Chapter Ten
When Axel returned to the villa later that night, all was quiet. He went into the living area and saw a throw on the couch, a pair of Hope-sized trainers on the ground.
He also noticed brochures from different places around the city—the Acropolis and the museum.
The archaeological museum. The National Gallery.
He picked that one up. It had always been his favourite museum.
He’d go there and linger for hours over the art, delaying the inevitable return to the family villa and the airless atmosphere—Ares in his room with door firmly shut.
He went upstairs, where he knew Amelia would have put Hope in the main guest room. The door was slightly ajar and Axel pushed it open. Hope was a slight figure on the bed under the sheet. She was asleep, lashes long on her cheeks.
Heat sizzled along Axel’s veins just at the sight of her.
He wanted her. He wanted to scoop her up into his arms and transport her to his bed.
But he couldn’t have her. She wasn’t his to take.
To turn into someone like his mother. Brittle and cold.
Not that Hope could ever be like that. But he wouldn’t do that to her.
She wasn’t from this world and that was a good thing.
After tomorrow evening, when Baros would agree to do business with Axel—he refused to contemplate failure—and thereby guarantee Drakos Solutions success into the future on a global scale, Axel would let Hope go, to get on with her life, and he would get on with choosing someone who was from this world.
Someone who could understand and accept the life he’d been born into—one with rules and privilege but also heavy responsibility. Someone who wouldn’t have their light dimmed or spirit crushed by the weight of it all.
Someone who didn’t appeal to the deepest part of Axel, where he found himself resenting the constraints put upon him. And resenting the distance enforced on him and his siblings. Someone who didn’t make him ache and burn and want more at the same time.
Someone, in other words, who was as far removed from Hope Smith as possible.
He turned to go but when he was almost at the door he heard his name.
‘Axel?’
He stopped. Slowly turned around. Hope was sitting up in the bed, illuminated by a shaft of moonlight. And everything he’d just been saying to himself dissolved in a rush of heat.
She said, ‘Where are you going?’
He came back towards the bed, and stood at the end of it. The ache inside him warring with the burn.
He said almost harshly, ‘You know that I can’t give you any more than this?’
Hope looked at him and then after a few seconds she said nothing, just pulled the sheet back.
Axel—a man who’d prided himself on his strength of will and discipline his whole life—couldn’t fight the base need to take what this woman was offering.
Even though he knew he should walk away.
He simply…couldn’t. And he knew he’d go to hell for it.
He shed his clothes and came over Hope on the bed. She reached for him, putting her hands on him, exploring, touching and testing, wrapping her hand around his hardening flesh, making him suck in a breath.
They kissed, clumsily, hungrily. It was as if they’d been apart for a month.
Hope scrambled out of her underwear and vest top.
Blissfully naked, he joined his body with hers, seeking that moment he’d come to need more than anything else, when he was seated deep inside her and she was so tight around him that he thought he might die.
Before he started to move. This…this moment was as close to a sense of peace as he’d ever had.
* * *
The following evening Hope waited for Axel in the main reception room of the villa. Amelia had just seen her and had exclaimed something in Greek, which Hope understood to be a universal sort of compliment.
A veritable entourage of people had come to the villa earlier and had preened Hope to within an inch of her life.
She was wearing a black dress and she couldn’t help the butterflies at the thought of the stakes. Everything she and Axel had done was for this moment. To impress this…guy he wanted to impress.
The dress was strapless and a deceptively simple design. A sheath of silk that nipped in at her waist and fell in a column to the floor. She was wearing pearls and diamonds at her ears, wrists and neck.
Her hair had been tamed into soft waves.
Hope noticed it was getting longer, turning into a short bob.
She was wearing gloves. And had a matching clutch bag.
She’d never felt so…elegant. Her, the little girl who’d been left behind and then abandoned again by her adoptive parent and who’d never found a home anywhere—
Hope whirled around when she heard a sound and saw Axel framed in the doorway in a black tuxedo.
Her heart thumped. She hadn’t seen him since that conflagration last night.
When she’d woken up and he’d been in her room, walking away, she’d wondered if she was dreaming but she’d called him and he’d come back.
