Chapter Five
CONSTANTINE FELT THEO’S gaze like a laser across the ballroom—full of entreaty, and something else he couldn’t name. It had been that way for the last eighteen months, ever since Theo’s heart attack.
He had ensured the best specialists, had kept vigil those first forty-eight hours when no one was sure the old man would make it. Still a sentimental fool, even though he owed the man nothing.
He’d done more to stop the hyenas on the board circling the sudden power vacuum at Andros International. Noor, of course, had wailed through the villa, still flinging accusations like broken glass. Accusing him of waiting for Theo to fall.
Now, as he reached Aliyah’s side, Constantine found he couldn’t meet the older man’s eyes.
Of course, the heart scare had softened Theo, but he didn’t trust that softness.
Not after years of being ordered around like a high-functioning monkey, performing to impossible expectations.
That kind of hardness didn’t vanish overnight.
He had been watching them. The daughter trying not to flinch from the familiar coldness of her mother’s embrace.
The tentative shock in her face when Theo kissed her cheeks.
The way Aliyah’s gaze, somehow, still found him in the crowd like it always had.
As if she were searching for a fixed point in a world that might throw her off any moment.
“Congratulations on the engagement, Constantine,” Theo murmured, extending a hand. “In the end, you won this too.”
The words grated, like sand in an old wound.
He looked up, keeping his expression deliberately hard. The shock on Theo’s face when he couldn’t conjure up his usual mask made something in him twist.
“I wish I had never opposed your match back then,” Theo added softly, the admission dropping like a quiet bomb. “Never played with your futures.”
Constantine shrugged. “You once taught me regrets are for the weak-minded, sir. I can’t shake off a lifetime’s training because you’re feeling sentimental these days.” A beat. “Still, it’s good to have your blessing. At least for the sake of appearances. Not that we need it.”
He regretted the last line the moment it passed his lips. Pettiness betrayed vulnerability and he had stopped being that with this man long ago. Though it still sneaked in sometimes.
Posture stiff, head darting between them like a startled bird, Aliyah moved, her body angling toward his instinctively, in front of her father. The slow bend of her form toward him was barely visible, but he felt it like a physical charge under his skin.
He repressed a smile. Though he could do nothing about the savage pulse of satisfaction thrumming through him.
And beneath that too-male pride…something else dwelled. Something heavier.
Earlier in the car. Now, here. It was clear Aliyah trusted him. At least a little. Enough to lean on him.
Was it because she needed him, needed the marriage? Or was there something underneath, an echo of how deeply she’d known him once? Only with her had he let all his dreams and fears come out.
It didn’t matter though.
That Constantine—her Constantine—was dead. Buried under years of orders and obligations, Noor’s hatred and Aliyah’s own desertion.
“Come, fterouga,” he said quietly, offering his arm. “It’s time for cake and the rings.”
The three seconds it took for her to slide her hand through his felt like three eternities.
“You’re here to meet my colleagues and friends too, Aliyah. Everyone is curious to meet the woman I’ve chosen to be my wife.” He bent closer, his breath grazing her ear. “And the woman who will bear my heirs.”
The delicious shiver that ran down her spine snapped something taut inside him. Jasmine and vanilla curled around his senses.
“The days of hiding like wallpaper are over, poulaki mou,” he murmured. “Unlike your parents, I have no intention of pretending you don’t exist.”
He gave Theo a nod, not quite polite, not quite dismissive. The older man only shrunk farther into his black suit, a faint furrow at his brow.
He turned away, pulling Aliyah into the waiting crowd.
His fingers closed around Aliyah’s hand with a possessiveness he could not curb.
Her hand, so soft and delicate, fit perfectly into his, a simple and undeniable truth. The sensation stirred something deeply ingrained in him.
The moment he’d imagined for years, the moment when everything would finally be his, was unfolding now, here, in front of the glittering crowd. The Andros International takeover, his claim over the company and, more importantly, his claim over Aliyah.
The guests around them seemed to dissipate into a murmur of awe, their whispers falling into the background. In the far corners of the room, he could sense the glances, the anticipation.
