‘We used to come up here for the sunsets,’ he said nostalgically.
‘We?’ Alice prompted, quite naturally.
‘Helen. My wife.’
Alice didn’t need to ask if she was still with Kosta—his grief was evident in the lines of his face. Within the space of seconds he’d gone from an athletic, confident older man to someone who appeared completely broken by sadness.
But he made an effort to cover it, pasting a heavy smile on his face. ‘She loved it here.’
‘In the cave?’
‘Yes, and on the island.’ He waved his hand around the wide space. ‘We had many homes, but this was our favourite.’
‘I can see why,’ Alice said, sincerely.
‘She grew up in the slums of Barcelona. She’d never seen anywhere so open and untamed.’
He blinked, as if clearing the memory. ‘There are rock pools down there.’ He nodded towards the other side of the cave, where a clearing gave way to another set of steps. ‘You might enjoy a swim.’
‘Definitely,’ Alice agreed, lifting her face to Thanos’s and startling silently. Because the man beside her was Thanos Stathakis—her pretend husband—but he was now, also, the formidable businessman tycoon, and she felt his determination emanating from him in tidal waves.
And in that moment, his worries were hers, his desires hers, and she wanted to do everything she could to help him get whatever he wanted in life. She wanted him to have P & A.
And impressing Kosta with how completely she’d changed Thanos was part of that, so she sucked in a breath and swore to herself she would play this part to absolute perfection—and that they wouldn’t leave until Thanos had peace of mind about his company’s future.
When they returned to the mansion, Alice faked a yawn. Thanos’s eyes shifted to her face.
‘Excuse me.’ She smiled apologetically. ‘I’m a little worn out. Do you mind if I have a rest?’
‘Of course.’ Kosta nodded, calling for a servant to show Alice to the room that would be hers and Thanos’s. She slipped away from them, glad that Kosta and Thanos would have a chance to be alone together, knowing that all Thanos needed was a little time to bring the older man around to selling the property.
* * *
Alice woke to a feather-light touch on the tip of her nose. She lifted her hand to bat away what she thought must be a bug or a stray hair, and connected instead with Thanos’s finger. Alice’s eyes blinked open, a ready smile on her face. She was disoriented though, looking towards the window to see that the sun was lower in the sky, the day’s brightness fading into evening.
‘I fell asleep.’
Thanos grinned. ‘Apparently.’
She lifted her hand to his chest, not questioning the easy intimacy that had developed between them. ‘How did your afternoon go? Did you talk to him?’
Thanos made a noise of agreement.
‘And?’ She sat up in the bed so her eyes were level with his. ‘Did he agree to sell it to you?’
Thanos’s laugh was throaty. ‘You are as impatient as I am.’
Impatient? Alice wasn’t. In fact, there was a part of her that hoped Kosta would stretch this out, making Thanos take months and months to convince him, months and months of pretending to be married, just like this.
‘He’s close,’ Thanos agreed, shifting his head forward a little, his eyes locked to hers as he brushed her lips. It was such a small gesture, and it reminded Alice of the night in front of the club, the night she’d agreed to marry him, but it was different too, because now he was familiar and she knew that the kiss could and would lead to so much more.
‘We have an hour before dinner,’ he said, his lips hovering just above hers.
‘An hour?’ Her eyes were heavy; she dropped them, breathing in as she pushed her body forward. A teasing smile flickered over her lips. ‘That sounds like just enough time for a swim in those rock pools.’
‘Exactly what I had in mind,’ Thanos joked, as he found the bottom of her shirt and lifted it over her head.
His fingers moved with urgency, trailing over her body, finding her breasts, teasing her nipples, plucking them between his thumb and forefinger, his kiss deepening as he pushed her back against the bed, so every fibre of her being was vibrating with this total, desperate, all-consuming rushing of desire.
‘I’m going to miss this,’ he groaned, the throwaway comment said without thought, without meaning, but it drove a stake into Alice, splintering her pleasure for a moment, making it almost impossible for her to set aside the pain and feel only pleasure.
But then his mouth claimed one of her nipples and he shifted a hand to between her legs, his fingertips tormenting the sensitive cluster of nerves there, so she was totally lost to thought and feeling and was simply existing for this, for him, and for whatever it was their marriage had become.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THANOS MEANT WHAT he’d said. He was going to miss this. He was going to miss Alice. The realisation landed against his side with a thud and he did everything he could to vanquish the thought. Casual sex was nothing new to him.
He was the playboy prince of Europe, wasn’t he?
He dragged his mouth lower down her body as his hands removed her underpants, his tongue tormenting her flat stomach before finding the hair at the apex of her thighs, delighting in her responsiveness, her little sounds of pleasure that broke through the room.
He would never tire of this. Her body was like an instrument and he wanted to be its maestro. Anger soared in him whenever he thought of the man she’d once loved, who’d made her care for him, made her trust him, and had taken her virginity then discarded Alice as though she meant nothing.
Hypocrite, a little voice inside him whispered, as he brought his hands to her thighs, spreading her legs wider, allowing him greater access. Her hands threaded through his hair, her movements urgent, her heavy, impassioned voice begging him not to stop.
