for what he’d done, Talia knew, he deserved an explanation. One she didn’t relish giving, because she hated for anyone to pity her, to know her weakness. But Angelos had already seen her weakness, so perhaps she had nothing left to lose.
Sighing she rose from the bed and went to get dressed. Sofia was just finishing her breakfast as Talia came into the kitchen, instinctively glancing around for Angelos. She didn’t know whether to feel relieved or disappointed when she saw he wasn’t there, but she caught Maria noticing her wandering gaze and a blush rose to her cheeks. Maria’s lips pursed. The housekeeper didn’t miss anything.
‘Hey, Sofia,’ Talia said brightly, and avoiding Maria’s speculative gaze, she sat down at the table and helped herself to fresh fruit.
After breakfast Sofia went off with Ava for her lessons, and resolutely Talia went in search of Angelos. She found him, predictably, in his study, and his terse, ‘Enter,’ when she knocked on the door made her wonder if last night had happened at all.
Then she opened the door and saw him sitting at his desk, dressed in his usual button-down shirt and pressed trousers, seeming brisk and remote and yet so utterly wonderful, and colour flared into her face.
To her surprise an answering colour touched Angelos’s sharp cheekbones as he looked up at her. He cleared his throat and then closed his laptop. ‘How are you feeling this morning?’
‘I’m fine. Good actually.’ She closed the door behind her and took a deep breath. ‘I’m sorry for being so...’ Her mind spun as she tried to think of a word for what she’d been.
‘Don’t be sorry, Talia,’ Angelos filled in quietly. ‘I’m the one who should be sorry, for not realising how the storm affected you. I would have checked on you, if I’d known.’
‘There was nothing you could have done. That is...’ She swallowed convulsively, resisting the urge to press her hands to her hot face. ‘Besides what you did. Which was wonderful and way beyond the call of...’
‘Duty?’ he supplied, quirking an eyebrow, amusement lighting his eyes, turning them almost golden, and making her insides fizz in response. Scowling the man was almost unbearably attractive. Smiling he was impossible to resist.
‘Yes,’ she managed, dragging her gaze away from his. ‘I suppose.’
‘I said last night and I will say it again, there is no need to feel embarrassed.’
‘You don’t think?’ Talia blurted. ‘You saw me naked. Not to mention sweaty and shaking and...’ She closed her eyes briefly. ‘I’d really rather not remember.’
His mouth twitched in what she thought was amusement. ‘I’ve seen women naked before, Talia.’
‘Like most of your nannies?’ Angelos’s eyebrows snapped together and, horrified, Talia slapped a hand over her mouth. ‘I mean,’ she said through her fingers, ‘Maria mentioned that they’ve tried to seduce you. And failed.’
‘Maria talks too much,’ he replied, but he didn’t sound angry.
Slowly Talia dropped her hand, knotted her fingers together. ‘It’s just I don’t want you to think...’ What? That her sweating and shaking was supposed to have been a turn-on? She was absolutely no good at this, Talia thought as a fresh wave of mortification swept over her. She had absolutely no experience with sex, or even talking about sex, and especially not with a man as gorgeous as Angelos Mena.
‘I don’t think that, Talia,’ Angelos said. ‘Last night you were in no shape for a seduction.’
‘Right. Sorry.’ She gave a little shake of her head. ‘I’m handling this really badly. I actually came in here to thank you, and also to explain why I reacted the way I did last night. Because, contrary to what you may think now, I’m not actually scared of storms.’
Angelos’s look was one of almost comical disbelief. ‘You could have fooled me last night.’
‘I know.’ She gave a shaky laugh. ‘Would you believe I actually liked storms when I was little? I loved watching them from the window of my bedroom, especially in summer. They were so...wild.’
Briefly, so briefly she almost missed it, something flared in Angelos’s eyes. She felt a kick in her stomach and she forced herself to continue, to ignore the helpless desire this man so easily ignited in her, simply by saying a word. Wild. What would it be like, if Angelos let go of his tightly held control? Images flared in her mind, vague swirling pictures of limbs tangling, mouths pressing, hands reaching. She shoved them away and met Angelos’s gaze. ‘It’s not the storm I’m scared of,’ she explained. ‘It’s what it makes me remember.’
Angelos stilled, his hands resting flat on his desk. ‘You don’t have to tell me—’
‘I know. But after what you did, how you helped me, you deserve to know.’ And actually, she realised, she wanted to tell him—even though she’d tried to keep the whole awful episode hidden from everyone, just as her grandfather had kept it out of the press, both of them pretending it had never happened, because that was easier. She wanted someone to know, someone who, amazingly, might understand a little. She drew a deep breath, let the air fill her lungs and buoy her courage. ‘When I was eighteen,’ she stated, ‘I was kidnapped.’
Angelos opened his mouth, but no words came out. ‘Kidnapped...’ he finally said, and his voice sounded hoarse, his tone horrified.
‘I was travelling in Europe, after my high school graduation. It was meant to be my big exciting summer, exploring the world, having endless adventures. I was with a couple of friends...we took precautions and we didn’t do anything stupid...’ Even now she felt the need to justify herself, to explain how it wasn’t her fault, because for years she’d tormented herself with the what-ifs. What if she’d been more careful? What if she’d travelled with more people? What if she could have done something to keep the disaster from unfolding the way it had?
Angelos had recovered himself and was now looking at her with his familiar hard stare, his eyes dangerously dark. ‘What happened exactly?’
‘We were in Paris. The City of Love.’ She let out a short, sharp laugh and shook her head. ‘Right in front of the Eiffel Tower. It felt like it should have been the safest place in the world. My friend Anna had gone to see about tickets to go up the tower and I was just taking a photo.’ She felt her chest start to go tight, her throat constrict, as memories assailed her, memories she’d kept locked tightly away. ‘I’d raised the camera up to my face, and was looking through the lens when...’ She stopped, closing her eyes. That moment when her world had shifted, shattered. One second was all it had taken to go from carefree insouciance to utter, incredulous terror.
‘Talia,’ Angelos said in a low voice. ‘You don’t have to—’
‘No, I want to,’ she insisted. ‘I do. I never talk about this, but I want to now...after what you did...’
‘It wasn’t that much—’
‘It was, Angelos,’ she responded, and she heard how her voice throbbed with sincerity. She saw something flash across Angelos’s face and she realised he’d never given permission to call him by his first name. ‘Sorry, should I not have...’
‘Not have what?’
‘Called
