Modern Romance February Books 5-8. Heidi Rice
Then she’d danced with him, the same routine he’d helped her learn so long ago, and she’d been back in that spring meadow, practicing the waltz not for the pimply-faced Harvard boy, who was the nephew of her father’s lawyer, but for Darius, always for him, only for him. As they’d danced in the ballroom, she’d felt time melt away.
Darius was right. She was his. From the very beginning, Darius Kyrillos had been the only man she’d ever wanted. The only man she’d ever loved.
I don’t love him anymore, she told herself desperately. She wouldn’t let him buy her!
Darius led her up an elaborate staircase, then pushed open a glass door that led out onto a private rooftop garden.
Letty gasped at the beauty of the ivy-covered pergola decorated with fairy lights near a lit lap pool gleaming bright blue in the warm September night.
Above them, distant stars sparkled like diamonds across a dark velvety sky. Past the glass walls of the terrace, the night skyline of Manhattan glittered.
She kept her distance from the edge, afraid to go too close. But Darius went right to it. He leaned against the short glass wall, totally unfazed and unafraid of plummeting seventy floors to his death. He looked out at the city.
Letty crept closer, her heart pounding. “This terrace is amazing.”
“All the flowers remind me of home,” he said simply. She wondered if he meant Greece or Fairholme, but didn’t have the nerve to ask. She slowly turned her head, marveling at the lavish beauty of a rooftop garden that treated all of Manhattan as nothing but a backdrop.
“You’re king of the mountain now,” she said softly. “Looking down on a valley of skyscrapers.”
Turning to her, he came forward. Then he abruptly fell to one knee in front of her astonished eyes.
Reaching into his tuxedo jacket pocket, he pulled out a small black velvet box.
“Rule it with me, Letty,” he said quietly. “As my wife.”
Shivering, she put her hand on her heart. “I already said...”
“You said yes when you thought I’d back out. This is a real proposal. I expect a real answer.” He held up the black velvet box. “Letty Spencer, will you do me the honor of marrying me?”
He opened the lid. Inside the black velvet box was an enormous pear-shaped diamond set in platinum. It was the hugest, most outrageous ring she’d ever seen.
But that wasn’t what made her lose her breath.
It was Darius’s face. His dark, yearning eyes. As he looked at her in the moonlight, she saw the man who’d just bruised her with the intensity of his kisses. Who’d just defied all of Manhattan and paid five billion dollars for her. The man whose child she carried.
In his eyes, she saw the shadow of the younger man she’d once loved, strong and kind, with such a good heart. The one who’d loved her so fervently. They were the same.
Letty’s heart skipped a beat.
It’s an illusion, she told herself desperately. He’s not the same. But as she reached out and brushed her fingers against the diamond engagement ring, it sparkled like the stars. Like the lights of this powerful city.
Like the smolder in Darius’s dark eyes.
“It would destroy us,” she said shakily, but what she really meant was it would destroy me.
Darius slowly rose in front of her, until his tall, powerful body towered over hers. Waves of blue light from the pool reflected against him as the warm wind moved across the water. Putting his hand on her cheek, he lowered his head.
“Say yes,” he whispered. “Say you’ll be mine.”
His kiss was tender at first. She felt the rough warmth of his lips, the gentle hold of his arms.
Then his grip tightened. His embrace became hungry, filled with need. Spirals of heat twisted through her body, and she gripped his shoulders. Until he pulled away.
“Say it,” he demanded.
“Yes,” she choked out.
A flash of triumph crossed his starkly handsome face. “You will?”
She nodded, tears in her eyes.
“There will be no going back,” he warned.
“I know.” She tried to ignore the thrill that crept into her heart. Excitement? Terror?
Right or wrong, disaster or not, there was nothing to be done. What he’d said was true. She’d always been his. In many ways, this decision had been made for her long ago.
He slid the diamond ring over the third finger of her left hand. It fit perfectly. She looked down at it, sparkling in the moonlight. “How did you know my ring size?”
“It’s the same ring.”
She frowned. “What?”
“It’s the same I bought for you ten years ago.” His voice was low. “I had it set with a different stone.”
The thought that he’d kept their original ring all these years made her heart ache. Whatever he might say, didn’t that mean he might still care for her, at least a little?
Could love, once lost, ever be regained?
Looking at him with tears in her eyes, she breathed, “Darius...”
“You’re mine now, Letty,” he whispered, kissing her forehead, her eyelids, her cheeks. “You belong to me. Forever.”
Then he kissed her lips as if those, too, were his possession.
Sparks of pleasure went up and down Letty’s body, coiling low and deep inside her, and she felt his hands running down her bare arms, her sides, cupping her breasts over the pink dress.
She fell back against the ivy-covered stone wall. Above them, fairy lights swayed gently in the warm wind, the skyscrapers of Manhattan illuminating the moonlit sky.
Letty’s eyes closed as he kissed his way down her throat. She felt breathless, like she was lost in a dream.
He kissed over the diamond necklace to her bare clavicle and the valley between her full breasts, half revealed above the low-cut bodice of her gown.
Picking her up, he carried her past the sweeping ivy into a half-enclosed room protected on two sides by walls, with a rustic chandelier hanging over a long table. Two leather sofas were arranged around a fireplace and well-stocked bar.
He flicked a switch, and the gas fire lit up. She saw Darius’s face clearly in the flickering firelight as they faced each other silently. The soft wind blew against her hair, her skin.
Slowly, Darius removed his tuxedo jacket and dropped it to the flagstone floor. Coming closer, he unzipped her pink dress. She felt the brush of his fingertips, then the warm night air against her bare skin as her gown dropped to the floor beside his jacket. She stepped out of the fabric, wearing only the diamonds, a lace bra, panties and the wicked pink crystal stiletto heels.
He stepped back, looking at her.
“Incredible,” he breathed in deep masculine appreciation, and she realized that, just as he’d promised, he was seeing her in the lingerie. She scowled.
“Do you always get what you want?” she said accusingly.
“I do,” he said, caressing her cheek. “And now, so will you.”
She licked her lips and felt a thrill of delight as his expression changed to raw desire. Reaching up, she saucily loosened his tuxedo tie, before tugging on it, drawing him closer for a kiss.
It was the first time she’d ever made the first move, and he growled fierce approval. Holding her tight, he kissed her back hungrily.
His hands caressed her naked