Chapter Twelve
Archimedes told his driver to wait, then got out of the car, slamming the door behind him, before striding up the overgrown path to Banks’s front door.
He’d been back in London for a couple of weeks now, and finally had some time in his schedule to demand that he and Zoe be released from the ridiculous contracts he’d made them sign.
That he wanted the information Banks had on him and he wasn’t going to take no for an answer.
He’d left Italy the night Zoe had told him she loved him.
He’d had to. He didn’t trust himself around her, didn’t trust the urge to throw his control into the furnace and let it burn.
Also, her calm acceptance of the fact that he’d never love her, that if she stayed with him he’d never let her have a family or fall in love with someone else ever, infuriated him.
That she’d throw her chance for happiness away on someone who’d only keep her caged was intolerable.
Her steady belief in him was also intolerable.
She didn’t know him the way she thought, because she’d never seen him at his worst. And he wasn’t about to show her. She didn’t deserve that.
Still, if she wouldn’t leave, he’d have to, and so he had.
He’d flown to Singapore that night, then on to a meeting in Melbourne, and from there to LA.
He’d tried not to think about her. Tried not to think about the lack of her in his bed every night and the lack of her smile.
Her wit. Her teasing. Her silver gaze glittering up at him as she lay in his arms. His North Star.
He’d tried a few times to call in lovers, but as soon as they’d arrived, he didn’t want them. He was constantly hard but not for them. His body knew what it wanted and he hated that it did.
He wished he could completely ignore her presence, but that was impossible so he’d assigned an employee to inform him of her whereabouts, and to contact him if she wasn’t okay.
Not that he’d needed to be informed, not when she’d started sending him fridge magnets from every place she visited.
It seemed as if she was going on a tour of all his residences in various countries since the magnets came from every town where he had a house, and every time he received one it felt like a knife in his heart.
He wanted to throw them away, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it, putting them in a drawer in his London office instead.
Really, he should forbid her to visit any of his houses, but he had a feeling she’d find a way around any obstacles he put in her way.
She was, after all, very good at getting through security.
All he could do was pretend she wasn’t in his life any more, which was surprisingly hard to do. Especially now, back here in London, at the house where Banks had brought him up.
He hammered on the front door until the old man pulled it open. Banks’s craggy face broke into a smile. ‘Dear boy! Have you come to bring me good news?’
‘No,’ Archimedes said curtly, and stepped inside without being asked, making the old man have to take a few steps back.
Banks’s eyes widened slightly as Archimedes kicked the door shut, but his smile remained, betraying nothing. ‘Then to what do I owe the pleasure?’
His fake cheer grated on Archimedes’s raw nerves. ‘I want the evidence you have on me,’ he said. ‘And I want it now.’
Banks nodded as if he’d merely asked for a cup of tea. ‘I see. Breaking your contract already, lad?’
‘Not just mine,’ he snapped. ‘I want you to leave Zoe out of it as well. She will not be giving any of her children to you.’
Banks eyed him. ‘Why not? Has she changed her mind?’
‘We both have,’ Archimedes said.
‘So, she’s not pregnant?’
‘No, and she won’t be. Not by me at least.’
An expression ghosted over the old man’s face, but it was gone too fast for him to read it.
‘I could release that evidence on you,’ Banks said. ‘You’d go to jail.’
Archimedes drew himself up to his full height. ‘Do it then. It’s probably beyond time for me to take responsibility for my actions. But again, Zoe will not be part of this.’
The old man stared at him a long moment. Then he said, ‘I really thought it would work.’
‘You thought what would work?’
‘Forcing you and Zoe to meet again, to live together. To marry each other.’
It felt as if Banks had emptied a bucket of ice water over his head.
‘What?’ he demanded. ‘What the hell are you talking about?’
Banks sighed. ‘I knew where you were going when you left me years ago,’ he said. ‘I have people everywhere who tell me things. That’s why I forbade you to take Zoe. She was too young and I didn’t want her getting caught up in whatever you were doing.’
Archimedes said nothing, staring at him.
