by Olivia Gates
She didn’t hurry, took her time, possessed him in every way she’d been going crazy for. Then, when she thought she’d drained him, he proved her wrong, remained ready to fulfill his promise.
And for the rest of the night, he did. How he did.
Selene spent the next days wondering if this could be real.
But it was. Beyond real. Vivid. All encompassing.
Their intimacy escalated, on all fronts. Aris opened up more every day, letting her into his past, his mind, his business. She felt happiness so acute it scared her. The world never let bliss like this continue, always conspired to shatter it.
As if to validate her fear, one afternoon while they lazed around the inside pool, Aris received a phone call.
She was bending to pick up Alex when he answered.
He did so only to fall silent for a long, long moment.
A frisson of foreboding slithered down her spine.
She looked over at him, found him looking at her, his eyes filled with something…terrible.
Next second, his eyes went blank. He looked away, ended the phone call on some curt orders.
But she still felt it. Something…dark, mushrooming inside him. Anxiety burst in her chest.
Then it all happened at once.
She started to move toward Aris. She heard the sickening thud. She saw Aris jerk as if he’d been shot. Then the wail exploded.
She looked down, found Alex on his back, screaming his lungs out. At the periphery of her vision, she saw Aris streaking toward them. Her mind streaked, too, making sense of what had happened.
While she’d been preoccupied with Aris’s reaction to the phone call, Alex had managed to take off his nonslip sandals. And he’d slipped on a wet patch. That terrible sound had been his head hitting the roughened marble.
The next second, his wails stopped. And he started convulsing.
Nine
During the nightmare that followed, Selene learned the meaning of terror. And of having Aris with her.
When she’d thought she’d always be a single parent, she’d realized that, especially in times of crisis, she would miss the support Alex’s father could have provided.
But Aris wasn’t just a father to Alex, or a partner for her. As someone who’d created and commanded his own empire, he possessed powers of almost inhuman efficiency, of limitless and levelheaded intervention. He was the best person on earth to deal with whatever life threw at them.
And this was the worst life had dealt her.
As she realized Alex was having a seizure, macabre scenarios attacked her with paralyzing viciousness. Alex could suffer permanent brain damage, could die. They might lose him.
And it was her fault.
But Aris wouldn’t let her go to pieces. His soothing commands and assurances defused her havoc, insisted that accidents happened. Even the unconscious Alex seemed to respond to his father’s support, as he told him that he’d never let anything bad happen to him, that he’d take care of everything. And he did.
Within minutes, he had her, Alex and Eleni onboard his helicopter. He arranged everything during the flight. When they landed at the hospital’s emergency helipad, an ambulance and a team of doctors were waiting.
Alex’s resuscitation and tests were concluded in less than thirty minutes. During which Selene would have fallen apart if not for Aris being there, holding her, murmuring encouragement and imbuing her with his power and stability.
Then Alex was brought out of the emergency room, awake but disoriented. He whimpered at the sight of them, threw himself toward her first, but then he wanted to be in Aris’s arms, burrowing deep into his father’s power and protection and promptly fell asleep.
Each doctor told his specialty’s story. Alex had suffered a concussion but the danger was past and he was expected to bounce back within a day without complications, and at worst a period of fussiness due to possible headaches. The advised forty-eight-hour hospital stay was just for further observation.
Even with their assurances, and with Alex waking up as if nothing had happened, Selene still counted the time until their discharge as the most harrowing of her life.
Then they were back on Aris’s estate, and she realized the nightmare hadn’t ended.
At first she chalked it up to still being shaken, that she was imagining tension where none existed. Or that Aris’s disturbance was, like hers, due to lingering worry about Alex.
But she could no longer believe that. That phone call had borne him terrible news. News he didn’t share. This disturbed her as much as anything else. She couldn’t bear to think he was suffering alone, that he thought he couldn’t come to her with any worries, halve them by letting her bear the burden with him.
But something she couldn’t define kept her from asking. Something huge that she felt hanging over them, over their future. And she was scared to look it in the eye, let it be real, let it wreak its devastation on them.
After they put Alex to bed, she reached breaking point.
She couldn’t share the rest of their evening rituals then go to bed with him feeling this way.
They were walking away from Alex’s nursery when she put her hand on Aris’s arm. His gaze jerked to hers. She saw the warmth that suffused his eyes when Alex was around drain to be replaced by something dark and bleak, like ink spreading through pristine waters.
It dissipated as soon as it formed, making her wonder whether she’d seen it. But she had. Even if he was now smiling at her. She knew his every expression down to its last nuance by now. And this smile originated from premeditation and not a little effort. Something was wrong. Something big. Momentous. And that brilliant mind of his was working overtime trying to decide on the least damaging way to deal with it.
But when he pulled her into his side, everything dissipated in the yearning for his nearness, for everything to be all right with him, for their perfect bliss to resume.
As they reached the kitchen, he kissed the top of her head before he spooled her away and headed to the fridge.
