And she was left lonely in her little turret in the palace. Damon saw how easily it had happened. She was loyal and sweet but also trapped and stifled.
‘I’m supposed to marry a royal,’ she said quietly. ‘It’s tradition. I know you think it’s stupid, but it’s how it’s always been. I wanted to do the right thing for Giorgos.’
‘Well, I’m not a prince and I never will be.’ Damon took a seat. ‘But won’t it be easier to divorce me, a commoner, than cause conflict with two countries if you divorce your Prince?’
Her lips tightened. ‘I’m not supposed to get divorced,’ she said quietly. ‘That’s not part of the fairy tale.’
‘Times change. Even royals live in the real world, Eleni. And they get divorced.’
She looked anywhere but at him. ‘I barely know you.’
‘Do you know Prince Xander?’ Damon asked bluntly.
The shake of her head was almost imperceptible.
‘Then what’s the difference between marrying him and marrying me?’ His muscles pulled tighter and tighter still in the face of her silence. The urge to go to her, to kiss her into acquiescence, made him ache. Despite her denial earlier he knew he could do it. All he’d have to do was kiss her and she’d be breathless and begging and he needed to get away from her before he did exactly that. He wanted to hear her say yes to him without that. ‘Am I an ogre?’
‘You want to take my child from me.’
‘And you tried to deny the child was mine. I figure that makes us even.’ He stood, unable to remain in the same room as her without succumbing to reckless action. ‘Take your time to think about your options, Eleni. I’m in no rush to go anywhere.’
* * *
Why didn’t she want to marry Damon? Eleni couldn’t answer that honestly—not to him when she could barely admit the truth to herself. She’d never wanted anyone the way she wanted him. Her marriage to Xander would have been a loveless union. But safe compared to the tempestuous gamut of emotions Damon roused in her. She was terrified of what might happen to her heart if she stayed with him for long.
She scoffed at her inner dramatics. She needed to grow up and get a grip on her sexual frustration. Because that was all this was, right? Her first case of raw lust.
She turned off the large computer screen and foraged in the bookcase lining one of the walls, her thoughts circling around and around until her stomach rumbled and she realised how ravenous she was.
Quietly she left the room and found her way to a sleek galley kitchen. No one was in there, thank goodness, because she was starving. She located the pantry, pouncing on an open box of cereal.
‘You okay?’
‘Oh.’ She swallowed hastily as she turned. ‘You caught me.’
He had been swimming, probably in the pool on deck. Eleni stared, fascinated by the droplets of water slowly snaking down his bronzed chest until they were finally caught in the towel he’d slung low around his hips.
‘Not yet.’ He walked forward. ‘What are you doing that is so awful?’
Staring at your bare chest.
‘I shouldn’t have helped myself,’ she mumbled. ‘Eating straight from the packet.’
‘That’s not awful. That’s survival instinct.’ He reached into the box she was holding and helped himself to a couple of the cereal clusters. ‘Don’t you go into the kitchen at the palace?’
She shook her head, forcing herself to swallow.
‘You just ask one of the servants?’
‘What do you expect?’ She bristled. ‘I live in a palace and that comes with privileges.’
‘But what if you wanted to just make a sandwich?’
‘Then someone makes it for me.’
‘You never wanted to make your own sandwich?’
‘It’s not my place to.’ She refused to rise to his baiting. ‘I’m not going to take someone’s job from them.’
He looked at her as she snaffled another cereal snack. ‘What would you have done if being a princess wasn’t your place?’
‘I studied languages and art history.’ She shrugged. ‘I’d probably teach.’
‘But what would you have done if you could have chosen anything?’
Eleni sighed. ‘My brother loves me very much but he is very busy and most of my education was left to an older advisor who had ancient ideas about the role of a princess.’
‘You’re there to be decorative.’
‘And quiet and serene—’
‘Serene?’ He laughed. ‘You’re a screamer.’
She sent him a filthy look.