‘But she was miserable after you left, and she remained so, and I realised that what she felt for you wasn’t a crush. So, I waited until you’d finished working for the Russians, waited for you to get on the straight and narrow, to become worthy of her, and you did.’
Archimedes could not think of a single thing to say. His mind had gone utterly blank. He’d always known Banks was a master manipulator but he’d never guessed this.
‘You…fixed all of this?’ he asked. ‘You made us marry each other and told us you wanted our child because…why?’
‘Because she loves you, Archimedes,’ Banks said, and there was no hint of his fake cheer now. ‘And she wants a family. She stayed with me for far too long because she’s so bloody loyal, even after I told her to go. This was the only option.’
Through his shock, anger was starting to rise. ‘You fucking manipulated us?’
‘Not manipulated,’ Banks said carefully. ‘More like…forcing proximity. I wanted you two to meet as adults and work things out.’ He tilted his head. ‘You were always meant to be together, even I could see that.’
Archimedes stared at the man who’d brought him up. The man who’d taken him in and taught him how to steal, to use the skills he had to made him the man he was now.
‘But we can’t be together,’ he said, fighting his fury.
Banks frowned. ‘Why on earth not? She’s made for you and you for her.’
‘No,’ he said. ‘I’m not worthy of her, no matter what you think. And I never will be.’
‘What rot,’ Banks said flatly. ‘You’re a billionaire, Archimedes. You’ve got a private jet and houses everywhere, so what can’t you give her?’
His jaw felt tight, his heart an open wound. ‘She loves me and I can’t—’
‘You love her,’ Banks interrupted, and it wasn’t a question. ‘And don’t tell me you don’t. You always have. I saw it the moment she walked into that church.’
Archimedes could hear his heart beating in his ears, a dull thumping beat. He loved her? But…no, that couldn’t be. He’d never loved anyone in his life, so how would he know?
You idiot. You have loved someone. You’ve loved her, and you have since you were a child.
He wanted to deny it, wanted to tell Banks he was wrong, but the words felt sharp on his tongue, like lies, and he couldn’t do it.
Because how could he deny her? His North Star?
How could he say he didn’t love her, when he damn well knew, deep in his shrivelled-up heart, that he did? And that he always had.
‘I…’ he faltered, not knowing what on earth to say next, the shock of realisation echoing through him.
Banks’s bright blue eyes were sharp as needles. ‘Takes guts to admit to loving a person,’ he said. ‘And if she told you, then she’s a braver woman than I ever gave her credit for.’
He could see her now, standing in that light, airy salon, telling him all the things she loved about him, which were all the things he hated about himself. Telling him that she wasn’t leaving him. And challenging him the way he used to do with her, daring him to pick up her gauntlet.
To let her love him and to love her in return.
‘How do you know?’ he asked Banks suddenly and sharply. ‘How do you know I’m worthy of her?’
The whole world seemed to hang on the old man’s answer.
‘Are any of us worthy of the love of a good woman?’ Banks said. ‘But just so you know, I wouldn’t have organised that wedding if I didn’t think you were worthy of her.’
‘It’s okay to be scared…’
He could still hear her voice telling him that and his own protesting that he wasn’t, that it was her he was afraid for, not himself.
But that was just another lie and, he knew, another way to put distance between them.
Because the truth was that he was scared.
He was afraid that the things he hated about himself were things that she would hate too.
Except they weren’t, were they? She’d told him that those things were what she loved about him…
‘She’s a better person than I will ever be,’ he said hoarsely, as if that would make any difference to the barbed wire that was slowly tightening around his heart, shredding it.
How could he have left her like that? When she’d given him everything she was.
How could he have lied to her, telling her he couldn’t love her? How?
She’d always been his North Star. Guiding him home.
‘Of course she is,’ Banks said serenely. ‘But I think you need to tell her that yourself.’
‘I can’t.’ His voice was so rough, broken almost. ‘It’s too late. I told her that I—’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Banks interrupted for the second time, frowning at him now. ‘It’s never too late. Go and find her, and for your sake, I hope she accepts your grovel.’
But Archimedes didn’t hear those last couple of words.
He’d already gone.
