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“Do you honestly think I want pictures?” he asked, his voice rough.
“I...I had thought... It’s our... We paid for the photographer.”
“I’m sure the press in attendance got enough. I am not interested in posing for photos. What I would like is alcohol.”
“You don’t drink.”
“Not usually.”
Never. She’d never seen him drink. That wasn’t the best for her ego. That marrying her was driving him to drink.
“What about the reception?”
“I am far too eager to take you back to my villa and consummate the marriage,” he said, his tone dry as sand. “We’ll have to skip it.”
“Wh...what?”
“We’re leaving. Now.” She didn’t want to leave now. Not while she felt so...shaken.
But they were.
He took her hand again, and they went out the other direction, out the front doors, where there was a limo idling. He opened the back door for her and she got in. He gathered up the skirt of her dress and put it in behind her before getting in and closing the door.
He looked out the window and she followed his gaze to the photographer standing on the step. “Let’s give him a picture,” he said, his voice nearly a growl.
“The windows are tinted.”
“He’ll work around that. It’s his job to get the shot after all.”
He hauled her to his body, her breasts, precariously close to making an exit from the bodice of her dress, pressed against his hard chest. And then, for the second time in the space of five minutes, she was being kissed by Ajax Kouros.
After consigning Ajax to the “fantasies that were never going to happen” bin, two kisses in such short succession were shocking.
His tongue delved deep, tasting her, sending a shock wave through her, straight to her core. And again, she found herself responding, helplessly, intensely. She speared her fingers through his hair, held on to him for all she was worth.
She couldn’t pretend she didn’t feel this. Couldn’t pretend that the touch of his lips against hers didn’t light a fire in her body. Couldn’t pretend that no matter what her emotions were doing, no matter how she’d shut them down, she’d never wanted a man the way she wanted Ajax.
He removed his lips from hers and pressed a kiss to her neck, down lower, lower...oh...yes.
Then he lifted his head. “Drive,” he said, the order clearly meant for his driver and not for her. He kissed her neck again, his tongue tracing a circle over her skin before the limo exited the driveway of her family’s estate and went out onto the main winding road that led back down to the highway.
Then, he moved away from her, all of the heat from the earlier moment completely gone. As if cold water had been thrown on a flame.
“What was...all that?”
“I was not in the mood to deal with questioning—were you?”
“I... No, I suppose not.”
“We’ll need to get a story together, one that matches, before we talk to the press.”
“Right, okay, I see the merit in that.” Her lips felt swollen and hot, and she felt dizzy. What had just happened to her? She looked down at her hand, where he’d placed a ring only moments before, and she wondered if she was involved in some kind of weird dream.
“There will have to be an explanation for why it was you and not Rachel who walked down the aisle today.”
“And the truth won’t work? That she realized she loved someone else?”
The expression in his eyes could only be described as fierce. “No, it does not. Would it be so simple for you?”
“I suppose not. But please let’s come up with an answer that doesn’t completely burn my pride. I’ve had enough of that in the media.”
“We both have issues of pride, it seems. I do not intend to hurt you, Leah, but none of this was part of my plan.”
“Clearly.”
“I imagine it wasn’t a part of yours, either.”
“Well, this morning I was getting ready for my sister’s wedding, and it turned out to be my wedding. And now I’m married and sitting in a limo on my way to...I don’t even know where. Maybe you told me, but I forgot because that’s just the kind of day it’s been.”
“My home. We weren’t planning on going on a honeymoon until things had started settling at Holt.”
“Are you going to New York?”
He shook his head. “Not yet. But I will be working from my office here on getting things in order. Your father has left everything in magnificent working order, and the transition has been well under way for a while, but even so...”
“Business first. I don’t have anything to wear,” she said. “I have this dress. I don’t have...panties.” The words sort of slipped out, horrifying her as they did. She didn’t feel savvy, or self-contained, or well-protected. She felt dazed. “I don’t have deodorant. My suitcase is back at the house.”
“I will have all new clothes sent over if you like. And your things from New York.”
