Chapter Eight #2
‘Today would be better. I’ll talk Ariana through everything,’ she said quickly. ‘When I get back to London, I’ll add in any amendments she wants to make, and then if you’re both happy I’ll send that draft to Mr Arteta’s legal team.’
The silence between them stretched and widened and swelled to the edges of the bedroom. His face didn’t change but the air felt suddenly charged. ‘You’re going back to London today?’ A question, not a statement. As though it was negotiable.
‘I’ll pick up a late flight. Those flights always have seats.’
His eyes locked onto her face like they had in the Zen Den. ‘Why the rush?’
It was like being hypnotised. Suddenly it felt there was nothing else in or outside the room that mattered aside from Ares.
With an effort she dragged her eyes away from his.
‘There’s no rush. But I put aside two to three days for working through the prenup with you, and this is my third day.
Larry will be wondering if I’ve gone native. ’
She cleared her throat. ‘I’m looking forward to meeting Ariana. Like I said, it’s always good to meet a client in person… Or maybe it isn’t,’ she said when Ares didn’t reply.
‘Yes, it is. It’s good.’ He nodded, but she knew that he was replying as much to the rising inflection in her voice as the question itself.
‘I am large, I contain multitudes.’
There was a beat of silence, and his eyes found hers. ‘Why are you quoting Walt Whitman to me?’
‘Because for me good is generally something positive or favourable or satisfying, but when you said good a moment ago, it felt like there were a whole other bunch of meanings that I was missing.’
He smiled then, and some of the tension left his body, and it was stupid, but she couldn’t stop herself from feeling disproportionately pleased that she could do that.
‘I’m not going to talk to Ariana about us. Is that why you don’t want the two of us to meet? A yes or no will suffice.’
‘Yes. No. Yes.’ His pupils snapped out to swallow his irises. ‘I don’t think I can have a conversation with you about my sister when you’re naked.’
‘Do you want to talk about something else? Or we could talk later.’
There was a different kind of tension to him now. She could almost see his skin tightening. And he was hard again.
Her pulse flickered as he walked back towards her, dipping as he knelt on the mattress and pulled her slowly towards him, and even though she was there on the bed, she felt like she had lost her bearings.
‘Let’s talk later.’ He spoke softly, his voice caressing her skin so that something hot and liquid pooled between her legs.
‘Yeah, let’s.’ The words had hardly stumbled from her mouth before he was leaning forward, licking her breasts, his warm breath flooding her with heat and hunger and a hazy, indescribable wonder that anything could feel this good.
And by good she meant positive and favourable and satisfying in every sense of the word.
* * *
They arrived back in Athens at a little after three o’clock.
As the SUVs made their way through the Athens’s traffic, Willa found it hard to pull her eyes away from the view through her window.
Three days ago, she had been too distracted by Ares’s unexpected appearance to fully take in the city, but now she marvelled at the mash-up of classical and contemporary architecture.
The Parthenon might dominate the skyline, but it was part of a living, breathing, modern macrocosm of tightly packed apartment blocks and streets lined with shops and cafés.
The city was proud of its past, proud period. But also pulsing with energy. No wonder Ares called it his city.
‘Do you like it?’ Ares was watching her intently as though her reply mattered. As though he cared about what she thought.
‘I think it’s amazing,’ she said truthfully. ‘I’ve never been anywhere like this. London’s old to me, but this is—’
‘Ancient,’ he suggested, his mouth curving into one of those small smiles that turned her into something unthinking. All she wanted to do was stare at him and try to imprint a memory of his beautiful, architectural face into her brain.
Because it would never be like this again.
Not with him. Not with anyone else either.
If it was hard to think about leaving him, it was impossible to imagine replacing him.
There would never be another man like Ares.
They might only have spent a few days under the same roof, but they had passed through fire together.
Exposed their flaws, revealed their secrets.
Not all their secrets. Ares thought she had shared everything, exposed her underbelly like he had. But her biggest secret was like an open wound that hurt to touch. And he was the last person on earth who would want to see it.
The Konstantinous had no title or family crest, but they had an unbroken, traceable lineage, and Ares was understandably proud and protective of that.
But for him, it was about more than being a Konstantinou.
He was an Athenian and Greek to the core.
A member of a civilisation that stretched back thousands of years.
