is best for all of us. I’m going to tell him about your first marriage,’ Winnie told him as she tugged her arm free of his hold and went upstairs.
‘You’re going to do...what?’ Eros demanded in shaken disbelief.
‘You heard me. I want Grandad to understand that you were in a very unusual situation.’
‘What I told you was private,’ Eros grated.
‘Please,’ Winnie pressed. ‘At the very least he needs to know that your marriage wasn’t a regular marriage.’
In an impatient gesture, Eros flung back his dark head, seduced against his will by the softness of those caramel eyes. ‘Oh...as you wish!’
‘Thanks. Grandad may be stubborn and difficult but I won’t cut him out of my life.’
‘He cut your father out of his,’ Eros reminded her unkindly.
It was a low blow and, from the landing, she flung him an unimpressed look. ‘He admitted that that was a mistake but once he’d taken a stance he was too proud to climb down. People change, Eros.’
‘You haven’t changed in the essentials. You still want to believe the best of everyone,’ Eros condemned as he drew level with her. ‘It doesn’t work. Believe it or not, there are bad people in the world who get a kick out of doing you down and hurting you.’
Winnie thrust wide their bedroom door with angry force. ‘You think I don’t know that after my experiences in foster care?’ she flung back at him in disbelief.
‘I don’t know. You won’t talk about those experiences,’ he pointed out.
Winnie went very still and then crossed her arms defensively in front of herself. ‘In the very first home I went to, my trainers were stolen and I was accused of selling them and lying about it. Vivi was badly bullied by the other girls. In the second I was repeatedly punched by an older boy because I wouldn’t give him money. That I didn’t have any money didn’t seem to occur to him because he said I talked too nicely to be poor. The third place, I no longer had my sisters because we’d been separated. The foster father was a wife beater and one night I got in the way of his fists,’ she recited emotionlessly, her hands clenching in on themselves. ‘After that I was in a state home for a while and by the time I moved back into foster care, I was developing breasts, which was really bad news.’
As she’d talked, Eros had paled. ‘Why did you never share all this with me before?’
Winnie compressed her lips. ‘People don’t want to know about that sort of stuff.’
‘But I want to know everything because I care about you,’ Eros said levelly. ‘So keep talking.’
‘If it wasn’t men leering at me on the home front, it was adolescent boys. I had several scary experiences as a teenager but I managed to keep myself safe. By the time I got to John and Liz’s home, I was viewed as antisocial and difficult. They changed all that. They changed everything,’ she admitted chokily, tears rolling down her cheeks. ‘But do you know why I’m telling you all this? Because I want you to know that family means everything to me and I don’t expect perfection. Family can encompass a whole pile of different people. It can be your friends, people like John and Liz, even misguided people like my grandfather, who don’t know when to mind their own business.’
Eros crossed the distance between them and hauled her into his arms, desperate to comfort her. He was appalled at what she had gone through without proper support. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘No, you’re not,’ she whispered helplessly. ‘You’re like Grandad. Of course, you don’t like each other. You’re just sorry you’re not getting your own way.’
‘Partially,’ Eros admitted gruffly, brushing her hair back from her tear-stained face. ‘But it’s important to me to protect you. I don’t want you to get hurt and I’m afraid I don’t trust your grandfather not to hurt you.’
‘You can’t keep me locked up here for ever.’
‘Like a princess in a tower?’ His charismatic smile curved his sensual lips. ‘No...but I’d like to.’
‘I know...’ Acting on impulse, mesmerised by the stunning jewelled eyes welded to her, Winnie stretched up and covered his mouth with hers. ‘But you can’t.’
‘That doesn’t mean I’m giving up.’ Eros claimed her parted lips with fiery hunger and drank deep of her response, holding her so close that she could feel every stark line of his big powerful body, including his blatant arousal.
‘You can’t be...again?’ she mumbled weakly. ‘Really?’
‘Really,’ Eros husked, long fingers lifting the hem of her dress, gliding up to the junction of her thighs to pry them apart and explore, his body already aching for the silken oblivion of hers.
He pushed her back against the wall and hoisted her up against him, the carnal play of his fingers ensuring her readiness. A moment later, he plunged into her and buried himself deep, his breathing raw and ragged in her ears as his hips hammered against hers. It was fast and hard and very erotic, and she shot to a climax so swiftly that she saw stars behind her eyes. Only when her legs slid limply down his hard thighs in the aftermath and they were both panting did she register that he hadn’t used a condom.
‘You didn’t use protection!’ she gasped.
Eros blinked, green eyes still dark and sultry with sexual satisfaction. He groaned out loud, raking his tousled black hair from his brow with frustrated fingers. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘No...no, it’s okay... At least, it should be,’ Winnie muttered, feverishly calculating dates. ‘We should be fine. It’s not the right time. I should see a doctor, see about taking the pill.’
‘No discussion?’ Eros lifted a judgemental black brow.
‘Not on that topic...maybe in a year or two if we’re still together,’ Winnie suggested with characteristic practicality.
‘I’m not pushing it. Whatever you decide is okay with me...’ he conceded, surprising her. ‘And, Winnie? We will still be together.’
As Winnie walked into the bathroom, Eros appeared in the doorway. ‘I’ll head into my Athens office tomorrow and drop you off at your grandfather’s estate on the way. But I won’t be able to pick you up coming home because I have a meeting in Piraeus and I don’t know how long it will run. When you’re ready to leave, your security team will arrange it.’
Winnie turned slowly from her beach-flushed reflection in the mirror and gave him a huge smile. ‘Thank you,’ she said warmly, appreciating the reality that he had listened to her and respected her right to do as she wished even if it went against his own instincts.
* * *
‘Four security guards to look after me is overkill!’ Winnie hissed in disbelief as she saw the men getting out of the car behind to supervise her visit to her grandfather’s home. ‘Grandad’s not about to kidnap me, for goodness’ sake. Don’t you think that you’re taking this security stuff too far?’
‘Better safe than sorry,’ Eros told her, impervious to reason.