“My things from... What?”
“You’ll be living here with me. We will of course travel to New York, but we’ll stay in my penthouse there, not in your apartment or flat or whatever it is you have.”
“It’s a very nice apartment.”
“We will live together. We are husband and wife after all.”
“Oh. Right. Yes. We are.”
“You sound shocked.”
“Are you not?”
He looked her over, dark eyes assessing. “I am a hard man to shock, Leah, but all things considered, I am a bit.”
He was so dry, so condescending. It wasn’t fair that he was so in control. That his mask never slipped. Because she was confused and a little freaked and kind of in internal upheaval and he just...wasn’t.
He was all cold and calm and stare-y.
Blessed reality was starting to trickle in. Cold. Unflinching. It provided a harsh portrait of her slipups over the past few minutes. Over how stupid she’d let a couple of kisses make her when she knew better than to let that happen. Or, she at least knew better than to let anyone see it. She knew better than to reveal anything.
“You really want me to live with you?” She crossed her arms beneath her breasts, then thought better of it when she realized just how effectively that hoisted them up.
“Need is the better word,” he said. “I will not risk this appearing to be anything but real.” He put his elbow on the armrest of the car and put his hand on his forehead. The first sign of him truly not being all that okay.
They were silent for the rest of the ride to the house. And while they climbed the mountain, anger built inside her. Blessed anger that helped her armor feel fortified.
The limo wound its way up the mountain that would carry them to Ajax’s home. She realized she hadn’t been there. He came over to the family’s estate for parties in Rhodes, and he visited her family’s penthouse in New York, but she’d never visited him here, not after he’d got a home.
She’d never seen where he’d lived as a teenager working on the estate, either, but she’d been a child then so it wasn’t all that surprising.
Double gates came into view, then they parted as the limo approached. And beyond them was a sleek, modern home with windows that opened it all up to views that surrounded it. Mountains behind, the ocean, glimmering bright in front. Bright pink flowers climbed the walls, the only nod to a traditional Greek villa.
The rest was all new. Clean lines and exceptionally expensive construction.
“I’ve never been here before,” she said.
“Have you not?” A strange look passed over his face.
“No. I haven’t. You’ve never invited me. Well, it’s not like we really hang out.” Anymore. “We just happen to make a wide circle around each other at many of the same gatherings, and kind of, pass close enough two or three times in an evening to say ‘lovely to see you, how about this shrimp cocktail? Delightful? Yes, delightful!’ But no, we don’t hang out.”
Not by accident. After her big Ajax-induced heartbreak she’d needed to push him away. Needed to give herself some time to erect stronger barriers.
“And I don’t have parties,” he said, his voice comically serious.
“So, that mystery’s solved. That’s why I’ve never been here.”
The car stopped and she scrambled out of it, not willing to wait for Ajax or his driver to open the door. The further away the wedding got, the weirder she felt in her dress. The edgier she felt in general.
Every time he’d kissed her, the fog of fantasy had closed in around them and it had seemed a dream. Now, standing in front of his glass-and-steel house, the sun’s harsh light bathing her skin in heat, the breeze coming up from the sea blowing the skirt of her wedding dress around her ankles, it all felt much too real.
“Can we go inside?” she asked. “I’m overheated.”
“As you would be in that dress.” He led the way to the house, and she followed, relief washing through her when they entered the cool stone foyer.
“Are you all right now?”
“Better, thank you.” She folded her hands and put them in front of her, the folds of her skirt hiding them.
“Hopefully your things will be here soon. I imagine that is quite uncomfortable.”
She looked down and took a breath at the same time, her breasts trying to escape the bodice. Again.
Her things. Because she was expected to live here. To drop everything for this. For him. Because he wanted it to look real.
“So,” she said, her voice tight, her next words escaping before she had the chance to think them through, fueled by her nerves, by her need to know what he was thinking. What he might ask of her. “Are we about to consummate this marriage?”
“What?”
“You said...you said you were so eager to consummate, and you’re having my things sent here. You want to get on that?”
