Chapter Five #3
Ares sat back, wine glass in hand. ‘You won’t let this go.’
She shook her head. ‘Nope.’
‘Fine. I went back to my room after a long and particularly tedious day of shopping and socialising to find her naked in my bed.’
Cassie let out a bark of surprised laughter and put her hand over her mouth. When she took it away again she said, ‘How did you deal with it…without it…?’
‘Ending up all over the papers?’
Cassie nodded, mirth making her mouth twitch again.
She could just imagine Ares going volcanic at such a stunt.
But she could empathise with the princess.
Whoever she was. A dart of something hot and not nice went through her at the thought that it might have worked.
But the look on Ares’s face was so disgusted it told her all she needed to know. He hadn’t accepted her invitation.
‘I booked into another room for the night. And she woke up to a new security team the next day.’
Mischievously Cassie said, ‘So you’re telling me that if I were to—’
‘No.’ The crack of Ares’s voice made Cassie jump a little. He seemed to notice and said a little less curtly, ‘You’re not getting rid of me that easily and if you try a stunt like that, I’ll put you below deck. For your own protection, of course. I’m sure your brother would understand.’
Now he smiled and Cassie scowled. She speared some more food into her mouth to stop herself from goading him any more.
But now it seemed to be his turn when he asked, ‘So what is it exactly that you want to get out of this trip?’
Cassie sat back and pushed her empty plate away and took a sip of wine, wondering if she could possibly divert Ares with the spectacular view of the sky turning lavender and purple behind him as night fell. Stars popping out. But she knew that wouldn’t work. He’d barely noticed the sunset earlier.
Eventually she said reluctantly, ‘To be honest, I didn’t really put a lot of thought into it.
It just…suddenly occurred to me, as my advisor was asking me to look at prospective suitors, that I hadn’t ever really taken time out for myself…
and that, in a couple of weeks, it would no longer be possible.
My every moment is scheduled, practically down to toilet breaks.
My brother got to have his freedom, I wanted to at least… taste it.’
Ares raised a brow. ‘Prospective suitors?’
Cassie nodded wearily. ‘A whole file of them.’
‘Let me guess, they’re all from distinguished royal lines.’
‘Of course.’
‘And are any of them appealing?’
‘Not in the slightest. But…when it comes down to it, I’ll have to choose someone. But I won’t lie, I’m hoping for something or someone better than those files are offering.’
Ares cocked his head to one side. ‘In what way?’
Cassie bit her lip and then said, ‘I don’t want a marriage in name only…for heirs, like my brother was prepared to settle for. I want real companionship. Respect. At the very least.’
She also wanted passion and something much deeper but she could imagine the horror on Ares’s face. Or worse, mockery.
Before he could quiz her on that she asked, ‘What about you? Don’t you want to marry some day? Have a family?’
He smiled but it was grim. ‘No way, not for me.’
‘Why? Unhappy childhood?’
He looked a little startled, as if he wasn’t used to someone being so direct.
He said, ‘Something like that. To our parents, we were seen as pawns to fit into the family business at strategic points, either in the running of it—for instance, grooming my brother to inherit the business—or by marrying my sisters off strategically to consolidate power.’
Cassie asked, ‘Where were you going to fit in?’
Ares waved a hand. ‘Some outpost where they figured I could do no harm with my limited capabilities.’
Cassie snorted, making it clear what she thought about that, and then she observed, ‘We really don’t come from such different backgrounds. You said “sisters”—how many siblings do you have?’
Ares shifted as if uncomfortable. Tough. He knew practically everything about her. He said, ‘Just my older brother and two younger sisters. Both are already married with children.’
‘And your brother?’
Ares shook his head. ‘Not yet but he’s under pressure. He’s already CEO and his children will inherit the legacy and carry the name. I was never really interested in the business.’
‘How could you have been if you were made to feel it wasn’t your destiny?’ Cassie observed. Ares said nothing, just looked at her.
Then she divulged, ‘If I have children they’ll carry my name.’
‘That makes sense.’
