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‘I didn’t suggest this because I wanted it,’ he said, finally, his voice hoarse. ‘I can’t bear to be the reason someone else is in danger. I shouldn’t have slept with you and I shouldn’t have got you pregnant, but now that I have and you are, the least I can do is make sure you’re safe and looked after.’
His words, so reasonable, so decent, were the polar opposite of what she wanted to hear.
Hannah stared at him for several moments, as the small seed of hope she’d let grow in her chest began to wilt.
‘I don’t want to be safe and looked after,’ she said quietly. ‘At least, that’s not a reason to marry someone.’
His eyes narrowed. ‘You don’t think?’
‘No.’ She tilted her chin defiantly, even when she’d begun to shake. ‘I can take care of myself, and our baby.’
‘You have no idea what’s out there.’
‘And nor do you,’ she interrupted forcefully. ‘Neither of us has a crystal ball, but I know this: if I stay here and marry you, I’m going to regret it. I’m going to be miserable, and our child’s going to be miserable. After my parents died, I went to live with my aunt and uncle and saw for myself how damaging this kind of relationship can be. I won’t put our child through that.’
‘Damn it, Hannah. You agreed to this...’
‘Yeah,’ she choked out the agreement. ‘But that might as well have been a lifetime ago.’
‘Not for me.’
She grimaced. ‘No, not for you. And that’s the problem. You can do this—you can marry me and sleep with me and hold me through the night and not feel a damned thing.’ Tears burned her lashes but she dashed them away angrily. ‘I’m not like that. This is real to me.’
‘So stay for that. Stay because you love me. I’m not going to hurt you. Stay because you love me and I’ll spend the rest of my life taking care of you, making sure you are happy in every way. Stay here, marry me. I promise you, Hannah, you will have everything you could ever want in life.’
‘I’ll have nothing I want,’ she contradicted, but it was sad now, not angry. She blinked, as if she were waking up from a nightmare. ‘I can’t do this.’
His eyes didn’t waver from hers. He stared at her, and she felt a pull within him, a tug between two separate parts of him, and then he straightened, his expression shifting to one of calm control.
‘You must.’ He hesitated; she felt that pull once more, as if he were at war with himself. ‘I cannot allow you to walk away.’
‘Are you going to keep me here as your prisoner?’
He stared at her for several seconds. ‘No.’ His hesitation wasn’t convincing. ‘But I will fight you for our child. I need to know she’s safe, Hannah, and only here, under my protection, will I believe that to be the case. I will sue for custody if I have to. I will do everything within my power to bring her to this island—I would prefer it if you were a part of that. For our daughter’s sake.’
She drew in a breath, her eyes lifting to his as those words sliced through her. Words that made her body feel completely weak. The idea of someone as wealthy and powerful as Leonidas Stathakis suing her filled Hannah with a repugnant ache.
But then, she was shaking her head, and her heart thudded back to life.
‘No, you won’t. You’re not going to drag me through the courts and make my life a living hell. You’re not going to do anything that will garner the attention of the press, that will expose our daughter to harm. I don’t mean physical harm. I mean the kind of harm that will befall her when she’s twelve and goes on to the Internet and sees those stories. Do you think I don’t know anything about the man I’ve fallen in love with?’
His jaw throbbed.
‘You’re not going to do that. You’re not going to threaten me and you’re not going to take her from me.’ She swept her eyes shut, exhaling as she realised how right she was. ‘You’re a good person, Leonidas, and you’re not capable of behaving like that. Whatever you might feel, you know our daughter belongs with me.’
‘And not with me?’ he prompted.
‘Yes, with you, too,’ she said simply. ‘And we’ll work that out. We’ll work out a way to share her properly, to give her everything she deserves. For my daughter I would do almost anything—on Capri, I thought I’d even marry you for her. I thought needing her to have a “proper family” and to know her safety to be assured meant this marriage was essential.’ She stared up at him, her eyes suspiciously moist, her voice unsteady. ‘But I’ve got to know myself this week. I finally understand who I am and what I want—marrying a man who doesn’t, and says he will never, love me would be a monumental mistake; one I have no intention of making.’
Only ten minutes earlier she’d been readying herself to tell him she loved him, and now Hannah was laying the groundwork for her departure.
‘You told me this place is impossible to leave without your say-so. I’m asking you to let me go now. Today. This morning. To organise your plane or your helicopter or your yacht, something to take me away.’
His eyes narrowed; he regarded her sceptically for a moment, and when he spoke there was a bitterness in his words. ‘And where will you go, Hannah? To Australia? To your horrible aunt and cousin? Or to London where you know barely anyone?’
Her chest pricked with blades of hurt. ‘So you think I should stay here because there’s nowhere better to be?’
