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But first on the elevator, then later as he sat across from her in candlelight on the Seine, Theo Katrakis, feared in boardrooms and amateur boxing rings, hadchickened out.
No. Not chickened out, he’d told himself. The time just wasn’t yet ripe. Timing was everything.
After making love to her, as Theo held her in his arms, he’d stared at the ceiling, trying to think of the right words to make her want the same life he wanted. No ideas were forthcoming.
He wanted to make his wife happy. He did. But he also didn’t want to be trapped in New York, waiting for their son to be born, preparing the nursery and dealing with baby showers and endless intrusions from family and friends. He wanted to build his empire. He wanted to work. Work was life.
And he wanted Emmie with him. At his side. In his office. In his bed.
He cared for her. He wanted her respect. She was the only one who understood him, who saw his flaws and limitations but still accepted him, just as he was. He didn’t have to hide with her. He didn’t have to pretend.
At least he hadn’t—until now.
He forced a smile. “Of course I want to go home.”
Still naked in his arms, Emmie looked at him, her heart-shaped lips parted in a breathless dawn of a smile. “So you don’t mind—”
“But does New York have to be our only home?” He stroked sweaty tendrils of her blond hair from her cheek. “The world is a big place. We could own it all.”
Emmie’s lovely face clouded in the shadowy bedroom. “I thought you liked New York. It’s your headquarters.”
“The company’s headquarters, not mine.”
“You bought a fifty-million-dollar penthouse to live in.”
He shrugged. “An investment, no different from my other properties around the world. Emmie—” he clasped her hand “—we could live anywhere.”
She stared at him. “But my family is in New York. Our friends.” Her eyes filled with shadow. “I agreed to stay and work in Paris till your project was done. But then you promised we could go home.”
“Haven’t you been happy, Emmie?” His arms tightened around her, their naked bodies intertwined on the bed in a tangle of sheets. “Don’t you enjoy our life here?”
Abruptly, Emmie pulled away. She rose to her feet. He had a single moment to appreciate the sensual curve of her backside in the shadowy light, her honey-blond hair tumbling down her back, before she wrapped herself in a white terrycloth robe from the closet. She turned back, tying the belt.
“I’ve enjoyed seeing you happy.” Meeting his eyes, she added quietly, “Because I’m in love with you, Theo.”
Whatever Theo had been about to say was choked off as his throat tightened. Telling himself he’d misheard, he said hoarsely, “What?”
Her violet eyes were huge in the moonlight as she said simply, “I love you.”
Turning away, he rose abruptly from the bed, pulling on his robe. He muttered, “You’re overtired.”
“I’m not, I mean, it’s true I am, but that’s not why. I’m saying it because it’s true. I love you.”
It was as if a dam had burst, and once she’d spoken the awful incantation, she couldn’t quit repeating it like an evil spell. His mind was whirling. “What does that even mean?”
“I think...lovemeans putting the other person ahead of yourself,” she said quietly.
His lips twisted downward. “You mean it makes you a slave.”
Emmie stared at him from across the luxurious bedroom, with its old oil paintings and marble fireplace full of unlit white candles. Her expression was stricken.
“It’s not like that,” she protested. Brushing at her eyes, she gave him a small, wistful smile. “Not if both people love each other.”
Love each other.
Memory punched through his heart.
His mother’s wild, bloodshot eyes.“I can’t leave him. We love each other.”