As he opened it, he looked over his shoulder. “He’s fine.” Her gaze clung to his across the distance. He’d read that part of her turmoil right. “And for the last time, it wasn’t your fault.”
And she heard herself blurt out, “I want to go home.”
Aris stilled for what felt like an eternity.
Everything inside her came to a halt, too.
She didn’t know where that outburst had come from.
But then, she did. She suddenly felt trapped here, powerless. She felt she’d regain control, of herself at least, on her own turf. She also believed Aris needed to go back to deal with whatever was weighing on his mind, but he wouldn’t think of leaving if he thought she wanted to stay.
She watched him with her heart hammering in her throat as he closed the fridge and turned to her in movements loaded with calculated tranquility. He’d ask why, and all her reasons suddenly sounded stupid.
But he didn’t ask. With his face an expressionless mask, he only said, “As you wish.”
There had never been anything she wished less.
She’d told him so, that she wished their time in Crete could have never ended, that she’d love to return, soon and always.
He’d smiled, assured her they’d return whenever she wished, was as indulgent as ever. But his words and actions contradicted what she sensed from him. He seemed to have shut down inside.
She told herself this would pass. That he was priming himself to deal with whatever problem he clearly had. That once things stabilized, they’d regain their rapport, indulge in the wide-open channels of communication they’d established.
Within twenty-four hours, they were back in the city where she’d lived all her life. And it no longer felt like home. Home was where she’d become Aris’s, where they’d become a family.
She was smiling up at him as he held Alex and pushed her condo’s door open for her, when her heart stopped.
At the pure aggression in hi
s eyes.
She swung around. Gasped, gaped.
Her three brothers were in her foyer, filling it with their towering bodies and answering hostility.
No. She couldn’t handle this now. Her brothers finding out about her and Aris, coming here to…to…
Steel seeped into her bones, replacing the jelly of shock.
What did they want, anyway? Who did they think they were, coming here and policing her life?
Before she could preempt them with a few choice rebukes, her middle brother, Lysandros, came forward, his smirk twisting a face she’d heard described as one the progeny of an angel and a demon would have. “Ah, the happy family returns.”
Damon gave an impressive snort. “Yeah, very touching.”
So they knew. She would have preferred to tell them herself, but this was her life, and Aris was an inseparable and indispensable part of it now. They had to deal with it. Their presence here might turn out to be a blessing in disguise—they could have it out now and get on with their lives.
She tore her gaze away from them, needing to reconnect with Aris, to wordlessly tell him he didn’t need to fight them for rights to her and Alex. She and Alex were his, but, these were her brothers, and she loved them. With the way he was looking, she wouldn’t put it past him to attack them. Knowing her roughhousing brothers, they were probably itching for him to make a move. She wouldn’t let them have a testosterone-driven free-for-all and end up maybe injured, and certainly on worse terms than ever.
She was the reason for their current hostilities, and she had to defuse the situation, install the terms of their future relationship. One—hopefully—governed by friendship, and failing that, at least peaceful coexistence.
But Aris didn’t meet her eyes. Her mortification morphed to shock as she realized what she saw in his expression. He’d been…expecting them.
She looked back to her brothers for an explanation. But they, too, were ignoring her. They closed in on Aris like a pack of wolves on a hyena who had a female and a cub of theirs in his clutches.
At that moment, Alex whimpered.
They all jerked, focused on him. He was looking from the uncles he loved to his even more beloved father with trepidation.
Seeming to feel the unequal odds against his father, to decide they represented danger to him, he declared which side he chose, clung to Aris tighter and buried his face in his chest.
That stopped her brothers in their tracks.
Aris soothed Alex with kisses and murmurs she couldn’t hear, before looking behind him at the frozen Eleni, whom Selene had forgotten about, too.
Without a word, Eleni rushed to take Alex from Aris and disappeared deep into the condo with him.
An awkward moment passed, the contrite looks that had come over her brothers for inadvertently upsetting Alex receding. Then they resumed forming their blockade around Aris.
“Did you hear, Sarantos?” Nikolas began, making her realize again how much in common he and Aris had. It made the hostility arcing between them hurt more. These two men should be allies, as Aris had once said of her father. They had so much to offer one another, so much they could share. She hoped, once this was resolved, they would develop the relationship she ached for Aris to have with all her brothers. Nikolas came to a stop a foot away from Aris, looked him up and down like someone who didn’t know where to start hurting someone. “I bet you did.”
Damon barked another harsh snort. “Look at him. Of course he heard. His watchdogs must have run to him with the news as soon as his strategically disseminated insiders leaked it to them.”
What were they talking about? Aris’s bad news? She hadn’t thought they’d stoop to gloating over a business loss in this intensely personal situation, but she could think of nothing else.
“So how does it feel, Sarantos?” Nikolas inclined his head at the till-now ominously silent Aris. “To be kicked to the curb for once in your charmed life? To have a blot on your perfect conquest record? And not just any blot. This one is going to hurt, the worst you’ve ever felt. It will be like I told you, the beginning of the end for you.”
