Chapter Ten #3
Axel didn’t answer that. He didn’t have to.
She hated to think that she was being naive to take Baros and his wife at face value.
Was nothing in Axel’s world genuine? But maybe he was right.
They might have created a very genuine and happy family but that in itself was just a consolidation of his success.
After all, hadn’t his wife told her that all the children were involved in the business?
And Axel would meet his suitable wife and they would have children who would be bred for the greater good of the Drakos legacy and all the humanity she’d seen in Axel had never really existed, or had it?
Suddenly she felt the cynicism of it all, as if it were a live thing, reaching out to smother her. She couldn’t breathe. She clambered up from Axel’s lap and sucked in a breath.
He stood up. ‘What’s wrong?’
Hope shook her head. ‘I just need some air.’ She set off down the garden towards where a wall marked the end of the property. And then it was just an unrestricted view of Athens.
Beautiful, stunning, but hiding an ugly truth.
A truth she’d been wilfully ignoring. Axel really didn’t believe in love.
Really didn’t want more than he’d always had laid out for him.
And maybe Damian Baros had been right to test him, even though Damian Baros was essentially cut from the same mould.
‘Hope?’
She stared out at the view and said, ‘I’m sorry, Axel. I can’t do this any more.’
‘Do what?’
‘Pretend any more to be your girlfriend… Whatever we are.’
‘What’s happened?’
Hope turned back around and avoided Axel’s eye. She gestured to the party carrying on further up the garden. ‘All this… I had no idea just how…rotten it all is. How utterly devoid of any real meaning.’
She looked at him then. ‘But that’s not the worst thing.’
‘It’s not?’ Axel’s expression was wary.
She shook her head. She could feel tears prickling. ‘No, the worst thing is that I’ve fallen in love with you, Axel, in spite of all your warnings and in spite of knowing that you can’t, or won’t, ever return it.’
His eyes narrowed ‘What did you just say?’
‘You heard me.’ Hope’s vision was blurry now.
‘Say it again.’ His voice sounded thin.
Hope was wiping tears away. ‘I said I love you, like actually, really stupidly, what real-life normal people do. Love you. And now I’m ruined because I’ll never find someone who I can love who’ll give me the life I want, a simple home and a family that won’t be bred purely to inherit an empty legacy. ’
A muscle twitched in Axel’s jaw. ‘The Drakos business is not an empty legacy.’
‘Isn’t it? Your parents don’t care. You don’t see your siblings. You’re there all by yourself and you’re committed to continuing on your own with a wife who will look and act the part but who’ll only be by your side for the status.’
She went on before he could interrupt. ‘And you say Baros is ruthless, and he may well be, but he’s surrounded by his family and at least they’re working together.’
Then Hope took a step towards Axel and pressed a finger into his chest but she immediately regretted it when it felt like a steel wall and reminded her of how it felt against her breasts.
She took her hand down. ‘And you’ve ruined me for any other man because I can’t even imagine sleeping with someone else. ’
She said miserably, ‘I really wish I’d never met you, Axel Drakos.
I should never have agreed to this ridiculous farce.
I can’t go to the island with you, I’m sorry…
I can’t keep pretending that we’re in a relationship when it’s just a situationship and I have to get back to the real world before I lose myself completely. ’
She turned to walk back up the garden but Axel caught her arm and she stopped. He came and stood in front of her, hands on her arms. He said, ‘I shouldn’t have said that about Baros. You’re freaked out.’
‘No, Axel, I’m not freaked out. Well, yes, I am, but I’m also just really sad that you don’t feel the same way about me and I’ve been really really naive.’
She looked at him, a tiny seed of hope deep in her gut. ‘You don’t, do you?’
Axel’s hands dropped from her arms. He took a step back. It seemed to take an age but then he said, ‘No, Hope, I’m sorry. I like you and I want you but you don’t mean anything more to me than that.’
There were so many splinters in her heart now she was surprised she was still standing.
‘I’m going to go now. I need to get away from here and you.
I should have listened to you. But stupidly I hoped…
Maybe you can tell Baros that I felt sick or something and that could be why I don’t go to the island.
I really hope you get everything you want, Axel. ’
Hope turned and this time Axel didn’t stop her. She walked all the way up through the beautiful landscaped garden and into the house that was more like a modern art gallery and out of the main entrance again.
Someone approached her. ‘Miss Smith?’
Hope looked blankly at the man before she realised it was Axel’s driver. He said to her, ‘Mr Drakos told me to take you wherever you want to go.’
Axel couldn’t get her out of here fast enough now. Maybe he was already seeking out a replacement girlfriend who could become an actual wife right now and hope that Baros might not even notice that the woman was a different one.
She said, ‘Please take me back to the villa and then to the airport.’
‘Very well.’