He didn’t intend to.
But he wasn’t a hypocrite. He was nothing like Clinton, who’d hurt her. Clinton who’d promised her the world and turned his back on her.
Thanos hadn’t promised Alice anything. He’d been very careful about that. He’d purposely made sure he was painstakingly honest with her every step of the way. They’d slept together out of mutual need—both had wanted this, and both had agreed to it, knowing their marriage would end one day and this would all be over.
Over.
He didn’t much want to think about that.
He kicked out of his clothes, then brought his mouth back to her womanhood, savouring the sounds she made as she moved closer and closer to climax, her body writhing on the bed, her hands digging through his hair faster, her desperation and insanity palpable. Right as she tipped over the edge, her orgasm claiming her, he brought his body higher up hers and thrust inside her, feeling her wet muscles contract almost painfully around his arousal, feeling all of her wrap around him until he was completely in her hands, utterly under her control.
But he wasn’t ready to end this—he wanted more of Alice, more of this. They had time, and, for as long as they did, he was going to make the absolute most of every single second.
* * *
‘You remind me a little of us,’ Kosta said, a glass of Scotch in his hand, his long legs sprawled in front of him.
Two days ago, they’d arrived at Kosta’s house, and he’d been an acquaintance to her then. But after a weekend in his company, exploring his home, wandering the beaches he’d enjoyed for most of his life, she felt a growing affinity to the man. She liked him.
‘Of Helen and me,’ he explained. ‘We were like you and Thanos, you know.’
‘Were you?’ Alice prompted, sipping her own ice-cold glass of wine in an attempt to wash a hint of guilt from her mouth. She didn’t much like lying to Kosta, now that she knew him. The only saving grace wa
s that the end justified the means. Kosta wanted to sell P & A and she had no question that Thanos was absolutely the best person to take it over.
‘We met and married within one month. The second I saw her, I knew I could not live without her.’
It was just how her mother had described meeting Alice’s father in all those letters. And it hadn’t worked out for Jane, because Henry Jennings had been a lying bastard. But love existed, love at first sight was real, and Kosta was living proof of that.
‘When did she...?’
Kosta grimaced. ‘Five years ago.’ He shook his head, turning to look towards the ocean. The moon shone a silvery line down its centre, broken occasionally by the rolling waves. ‘It was quick. Death, that is, not grief, not mourning. That I will do for the rest of my life.’
Alice’s features were loaded with sympathy. ‘I’m sorry. You don’t have children?’
Kosta’s smile was nostalgic. ‘We had a son. He died when he was four. My wife could not fall pregnant again.’
Tears filled Alice’s eyes. She blinked to dispel them. ‘What a tragedy.’
‘Yes.’ His own eyes showed emotion. He lifted his Scotch to his lips, sipping it slowly, his fingers trembling a little as he replaced it on the tabletop.
‘My business is a family legacy. I have no one to leave it to. No one who will carry it on in my name.’
Alice lifted her gaze to Thanos unconsciously. His expression was unreadable. ‘I want to sell it, but not because I need the money.’ He waved a hand around them, showing the terrace, and the beautiful home beyond it. ‘I need to sell it so I can see it go to someone who will treat it as I do. Who will value it as a family business, who will build it and pass it to their children and their children, as my grandparents intended.’
She swallowed past the lump in her throat. ‘You know Thanos is the right man, don’t you?’
He turned to face her, studying her intently. ‘You love him?’
The question floored Alice. She knew what she needed to say, because she was playing the part of the doting, loving wife, but the question still had the power to detonate a bomb right beneath her ribcage. ‘I...of course.’ She jerked her head to cover the stutter.
‘I can see that you do,’ Kosta said quietly. ‘And I hope he will make you happy. For many years I have wondered if he was capable of making anyone happy, himself included.’
Something like alarm was drumming against Alice’s chest. ‘Why do you say that?’
‘I knew Nicholas—his grandfather—quite well. And through him, I met Thanos, when he first came to live with Dion.’ He shook his head sadly.
Curiosity spurted inside Alice. ‘Did you?’
‘Oh, yes. He was a troubled child, driven by emotion, and I think quite insecure.’
Alice frowned, this description pulling on all her heart strings, even as she felt a desire to contradict it. Thanos wasn’t insecure. Was he?
‘You cannot blame him for that,’ Kosta continued. ‘His mother broke his heart, and his father was not worthy of that word.’ He spat that indictment with obvious disgust. ‘After the trial, Thanos began to spiral out of control,’ Kosta continued, shaking his head.
Alice’s heart squeezed tight. ‘In what way?’
‘Partying, drinking, anger. Leonidas held him together, just, but Thanos was on a dangerous downward trajectory.’
Alice wanted to do something, to say something. She clutched her own glass tighter, wondering why she couldn’t simply reach back through time and make everything okay for the scared little boy Thanos had once been.
‘I bought Petó because I truly believed Thanos would destroy it if he remained at the helm.’
This was news to Alice. She jerked her face to Kosta’s to find him watching her shrewdly. ‘I knew what it meant to him, what it had meant to my friend. I wanted to safeguard it from Thanos’s ability to obliterate it.’
