Читать книгу Ruthless Revenge: Sinful Seduction: Demetriou Demands His Child / Olivero's Outrageous Proposal / Rafael's Contract Bride - Кейт Хьюит - Страница 15

CHAPTER SEVEN

FOR A FEW stunned seconds Iolanthe thought Alekos was joking. He had to be joking—and yet looking at the steel that had entered both his jaw and his eyes, his arms folded across his chest, his gaze clashing with hers... There was nothing funny about this situation. This was no joke.

Still she gasped out, ‘You can’t be serious.’

‘I assure you I am.’

‘Marriage? Alekos, you don’t even like me.’

‘We will put our differences aside for the sake of our son.’

‘By your decree?’ Iolanthe rejoined. ‘I don’t have any say in this?’

‘I assume you want what is best for Niko.’

‘Emotional blackmail,’ Iolanthe stated flatly. Just as her father and Lukas had both done, in their different ways, forcing her into a marriage she hadn’t wanted. The thought of another loveless union, and this time to Alekos, made her feel faint and sick. ‘You know I want what’s best for him,’ she managed shakily. ‘Of course I do. But marriage to you is not necessarily it.’

‘I think it is.’

Her temper began to flare. ‘Then maybe we’ll have to disagree.’

Her gaze clashed and tangled with his, and as Iolanthe refused to look away from his burning gold gaze she felt a sudden heat slice through her, reminding her of how this man had touched her. Tasted and moved inside her. And she knew in that moment that she was still attracted to him, that she still felt the magnetic pull of desire she’d felt ten years ago, only now it was even more inconvenient. More unwelcome.

Drawing a hand across her forehead, she rose from the sofa and walked away from him, desperate to compose her thoughts.

Marriage. ‘I’ve only just buried my first husband, you know.’

‘We will observe propriety. A three-month engagement should suffice.’

‘Three months?’ She let out a hollow laugh. ‘Considering I was married to Lukas for ten years, that’s not very long.’

‘I won’t wait any longer.’

‘Of course not.’ She shook her head, bemused and overwhelmed and too tired to think through any of it now. Alekos wouldn’t let the matter rest, though. She knew enough about him to understand that. ‘You can’t just spring this on me, Alekos, and expect me to fall in with your plans immediately.’ She’d been falling in with other people’s plans her whole life. She supposed she shouldn’t have been surprised that nothing had changed. She hadn’t changed, because already she was considering Alekos’s proposal, if she could even use that word. Command seemed more appropriate. Already guilt was burrowing its way into her soul, whispering that she should do anything for her son. Of course she should. Any decent mother would.

‘I don’t see what there is to think about,’ Alekos stated. ‘The solution seems perfectly obvious to me.’

She whirled around, pushed past endurance by his utter inflexibility. ‘You might think so, but that doesn’t mean I do. Perhaps I’m not willing to agree to marriage to a stranger ten seconds after I’ve received the most unromantic proposal on the planet!’

Alekos met her wild gaze with a level one of his own. ‘It wasn’t meant to be romantic.’

Iolanthe laughed, the sound utterly without humour. ‘I do realise that, thank you.’

He eyed her with consideration, his head cocked to one side. ‘Is that what you want? Romance? Love?’

She let out her breath in a low rush. Love wasn’t something she’d let herself think about in a long, long time. ‘No, not really.’ Her brief brush with love—sexual love, anyway—had been a disaster. And ten years of coldness and solitude had made her too numb ever to hope for more. And certainly not with Alekos.

‘Did you love Callos?’ He spoke diffidently, as if it didn’t really matter. Iolanthe looked away, not wanting to reveal the pointless sorrow of her marriage. ‘Well?’ he prompted, and she knew he wouldn’t leave it.

‘No.’ In the beginning she’d tried to get along with him, but it had taken only days to realise Lukas had no interest in her whatsoever. He’d married her to secure his future with her father’s company, that was all.

‘Did he know he wasn’t Niko’s father?’

‘Yes. I never pretended about that. He married me knowing I carried another man’s child.’ For that alone she’d tried to respect Lukas, but he’d done precious little in their ten years to keep her respect—or earn her affection.

‘So you married him to provide a father for Niko.’ The words sounded bitter, an accusation.

‘Yes, and because my father wished it.’ Had commanded it. ‘I didn’t have a lot of options, Alekos, after what I’d done.’

‘You mean what we’d done.’

She looked at him, startled to hear a note of recrimination in his voice. Was he acknowledging guilt—or just stating a fact? ‘Yes,’ she said after a pause. ‘What we’d done.’

