before—he has friends, a routine, a life.’
‘And now he has a father. Or am I less important than some random three-year-old he sits next to at lunch?’ He shook his head dismissively. ‘Kids change friends all the time at that age, Teddie.’
‘I know that,’ she said sharply. ‘And, no, I don’t think you’re less important—just deluded. Listen to yourself! We bumped into one another in a hotel less than a week ago and now you want us to remarry. I mean, who does that, Aristo?’
He kept his gaze hard and expressionless. ‘We did. Four years ago. Okay, it was seven weeks, not one.’
‘And look how that turned out!’ She stared at him in disbelief. ‘It was hardly a marriage made in heaven.’
Aristo steadied himself against the pillar. The script he’d prepared inside his head was unravelling—and faster than he could have imagined. Focus, he told himself. Remember why you brought her here.
‘This time will be different. In six weeks I’m floating my business on the stock exchange. Leonidas Holdings will soon be a household name. I can give you and George everything you need, everything you’ve ever wanted.’ Some of the tension left his muscles and he exhaled slowly. ‘You could both come to the ceremony. They might even let George ring the bell.’
Teddie felt as though her legs were going to give way. She felt dizzy, misery and fury tangling with her breath. She’d thought they were talking about getting married, and yet somehow they’d ended up talking about his business. Even now, when he was proposing, she was somehow relegated to second place.
‘So that’s what this is about? Some photo op for the Leonidas empire.’
‘No, of course not.’
‘Why “of course not”?’ she said shakily. ‘Everything you do is ultimately about business.’
Uncoupling her eyes from his, she took a step backwards, her shoulders tensing, her slim arms held up in front of her chest like a boxer. Only, somehow the gesture made her look more vulnerable.
‘We should never have married. Whatever happened in your bed last night doesn’t change that, and it certainly doesn’t mean we should marry again.’
‘Teddie, please…’
‘Can’t you see? I don’t have a choice.’ She could feel the tears, and knew she couldn’t stop them. ‘There’s no point in talking about this any more. I’m going to go back to the boat now.’
As she darted past him she heard him swear softly in Greek, but it was too late—she was already halfway up the path, and running.
SLAMMING HER BOOK SHUT, Teddie tossed it to the end of her bed.
It was a romantic novel, with a heroine she really liked and a hero she currently hated. She’d been trying to read for the last half-hour, but she couldn’t seem to concentrate on the words. Other more vivid, more significant words kept ping-ponging from one side of her head to the other.
She could practically hear Aristo’s voice, feel the intense, frustrated focus of his dark gaze, smell the scent he wore on her own skin—even though she’d showered, his phantom presence was still flooding her senses. Her heart was suddenly beating too fast.
The walk back to the boat had seemed never-ending. She had half expected him to follow her, if only to have the last word. Then she’d been scared that he’d wait and make his own way back, leaving her to somehow explain his absence to Dinos.
But she needn’t have worried on either count. He had turned up perhaps five minutes after her and seamlessly picked up where he’d left off earlier in the day, engaging Dinos in conversation about his day’s catch.
Back at the villa, their son’s innocent chatter had been a welcome distraction, but the whole time she’d been dreading the moment when they would be alone again.
Only, again she needn’t have worried, for Aristo had politely excused himself after kissing George goodnight.
And she should have been pleased—grateful, even—that he had finally got the message. Instead, though, she had felt oddly disappointed and, lying here now, she still couldn’t shift the sense of loss that had been threatening to overwhelm her since she’d turned and walked away from him at the temple.
Rolling on to her side, Teddie leaned over and switched off the light, reaching inside herself for a switch that might just as easily switch off her troubled thoughts.
But her brain stayed stubbornly alert.
Perhaps she should close the shutters.
Normally she only shut the muslin curtains, liking the way the pale pink early-morning light filtered softly through them at daybreak. But tonight the room felt both too large and yet claustrophobic, and she knew closing the shutters would only add to the darkness already inside her head.
Besides the temperature had risen vertiginously during the afternoon, and she wasn’t prepared to shut out the occasional whisper of cool sea air.
It hardly seemed possible that only this morning she had made peace with herself, accepting that the sexual longing she felt for Aristo was not shameful in any way, nor something she would come to regret. That it just was and there was no point in questioning it or fighting it.
But, although she was willing to give in to the temptation of a sexual relationship with Aristo, marriage was something she was going to continue resisting. She’d spent too long dealing with the chaos and devastation caused by the men in her life to let it happen again to her or her son.
Gazing at the moonlight through the curtains, she felt her heart contract. Maybe a fling wasn’t what she would chosen if she could have had exactly what she wanted. But, as she’d already told him, she couldn’t have that, and right now it was enough. All she wanted to do was live each minute as fully as possible until the inevitable moment of their separation when they returned to New York.
And it could have worked—only, typically of Aristo, he’d had to push for more—
Her stomach muscles tensed, frustration slicing through her. Nothing was ever good enough for him. He had a beautiful home in one of the most vibrant, exciting cities in the world, another in Athens, this mythically beautiful island and who knew how many other properties scattered across the globe? He owned a string of hotels and resorts and could probably retire now. But she knew he would never stop, that there would always be something driving him onwards, chasing him to the next goal.
Right now it was getting Teddie to marry him. And if she agreed to that then it would be something else.
Why couldn’t he have left things as they were? Why couldn’t he have just enjoyed the absence of complication in this new version of their old relationship? What was so wrong with allowing things to remain simple for just a few more days?
She didn’t understand why he couldn’t be satisfied, and she was tired of not understanding. Suddenly and intensely she wanted to talk to him.
Swinging