“You did have us stymied for a while.” Lysandros took the baton from his older brother without missing a beat. “But we broke your stalemate. You must be going mad wondering how we did. But now we’re steering the U.S. Navy contract, and it gives me great pleasure to say this to your face. You’re out of the running. We’re bringing in the Di Giordanos.”
Selene blinked, unable to take in the barrage of unexpected information. Was this true? If it was, then this must be the news that had hit Aris so hard. But how had they done it? There was no way Aris hadn’t guarded against something like this. How could they have eliminated him that easily?
Damon’s gloating interrupted her confusion. “But you were desperate for this contract, weren’t you? You were determined to win it any way you could. So while you put roadblocks in our path, you were making sure you’d get it another way if those failed. So you infiltrated us through our weak link. Selene.”
Selene’s heart almost fired from her ribs with shock.
They thought…thought…
Before the ghastly accusations could sink, Nikolas took over. “You knew about Alex all along, didn’t you? But you only decided to pursue Selene, and be his ‘father,’ to enter the Louvardis family and make it impossible for us to remain your enemies.”
No. The scream detonated. Only inside her.
The horror of what they were suggesting made her mute. This was a serious crime they were accusing him of, far worse than anything their father had recommended they stand together against him for.
How would she take them from such complete demonizing of Aris to the perfect trust she now had in him?
Lysandros was going on. “But we’re on to you and it’s you who’s been playing into our hands all along.”
Aris’s silence thundered in her ears.
Damon’s derision rose. “But we’re reasonable people. And you are Alex’s biological father, regretfully. So for his sake, we’re prepared to tolerate you entering our family. We might even be persuaded to let you back into the contract.”
So they were rubbing it in, but knew they couldn’t be enemies for her and Alex’s sake, and they were prepared to negotiate? She didn’t want them to negotiate. She wouldn’t have Aris treated with suspicion and condescension. These brothers of hers would offer him humble apologies and request the privilege of working with him. She’d see to it.
But Lysandros had more. “So, Sarantos, here’s the deal. If you want this contract, we demand an incentive, collateral in case you turn on us again. Which we’re certain you will if you can.”
Nikolas moved closer to Aris, as if going for the kill. Then he made his thrust. “Half of your fortune and holdings, in Selene’s and Alex’s names, up front.”
She’d never known she could experience or withstand anything as brutal as the fury that exploded inside her in that moment.
Fueling it was fear—that they were causing irreparable damage to her and Aris’s relationship.
And she found her voice at last, growled, “Listen you posturing, macho morons…” Three pairs of eyes jerked to her in shock. She’d never talked to her older brothers anywhere near that coldly or rudely. “You’re making bigger asses of yourselves and making a bigger mess of everything with every word out of your stupid mouths. Do yourselves a favor, and butt out. And stay out.”
But she could feel them shrugging off her fury and focusing back on their mission. Aris.
She had one option left. To ask Aris to leave. There was everything to lose by confronting her testosterone-drunk brothers now. She’d talk them away from their warpath when he was gone, taking the cockfighting element out of the equation.
She turned to Aris, and got a harsher blow than any she’d sustained so far. He was looking at her as if she were the enemy.
This time, the expression didn’t evaporate.
He released her from it only to transfer
it to Nikolas, who was glaring back with as much abhorrence.
Nikolas cocked an eyebrow. “Do we have a deal, Sarantos?”
And Aris finally spoke, in a cold-as-the-grave snarl, “We certainly don’t, Louvardis.”
Damon barked a mirthless laugh. “Why am I not surprised? But phew, thanks. I was almost afraid you’d take the deal, then force us to waste more time on you as you try to weasel out of it.”
“That’s that, then, Sarantos,” Lysandros said. “Now get the hell out. You’ve lost. Take it like a man. Though, considering how low you’ve gone this time…” He looked at Selene then back to Aris with a grimace of disgust. “I doubt you are one.”
Aris took two steps back from her so he had them all in the trajectory of his arctic animosity before his pitiless calm froze her solid. “With all your talk about being on to me, you clearly have no idea who you’re dealing with. If you had a trace of your father’s intellect, you would have accepted any way out I offered you. But you went and tried to play dirty, you pampered, privileged-from-birth little boys. Now let a master show you how it’s done. I’ll make you beg me to take everything you’ve stolen from me and far, far more by the time I’m done with you all.”
Then he turned on his heel.
She hurtled after him. “Aris.”
He put his hand on top of the trembling hand that caught his arm. Then he undid its convulsive grip as if he was unhooking a slimy, poisonous creature from his flesh.
With one last annihilating look that told her he was lumping her in with her brothers, declaring war on her, too, he turned and strode out.
She watched him walk away. And knew.
He was walking out of her life.
The life he’d never truly entered, or wanted to be in, if he could turn on her, walk away that easily.
Nikolas’s consoling hand on her shoulder felt like a red-hot brand. “I’m sorry it had to end this way, but the sooner you realize you’ve been played by someone who’ll stop at literally nothing to get what he wants, the sooner you’ll get over it.”