Chapter Four #3
Ten minutes later, she had dried herself off with a towel, and dressed in one of the outfits that had been left hanging in the wardrobe—a simple pair of shorts and a comfortable T-shirt. It hardly screamed seduction, but maybe that was a good defense to what they were inevitably hurtling towards.
She fidgeted her fingers and counted to ten before opening the door to the bedroom and scanning it for Theo, only he wasn’t there. She frowned, padding through the plane in the towelling slippers she’d found, back into the main living area. Disappointment was a heavy stone in her gut.
She’d expected him to be in the bedroom. She’d wanted him to be there, waiting for her, and she couldn’t believe that. What kind of fool did that make her? A lamb, willingly led to slaughter, that’s what.
His eyes glanced up from the newspaper he was reading when she entered, and perhaps he saw the vestiges of disappointment on her features, because his smile was one of mocking indolence.
‘Something the matter?’
‘Of course not,’ she snapped, taking the seat across the aisle from him. ‘Where are we going, anyway?’
‘My island.’
‘Your island?’ she repeated. ‘Since when?’
‘I’ve had it a long time, in fact.’
She frowned. ‘You’ve never mentioned it before.’
‘It never came up.’
She looked across the corridor towards him. ‘That’s weird, because it feels like something you probably should have mentioned.’
‘Why, Annie? Do you think knowing I had an island might have convinced your friends and your parents that I was good enough for you, after all?’
She flinched at that anger in his voice, the barely concealed disgust.
‘No, I just think it’s something that’s not super common, and as such, wouldn’t have killed you to tell me.’
‘It never occurred to me to mention it. I bought it as an investment.’
She pulled a face. ‘You bought an island as an investment?’
‘The former owner got into financial difficulties, and needed to sell it quickly and quietly. I had the cash, so I bought it.’
‘In cash.’
‘Annie, you grew up surrounded by wealth, yet you seem totally baffled by the fact I have these things, like an island, and a private jet,’ he said, gesturing to the plane.
Before she could answer, a flight attendant in a smart grey suit strolled down the aisle, a tray balanced skillfully on one hand.
She removed a flute of champagne, only half filled, and a mineral water, giving the latter to Theo and the former to Annie, before placing a tray of cheese and crackers in front of Annie.
‘We’ll be taking off shortly, sir,’ she directed to Theo, then smiled at Annie before retreating.
If she thought it strange that the newlyweds were sitting separated by an aisle, so what?
Annie was tired of playing the part of the loving wife—it had been a long day and night, and she wanted to let the mask drop, just for a little while.
‘You always hated status symbols,’ she said, when they were alone again.
‘This is not a status symbol, it’s a practical necessity. I have operations all over the world. I travel frequently, often on short notice. I choose to do so in comfort and privacy.’
‘And the island?’
‘Is worth triple what I paid for it,’ he said nonchalantly.
She shook her head, something still not adding up for Annie. Then again, how well had she really known Theo? Back then, she would have said she knew him better than she knew even herself, but it turned out, he was nothing like she thought.
‘Do you go there often?’
‘No.’
‘So you have a private island—where exactly?’
‘Off the coast of Italy.’
‘Right, okay. So you have a private Mediterranean island, but you don’t even use it?’
‘What’s your point?’
She couldn’t say, exactly, only it sounded both sad and wasteful. ‘Why don’t you go there?’
‘I don’t have the time.’
She knitted her brows together. ‘Because you work so much?’
‘You sound skeptical.’
‘No, I’m not, I always knew your work was important to you.’ It was true. He’d acted like he had a monkey on his back, and building himself the biggest and best business empire in the world was the only way he’d ever shake it off.
His eyes glowed when they met hers, and she felt the fierce determination that was like iron in his veins.
‘You have an active social life, though,’ she said, as the engines began to roar to life and the plane accelerated along the tarmac.
His smile was laced with knowing cynicism. ‘Social life, or sex life?’
Her stomach seemed to flood with acid. She glanced away, her finger running up and down the slender stem of her champagne flute. ‘I guess sex life, if you have to be crude about it.’
‘And how would you know that, Annie?’
She jerked her gaze back to him, hating that he sounded so triumphant, like he’d caught her out in admitting she was basically his stalker.
‘It’s not hard to know it,’ she snapped.
‘You have a habit of going to high-profile bars and restaurants and you’re incredibly rich, successful and handsome, so guess what?
Your photo gets on all the social media gossip sites and in the tabloids.
I can’t so much as scroll Insta without seeing you and some vampy-looking woman on my feed.
Tell me, Theo, is that what does it for you these days? ’
‘What, exactly?’
‘Skirts that barely cover cheeks, boobs pretty much out on display. Is that your thing now?’
‘How do you know it wasn’t always my thing?’
That stung. Annie had simply worked on the assumption that she had been his ideal woman when they’d dated, but for all she knew, he’d been coveting something else all along. Wishing she was more sophisticated, that she’d dress like all her friends did.
‘I really, really hate you,’ she said, glancing towards the window and staring out, as the plane lifted up and Athens turned into a delicate blanket of lights, far beneath them.
‘Be that as it may, you’re married to me for the next eighteen months, and I find that’s all I really care about.’ She heard the snapping of his seatbelt. ‘I’ll be in the bedroom. If you feel like joining me, you’re more than welcome.’