‘So?’ He teased, but pressed the point. ‘What would you have done?’
‘I wanted to be a vet.’ But she’d known it was impossible. The hours of study too intense when she had public duties to perform as well.
‘A vet?’ He looked taken aback.
‘I like dogs.’ She shrugged.
‘You have dogs?’
‘I had a gorgeous spaniel when I was younger.’
‘So why not vet school? Did you not have the grades?’
‘Of course I had the grades.’ She gritted her teeth and turned away because she knew where he was going with this, so she didn’t tell him she’d wanted to do Fine Arts first. Again she’d been denied—too frivolous. She was a princess and she had to remain demure and humble. But was hers really such an awful life to bestow upon a child? Yes, there were restrictions, but there was also such privilege. Couldn’t she make it different?
‘You know I can offer our child a level of freedom that you can’t,’ Damon said. ‘Isn’t that what you want, your child not to have to “perform” the way you’ve had to all your life?’
‘I want the best for my child in every way,’ Eleni said calmly. And she knew exactly what she had to do for her child now. Nothing was ever going to be the same. She sucked in one last deep breath. ‘They’re all going to figure out that I was pregnant when we married.’
He stilled; his gaze glittered. ‘Either we lie and say the baby was born prematurely, or we say nothing at all.’ He cleared his throat. ‘The second option gets my vote. There will always be whispers and Internet conspiracy theories but we rise above it with a dignified silence and carry on.’
She nodded. ‘I understand what you’re saying about giving our child freedom, but I’m its mother and I won’t walk away from it. Ever.’ She braced and pushed forward. ‘If you’re serious about doing what’s best for our child, then you won’t ask me to.’
He carefully leaned against the bench. ‘So you’ll marry me.’
‘If we work out a plan. For after.’ When their marriage ended, it needed to be smooth. ‘I think there are precedents in other countries for a child not to take a royal title,’ she said bravely. Giorgos would have a fit but she would have to try to make him understand. ‘We can keep him or her out of the limelight and work out some kind of shared custody arrangement.’
Her heart tore at the thought, but her child had the right to be loved by both its parents.
‘Then we’ll work it out.’ Damon looked out of the window.
‘So now you’ve got what you wanted,’ Eleni said.
He looked back at her. His blue eyes had darkened almost to black. ‘And what’s that?’
‘Me. Saying yes.’ She watched, surprised to see his tension was even more visible than before. ‘What, you’re not satisfied?’
‘No.’
‘Then what do you want?’
He took the two steps to bring himself smack bang in front of her. ‘I want my tee shirt back.’
Desire uncoiled low and strong in her belly. ‘But I’m not wearing anything underneath it.’
‘Good.’ His blunt expression of want felled her.
‘Are you wearing anything under the skirt?’ he asked roughly, gripping the hem of the tee.
She could barely shake her head. ‘I thought you said this would only complicate things.’
‘Now we’re in agreement on the big issues, we can handle a little complicat
ion.’
He tugged the tee shirt up. She lifted her arms and in a second it was gone. She was bared to his gaze, his touch, his tongue.
She gasped as he swooped. There was no denying this. He desired her body. Fine. She desired his. Reason dissolved under sensual persuasion. He pressed the small of her back—holding her still, keeping her close, until he growled something unintelligible and picked her up to sit her on the edge of the bench. He pushed her knees apart so he could stand between them. Elation soared through Eleni.
This was what she wanted.
His kiss was nothing less than ravaging. She moaned as he plundered, his tongue seeking, tasting, taking everything and she did more than let him. She gave—straining closer. She wound her arms around his neck, arching and aching. His hands swept down her body, igniting sensation, sparking that deeper yearning. He slid his warm palm under her skirt. She trembled as he neared where she was wet and ready. His kiss became more rapacious still as he touched her so intimately, and her moan melted in his mouth. He lifted away only to tease her more—kissing the column of her neck, down to her collarbones and then to the aching, full breasts pointing hard for his attention.