Whereas half of her was unknown. Undocumented. Nameless. The unplanned consequence of an affair. A love child whose birth father hadn’t loved her enough to even see her be born.
How could Ares understand that? A man raised in a city where the past and the present and the future all happily coexisted.
Where the different strata of history were visible and validated.
He couldn’t know what it felt like to be a blank slate.
To feel that you mattered less than other people.
Because the inequality between them was not just economic.
It was to do with being wanted and loved.
She smiled. ‘I wish I’d seen more of it.’
‘So stay. Another day or two won’t hurt.’ He spoke casually, but there was an intensity in his gaze that made her feel muddled and off balance.
‘But we’re here in Athens. I’m already packed.’
He shrugged. ‘So unpack. We can stay in the townhouse, or if you want to see the summer house, we can head out to Ekali. It’s only a twenty-minute drive from the centre. Then tomorrow I could show you my city, and when you’re ready to go back to London I’ll give you a lift.’
Willa felt her head swim. It was tempting on so many levels.
‘I think Larry is expecting me back.’
‘I’ll talk to Larry,’ he said easily. He was making all of this too easy. She needed obstacles. Boundaries. She almost laughed out loud. They would need to be higher than the Parthenon and wider than the Aegean.
‘It’s just a few days, Willa. Last bit of pushing, I promise. Think of it as a reward for all your hard work.’
It would only be a few more days.
And a few more nights.
‘Another time, maybe,’ she said quickly.
He held her gaze momentarily, then inclined his head. ‘As you wish.’
The SUV was slowing. She glanced out of the window. They had left the clogged city centre, and the car was moving smoothly down a broad street dotted at regular intervals with sycamore trees.
‘Are we not going to the office?’
Ares shook his head. ‘I did think about meeting there, but Ariana is very sensitive to her environment. She is a shareholder in the business, but it is very much my company, and I didn’t want that fact to overshadow the discussion…
What?’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘I know I was reluctant before to get my sister involved, but I can see now that she needs to be.’
‘Hence the use of discussion.’
‘Correct.’ She felt light-headed as his mouth curved into a small, warm smile that reached his eyes. ‘Which is why I suggested we pick somewhere she feels in control. Ergo, her apartment.’
Somehow, she doubted that Ariana’s apartment was going to have the same effect on her, Willa thought as she stepped out of the lift into a beautiful, high-ceiling entrance hall.
‘Ares—’
A beautiful young woman burst into the hallway. As she launched herself at her brother, Willa only caught a glimpse of her long tanned limbs, bare feet and painted toenails, but Ariana was instantly recognisable from the screenshot on her brother’s phone.
Her long glossy dark hair swung in a shimmering arc as he spun her in a circle. ‘It’s so good to see you.’
Gently lowering her to the floor, Ares kissed her on both cheeks. ‘It’s good to see you too. Although, I wasn’t expecting to see you quite so soon.’
Ariana’s lips pulled into a pout. ‘There are only so many hot-stone massages you can have. And Helena is lovely, but you know that house she bought in Paris? She’s having it completely renovated, and it’s all she talks about. Honestly, I could practically smell the paint.’
‘We can talk about Helena’s renovations later.’ Taking his sister’s shoulders, Ares turned her towards Willa.
‘Ariana, this is Willa Hamilton. She’s been working on your prenup. Willa, this is my sister, Ariana.’
Willa felt her eyes pull automatically to Ariana’s ring finger, but it was bare. Following her gaze, Ariana reached under the collar of her dress and fished out a pretty diamond ring on a chain.
She felt Ares tense beside her as his sister turned the ring to show off the stones. ‘I’m not wearing it on my hand until we’ve told Pappou.’
‘It’s lovely, and it’s lovely to meet you, finally.’ Willa smiled. ‘Ares has told me so much about you.’
Ariana screwed up her flawless face. ‘I’m guessing it was all bad.’
Ares was right. Ariana didn’t come across as the same age as her. It wasn’t just her bare feet or her candour. There was something fluid and unfixed about her, in contrast to the solidity of her brother.
Willa nodded slowly. ‘It was. Sorry.’
Ariana frowned, and then she burst out laughing. ‘A lawyer with a sense of humour. I can’t tell you what a relief that is. I’ve been so nervous about this prenup—’