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‘You’re acting strangely. Is something wrong?’
He cupped her jaw in his strong hand, his hold making her feel far too delicate, its gentleness opening those vulnerable spaces within her she needed to keep shut.
‘Not at all. I’m appreciating the fact that nothing stands in our way now. You’re mine. There’s no getting away from me now, glykia mou.’
The raw, primitive throb of possessiveness should have alarmed her. And yet, unlike every dark omen visited upon her in the past, Ares’s words made her heart race with fevered yearning.
No matter the circumstances that had triggered this, the end result would be special and life-changing. A secret yearning brought to life.
If the trend of her cycle went according to plan, she could be pregnant by this time next month.
‘There’s one thing we need to discuss.’ She cursed the heat rushing into her face, but the subject was too important to ignore. ‘How I’m going to get pregnant. I’m assuming it’ll be through IVF—’
The wicked and humourless laugh dried her words. ‘No, agapita. You assume wrong. When I said everything about this marriage would be real, I meant it. And everything includes your presence in my bed every night until we are absolutely certain my seed is growing in your womb. Even then, I reserve the right to perform my marital duties.’
She gaped at him, askance, while the feverish cyclone inside her swirled higher. ‘But...why? You don’t even want me that way.’
His eyes narrowed. ‘And how did you come to that conclusion?’
‘Come off it, Ares. At this point I’m fairly sure you don’t even like me!’
A muscle ticked at his temple. ‘Do I need to like you to put a baby in your belly?’ he asked.
But the query wasn’t as clinical as the words suggested. And beneath the steady, almost mocking regard, she sensed he wasn’t quite as calm as he projected.
It was almost admirable—to a point.
‘How did I not see this crafty version of you back then?’ she murmured.
His mouth twisted and his thumb drifted almost absentmindedly over her cheek. ‘Perhaps you preferred to see your own version of the truth. I have always been like this.’
Her fists bunched. She refused to accept that she’d been so hoodwinked. ‘I don’t believe that I could’ve been so blind.’
‘Then that’s on you, Odessa.’
They stared each other down for an age, then she sucked in a breath. ‘Then maybe I should be thankful things turned out the way they did.’
His face shuttered completely, and he withdrew his touch a moment later. ‘Indeed. But it doesn’t change the fact that you’ll come to me on our wedding night and I will possess you completely.’
Ismene was halfway between Athens and Crete, east of Santorini. The four-square-kilometre jewel in the South Aegean was the stuff of fairy tales and endless opulence, with its reality far surpassing what the pictures had promised.
As they circled the island in preparation to land, Odessa spotted the beginnings of a marquee and a flower-festooned arched trellis on one pristine lawn a short distance from a white sandy beach, and that punch of illicit excitement returned.
‘If I had my way we’d be married before sundown tonight,’ Ares murmured beside her, making her jolt as his breath washed over her ear. ‘But my father insists I must not be a complete brute about the entire thing, so you’ll get to find your bearings, rest and enjoy your last night as a free woman.’
He caught her hand in his and raised it to his lips.
Her stomach dipped with the altitude of the landing plane, and a thrill lanced her, despite knowing he was putting on a show for Sergios, who watched them with another indulgent smile.
The villa was a single-storey sprawling gem, with more inviting outdoor terraces than she could count, all of them showcasing a breath-catching view and an open invitation to bask in the gorgeous Greek sun.
The staff of six, headed by a buxom grey-haired matriarch in her sixties, greeted her with halting Italian and Ares and Sergios with lyrical Greek, their beckoning leading them to a large table laid out with refreshments.
Whether intended or not, the table overlooked the part of the garden being decorated for the wedding.
‘Interested in seeing all your hard work up close?’ Ares asked, his gaze intent on her face as he handed her a sparkling drink.
The force with which she wanted to say yes almost sucked the breath from her. It was that rabid yearning that made her hesitate. She couldn’t afford for her feelings to become embroiled in this.
