Chapter Two #3
As if he hadn’t just turned her world on its head.
Zoe pulled herself together and shoved her unwanted response as far away as it was possible to get.
If nothing had happened for him, then nothing had happened for her either.
But at least it was done now. She could get out of this ridiculous dress, give the flowers to a random stranger who might appreciate it, then get back to work.
The last formality was signing the documents and once that was done, Banks said, beaming, ‘So, do you have any idea as to where you’ll be living?’
Zoe opened her mouth to say that naturally they’d be staying in London, but again, Archimedes got in first.
‘I have a villa on an island in the Cyclades. We’ll be living there.’
Yet another shock went through her and she looked sharply at him. ‘What do you mean “we”?’
Archimedes turned his expressionless blue gaze on her. ‘One of the stipulations of this situation is that we live together, Zoe. Or did you miss that part of the agreement?’
‘He’s not wrong,’ Banks said mildly. ‘That is part of the deal.’
‘Why?’ Zoe looked at her foster father. ‘What purpose can there possibly be for us to live together?’
Banks spread his hands. ‘I want you two to mend fences,’ he said. ‘Archie left somewhat precipitously and I don’t think you ever got over it.’
Zoe could feel her face get hot. ‘Well, that’s a lie,’ she said, bitterly conscious that Archimedes had turned his attention to her as well.
‘You didn’t leave your room for a week, dear girl,’ Banks said, blithely revealing her secrets to her hated enemy as if they were nothing. ‘It affected your work, it affected everything. Also, how is this child to be conceived if you’re not living together?’
The word ‘conceive’ made her face get even hotter, but Archimedes only said, ‘We’ll be living in Greece and that is final.’
The flat, certain way he said it incensed her. ‘Are you completely insane?’ she demanded, turning on him. ‘Why the hell do I have to uproot myself and go to Greece? Why can’t you stay in London?’
‘What?’ His brows drew down, making him look even more demonic. ‘You mean stay with you in whatever cramped little flat you’re living in? I think not.’
Zoe stared, momentarily speechless. He stared back, his blue gaze utterly impenetrable.
There was no give in that gaze. No mercy either, and a thought floated through her head.
What had happened to him to make him so hard?
So unyielding? She didn’t remember him being like that.
No, with her, he’d always been kind and patient and protective, yet there was no sign of that boy in the man that stood in front of her now.
‘You can’t just decide for me.’ She tried to sound reasonable instead of squawking like a fishwife. ‘We need to discuss this first.’
‘No,’ he said. ‘I’ve already decided. You can do your work remotely, so it really doesn’t matter where you live, does it?’
‘But I have friends and—’
‘Do you, Zoe?’ he interrupted, his gaze settling on her, hard and sharp and edged. ‘Or are you just being bloody-minded?’
‘How dare you? I’m—’
‘You wanted to leave London behind you, that’s what you used to tell me. You couldn’t wait to leave, to go somewhere else. Well, you can come and live with me in Greece. It’s only for a year and then you can come back here if you’re that miserable.’
Zoe wanted very much to punch his stupid, handsome face.
Because he wasn’t wrong. All she’d wanted when she was a kid was to get away, see the world, spend some time elsewhere that wasn’t dark, grey, dreary London.
And the fact that not only did he remember that she’d said it but was also using it against her rubbed like steel wool against exposed nerves.
‘Isn’t marriage supposed to be a partnership?’ she asked, trying to mask her outrage.
‘This isn’t a real marriage,’ he said. ‘Also, I’m not arguing about this. I have meetings this afternoon and I need to be in Athens by tomorrow. We’ll leave tonight.’
Banks was also frowning. ‘I didn’t think that Greece would be—’
‘Greece is my homeland.’ Archimedes turned his razor--sharp gaze on his foster father instead. ‘You wanted us to live together and so we will. But not in London. End of story.’
Zoe wanted to keep arguing, though it was strange to have Banks on her side for a change, because she didn’t think arguing to stay in London was too much to ask. ‘You can’t make me,’ she said.
Archimedes glanced at her. ‘I can,’ he said with the air of a man who got whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted it. ‘But I suggest that you agree because you won’t want that, I assure you.’
Yes, he was harder. Meaner. He used to care about her feelings. He used to care about her, but it looked as if all those feelings were dead and gone.
So why turn this into an issue?
True. Because it didn’t need to be. The truth was that she did want to get out of London and the thought of living for the next year on an island in Greece wasn’t…
unattractive. She could absolutely work remotely, and perhaps if it hadn’t been Archimedes who’d suggested it, or even if he’d asked her first, she would have happily agreed.
But he’d ordered her to do it, no doubt assuming she’d fall into line without protest, the way she used to whenever he suggested anything.
And it felt dangerous not to at least put up some kind of cursory argument.
The boy he’d once been was one thing, but the man he was now was another thing entirely.
A stranger. A hard, cold, imperious stranger.
Still, arguing about it betrayed strong feelings, and she didn’t have strong feelings about him, not any more.
If he wanted to drag her all the way to Greece, he was welcome to drag her.
But once they got there, if he was expecting her to acquiesce to whatever he wanted, he was going to be disappointed.
‘Fine,’ she said, trying to say it with less ill grace than she actually felt. ‘Greece it is.’