laughed. “My sister Anna didn’t appreciate it when I
brought Peter a drum set.”
    A wide grin split my face, and I shook my head. “He’s the
nine-year-old?”
    “Yes. Demetrius,” he said, rolling the word over his lips so
it was pronounced with an accent, “is eighteen months, a little too young to be
a drummer.”
    I tucked a lock of hair behind my ears. “You know she’ll pay
you back someday.”
    “That’s her promise.” His expression resigned but his
affection was clear in his tone. “I’ve gotten my fair share of drum solos left
on my voice mail.”
    Since the day I’d met him I’d built him up in my mind as
someone remote and untouchable, to find him so incredibly down to earth made my
perception shift. It’d been swaying for weeks, but now it settled. For the first
time I looked at him and saw not the adversary or the untouchable Greek god but
the man. Turned out he was human after all.
    Those green eyes caught mine and the world melted away.
Silence and heat took the place of the cars