Chapter Eight #2
His bald assertion that he still wanted the land—and he saw keeping her away from her father as a good way of forcing him to make the deal—gave her pause.
On one level she ought to be insulted he was admitting using her bid for freedom for his own ends…
But on another, it felt honest. And oddly validating.
And not personal—which helped to shrink the lump that had formed in her throat when he’d spoken about protecting her from an arranged marriage—and about being powerless, too…
It was hard to imagine Theo Caras as a man who had ever been vulnerable, but, for some odd reason, she suspected he was telling the truth for once, judging by the flags of colour that had appeared on his cheeks as soon as he’d admitted the weakness.
‘Now, pick a destination,’ he demanded, going full dominating bastard again. ‘Somewhere warm works for me. And preferably somewhere not full of Christmas cheer, because I’m not big on the festive season…’
He didn’t celebrate Christmas. The thought struck an odd chord in her chest and seemed strangely revealing. And also, a little sad—even if it was in keeping with the image he had created of the ruthless bad-boy billionaire without a sentimental bone in his body.
Christmas was a season she had always adored, because it meant a break from her royal duties and it was when her brothers were home from school.
She would miss Jacques and Remy terribly this year, aware they would be waking up tomorrow to find the gifts and the letters she’d left for them, explaining what was going on.
Her mother had also loved Christmas. It was one of the few things she could still remember with any degree of warmth about the woman who had abandoned them.
The thought brought with it a memory she had buried deep.
The last Christmas they had shared together as a family, just her and her mother and two brothers, in Finnish Lapland.
It had been an official engagement, four days before Christmas, when they had attended a Christmas market, seen the Northern Lights and been invited to a reindeer farm and on a bobsleigh ride.
But they had ended up being snowed in and unable to return home.
And so the four of them had stayed in a luxury lodge deep in the Arctic Circle, with the bodyguard her mother had eventually run away with a few months later.
Was that when their affair had begun? She shook the thought off, she didn’t want to think about her mother or the lover who had stolen her from them, but Lapland, she remembered fondly.
It was the perfect location—remote enough and not where anyone would think of looking for them.
Theo hated the cold and the Christmas season, so the fact he would hate the suggestion just made it even more perfect.
‘How about Lapland?’ she said. ‘I had the best Christmas of my life there,’ she added, having to suppress a smile when his brows shot up his forehead.
Lapland was also the last place she’d felt totally safe and loved, unconditionally. So there was that. Surely being there again might help to bolster her confidence, too?
‘Lapland? Are you nuts?’
He sounded so upset she couldn’t hold back her smile. ‘It’s remote, my father has never even been there and absolutely no one would be looking for us there.’
‘It’s also below freezing and probably covered in snow,’ he barked back. ‘And don’t they pretend that’s where Santa is from? No, thanks.’
She sent him a challenging look. ‘It fits the criteria. I’m sure Santa won’t mind us dropping by for a visit… Even if you did just put yourself on the naughty list.’
He scoffed. ‘When I was a kid, being on the naughty list kept me alive… So, I was never dumb enough to think Santa was real.’
The caustic tone made the knot of compassion throb in her throat. She swallowed it down.
That Theo Caras had never had the luxury as a child of believing in Santa Claus didn’t matter now. Because he was a man.
‘What’s the problem, then?’ she goaded him. ‘Are you scared of a little snow, Caras?’
‘Of course not. But I’m Greek!’ he said.
‘Suck it up.’ She threw his own words back at him, the swell of triumph making her giddy.
She was going to have to rely on him for the next few weeks, because he’d kidnapped her.
And he wasn’t letting her go where she wanted to go, where she had planned to go.
But she was not going to make it easy for him.
And Lapland would be perfect, in so many ways.
Maybe if she went back there, relived the memories she’d locked away for so long, she might begin to understand why her mother had chosen to desert her.
And get rid of the harsh, aching feeling in her chest every time she thought of the woman whom she had once loved so much. But who hadn’t loved her.
He let out a string of words in Greek that were definitely profane.
She braced herself, ready to argue her case. He’d had his own way more than enough. It was high time she asserted herself.
But to her surprise, he turned to his pilot without an argument.
‘Take us to Lapland, somewhere remote. Get Maria to arrange the accommodation for the next couple of weeks. Tell her money is no object but it must be warm inside. And see if she can source a house with a sauna and a hot tub—so I won’t freeze to death.’
As the pilot disappeared, Freya couldn’t contain her laugh any longer. Which had to be her first laugh in weeks, probably even months.
‘A sauna and a hot tub?’ She chuckled. ‘Poor Theo.’
‘That’s just two of the three ways I plan to stave off frostbite.’