But the nagging feeling inside wouldn’t ease—resistance to this hedonism. It had been wrong before; it was still wrong now. She closed her eyes, turning her face to the side as heat blistered her from the inside out.
‘Don’t hide.’ He nudged her chin. ‘Let me see you.’
‘I can’t,’ she muttered, desperately turning her face away.
He pulled back completely, forcing her to look into his eyes. ‘You’re not cheating. Your engagement is broken now.’
She was ashamed that he knew her desire for him had overruled her duty and her loyalty. Her engagement to Xander had been a loveless arrangement, but Damon was right. She was an appalling person.
‘This is nothing much more than what happened yesterday.’ Damon tempted her again.
Wrong. It was so much more. If she let him in again, she wasn’t sure she could cope. The passion was all-consuming, addictive and all she could think about at a time when she should be concerned with her family. With her duty. But she couldn’t think clearly when she was within five hundred paces of this man.
And she doubted him. He’d wanted to find her after the ball only because he’d known there was a risk of pregnancy, not because he’d wanted more time with her. He was only taking advantage of the situation now—certainly it wasn’t that he liked her.
But he’d wanted her when he hadn’t known who she was. He wasn’t going for the ‘perfect Princess’ that night, he’d wanted just her. There was something still seductive about that.
Damon was studying her too intently. It was as if he could strip back all her defences and see into her poor, inexperienced soul.
‘Why didn’t you tell me you were a virgin?’ he asked softly.
There was no point holding back the truth now. ‘Because you would have stopped.’
He expelled a harsh breath and framed her face with surprisingly gentle hands. ‘You could have said you were inexperienced.’
‘I was pretending I wasn’t,’ she muttered, mortified. The mask, the costume had combined to make her feel confident. He’d made her feel sexy and invincible. Unstoppable. ‘I had a persona that night...now I don’t.’
‘Are you sure it was a persona?’ Damon challenged. ‘Or was it the true you?’ He skimmed the tips of his fingers down her neck until she shivered.
Was she that person? That woman who took such risks—and found such pleasure?
You want more than what you think you should have.
‘There is nothing wrong with liking this, Eleni.’ He tempted her to the point of madness.
‘But I like it too much.’ She confessed that last secret on the merest thread of a breath. ‘It’s not me. It scares me.’
That was why she’d resisted his proposal initially. The intensity of her desire for him terrified her.
His expression tightened. ‘I scare you?’
‘Not you. Me,’ she muttered. ‘I never behave like this. Like that.’ She was appalled at how she’d behaved that night and since. All those outbursts? The waves of emotion? ‘You were right. I lied. I cheated. I’m every bit that awful, spoilt person you said I was.’
Damon shifted away from her.
Eleni watched, suddenly chilled at the loss of contact. Her body yearned for the closeness of his again. But he’d switched it off. How could he do that so easily?
Hurt and alarm hit. She shouldn’t have spoken so rashly. She shouldn’t have stopped him because at least she could’ve been rid of the frustration that now cut deeper than ever.
‘You need to be at peace before this happens again,’ Damon said quietly—too damn in control. ‘Then you won’t need to hide. Then you can truly let go.’
She watched, amazed and horrified as he walked to the doorway. How, exactly, was she supposed to find peace when he was making the decision for her? When he was leaving her this...needy.
‘I hate you,’ she called. One last emotional outburst.
‘I’m sure.’ Damon glanced back with a smile. ‘I’d never dream that you could love me.’
CHAPTER NINE
‘I’M NOT WAITING for Giorgos to hunt me down like some fugitive. I want to go to him.’ Eleni braced for Damon’s response as she sat opposite him at the table the next morning.
She wasn’t letting him make all the decisions any more. After the most desultory dinner, she’d spent the night mentally practising her confrontations with both Damon and Giorgos and it was time to put both plans into reality.