A slight chill crept over him as he saw it—the plain gold band. The old wedding ring, still clinging to her finger as though it were something she couldn’t bear to remove. He stopped, a sharp prick of irritation slicing through his thoughts.
They were still standing in the spotlight, Theo lifting his glass for the room. “Aliyah and Constantine.”
The guests broke into applause, a tide of sound rising around them.
Constantine leaned in, his mouth close to her ear, his words meant for her alone. “Remove it.”
Aliyah’s eyes widened, a flicker of shock passing through them as they searched his. She glanced down at the old wedding band on her finger. For a brief moment, her fingers hesitated, then she slowly removed it.
The guests continued their chatter, polite applause ringing in the background, but the moment between them was theirs alone. No one else could see how Aliyah’s fingers trembled, how she held the ring in her palm for just a second too long before she placed it down on the nearby table.
Without breaking the moment, Constantine reached for her hand again. He slid the new ring onto her slender finger, the weight of it as satisfying as stamping his mark.
Around them, glasses chimed together, the low murmur of congratulations swelling like a tide.
But something about the way she stood there—her eyes wide, body stiff—stirred a different, more unexpected feeling in him.
She looked like a lamb being led to slaughter. She had walked into this willingly, her counterdemands decisive, clear. He refused to lose her in this moment, to let her look so…defeated. She had always been his equal in passion, and he needed her to remember that.
He tilted her chin up gently, forcing her gaze to meet his. The crowd around them continued with their murmurs, the applause fading slightly as the focus remained on them.
The room was there, but it didn’t matter.
“You need to be a better actress than that,” he whispered.
And then, without giving her the chance to answer, Constantine kissed her.
The kiss started with all the arrogance he had come to rely on—the control, the power, the assertion that he would claim her now. But the instant their lips met, something shifted.
It wasn’t how he remembered it. The softness, the hesitation that had once marked their first times, that hazy summer—those were gone.
She kissed him back, boldly, as though she had been waiting for this moment just as long as he had.
And then, she nipped at his lower lip, sharp, teasing and full of intent.
It shattered his composure in an instant, stripping him of the control he’d so carefully maintained.
His mind went blank, overridden by the rush of heat surging through him, and he deepened the kiss against his own better judgment.
Memories flared up—her shy, uncertain kisses when they were younger.
The way she had hesitated, unsure with her movements but sure in her passion.
But now…she was claiming him, matching his fire with equal force.
He had thought of her as someone he could shape, someone who would bend to him, but in this moment, he realized something—she still held the power to wreck him.
Not just with her emotions, but with this fierce, unrelenting passion.
She was no longer the timid girl who had once stumbled into his arms. She was his equal now.
She kissed him with an intensity that matched his own. There was no vulnerability, no hesitation.
When he finally pulled away, the applause and congratulations from the guests started again, but it felt distant, muted, almost like a background noise to the silence they created together.
Her eyes glinted with desire, still holding that fire. He saw the dreaminess, saw the shift back to reality, but he wouldn’t let her hide behind that steely composure anymore.
He had seen and tasted her need, and he wouldn’t let her shy away from it, ever again. If there was nothing real and true in their marriage, there would at least be this.
The kiss began with a very clear intent—an agenda even, to establish his dominance over her. His firm touch left Aliyah with no illusions about it.
He was claiming her, pure and simple, proving to both of them, and the world at large maybe, that he was running this show. That all the threads keeping her together were in his clever fingers.
And yet…none of it seemed to matter to her hungry body, her thumping heart. As if the two had completely disconnected from her poor, rational mind.
His mouth was forceful, yet deliberate, and the smoothness of his tongue against hers wasn’t just sensual; it was a reminder of the power he still held over her.
The crowd, the laughter, the murmurs—they felt distant, blurred by the weight of his presence, by the way he held her so easily, so securely.
She could feel the hard press of his body against hers, lifting her just slightly off the ground, the intensity of his touch igniting something deep inside her, something she had buried for so long.