Alekos nodded slowly, saying nothing. Iolanthe braced herself for another round of fighting, another set of impossible demands. ‘Did you ever do anything with your art?’ he asked and she blinked, completely taken aback by this sudden turn in the conversation.

‘My art...’

‘You told me, that night, that art was your favourite subject. And that you wanted to do something important.’

She let out an uncertain laugh. ‘I’m surprised you remembered what I said back then. I must have sounded very silly and young.’

‘You sounded hopeful.’ Alekos’s voice was flat, almost bleak, his expression as inscrutable as ever. Iolanthe had no idea what to make of his remarks.

‘I suppose I was. I’ve learned better since then.’ As soon as she said the words she wished she hadn’t. She wasn’t bitter. At least, she tried not to be.

Alekos gazed at her for a long moment, and Iolanthe braced herself for more questions about her marriage. ‘May I see him?’ he asked quietly.

‘Niko—?’

‘Yes.’

This was not his usual intractable demand, but instead a quiet and sincere plea, and it cut Iolanthe to the heart. ‘He’s sleeping now...’

‘Let me just see him,’ Alekos insisted, his voice low and urgent. ‘I won’t wake him up. We can discuss how best to introduce me to him later.’ He gazed at her, and this time his burning stare held no anger, just desperation.

Iolanthe swallowed hard and then nodded. She’d denied Alekos so much already. ‘Yes, you can see him. I’ll show you the way.’

Silently she opened the doors to the drawing room and headed upstairs, Alekos following behind her. Amara had already gone to bed, and the lights had all been turned off save for one small table lamp in the hall that cast a warm glow and lent an intimate air to the moment.

Iolanthe was very conscious of Alekos walking behind her; she breathed in the scent of his aftershave and felt both the heat and tension from his body. Remembered all sorts of things—how surprisingly sleek and soft his skin had been, how his arms around her had felt both gentle and powerful; he was a man who could leash his strength. How for an evening she’d felt treasured and important, just as she’d told him she wanted to be. He’d made her feel that way.

And then afterwards he made you feel like something stuck to his shoe.

She couldn’t forget that. She needed to remember it, if she was going to navigate this fraught relationship with any hope of success. Iolanthe turned down the hallway to Niko’s set of rooms. She paused, her hand on the doorknob of his bedroom. ‘I don’t want you to disturb him.’

‘I won’t wake him up,’ Alekos promised. ‘I just want to see him.’

‘I know...’ Still Iolanthe hesitated. She felt as if opening this door would be the first step down a long and uncertain road. But perhaps she’d taken that step when she’d told Alekos about Niko. Perhaps now there was no other road to travel, no other step to take. With a single nod of acceptance, Iolanthe pushed open the door.

The room was lit only by the moonlight spilling through the window, barely illuminating the room with its military-level of neatness. No spilled Lego, no half-finished games or projects. Niko hated mess, craved order.

Iolanthe watched as Alekos stepped into the room, his gaze searching out the slight form on the single bed. Niko lay on his side, legs tucked up, one hand resting by his cheek. He looked vulnerable and innocent and so very young.

Alekos moved closer to his son, and the moonlight washed over the hard lines and angles of his face; he almost looked as if he were in pain, gripped as he was by emotion.

He reached a hand out to Niko’s face and Iolanthe held her breath. If Niko woke up... Alekos brushed his son’s cheek with the tips of his fingers and Niko stirred, letting out a breathy sigh before rolling over. Alekos stepped back into the shadows, his gaze sweeping over the room before he turned to Iolanthe and nodded.

She led the way out, pausing by the door with one hand on the knob to shut it after Alekos had gone. He moved past her, his shoulder brushing her breast, and the flash of desire Iolanthe felt made her draw her breath in sharply.

Alekos turned, and his mouth was close enough to hers that all she’d have to do to kiss him was tilt her head. She felt the strength of his stare, the force of his feeling. It felt like a laser, piercing her to the core, pinning her in place. How was it that after a decade apart she could still feel this way? And he did too, judging by the heat in his eyes, the way he angled himself towards her.

No matter that it had been ten years and they didn’t even like each other. The attraction, the overwhelming force of it, was still there.

With effort Iolanthe looked away from Alekos as she pulled the door closed. The soft click of it shutting brought them both out of the moment, and Alekos turned towards the stairs.

Iolanthe let out the breath she’d been holding and willed her heart to slow. That had been close.

She followed Alekos downstairs, expecting him to head for the front door but he returned to the drawing room instead. Iolanthe followed him, steeling herself for another altercation.

‘I want to meet Niko tomorrow.’

‘I need to prepare him—’

‘You don’t need to tell him I’m his father yet,’ Alekos cut across her. ‘But I want to meet him. Talk to him.’