“I think not,” he said, dark brows drawn together, his grasp of her sarcasm clearly loose at best. “Certainly not tonight.”
“What exactly is the marriage going to be? And if not tonight, do you see it happening in the future?”
“I wanted to present a certain front to the press. That’s all. Per the agreement we signed this afternoon, we have to stay married for five years before the deal is finalized, or ownership of the company defaults to...”
“It would go to Alex, wouldn’t it?”
“Considering your father’s health? And if he stays with your sister that long? Likely. That means whatever happens, this marriage is not going to be quick and easy. Even then...even then perhaps it would be best for us to consider making this arrangement permanent. However, you have just stepped in at the last minute—I’m hardly going to force you upstairs to ravish you.”
Her breath caught in her throat. “That’s not what I...”
“You were the one who asked,” he said.
“Just making things clear. We did get married today, and you did make a comment about consummation,” she threw back.
“So you’re offering me your body, as well? Right now? How about here? I could dismiss my staff, or hell, they’re paid to look the other way, why bother dismissing them? Would you like me to tear your dress off and have you against the wall?”
His voice was rough, unsteady, like nothing she’d heard from him before.
She’d pushed him to a place she hadn’t intended, the conversation not seeming as absurd as she’d imagined when she’d first spoken the words. There was an edge of danger, reality to all of this. She’d never seen him like this. This close to losing grip on his control.
Being in the path of it was almost frightening. But she was close to the edge, too. She felt vulnerable and at a disadvantage, two things she hated. And pushing at his control made her feel like she had even more of it.
“I could, Leah. Some women like that. Or, if you prefer I could take you upstairs and make you my wife for real. But the thing is, I would be doing it because I’m angry. At her. I would think of her. She is the only woman I have ever loved, and she walked away from me on our wedding day to be with someone else. Someone I despise. If I were with you,” he continued, his voice rough, “it would be to get back at her. I’m a man—never forget that. I could think of anything and get it up while I parted your thighs. It would hardly make you special. Yes, I could have you. But the question is, right now, would you want me?”
His words shouldn’t hurt. But they were so cold, so hard, they cut through her defenses, straight to her heart.
But she wouldn’t let him see.
“You loved her?” she asked.
“I love her,” he said. “Years of loving someone isn’t erased by one act. As convenient as it might be.”
“I suppose not.”
The whole thing made her pride burn. How adamant he was about not wanting her. And at the same time, she looked into his dark eyes and realized his own pride was savaged. Realized how hard this was for him.
He’d lost the woman he loved. He had married someone else. Someone he had no feelings for. He was looking at her and seeing a broken dream. No matter how strong her armor, she felt the impact of that like a battering ram against the steel.
“I think I’ll go to my room then, since you’re not interested in a quick consummation,” she said, her tone tart, her expression as neutral as she could get it. “Good night.”
He nodded once. “Tomorrow, we’ll come up with a plan.”
“I look forward to it.”
Maybe a night of sleep would help her figure out what she was doing. Help her figure out what had happened to her.
And what they were going to do about it.
CHAPTER THREE
AJAX WOKE UP without a hangover. Because he hadn’t been able to bring himself to drink. As Leah had observed, he didn’t drink alcohol. He prized his control far too much. Vice was the downfall of man.
The need for a certain high, whether it be from alcohol, drugs or sex was responsible for much of the evil in the world. Something he’d lived at one point in time. Something he’d witnessed in horrific detail. And something he’d done his best to destroy, even if it was only one small piece of it.
He did not let vice own him. Not anymore. He didn’t even give it a foothold on his soul.
Rachel leaving wasn’t reason enough to give that up. But, Theos, it burned his pride. He hadn’t imagined pride had such a place in his life, but apparently it did.
He stalked down the stairs, wearing nothing but a pair of black pants, not bothering to get dressed. He was not in the mood to deal with much of anything or anyone.
He stalked through the house and into the dining room, where the one thing he couldn’t avoid dealing with was sitting, perched on the edge of a chair, a cup of coffee in her hands, her whiskey-colored eyes round. She looked very like a lost child. And he had no patience to deal with it. Any of it.
