you think I’d renege on our deal?’ she asked, realising only after posing the question that it showed her acquiescence when she hadn’t actually intended to agree...yet.
‘I think you will do whatever pleases you—as you always have done.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘Forgive me—what is the expression? Having been bitten, I am...?’
‘Once bitten, twice shy.’ She sucked in an unsteady breath, waiting for relief to calm her lungs. But still they burned painfully. She tried to salvage her pride. ‘If I agree to do this, I will go through with it.’
‘I’m not sure I can put much stock in your assurances,’ he said with a shrug. ‘I credit you and your father for my scepticism. Were it not for you, perhaps I would have continued to take promises at face value. Now I live and die by contracts.’
‘That’s fine in business. I’m sure it’s wise, in fact. But marriage is different, surely.’
‘A real marriage,’ he conceded, with a tight nod.
‘You’re saying you don’t want ours to be a real marriage?’
His laugh sent a shiver down her spine. ‘Oh, in the most important ways it will be.’
‘Meaning...?’ she challenged—though how could she not understand his intention?
‘Meaning, Marnie, that I have no interest in paying a hundred million pounds and tying myself to a woman purely for revenge.’
His smile curled her toes.
‘There will be other benefits to our marriage.’
Her heart slammed hard in her chest. ‘I...’ She clamped her mouth shut.
What had she been about to say? That she was still a virgin? That after being so madly in love with him and letting him go she’d found she couldn’t feel that same desire for another man? Especially not the men her parents approved of her dating.
‘I’m not going to sleep with you just because you appear out of the blue...’
‘That is not why you’ll sleep with me,’ he said.
He spoke with a confidence that infuriated her. But he was right! Despite the passage of time, and the insufferable situation she found herself in, she couldn’t deny that the same need was rioting through her now, just as it had in their past.
‘This is a deal-breaker,’ he said with a shrug. ‘These are my terms. Accept them or don’t.’
‘Wait.’ She shook her head and lifted a hand to make him pause for a moment. But she was drowning. Possibilities, questions, wants, needs, doubts were churning around inside her—it was background noise but it was going to suck her under. ‘There’s so much more to discuss.’
‘Such as?’ he prompted, crossing his arms over his broad chest.
She tried not to notice the way the fabric strained to reveal his impressive pectoral definition.
‘Well, such as...’ She darted her tongue out and licked her lower lip. ‘Say I went along with this absolutely crazy idea—and I’m not saying I will, because clearly it’s madness—where would you see us living?’
‘That is also non-negotiable. Greece.’
‘Greece?’ She was in free fall again. ‘Greece, as in... You mean Greece?’
He stared at her for a long moment, his eyes mocking her. ‘Athens. My home.’
‘But I’ve always lived here. I can’t move.’
Their eyes locked; it was a battle of wills and yet when he spoke it was with an easy nonchalance she admired.
‘I will be spending a considerable fortune to save your father’s reputation. You do not think it’s fair that you should make some concessions?’
‘Marrying you is not a c-concession,’ she stammered in disbelief. ‘It’s so much more than that. And the same can be said of moving to a different country.’
‘You are so sheltered,’ he murmured. ‘What would you suggest? That we live in London? Within arm’s reach of your father? A man I will always despise? No.’
‘How can I marry you knowing you feel that way about him?’
His expression was rock-hard. ‘You will find a way.’ He shrugged. ‘While it might be difficult for you, it is the only way to spare him—and your mother—from a considerable fall from grace.’
‘So this is how it would be? You’d dictate terms and I’d be expected to fall in with them?’
The air was thick between them. He studied her for a long moment and she wondered if he wasn’t going to answer. Finally, though, he sighed.
‘I have no intention of being unreasonable. When you make a fair request I will hear you out. But this is not one of those instances. I live in Greece. My business is primarily controlled from Athens. You still live with your parents, who hate me as much as I do them. You have no business to speak of. It is obvious that we should move.’
‘Just like that?’ she murmured, shaking her head at his high-handed dictatorial manner even when a small part of her brain could see that he was raising a decent rationale for the suggestion.
‘These are my terms,’ he said again.
‘You’re unbelievable,’ she replied softly, worrying at her fingers.
She spun her ring some more, trying to think of a way to appease him that didn’t involve anything so drastic as this ridiculous marriage. But there was nothing. He had the money. And there was no way he’d help unless she made it worth his while.
‘Yes.’ He shrugged. ‘So?’
‘I wouldn’t want a big wedding.’ She was thinking aloud, really, though to her ears it sounded as though she was going along with his proposal. ‘If I had my way it would just be us. No fanfare. No fuss.’
‘Hmm...’ he murmured with a shake of his head. ‘And no one need ever know? No. I want the world to see that you are my wife. You—a woman who once felt I was far beneath her. A woman who declared she’d never marry someone like me. I want your father to have to stand beside us, smiling as though I am all his dreams come true, when we three will know that I am the last man on earth he wants his daughter to marry.’
The way he’d been treated by her and her parents was a nauseating truth. She wished—not for the first time—that she’d been able to stand up to them. That she’d been wise enough to fight for the relationship that had mattered so much to her.
‘Nikos...’ She furrowed her brows, searching for words. ‘You have to understand why I...why I couldn’t be with you. You know how my parents were after Libby...after...’
He studied her face, torn between listening and shutting down this hollow explanation.
‘I know I never explained it properly at the time. The way I was always in her shadow. The certainty that I was