‘Oh yeah, what’s the other?’ she asked, falling neatly into his trap when his gaze darkened. And the hot stone in her abdomen pulsed.
‘That’s for me to know, and you to find out, Freya…’ he murmured with a wicked glint in his eyes, which made the hot stone sink between her thighs.
Suddenly, she wasn’t laughing any more.
She turned to the view out of the window, the darkness outside making her face visible in the glass…
And had the thought that she might just have leapt out of the frying pan and straight into an inferno.
Because Theo Caras didn’t play by any rules.
For some reason that didn’t just unsettle her, it also excited her—which could not be good.
A hostess arrived to inform Theo the flight to Helsinki would take three and a half hours and then they would transfer to a helicopter. She then asked them both if they would like to eat.
Freya’s stomach flipped over. The last thing she needed was food.
Unclipping her belt, she stood. ‘I’m not hungry, thank you,’ she told the hostess.
It wasn’t a lie. Their escape from Galicos had been exhausting, not just physically but also mentally and emotionally.
And the adrenaline was crashing now, leaving her stomach in freefall.
She was safe for the time being. But the next couple of weeks was fraught with all kinds of new challenges.
The biggest one of which towered over her as he unclipped his seat belt too and dismissed the hostess.
‘Would it…? Would it be okay if I returned to the bedroom?’ she asked, wondering why she was being so polite.
Theo looked surprised at her change of tone but masked it quickly.
He shrugged. ‘Sure,’ he said, searching her face with an intensity that made her certain he could see her anxiety and was figuring out a way to exploit it.
But as she nodded back, stupidly grateful for the chance to collapse in private, it occurred to her one of the most challenging things about this man was that he could hide his emotions so easily. She had no idea what he was thinking behind the confident charm…
He stepped towards her and snagged her wrist before she could make a clean getaway.
‘Hold up, Freya,’ he said, this thumb stroking the pulse point in her wrist.
She tugged her hand free, the connection as electric—and unsettling—as always.
‘There’s no need to be scared of me,’ he said. ‘I may be a former Athens street rat, but I’m not a brute… And I’ve never taken a woman without her consent.’
She stared at him, surprised by the assertion. She would never have considered him capable of such a thing, despite his kidnapping habit. The shadows that flickered in his eyes, the shadows that he had allowed her to see, and the slight edge to his tone surprised her more though.
She knew he and his brother had been born into poverty, her father had mentioned it often enough when berating Xander over the broken engagement, but Theo had always worn his tough background like a badge of honour. He had never seemed insecure—or apologetic—about his past.
But then she recalled what he had let slip earlier, about being powerless.
The strange feeling of connection felt premature, and even more dangerous than the hot knot lodged between her thighs after that wrist stroke.
But even so, she went with the urge to reassure him…
She was not a snob like her father—who judged people on their birthright, and not their behaviour.
‘I’m not scared of you,’ she said, even though she knew it wasn’t entirely true. She feared him, but it was nothing to do with her personal safety and everything to do with the havoc he seemed to wreak on her self-control.
‘You sure about that?’ he asked, but then he ran a knuckle down her cheek.
His touch was light, casual, but also possessive—and shockingly intimate.
Instead of pulling away again, though, she leaned into his touch, drawn to him despite everything.
But when she registered what she was doing, she jerked her head away.
A sensual smile spread across his handsome features and made her breath clog in her lungs.
‘We’ve got serious chemistry, Freya, and indulging it will make the next couple of weeks a lot more entertaining. It will also help keep us warm in fricking Lapland,’ he added ruefully.
The provocative statement reverberated in her sex, ripples of sensation fanning out to tighten her nipples and make her heart pulse painfully.
Entertaining wasn’t the word she would use.
More like catastrophic. Because she had no idea how to manage a liaison with a man like him.
She’d never made love before. He would be her first. While she understood sex didn’t have to involve emotional intimacy—and she doubted Theo would ever conflate the two—how did she know she would be able to do the same, when she had so little experience?
Letting him know how vulnerable she was, and how inexperienced, would be a mistake though—because it would give him more power, and he already had enough. So she swallowed heavily and sent him her best ‘whatever’ look, attempting to play it cool…
‘Duly noted,’ she said, as calmly as she could, then headed to the bedroom he’d trapped her in earlier, determined not to look back.
But she could feel his searing gaze on her backside—and entirely of their own accord her hips added an additional sway to keep his attention there.
He cleared his throat. The strained sound had adrenaline pumping into her body.
Provoking Theo Caras was a dangerous game.
It probably wasn’t a game she had any chance of winning, but she’d never even had the chance to play before…
With her freedom finally within her grasp, perhaps it was time to start taking risks, to experience the thrill of all the things that had been denied her.
And no one posed a bigger risk than Theo Caras.