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And despite the joy of this city, a frisson of alarm travelled down her spine
, a hint of worry at what had befallen Amy and Brax and the threats Leonidas seemed to imagine were still out there.
She turned over in bed, lifting a finger to his shoulder and tracing an invisible circle distractedly across his tanned flesh.
His eyes lifted and he turned to face her, a look on his face she couldn’t interpret before he smiled.
Her heart turned over in her chest.
‘Bonjour.’
His smile widened. ‘Bonjour, mademoiselle.’
‘I like it here,’ she said simply, dropping her head to his chest but keeping her gaze trained squarely on the picture-perfect Eiffel Tower beyond the window. It was a perfect day—a bright blue sky called to her and Hannah was already excited to explore this ancient city.
‘I thought you might.’
And so he’d arranged this. Something pulled inside her chest—pleasure—and she smiled softly. ‘Is it possible, Leonidas, that you are a romantic at heart?’
His chest slowed, his body completely still. ‘No.’ The word was like thunder in the midst of a sunny day. She pushed up to look at him, not cowed by the stern expression on his face. A week ago, she would have bitten her tongue, but something had shifted between them; she was different now. He’d made her different.
Hannah liked to think she wasn’t the same girl who’d agreed to marry Angus, who’d taken her aunt’s decrees as gospel. She bit down on her lower lip, watching him, thinking, and then said, ‘How did you meet her?’
His eyes dropped to hers, his expression unreadable. She wondered if he was going to plead ‘off limits’, as he had at the start, but he didn’t.
Though it clearly gave him no pleasure and considerable pain, he spoke slowly, quietly, the words dredged from deep within him. ‘Through my brother.’
Silence. She didn’t fill it.
‘Thanos has a broad social circle.’ Scepticism filled the words. ‘Amy had just started modelling. She got pulled along to a party by some friends. I happened to be there.’
‘She was a model?’
Leonidas nodded. ‘She was beautiful and I was smitten.’ His smile was dismissive but jealousy surged inside Hannah. She knew how petty that was. The poor woman had died and it was not for Hannah to envy her anything.
‘Did you date for long before marrying?’
‘No,’ he laughed softly. ‘I am not a patient man. When I see something I want I go after it.’ His frown was another storm cloud on the horizon. ‘We married quickly, privately, and before we really knew much about one another.’
Hannah tilted her head to the side, watching him. ‘You say that as though it’s a bad thing.’
‘It can be,’ he said thoughtfully.
Curiosity got the better of Hannah. ‘Was she different from what you imagined?’
Leonidas flicked his gaze to Hannah’s, his eyes showing torment. ‘I loved her.’ The words were defensive. ‘But we weren’t capable of making each other happy.’
Sympathy scored deep into Hannah’s heart.
‘I thought a baby might be the answer to that. I convinced her to fall pregnant, and by then she was so afraid of losing me I think she would have borne me a football team if I’d asked it of her.’ He shook his head from side to side, anger in the tight lines of his lips.
‘Why weren’t you happy?’ she asked curiously.
He expelled a soft sigh. ‘Neither of us was happy.’ He moved his gaze to the window, looking through it without seeing. ‘Amy loved a certain lifestyle.’
‘Money?’
He grimaced. ‘Money was not the issue. Partying was. She loved to go out, to be seen, to be adored. She fell into my brother’s crowd for a reason.’
