Satin Dreams by Maggie; Davis Page B

moving him deeper. When she lifted herself to wrap her legs around him, what was left of his control broke completely. The very air around them seemed to explode.  
    It was over within a few violent seconds. He groaned, bellowed, smothering her face and mouth with kisses, writhing with the shudders of his release. Then he fell to one side against the sheets, gasping.  
    A moment later Nicholas tore himself away from her and leaped out of the bed.  
    Alix screamed.  
    “A virgin! A goddamned virgin !” He managed to make the word a vile accusation.  
    Alix sat up in the disheveled bed, clutching the edge of one satin sheet to her naked breasts. Nicholas had somehow brought her body to such an erotic pitch that it had left her trembling, almost sick. And the torn places hurt. If she’d known how it was going to be, she thought wildly, she would never have started all this!  
    She watched him stride up and down the room, starkly nude, raking his hands through his dark hair. “Okay, what’s the game?” He switched to French and then back to English. “What I don’t understand is, why the hell didn’t you try to peddle this to me before we started?”  
    Alix could only stare at him, terrified, the sheet clutched to her chin. She watched as he kicked her discarded shoes out of the way. “Oh, come on,” he yelled. “You ask a bigger price for virgins, you know that!”  
    She didn’t know that. Alix wrapped one arm around her body protectingly. Her mouth felt bruised and swollen; she could see the ragged, disordered mass of her red hair hanging in her eyes. “I’m not ‘peddling’ anything,” she protested tremulously.  
    He paid no attention. “A virgin! Jesus, I’m a Greek, ” he bellowed. “Virgins are for marrying !” He turned away and stormed the length of the room. “I’ve never had a virgin in my life! I’ve never wanted one.” He whirled on her fiercely. “And I’m damned well not going to marry you, if that’s your game!”  
    Alix moved her legs under the gold satin sheet, wincing from the pain. She wished he’d stop shouting. When she lifted the sheets to investigate the curious warm stickiness, she saw a large crimson smear of blood. She was attacked by such a terrible feeling of guilt and despair, she didn’t think she’d survive. What have I done to myself? She’d always been accused of willfulness, of wanton disregard for inevitable consequences. Oh God, now it was true!  
    Nicholas Palliades paced up and down furiously. “It was a setup, a goddamned setup ! And I walked right into it. I ought to have my head examined, getting myself into this kind of stupid trap!” His expression was savage as he strode back. “It’s part of some rotten scheme,” he snarled at her, “some damned plan , isn’t it?”  
    Alix looked up, startled. “How did you—”  
    “How did I what ?” He lunged across the bed to grab her by one bare arm. “How did I know ? Do you think I’m stupid? I have powerful enemies—my whole family has enemies!” His face blazed with anger. “They’d use anything to get at us.”  
    “That wasn’t what I meant!”  
    “Oh, wasn’t it?” He tossed a small wrinkled object on the bed. “It broke ”, he snarled. “You and whoever else is in this with you got really lucky this time. The condom broke.”  
    Alix slid her legs over the opposite side of the bed, trying to remember where she’d left her dress. “I didn’t have anything to do with whatever it is—” Her eyes slid to the object on the bedspread furtively. “—breaking.”  
    “The hell you didn’t! It broke because you’re a damned tight little virgin ! That’s what you were counting on.” Nicholas suddenly put his knees on his side of the bed and grabbed her shoulders. “What’s the price? What’s the blackmail ? How much for the virginity? Rape? Settlement out of court? Breach of promise? Sexual battery?” He gave Alix a shake that made her head wobble.