As impossible as the raw chasm inside him that grew wider with every minute she was absent from his life.
Two weeks. A lifetime.
She hadn’t answered his emails or texts in the last five days. And before that, her responses had been perfunctory. The only reason he hadn’t already hunted her down was because he was...terrified. At first because of the possibility she might be carrying his child. Then because she might not.
Once his initial terror had waned, he recalled everything she’d said to him. The hope. The sheer belief in the face of what should’ve been a daunting situation for her, especially after what she’d suffered.
We can make it work together, Christos.
Those words had finally driven him onto his jet then onto another helicopter ride over what he was sure was the stunning countryside of Buenos Aires. Because even as terrified as he was, the alternative—the bleak, lonely, soulless life he’d led so far—terrified him even more.
He’d allowed the hope of Alexis’s words to bloom inside him when he’d finally learned her whereabouts. As the helicopter set down and he stepped out, he prayed he hadn’t completely blown it.
* * *
Two things went through her mind as Alexis watched the man she wished she could hate stride towards her. The first was that she should’ve rushed inside, thrown on something a little more sophisticated than the flimsy yellow dress she wore, her hair windblown and her feet bare. The second was that she’d missed him with a terrifying desperation. The soul-wrenching bonus third arrived as he stopped a few feet from her.
She still loved him. Was hopelessly head over heels for him.
The heart-shredding thought made her wrap her hands around her middle, as if it would hold all that tumultuous feeling inside.
‘Kalispera, Alexis.’
Dear God, his voice. She’d heard it far too frequently in her dreams, only to wake to empty loss. ‘You should’ve emailed me to let me know you were coming. I would’ve vacated the premises.’
‘Since you’re the reason I’m here, that would’ve been counterproductive.’
She notched her chin higher. ‘I have another three weeks of annual leave to take. So you’re going to have to find someone else—’
‘I don’t want anyone else. I want you, Alexis.’
The arms she’d wrapped around her middle clenched harder, emotions threatening to spill all over the place. ‘I may be the best assistant you’ve ever had but you don’t own me, Christos. I’ve decided that if I return to work for you, I won’t be at your beck and call twenty-four-seven any more. I deserve a life. I deserve more.’
Something harrowing flickered through his eyes but she refused to be swayed.
‘But being the best assistant I’ve ever had meant you knew my whereabouts,’ he challenged. ‘You could’ve disappeared indefinitely. But you chose to stay here.’
Alexis knew he was right. She could’ve fulfilled a lifelong dream and headed for the Maldives instead. But even that had been ruined for her. Because how could she sit on a pristine beach without recalling that unforgettable night on Drakonisos?
‘Don’t read anything into it. Argentina is a beautiful country. It’s been on my bucket list forever. And since you all but insisted that I’d earned my keep...’
‘The things I said, Alexis. They were wrong. I didn’t mean them.’
She froze, that precious bubble inside her threatening to burst free. ‘What?’
His gaze dropped to her fingers she’d raised to toy with the cheap chain she’d bought in Buenos Aires a few days ago, a flame lighting the grey depths. A flame eerily resembling...hope. ‘You’re still wearing your wedding rings.’
She shrugged even as her insides quaked. She hadn’t yet gathered the strength to take them off. But she wasn’t going to confess that. ‘I don’t know your safe combination here. It seemed safer to keep them on than to leave them in a drawer somewhere.’
He winced at the barb. ‘You want to hurt me. I fully deserve it.’
‘What makes you think I care at all one way or the other?’
Again something resembling agony slashed his face. ‘Because I’m a stubborn fool, Alexis. A stubborn fool who ran scared because he couldn’t handle the possibility of accepting the one thing he craved above all else.’
A tremble started at her feet and unravelled upwards. ‘And what’s that?’
‘To know that someone cared for me. Enough to reach out. To put me first, like my parents never did. Everything you said to me that morning, I yearned to grasp with both hands. But—’