Cassie’s mouth twisted. ‘You’d be surprised how many men would have an issue with that.’
‘I don’t see the issue. Once I walked away from my inheritance my name lost its value.’
‘But you started in the army. That’s hardly a fortune-making venture.’
Ares looked at her with a clear warning.
Cassie smiled. ‘No-go zone.’
He looked at her. ‘No-go zone?’
‘Caius and I have “no-go zones”, when one of us strays too close to something we don’t want to discuss.’ She leant forward as the waiter gave Ares the bill. ‘Are you close to your siblings?’
Something very fleeting crossed his face, and disappeared. ‘At one time, maybe, but not now. We haven’t been in touch for years.’
It was an enigmatic answer but Cassie didn’t push it.
She said, ‘That’s sad. I don’t know what I’d do without Caius.
I always wished we had more siblings, to take the pressure off just us.
’ She thought of her twin, and how that might have changed so much.
Or perhaps not much at all. They’d never know.
Ares shook his head. ‘More siblings doesn’t mean less pressure, it’s just more opportunities for manipulation.’
Cassie was fascinated by all that Ares was revealing. ‘Your parents were manipulative, then?’
He let out a bark of laughter. ‘You could say that. But let’s get back to what you want to get out of this…moment of freedom.’
No-go zone.
Cassie sighed, looked up and then back and said, ‘You won’t understand.’ He would laugh at her silly wish list. But then, he didn’t laugh so maybe he wouldn’t.
He said, ‘Try me.’
Cassie sighed and divulged, ‘OK, I’d like to go to the Uffizi in Florence, during the most packed part of the day; I’d like to go horse-riding on a beach at dawn; I’d like to ride a motorbike along Route 66 in America…but I’d settle for an empty stretch of motorway anywhere really…’
Ares’s eyes opened wide. ‘You can ride a motorbike?’
Cassie nodded. ‘Caius taught me.’
Ares muttered something that sounded like, ‘Of course he did.’ And then, ‘Why the Uffizi on a busy day? When you could get the place shut down just for you?’
Cassie grimaced. ‘That’s exactly why. I went on a school tour and there were so many daughters of important people in my class that the place was shut down just for us…
but I always felt ashamed. It was eerie.
I couldn’t enjoy the art. I felt like we were stopping people from enjoying it.
So I’d like to go back, pay to get in and queue with everyone else…
soak up the experience with fellow art lovers. ’
Ares had a slightly arrested expression on his face and then he said, ‘Is that it? Not an especially extravagant list.’
‘I’d like to get a tattoo and go clubbing, proper sweaty-all-night-until-the-sun-comes-up dancing clubbing…’
Now he grimaced, and ignored the bit about clubbing. ‘A tattoo? Isn’t that a bit of a cliché? Don’t tell me, not one of those Mandarin symbols that no one really knows what they mean.’
Cassie vowed there and then to never reveal why she wanted a tattoo. It was way too personal and poignant.
He looked at his watch. ‘Is that it? I’m afraid your brother would have my hide if I let you get a tattoo but we could find a club here and by tomorrow be on our way back to Sadat. I’m sure you’ll fit the rest of your wish list in over the years.’
Cassie pushed down the pang that he was so eager to be rid of her. It had no place here. That rebellious spark moved through her. She gathered her nerve, sat back and said casually, ‘There’s something else. I’m a virgin and I really want to have sex before I become queen and have to get married.’
For a second Ares didn’t react. His wine glass was at his mouth, he’d just drained it and then suddenly he was sitting up and coughing and spluttering as the wine hit his throat and went down the wrong way.
His reaction helped lessen Cassie’s sense of exposure for revealing that. But…he was the one who’d crashed her party and he wasn’t going to stop her.
Ares took a gulp of water and glared at her. ‘Did you just say…?’ He sounded a bit hoarse.
Cassie helpfully provided, ‘That I want to lose my virginity? Yes, I did.’ She had to laugh at the mix of horror and shock on his face. She winked at him. ‘The tattoo probably doesn’t look so bad now, does it?’