* * *
Zoe sat on the sun lounger under an umbrella, enjoying the warm Greek sun.
She’d spent a couple of months making a tour of Archimedes’s houses around the globe, sending him fridge magnets from each location because she didn’t want him thinking she’d abandoned him, but she’d decided that she liked his Greek island villa the best.
She liked being near the sea and it was warm, and she liked the scent of rosemary and lavender.
She’d been talking with some of his staff, who pressed olives and made the lovely goat’s milk soap, and had been interested in making soap herself, especially experimenting with a few scents she’d been investigating.
What Archimedes was doing, she had no idea.
She’d decided that keeping track of him would only hurt her needlessly, so she hadn’t.
The most important thing was that he knew that she would be here whenever he decided to stop running.
And if that involved sending him a small mountain of fridge magnets then so be it.
She’d been fiddling around with testing Ares’s firewalls again, wondering if any of his employees would ever find out that she’d installed a backdoor into the software and had been slipping in and out of company files for the past couple of weeks.
It seemed very lax that no one had discovered her yet.
Footsteps sounded on the stone flags, coming towards her sun lounger, but she didn’t look up. It was probably Lydia asking her what she wanted for lunch.
A shadow fell across her screen and she frowned, finally looking up.
And her heart stopped.
Archimedes stood there, looking as if he hadn’t slept for days, his hair wild, no tie and his shirt buttons undone at his throat.
For long seconds all she could do was stare at him in shock. Then he abruptly leaned down, took her laptop from her lap and laid it on the ground, before hauling her to her feet and into his arms.
Zoe tried to protest. ‘Archimedes—’
Only to have his mouth come down on hers in a hungry, hot, desperate kiss.
It had been months since she’d seen him.
Months since she’d been in his arms, had his mouth on hers, and instantly she melted against him, her hands in his hair, tasting the desperation on his tongue and the need, giving him whatever acknowledgement he wanted from her.
It seemed forever until he finally lifted his head, his gaze a deep, luminous blue.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said in a raw voice. ‘I’m sorry I walked away.
You were right. I was afraid. Afraid of not being worthy of you, of not being worth the love you wanted to give me, that the things I hated about myself, all those flaws, were something you’d eventually hate too.
But, despite all of that, I’m here now, ready to answer your challenge.
I want you to love me, Zoe Athineos. And I want to love you in return. ’
Her eyes had filled with sudden tears, her heart inflating like a balloon in her chest. ‘You do know that you didn’t have to be worthy of me, don’t you?
’ she said huskily. ‘I told you, all those things that you hate about yourself, I love. They make you who you are, and you are perfect. You always were.’
His gaze lit, burning like gas flames. ‘So are you. You’re perfect in every way, and I should have seen what you were much sooner. But I didn’t. I’d blinded myself.’
She leaned against him, glorying in the feel of him against her after so many months. ‘Why now? What made you change your mind?’
His mouth curved. ‘I went to see Banks. To demand he release us both from that ridiculous contract. But…he told me that he’d engineered the whole thing because he thought we should be together.’
Shocked penetrated through the fog of happiness and she could only stare at him. ‘What? Seriously?’
‘Yes. He told me that you loved me and always had, and that I loved you and always had too.’
Zoe took a little breath, blinking away the tears fiercely. ‘So there was no blackmail? He doesn’t want a child to bring up?’
‘No. He only wanted us to find each other again.’
‘The manipulative old bastard,’ she said, even though she couldn’t be mad at him. Not when he’d engineered this and brought her Demon home to her.
‘That’s what I said.’ His smile deepened.
‘But he’s right. I have loved you all my life, and I was a fool to throw you away.
You are a pearl beyond price, Zoe. You’re the bravest, most loyal, most intelligent and beautiful woman I’ve ever known.
You’re the other half of me, the half I didn’t even realise was missing. ’
Her throat tightened and she couldn’t hold back the tears, so she let them fall.
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘That’s what you are to me too.’
His arms tightened around her, holding her close. ‘I love you, Zoe. My brilliant, beautiful North Star. Don’t you think it’s time for you to take me home?’
It was, but luckily, they were already there.