“I trust you slept well?” he asked, attempting civility because regardless of his feelings it was the appropriate way to treat one’s wife. Or so he imagined.
“Not in the least,” she returned, her voice crisp.
Her dark, curly hair was tied up, a little puffball on top of her head, and she was wearing a baggy sweater, the sort that made generous breasts blend into a woman’s waist, concealing any nice attributes her figure might possess.
Not that he cared. Her figure was the least of his concerns.
“If the mattress is a problem for you, a new one can be ordered.”
“I don’t think it was the mattress so much as the unexpected acquisition of a husband, but I could be wrong. Maybe the sleep surface was too firm.”
“You seem a bit off this morning.”
Her fingers flexed around the cup, giving the impression of claws. “Do I?”
He found he wanted to push her. He was spoiling for a fight and he couldn’t say why. He’d never tried to pick a fight for no reason in his life. He’d grown up in such a volatile environment, and he’d learned early on that the quickest way to an early death, or at the very least a world of pain, was to cause trouble.
Keeping his head down, doing as he was told, all while planning, planning and strategizing, finding a way out—that was the way to survive.
Today, he didn’t just want to survive. He wanted to fight. It seemed a perfect substitute for getting drunk.
“Hardly the blushing bride,” he said. “You look like hell, to be honest.”
“Are you always such an ass?”
Good. She was getting angry. That was what he wanted. What he craved right now.
“Perhaps you’ve never had the chance to really get to know me before now, though, in the interest of full disclosure, I am in a bloody bad mood this morning.”
“I’m glad to know this at least qualifies as a bad mood. Why are you taking it out on me?”
He didn’t know. He didn’t know why his control was fraying. Why he wasn’t being self-contained. Why he was suddenly incapable of maintaining an iron grip on emotion. “Because you’re here, agape mou. The lucky replacement bride.”
“Would my sister be on the receiving end of this treatment? If so, I can certainly see why she ran out on the wedding.”
“If your sister were here, I daresay we might still be in bed. And I would certainly be in a better mood.”
Something flashed in her amber eyes that he didn’t like. Pain? He had gone a step too far in venting his anger. Saying things he wasn’t even certain he felt just to simply let the anger continue. Indulging emotion for once rather than sublimating it.
He didn’t know how sleeping with Rachel would make him feel. The idea of it...it had made him tense. But that was to be expected, considering the nature of their relationship, and everything else.
But sex with his wife was half the appeal of marriage to him. Everything in life had a place. A fire burning in the fireplace was all well and good. But when the fire spread outside of it, that became a problem.
Yes, things had their place. And he had been looking forward to having everything where it was meant to be.
But now the plan was upended. And he wasn’t certain of his next move. For a man who liked to plan ahead, it was disconcerting at best.
“I am sorry,” he bit out. “That was crass of me. I’m frustrated, and it has very little to do with you personally.” Except, somehow, the frustration, or rather, his inability to manage it, did seem tied to her.
She blinked, and he could see some of the tension release from her body. “Of course not. Of course. None of this really has anything to do with me personally, does it?”
“I’m glad you have such a good grasp on the situation.”
“I don’t, Ajax, not even close. What, if you’ll excuse me, in hell do you want from me? Do you want me to just hang out for the next five years, living in your house, and then go on my merry way like none of this ever happened?”
“Clearly that cannot happen,” he said.
“Clearly?”
“I would not disrespect you that way.”
“Oh, honey, after all the crap you said to me last night, you’re saying you don’t want to disrespect me?”
“I was angry.”
“Great. So was I. So am I.”
“I apologized.”
“An apology isn’t a magic healing potion, it’s just a bandage. It covered up some of my pique nicely, but it’s hardly healed.”
“Well,” he said, shifting his weight to the balls of his feet, “perhaps we can set it aside in the interest of figuring out what it is we need to do?”
“All right,” she said.
“We’re married, and we really had no other choice, all things considered.”
