Chapter Thirteen
Bethan weaved along the busy footpath, that prickling sensation down her spine worsening.
She’d met Ashleigh at a cafe only ten minutes from the escape room and indulged in a ninety-minute lunch.
Hearing about Ashleigh’s study, about Elodie’s travels and sharing news about Phoebe, who was now back in Italy, was the perfect distraction from her circuitous thoughts.
And from the devastation of opening a courier package this morning and finding her divorce decree inside.
She was officially, legally single. She and Ares were done.
She’d not told Ashleigh. She’d just arranged to meet her for lunch again in a week. She was going to a theatre show tonight and a gallery exhibition later in a few days. All with work contacts. Work was everything. It was how she would survive.
But before getting to the door she glanced around.
She’d noticed the enormous SUV with tinted windows parked across the street from the cafe but dismissed it.
Now the same vehicle was idling opposite the escape room entrance.
No way would it be him—that idea was a mere weak-moment wish.
But her gut tightened, forcing her to check.
She stomped straight across the road, pacing in time to her thudding heart.
As she neared, the rear passenger window slid down.
Grey-blue eyes raked over her. Stubble shadowed a particularly sharp jaw.
Bethan glared into his drawn—still devastating—features. Seriously? Today of all days?
‘Are you following me?’ she growled through the window.
‘I didn’t want to interrupt you,’ he said tightly. ‘I wanted to wait ’til—’
‘When?’ she queried furiously. ‘Until when, exactly? What do you actually need before you can—?’ She broke off, breathless.
And this was pointless. They were done. The decree proved it. But just as she backed away, he opened the door, grabbed her arm and tugged. She tumbled, sprawling onto the back seat. She heard the door thud and a rapid instruction in Greek. One she understood. Move.
‘What are you doing?’ she demanded, scraping herself up and into the corner as far from him as possible. ‘Ares!’
‘Put your seat belt on,’ he said.
‘What?’ She gaped.
His cheeks were flushed and his breathing was visibly jerky but he grabbed the strap from behind her shoulder and fastened it around her—the action bringing him so close she could smell him. She only need lean an inch forward to brush—
‘You need to be safe,’ he said roughly.
‘Stalking me and kidnapping me off the street is your idea of safe?’
He leaned back and jammed his own seat belt home. ‘I’ll stop the car if you want, but I hope you’ll hear what I have to say first.’
Bethan’s brain fuzzed. What could he possibly want to say?
And she did not want to be in an enclosed space with him.
The driver was Ares’s employee and behind a screen and didn’t count as a normal functioning human in this arena.
She glanced away as her heart skipped too many beats to supply her brain with anywhere near like enough power.
‘Say what, Ares?’ she prompted. ‘Hurry up and spit it out.’
Silence. Three counts. Four. Was he counting? Because she was. She made it to seven before—
‘Bethan,’ he muttered softly.
She closed her eyes against that thread of humour, that rich vein of temptation.
The whisper she’d never been able to resist. And in the end that magnetism was still too much.
Cursing her weakness, she looked at him.
He was fully focused on her. She blinked, noting other details to dilute the impact of those stormy eyes.
His hair was ruffled, his complexion paler than normal, his jaw-line even more sculpted as if he was gritting his teeth.
He didn’t look as if he’d been sleeping well.
Didn’t look as if he’d been working much either, given he wasn’t in a suit but jeans and an old tee.
It was grey—highlighting the slate blue of his eyes—the tee he’d been wearing the day they’d met.
She didn’t want to believe that was deliberate, but there was that swirling, raw emotion in his eyes.
‘I love you,’ he said.
Time froze. So did she. Didn’t want to decide whether what she’d heard was real or not.
‘I love you, Bethan.’ Not a sweet whisper but a husky, broken declaration.
Still she couldn’t breathe. Or believe. But those three words sank like little stones deep inside.
He suddenly leaned towards her until the belt jerked and held him back. ‘I love you.’ He rushed on. ‘I am absolutely, utterly, completely in love with you and I know there’s so much more I need to say but first I just need you to know I love you.’
But it was too late. They were divorced. Their marriage was dead.
