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He’d been helpless as a boy. Helpless to save his family, even to save himself.
Until he finally had—at unbearable cost...
Theo couldn’t relax. Since he’d arrived, he’d barely slept. So he’d gone for a run that morning, pushing himself hard, sprinting the eight-mile trail around the edge of the cliffs, hoping to outrun all his demons.
He ran past an old house and saw the gray-haired, wrinkled version of a woman he vaguely remembered. One who’d once called the police when she’d found him stumbling down the road as a boy, broken and covered in his own blood. Now, the old woman’s eyes narrowed as he ran past.
But he didn’t stop. He didn’t want to be recognized as that boy. Not by anyone. Not even himself.
For decades, he’d seen the charred ruin in his dreams. Theo had bought the ruined property on Lyra because he’d hoped if he took possession of hell, it would loosen its jaws around his soul. But on his run, when he’d seen the burned debris in the distance, he’d stopped cold.
Theo had thought, returning to Lyra as a self-made billionaire with a wife and a child on the way, he’d prove his past was finally behind him, that he’d feel proud and strong, that he’d finally leave the helpless boy behind.
But one look at that scene and he’d realized nothing had changed inside him, not really. Maybe it never would...
“Can you believe it?” Emmie’s joyful face looked up at him beneath the wide-brimmed sun hat she’d bought yesterday withLyrastitched across the top in Greek letters. In spite of her stringent application of sunscreen, her legs and arms were already turning tan, with the slightest hint of pink, and he saw freckles on her upturned nose. “A secret beach!”
It took him a moment to brush away old ghosts and come back to the present. By then, Emmie had already dropped her cheap straw beach bag on the white sand. She yanked her white sleeveless cover-up off over her head, revealing a turquoise string bikini as she raced out into the blue water with a joyful whoop.
Standing alone on the beach, Theo stared out at her.
Her bikini caressed her pregnant curves as she kicked at the surf, spreading her arms wide and turning her face to the sun. The little triangle tops of the bra barely contained her overflowing breasts, and the bikini bottom, with strings tied in bows at her hips, was half-hidden by her belly.
Theo was hard just looking at her. But then, he felt like he’d been hard from the moment of their marriage. Repressing his desire, treating her with asexual kindness and concern, cuddling with her while they watched that awful comedy on the jet—and most difficult of all, having her sleep next to him in bed, for the love of heaven, feeling her soft, sensual body move against his groin as she sighed and moaned in sleep—
Remembering, he breathed a strangled curse. A man could only endure so much. He didn’t know how much longer he could bear it.
When would his wife finally give in to her own desire and make the first move? When?
It amazed him now that he’d thought her plain before he hired her. How had Emmie contrived to camouflage her incredible beauty for months at the office, in the unflattering suits and tightly prim hairstyles of the efficient, sexless secretary, before he’d finally, truly seen her?
Now, Theo stared at her as she waded into the blue water like Aphrodite, golden beneath the sun. Emmie Swenson Katrakis was the most beautiful woman he’d ever known.
More than beautiful: she was magic. She was the only one who could make him forget. The only one who could chase the ghosts away. Making love to her was all he could think about.
Which meant she was his addiction. Right or wrong, he had to keep her close. So he could keep touching her, looking at her. And when she surrendered to temptation and took him back into her bed, he’d finally feel peace, in the explosion of euphoria as he took her...again and again...
“What are you waiting for?” she called, swimming and kicking in the sea. “Come join me!”
Emmie was chest-deep, the surface of the water clinging to her swollen breasts, sliding slowly over her skin and the tiny clinging fabric. The shock between cool water and warm air caused her nipples to pebble beneath the material. He could see the shape of them, even from here.
He needed no further invitation. He ripped off his shirt and tossed his phone down on top of it. Wearing only his blue swim trunks, he plunged into the water, letting the sea wash him clean before he resurfaced beside her. Pulling her into his arms, he kissed her in the Greek sun, just for a split second, as salty water splashed over them both.
With a laugh, she pulled away and ducked her body back beneath the water. Playfully, she kicked a wave of water over him.
With a low growl, he threw himself in pursuit of her, and with a mock scream she swam away. They played together in the water on the private, deserted beach, and he somehow laughed harder than he had in a long time.
Finally, as the sun started to lower in the sky, he remembered the errand and felt a shadow over his soul. They waded back to the sandy beach. He checked the time and told himself he could take a few more moments, just a few. He spread their blanket beneath the scrawny shade of a single olive tree, clinging to the edge of some rocks.
He dried her off with a towel and froze, looking down at her, his heart pounding. He thought of stretching her out on the sun-warmed blanket and taking her right there on the white sand. But shepherds had sometimes wandered through here following their charges, and even when he was younger there had been an occasional backpacker who heard about the secret beach. But maybe—
“How did you even know about this place?” Emmie asked, yawning as she stretched her limbs out in the sun. “When I asked the innkeeper about a beach, she only told me about one up north. She called it thetourist beach.”
“This one is kept quiet. For locals.”
Her dark eyelashes fluttered open as she peeked at him. “Then, how did you know about it?”
Theo felt the low rumble of tension go through his body, like dark clouds on the edge of his consciousness, crackling the air with threat of a coming storm.