Alice let out a little noise, a murmur, of sympathy.
‘You think that was wrong of me?’
Alice frowned so a divot formed between her brows. ‘I can’t say.’
‘I like him,’ Kosta surprised her by offering. ‘I always have. When he came to live with Dion, I remember feeling disbelief and rage—rage that a man like Dion Stathakis could be awarded two such fine sons when...’ He grimaced. ‘He had two fine sons, and he appreciated neither. He wanted neither.’
Alice frowned, pity shifting inside her. ‘He sounds like a fool.’
Kosta laughed, a crackly sound. ‘Yes, and then some.’
‘Thanos isn’t like you think,’ she said, after a moment. ‘He won’t do anything to hurt Petó, or P & A. In fact, I think he’s the best person to run both.’
Kosta’s eyes were on hers, a dark grey gaze loaded with intelligence. ‘I don’t worry he’ll hurt the company. I worry he’ll hurt himself. His lifestyle...’ Kosta shook his head slowly from side to side. ‘I understand how tempting it is to run from yourself. When our son died...’ his fingers dug into the arms of the seat, as though it would somehow alleviate the pain ‘... I drank solidly for at least a year. Numbing myself—or trying to.’ He fixed her with an intense gaze. ‘But Helen saved me. Just like you have saved Thanos.’
* * *
Alice stared out at the water that surrounded Statherá Prásino, a serious expression on her pretty features. One of Thanos’s yachts bobbed in the distance, immaculate and enormous, and—she knew from experience—staffed with a small army, all ready to take the boat out on Thanos’s whim.
In the two days since they’d returned from Kosta’s home, a sense of uneasiness had followed Alice everywhere. She couldn’t understand it, but she was waking up in the middle of the night with a curdling feeling of dread, the likes of which she hadn’t known since Thanos had taken away her every single stress. She was no longer worried about bankruptcy or how she was to pay the rent, her credit cards were clear as a whistle, and her mother was in one of the top facilities in the world.
So why did she have a sudden and intense sense of foreboding?
She looked over her shoulder, scanning the lounge area. It was empty. Thanos was working.
The day was warm, though, the water inviting, and suddenly Alice craved the freedom of lying on her back in the sea, staring at the sky, imagining herself to be truly weightless.
She didn’t bother to grab a towel or to change into her bathers. It was a private beach, a private island and she knew she’d dry off again by the time she reached the house. Something was driving her, pushing her to the ocean. At its edge, she stripped out of her dress, standing in only the designer briefs and bra that had been part of the wardrobe she’d bought to prepare for being Thanos’s wife. Of course, she’d had no idea when she’d bought them that he’d ever see them. She hadn’t even imagined that it might become physical between them.
She waded into the water, closing her eyes as she felt its salty balm against her sides, going deep enough to flip onto her back, just as she’d wanted, and stare up at the sky.
It was the perfect shade of blue, like something out of a fantasy. She lay on her back, breathing in and out, staying afloat as long as she could before she twisted onto her stomach and began paddling to shore. Her eyes scanned the house on autopilot, the enormous mansion so beautiful and breathtaking, and perfectly situated.
Alice hadn’t been able to imagine what her life would be like, married to Thanos. If she’d tried to imagine it, she wouldn’t have foreseen anything like the reality had been. And she struggled now to imagine her life in a post-Thanos world.
She’d have money, financial security, certainty for her mother’s healthcare for the rest of her life. But no Thanos.
A gulf opened in her chest, as wide and expansive as the ocean she was swimming in. She tried to imagine waking up without him in bed, going to sleep on her own, not sharing a meal with him, not talking t
o him, not laughing with him, and the panic was back, gripping her tighter.
Because she was about to be completely and utterly alone.
But more alone than before, because for a brief while she’d known companionship and compatibility and it was all about to be stripped away from her.
Alice straightened her spine as she emerged from the water. She’d fallen in love with Clinton a long time ago, and he’d hurt her. He’d broken her heart, yet she’d recovered. She’d moved beyond it.
Whatever she was feeling now, she’d be able to beat that, too, when the time came. And until then, she was going to just enjoy being with Thanos, not dwell on a future that loomed, uncertain and all kinds of wrong.
* * *
Her fingers were toying with the necklace, sliding the diamond from side to side, a little line between her brows, the frown line he’d seen a lot these last few days. Something had shifted between them, at Kosta’s place. He couldn’t say what, only he felt an air of seriousness, of urgency, when they touched and kissed. He felt a sense of desperation, and he didn’t know if it was coming from Alice or from him.
He had precisely zero experience with women to know what he could say to make her smile again. At least, not beyond one night. One night, he was fine with. But this kind of thing—something longer, something more meaningful—just didn’t suit him.
And it was meaningful with Alice. He’d expected he could marry her, and even sleep with her, and somehow still abide by his usual behaviour with women, but nothing about Alice was like what he’d experienced before.
But that didn’t change the fact that this thing was running its course. Not just because they’d agreed it would, but because Thanos had no hope of knowing how to maintain a relationship.
Bride Behind The Billion-Dollar Veil (Crazy Rich Greek Weddings Book 2) Page 13