“Yes.”
“And we have to stay married for at least five years.”
“Uh-huh,” she said.
“And I planned on marrying into your family. On keeping Holt in your family. I want to be married. I would like to have children. A real marriage suits me.”
“Oh, indeed?”
“Yes. I wanted a wife. A wife was always my end goal.”
“Except she was tall, blond, a size four and named Rachel?”
“Yes,” he said, teeth gritted. “But in the end, what difference does it make?”
“Is that really how you feel? Do I matter that little... Does she?”
“It isn’t you, Leah. I have had a plan for my life from the moment I left my father’s house. I planned to work my way up, and I did. To make a new start for myself with nothing but hard work, honesty. To never, ever set foot back on the path I was born to walk. And I have done that. I met your family, and your father and mother made me feel welcomed. Like a son. And then there was Rachel. Everything fit. It all seemed perfect. I knew the first time I saw her she was my end goal. That she would be my wife. She is the first part of my plan that has dared not to fall into place.”
“Yes, well, that’s because she’s a woman and not a business venture.”
“But we would have been perfect,” he said.
“No, Ajax, you wouldn’t have been. You would have been fine, but not perfect. Because she’s not perfect. You certainly aren’t.”
“But it made sense,” he said. “In my head...in my head she made everything fall into place.”
“She’s not a business venture, and she’s not an ideal, either.”
He rubbed his temples with his fingertips. “I know that.”
“Well, you don’t seem to. You talk like marriage to her was your end goal and then...and then what? It would just be perfect? Your life would suddenly be perfect?”
“I can’t... It’s hard to... I’ve been working, Leah, so hard, all of my life. I came to your family’s home, and your parents treated me more like a son than an employee. They took me in, gave me focus and purpose. Your father set me on this path. He taught me things, taught me how to be a man, to be strong. He gave me goals. He sent me to school. I have been walking that path he set me on, tirelessly, never looking away from the goal, from the end.”
“To where you would make Holt continue on for him. Where you would be part of our family.”
“I’ve been walking for a long time,” he said.
“And then you reach the end and you rest?”
“And then maybe I don’t have to work so hard to stay in control all the damn time because I’ll have arrived at a more stable point,” he bit out. “My...everything would be in place.”
Because things weren’t now. He’d made money, obtained power and connections. He’d used all of the resources at his disposal to bring down his father’s drug and human trafficking ring. And he still couldn’t rest. He still didn’t feel he could stop working. Stop trying to distance himself from his past.
From all he had done.
“Why do you need to hang on to control so tightly, Ajax?” she asked, her eyes filled with...sympathy. Pity. If she knew who she was talking to, if she knew the beast that lived inside him, she wouldn’t look at him like that.
He stood and started to pace the room. “It’s nothing. This is nothing. It can still be fixed.”
Leah studied him, noticed the tension in his jaw, in the lines of his body. He was uncomfortable, and thrown off. And she had to take into account that he could very well be heartbroken.
He said he loved Rachel. But for the first time she wondered. Wondered if he’d ever known her really, or if she’d just been symbolic for him.
“I have a plan, Leah,” he said.
She crossed her arms beneath her breasts. “Oh, good. Let’s hear it.”
He stopped moving, his hands locked behind his back. “First, we must show a united front. I am taking over a massive corporation here, changing the layout in some respects. We need to show solidarity—I will not appear weak.”
“No, you wouldn’t.” She couldn’t imagine him appearing weak anyway.
“And I will not be seen as a man forced into this situation.”
“Pride is a beautiful thing. At least I think it is. I don’t know that I have any left.”
“I find myself in short supply, as well.” His expression turned fierce. “And I will turn my focus to helping mass produce Leah’s Lollies products, as soon as time allows.”
She ignored the leap her heart took and looked down at her fingernails. “Payment for services rendered?”
He looked stricken for a moment, and his face paled. Then, as soon as the reaction occurred, he covered it again. “This is not that sort of arrangement. You are my wife. Not a woman I have purchased.”