‘Ares.’ To her horror she couldn’t get her voice above a pitiful mewl. ‘Don’t... I can’t...’ She couldn’t survive losing him again. ‘We’re done. The divorce...’
‘Came through. I know. And I’m so sorry.’
Devastated, she could only stare at him as tears filled her eyes.
His expression pinched. ‘The thing about being driven at speed is we have to stay in our seats, belted up, right? Can’t touch.
Because my problem is I can’t resist touching you.
My first instinct is to touch you, take you, keep you close.
It’s what I always want to do when you’re near.
But I’ve not been great at opening up about why.
About anything, really. But right now I can’t touch you how I want because this car is moving—’
‘You’re saying you need to be physically restrained around me?’
A memory fragment hit—of her binding his wrists, of him letting her do as she pleased with him. The playfulness they’d shared had masked a deeper resonance. A spark flickered in his eyes as if he too had been struck by the same recollection.
‘Pretty much.’ He breathed deeply again. ‘It’s always easier—more impactful—to show than tell, but I’ve not been showing you everything. Not how truly I love you.’
Those words—three more little stones—sank deep and settled with the others.
‘I’m sorry to have caused you more heartbreak.
You’ve lost enough already.’ His expression softened.
‘I’ve realised I have some baggage. What happened with my parents left me feeling unwanted.
.. It struck deep. I guess that feeling.
..fear...led me to make some bad decisions, but I’m trying to work through it because I want to start over with you. ’
Start over how? Bethan stared. Not interrupting, needing to hear all he had to say because surely this was impossible.
‘You’re a beautiful person, Bethan,’ he muttered.
‘You believe in good things and that’s never something to apologise for.
I think that’s a gift. You believed in me when I didn’t.
And when I didn’t deserve it. You were brave enough to be honest with me but I wasn’t as brave with you.
’ He swallowed. ‘The other day I let you leave thinking all sorts of stupid things. Like that I couldn’t love you.
It was easier than being honest, but it was awfully cruel to you.
’ He bent his head and his voice thinned. ‘I pushed you away with lies.’
Lies. Her heart pounded.
‘My mother did that to me all those years ago when she said I was a burden. I have to hope she genuinely believed me going to Grandfather was in my best interests. But when I pushed you, it wasn’t really because I thought it would be best for you.
It was because I couldn’t believe that the best person I’d ever met could ever truly want me. ’ He paused. ‘At least not for long.’
Bethan shrank deeper into her seat, hurt that he’d not trusted her yet able to understand why. Because he’d been hurt by a level of rejection she’d never imagined before, let alone had to endure.
‘When we first married, you found out I wanted you to live at the villa. You thought I didn’t want to have you in Athens during the week but you understand now that my life there was only work, no? There was never—would never be—anyone else.’
Every muscle was so stiff her nod was a jerk.
He breathed out, leaned closer. ‘It wasn’t that I wanted to hide you away.
I thought if I wasn’t there all the time, it would take longer for you to realise I’m not.
.. That it would take longer for you not to want me any more.
’ A strained half-smile briefly broke through his tension.
‘I haven’t felt wanted for me—just me—for a really long time. ’
If ever, right? Bethan’s heart just broke. He’d been so wary he’d never let anyone that close.
‘I need to be more honest,’ he said. ‘The truth is I loved the idea of you being in the villa. I was super possessive and wanted to know you were there waiting for me. Only for me. Always for me. That you were safe and no one could take you away. That you were mine. If I’m really honest, that’s still what I dream of.
But now I want to live there with you. Not leaving after only a couple of nights.
Knowing for sure that you would never send me away.
That you would always want me to stay. That’s what I really want.
That’s my dream.’ He was actually sweating now. ‘Is that awfully selfish of me?’
‘Oh, Ares.’ What he wanted was everything she wanted too.
‘I’m terrified, Bethan. I screwed up and I don’t really know how to fix this other than to tell you that I was a fool and I’m sorry and you deserve so much better but if you’ll give me one last chance, I’ll show you. I’ll tell you. I’ll—’
‘You know I wanted you when I thought you were an ordinary guy working on a tiny ferry,’ she interrupted fiercely. ‘I never wanted your billions or your beastly family connections.’
‘I know.’ That smallest smile quirked his lips. ‘You wanted my body.’