She would never forget the way he’d looked at her—as if he was haunted—and said, You know that I can’t give you any more than this?
Hope had known she had a choice in that moment to try and protect herself, to say, OK, please leave.
But she hadn’t been able to. She’d wanted him.
The truth was she would take him again and again for as long as she could. Like a miser.
The sex had been urgent and frantic. And it had only been when Axel had emitted a curse and pulled free of her body and climaxed against her belly that she’d realised that he’d forgotten protection.
And so had she. Too caught up in the moment.
Or had she known but relished the skin-on-skin contact too much?
Or, worse, had she subconsciously wanted to risk a pregnancy?
When she was the product of perhaps something similar? An unplanned pregnancy?
She’d felt so guilty, as if it had somehow been her fault. She’d apologised but Axel had told her it had been his fault. She’d heard that note of self-censure in his voice and knew that he wouldn’t forgive himself for such a careless omission. Especially with her. Not appropriate.
She’d lain awake for a long time after Axel had taken her into the shower and washed himself from her.
Thinking about the woman who would get to be with him like that, skin to skin, but not have him curse and pull free.
Have him spill deep inside her and claim her as his utterly.
And for the first time in her life she’d felt the ugliness of jealousy.
And envy. She’d hated that future faceless woman.
When she’d woken late this morning, Axel had left for work again and for a moment Hope had wondered if she’d imagined the previous night. But she knew it hadn’t been a dream.
Axel stepped into the room now just as this memory of rawness was prickling over her skin. He said, ‘Hope, you look stunning.’
‘I…thank you. So do you.’
‘Ready?’
She nodded. ‘Yes.’ She walked towards Axel and he stood back and gestured for her to precede him out of the villa, down the steps and into the car. She noticed that he was careful not to touch her. Had the mistake of forgetting about protection spooked him?
There was space separating them in the back of the car. Hope had to curl her hands into fists to stop from reaching out to touch him.
Something a little wild was rising up within her. She needed to know if last night had impacted him. ‘Axel, last night—’
‘Was amazing.’
Hope’s mouth shut. Then opened again. ‘But the protection… I should have noticed.’
He shook his head. ‘I should have noticed. That’s never happened before. And it won’t again.’
Hope felt hollow. No. Certainly not with her anyway. She said now, ‘I don’t want to let you down this evening.’
‘You won’t.’ Axel reached for her, tugging her closer, and Hope went with shameless eagerness.
At this point she was dangerously close to revealing the true depth of her feelings, a recklessness rising inside her, but she knew that he was focused on this evening.
After all, this was the culmination of their whole charade.
That had stopped feeling like a charade some time ago. For her.
It wasn’t long before they joined a steadily moving stream of cars that entered gates similar to the ones on Axel’s property.
A wide driveway led up to a huge house on at least three levels.
It was modern, with a flat roof and lots of steel and glass.
Totally different from Axel’s more traditional villa that Hope preferred.
The car stopped and staff jumped forward to open doors but Axel helped her out, taking her hand.
Hope took a deep breath and they went up the steps and into a vast reception area with polished concrete floors.
Hope could see all the way through the house out the other side to lush greenery as far as the eye could see.
Women in evening dresses and men in tuxedoes mingled. At least this was a paparazzi-free zone. Hope felt far too raw for pictures being taken, sure that all of her emotions would be laid bare for everyone to see.
‘There he is.’
Hope followed Axel’s eyeline to see a tall, distinguished-looking man.
Silver hair, with a woman by his side. Dark hair going grey.
She was smiling and looked friendly. Very attractive.
They were greeting guests and soon it was Axel and Hope’s turn.
The man looked at Axel, and Hope could have sworn there was a glint in his eye, as if to say he knew exactly what Axel’s motives were. She liked the couple on sight.
‘Drakos. Glad you could make it.’ He looked at Hope. ‘And is this the woman who has managed to tame the perennial bachelor?’
Hope felt Axel’s arm tighten around her waist. ‘This is Hope Smith.’
Hope smiled but felt a little queasy. She felt bad about the deception even though she and Axel had certainly turned their fake relationship into a real one, against the odds. A real one with no prospects.