His strength wasn’t just physical; it was commanding, undeniable.
But what struck her most was how familiar it all felt. The way his kiss deepened, how the heat of it spread through her, igniting her senses. He was no longer the tender, slow lover he had been once.
No, this was Constantine unleashing his full masculinity and passion on her, not treating her as if she were a fragile thing that might break at his hands. And as much as she hated his reasons for doing it back then, every inch of her thrummed and reveled in how he held her now.
She wanted it. Needed it like this, as if she was a fiery, fierce woman who could take everything he was dishing out.
But then something shifted. It wasn’t a sharp change—more like the deepening of a current that had always been there. His tongue moved against hers with a rhythm that wasn’t just possessive; it was tender in a way she had forgotten.
Back then, Constantine had been an attentive lover—careful, exploring, every touch deliberate. Now, the hunger was still there, but there was something deeper, something that cracked the wall she had built around herself.
Oh God, she thought as she felt his lips press gently but insistently against hers, pulling her into something real, something that wasn’t just about the power play.
It was connection, an intimacy she hadn’t realized she had been longing for until this moment. It wasn’t just his mouth or his touch—it was how he moved against her, reading her body like he always had.
It was too long, far too long, since anyone had touched her like this. Since anyone had kissed her with this kind of care. The last time anyone had made her feel like this, wanted her like this, had been Constantine, and no one had come close since.
The kiss deepened, and the flood of sensations made her dizzy.
He knew the exact way to move, to make her ache, to make her respond without hesitation, without barriers.
But there was something different now. His lips, his tongue, they weren’t just taking.
They were giving, showing her that the depth of what they shared was still there, waiting to be awakened.
When he pulled back, something in the air changed. He looked at her with eyes that were hungry and knowing, but there was a trace of something softer in them too. A recognition of the intimacy they had once shared and how easily they had fallen into it again.
“Well, this is quite the reunion,” he said, his breath warm against her lips. He grinned, not cruelly, but with surprise. “Seems you’ve forgotten where we are, Aliyah. Or do you just not care?”
She blinked, trying to regain some semblance of control.
His taunt wasn’t cruel, more a shared acknowledgment of how easily they’d slipped into this.
She could see the way his chest rose and fell with his breath, the way his eyes darkened with unspoken desire.
It wasn’t just her who was caught up in the heat.
She ran a hand lightly over his lapel, smoothing the fabric casually. Her voice came out husky, but she met his gaze squarely. “You’re a passionate man in the prime of life, and I’m just a lonely widow, Constantine. How could I possibly expect to be in control in a situation like this?”
His lips curled into a smile. “Ahh…playing the poor helpless widow role that you’ve decided to fully immerse yourself in. That’s admission without actually owning how badly you want it, isn’t it?” he asked, a challenge in his voice.
She could feel the heat rush to her face, but she refused to let him see how his words affected her. The blasted man could see through her so easily while she felt like a fish gasping for oxygen near him. Somehow, she gave a soft laugh, keeping her tone light.
“There’s no pleasing you, is there, Constantine?
” she said, the words coming out smoother than she felt.
She patted his chest, the gesture looking as if she was soothing his rising passion to the guests.
“If I play into what you have decided I am, you don’t like it.
If I fight you, you don’t like it. Is this what I have to look forward to in our marriage? ”
Constantine’s gaze sharpened, his smile fading into something more focused, more intent. “How about you cast off all these masks and roles and admit the simple truth?”
“And what do you think that is?”
“For all your heated declarations, you’re more desperate for my touch than you’re willing to admit.
Not any man would have done, Aliyah.” He rubbed a finger over the line of her jaw and even that made her shiver.
“It’s why you came to the decision to have the baby.
You knew, sooner or later, you would end up in my bed.
And that practical, almost ruthless decision-making, tells me, fterouga, that there’s so much more to you than you show me.
” He tweaked her nose, as he used to once.
“And unraveling you, until I peel away all these masks and roles you have put on, that’s what I’m looking forward to in this marriage. ”