hardness didn’t budge from his expression. “We’re supposed to be falling in love even now. You think the world will buy that Stefan Bianco let his almost-intended fly economy on a commercial airline?”
“Maybe the world will think that Stefan Bianco finally met a woman who doesn’t fall at his feet?” she retorted, lifting her chin.
He smiled and ran a finger over her chin, a thoughtful expression on his face.
“How come you have no trouble putting me in place, bella?” Moving closer, he laid his hands on her bare shoulders and turned her toward the terrace. “Do you know how you looked from the terrace, Clio?”
Not trusting that she could find her voice, Clio shook her head. Even with the sun shining above them, the heat of his body behind her was like a caress.
She should move away, she knew. Stop him from continuing, at least. Cut this line of conversation before it began.
There was no space for personal observations or shared experiences between them. There was nothing but a common, twisted goal. But something in the honeyed tone of his voice locked the words in her throat.
His finger landed on her chin and tilted it up, facing away from the sun.
“Shall I tell you?”
He was taunting her. He knew that she was standing on the precipice of retreating. He was daring her, even as he was certain of her cowardice.
She had read that the Parthenon had served as a church, a mosque, even a munitions depot during the Turkish occupation of Greece.
Yet there it stood today, majestic, beautiful, a monument to one of the greatest civilizations of the world.
And she, she was afraid of hearing one man’s opinion of her. Was afraid of even facing the truth that was in his eyes.
Everything about her life was in ruins just like the Parthenon. But she decided to take the chance. Just for that moment, she would choose to be unafraid. She would pretend she had become the woman she wanted to be when she had set out for Columbia University.
She would pretend that when a man like Stefan Bianco looked at her, there was not resigned concern or eviscerating censure at what she had done to her life. But admiration and respect... The way he had looked at her once.
The base of his palm was hard and unyielding against her lower back. Her skin burned with every ridge and line leaving an imprint on her skin.
Turning toward him, she met his gaze, fighting the urge to pull away and to run far. “Tell me how I looked, Stefan.”
The green of his eyes widened just a bit. That she had surprised him, she clutched it to her like a reward for her bravery.
“With that cream dress only covering one shoulder, your hair flying behind you, the sun turning your skin golden, you looked like the goddess Athena herself. For a few seconds, you had me stunned. And it has been a while since I let myself believe in any kind of myth.”
Bitter laughter spilled from Clio’s mouth and got lost in the vastness around her. “Goddess Athena was supposed to have been fierce and brave. I’m nothing like her, Stefan.” Turning away from him, she sighed. “You were right. I ran away from the terrace because I couldn’t breathe there.”
“Why?”
“Let it go, Stefan.”
“No.”
“Haven’t you seen enough? Won’t you leave me with even a facade to hide behind?”
“No, I won’t. Better me than the whole world, bella, than the corrupt man you left behind. Jackson won’t meekly accept our engagement. There’s only going to be more—”
“Light on me, yeah? I know.”
How pathetic was she that for a minute she’d thought he insisted because he cared. How easily she fell into her own trap of wanting to matter...
She was nothing but a means to an end for Stefan. Just as she had been to Jackson. Only with Stefan, there were no lies, no deception.
“I saw Olivia Fitzgerald, the supermodel. I saw Alessandra Mondelli, world-famous photographer. Every woman who was in there was someone who had made a life for herself in the world, someone who carved a niche for what she exceled in. Then I caught my reflection in the jug. Who’d think a jug could do so much for you, right?”
And both women, while beautiful and successful, had men who respected them and loved them.
“Here I was sitting among some of the most accomplished women on the planet and what did I have to show for a decade of slogging, for a lifetime of walking away from a safe life...
“Nothing.
“I couldn’t stay another minute and puncture the happiness of so many people. I couldn’t forgive myself if I did that.
“Do you still see the goddess Athena, Stefan?”
His fingers tightened on her bare arms, his face fierce as he looked down at her. “You walked away from him. By your own words, you crawled out from the lowest point of your life and came to me. And you had enough guts to use what you saw in my face that night to your own advantage.
“I know what it takes to move ahead from that moment in which your heart shatters and there’s nothing but a hole in your chest.
“All you need to do now is stay the course and carve your life the way you want. And until you can wage your own battle, I’ll do it for you.”
His words were whispers that reverberated around them in the open space.
Clio nodded slowly.
For all the ruthlessness that had become second skin to him, Stefan was much kinder than a mirror. When she looked in his eyes, her own reflection held promise. Touched by a brave past that she had almost forgotten, it held hope.
He was using her and she was using him. It was the perfect relationship for two people who had been burned by love, who had had their hearts shattered and trodden upon.
A man who would love her unconditionally—she didn’t even know what that meant anymore. Maybe she had never deserved it.
But she so much wanted that day when she wouldn’t run away in shame, when she wouldn’t feel this cavernous emptiness inside at another woman’s success.
The day when she wasn’t an utter failure in life.
She sketched a bow in front of him, letting hope fill her entire body.
“Then I’m ready for training, Master.”
A matching smile curved his mouth and he returned her bow and then stepped back into an elaborate pose that had economic movements and slices through the air that were perfectly synchronous. “Let us begin, Clio.”
Shaking her head, Clio laughed. For anyone watching them from the hotel, they would look comical.
“If