Damon arched a sardonic eyebrow. ‘Good morning, fire-breathing warrior woman, who are you and what have you done with my meek fiancée?’
‘I need to see him,’ she insisted.
Damon’s answering smile was uncomfortably wicked. ‘The yacht turned around last night. We’ll be back at Palisades in less than an hour. I’ve just let him know I have you.’
Eleni stared as his words knocked the wind from her sails.
‘Well.’ It was going to happen so much sooner than she’d expected. She puffed out a deep breath but it didn’t settle her speeding heart. ‘We might want to let him know I’m safe on board, otherwise he might try to blow up your boat.’
Damon chuckled. ‘I thought Palisades was a peace-loving nation.’
It was, but when Damon’s yacht entered the marina, Eleni’s nerves tightened unbearably. Never before had she defied Giorgos’s wishes and now the weight of his inevitable disappointment was crushing.
‘I should handle him by myself,’ she said to Damon as she counted the number of soldiers waiting on the pier ready to escort her. It was a heavy-handed display of her brother’s authority. ‘I should have done that in the first place.’
Damon turned his back on the waiting men with an arrogant lift to his chin. Apparently he was unfazed by the latent aggression waiting for them. ‘I’ll stay silent if that’s what you wish, but I will be beside you.’
Because he didn’t trust her?
Except there was something in Damon’s eyes. Something more than protectiveness and more than possessiveness. She turned away, not trusting her own vision. Because the last thing she deserved was tenderness.
The military men wordlessly ushered them into a car and drove them straight to the palace. The gleaming building felt silent, as if everyone were collectively holding their breath—waiting for Giorgos’s explosion. For the first time in her life Eleni felt like a stranger in her own home. The only person not tiptoeing on eggshells was Damon. He casually strolled the endless corridors as if he hadn’t a care in the world.
They weren’t taken to either her private suite or to Giorgos’s. Instead her brother’s assistant led them to a formal room usually reserved for meetings with visiting Heads of State. Chilled, Eleni paused in the doorway. Giorgos grimly waited in full King mode—white dress uniform, jacket laden with medals and insignia, boots polished to mir
ror-like sheen. All that was missing was his crown.
‘I’ve cancelled an engagement at the last minute. Again.’ Giorgos fixed a steely stare on Damon.
But her brother’s barely disguised loathing apparently bounced off as Damon blandly stared right back.
‘You took advantage of an innocent,’ Giorgos accused shortly. ‘You seduced her.’
Was she invisible? Straightening her shoulders, Eleni stepped forward.
‘Maybe I seduced him.’ She clenched her fists to hide how badly her hands were shaking, but she was determined to take control of this conversation. She was having the input here, not Damon.
Her brother finally bothered to look at her, but as he faced her he became like a marble sculpture. Expressionless and unreadable.
‘Damon and I will be married as soon as possible,’ she said, determined to state her case before he tore her to shreds.
Giorgos continued to look unmoved. ‘Last time we spoke you insisted you were not marrying either Prince Xander or Mr Gale.’
‘I was upset,’ she conceded coolly. ‘But this is the best course of action, Giorgos.’
‘He is not a prince. He has no title whatsoever.’
Of course her brother knew Damon’s background already—he’d have had his investigators on it from the moment he’d gotten the message this morning. From Giorgos’s frown, Damon’s success mattered little to him. ‘You know the expectations—’
‘Change the law, create a new custom.’ For the second time in her life Eleni dared to interrupt her brother. ‘You’re King. You have the power.’
‘And should I abuse power trusted to me, for personal gain?’
‘Is it personal gain, or would you simply be granting the same right that any other citizen in Palisades already has?’ Why couldn’t she have the right to choose for herself?
Giorgos’s eyes narrowed. ‘So I simply ignore centuries of custom and duty? I abandon all levels of diplomacy and the expectations of our important neighbours and alliances?’
‘My personal life shouldn’t be used for political manoeuvring.’
‘So you got yourself pregnant instead of simply making that argument?’
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