Slowly Iolanthe moved into the room. Emotional and physical fatigue crashed over her and she sank into a chair, her head in her hands.

‘Iolanthe...?’ Concern mingled with impatience sharpened Alekos’s voice.

‘I’m tired, Alekos. It’s eleven o’clock at night and I’ve been dealing with so much...’

‘What have you been dealing with?’

She thought of Antonis’s earlier phone call and the hard reality of her financial situation. If Alekos found out how desperate she was, he might press her to marry him even more. He’d know she was running out of choices, just as her father once had. She couldn’t bear to be backed into another corner.

‘Just...business things,’ she said, to put him off. ‘Lukas’s estate, and Niko losing the man he thought was his father. It’s a lot to process.’

‘You never told him the truth?’

‘No, of course not. He’s only nine, after all, and Lukas acted as a father to him.’ Barely.

Alekos’s mouth tightened. ‘Do you know what it does to me, to know that another man, a man I despise, was able to be the father to my son when I was denied?’ He pinched the bridge of his nose as he drew in a shuddering breath. ‘I don’t know if I can ever forgive that, Iolanthe.’

‘Then we certainly shouldn’t get married,’ Iolanthe retorted. The last thing she wanted was to enter another relationship based on guilt and fear. ‘Why do you despise Lukas? I didn’t think you even knew him.’

‘I didn’t,’ Alekos answered flatly. ‘But I knew what he did.’

Unease churned in her stomach and crept cold fingers up her spine. ‘What are you talking about, Alekos?’

Alekos stared at her for a long moment, his eyes opaque, his jaw set. ‘Now is not the time for that particular discussion. I’ll return here tomorrow to meet Niko. What time is he home from school?’

‘He doesn’t go to school.’

Straight, dark brows snapped together. ‘He doesn’t go to school? Why not?’

‘School has been...difficult for him.’

‘Difficult?’ Alekos’s voice came out in a growl. ‘What are you saying? Has he had problems? Was he bullied?’

‘No, no, nothing like that.’ Iolanthe pressed her fingers to her temples. She could feel the beginnings of a headache. How could she explain Niko to Alekos? ‘Niko didn’t perform well in school,’ she began slowly. ‘He had trouble making friends, and sitting still and paying attention has been hard for him.’

Alekos’s mouth flattened. ‘So he is badly behaved.’

‘No,’ Iolanthe fired back. ‘That’s not it at all. Some of his teachers made that assumption, but the truth is much more complicated than that.’

‘Then tell me the truth.’

‘It’s hard to explain. Niko is just...different.’ Doctors had offered various diagnoses, but none had seemed to fit. She stared at him unhappily. ‘You’ll understand when you meet him tomorrow.’

Alekos looked as if he wanted to press the matter, but then, to Iolanthe’s relief, he merely gave a terse nod. ‘I’ll come in the morning, then, around ten.’

‘He’s tutored until noon,’ Iolanthe said and held up a pacifying hand. ‘But I’ll take him out of his lessons. I was just telling you so you know that he is learning. He’s doing well in his own environment.’ And it had taken a long time and a lot of effort, not to mention tears, heartache, and worry, for her to be able to say that.

‘We’ll talk more tomorrow,’ Alekos said, and to Iolanthe it felt like a threat. What if Alekos rejected Niko after meeting him? Her son was fiercely intelligent and creative, but he could also be uncommunicative, awkward, and high-maintenance. Lukas certainly hadn’t had the patience to deal with him—what if Alekos didn’t either? What if this all blew up in her face, and worse, in Niko’s face? She couldn’t stand the thought of her son experiencing another rejection.

‘Tomorrow,’ Alekos said firmly, and Iolanthe nodded. She watched him leave the room, heard the click of the front door shutting. She felt a curious mixture of relief and disappointment; she was grateful for the reprieve but with Alekos gone she felt as if something vital had left the room. Left her life.

It was so dangerous, to think like that. To want like that. She remembered that moment upstairs, when for a few taut seconds she’d thought he might kiss her. She’d wanted him to kiss her.

And if they did marry...would he kiss her then? Would it be a marriage in the true sense of the word? Iolanthe couldn’t believe she was even asking herself those questions. She couldn’t marry Alekos. He’d made her feel like the most desirable woman on earth...and the least. She couldn’t live with that kind of see-sawing emotion, and she certainly couldn’t expose Niko to it.

But she had a sinking, certain feeling that Alekos would never let it go. Never let her or Niko go. She’d willingly walked into one gilded cage already. Perhaps it was no more than her duty to step into another.