The Greek's Unknown Bride

He knocked lightly but again there was no sound. He opened the door and went in. His eyes took a moment to adjust to the dim light. He could see no shape in the bed. And then he saw her, standing outside on the balcony.

She must have heard him because she turned around. She’d changed. She was wearing a diaphanous robe over what looked like a short negligée. From where he stood, Apollo could see the outline of her body. All slender curves and pale skin.

His blood surged, and he realised in that moment that he shouldn’t have come up here. Sasha stepped into the room. ‘Is something wrong?’

But instead of leaving, Apollo moved towards her as if drawn by a magnet. The moon was behind her, low in the sky. A perfect crescent. The milky glow made her look ethereal, adding a silver tinge to her rose-gold hair. It was down again, falling in soft waves over her shoulders.

He had an urge to touch her to make sure she was, in fact, real. He stopped a couple of feet away. Her scent reached him—lemon, underlain with something more tantalisingly exotic. But soft, not overpowering.

Different.

‘You said you had a headache.’

She touched her head. ‘It’s okay now, thank you. I think it was just taking in all that information...’

Sasha wasn’t sure that she wasn’t hallucinating right now. Was Apollo really standing in her room, looking at her as if he’d never seen her before?

But then, at that moment, he said, ‘I just wanted to check you were okay,’ and then turned around as if to leave.

Sasha acted on an impulse, reaching out with her hand. ‘Wait.’

He stopped. Turned around. Sasha wasn’t even sure what she wanted to say. And then she did. She dropped her outstretched hand. ‘I don’t remember anything of what you said... It doesn’t feel like something I would do but then how do I know?’

She bit her lip. ‘Did you even care about the baby?’

Apollo had to school his expression in case she saw something he didn’t want to reveal. The pain of losing his entire family over a period of a few years had been so acute that he’d always vowed to avoid such pain again by not having a family of his own.

But, to his surprise, after the initial shock and anger at Sasha’s pregnancy news had abated, he’d found that the thought of a baby he could protect and nurture had softened something inside him. And had restored a broken sense of hope, optimism.

But then, the fact that she’d lied about it and roused those feelings had made a cruel mockery of the defences he’d built up over the years. They hadn’t been strong after all. Now, though, they were ironclad. Not that he would ever reveal to her what she’d done to him. She’d revealed a weakness, and reopened a wound and he would never forgive her for that.

‘I had never intended on having a relationship or becoming a father. Not after losing my entire family. But of course I would have cared for any child of mine. I’m not a monster.’

Sasha’s eyes were huge. Full of emotion. Exposure prickled over his skin just as she said huskily, ‘I’m sorry...for what happened. I don’t know why I pretended to be pregnant but I’d like to think I had good reasons.’

He fought against the image she was projecting of someone compassionate, who cared. He should move back, out of her dangerous orbit, but instead he found himself moving closer. All he could see was her. Looking impossibly innocent. Impossibly because

she hadn’t been innocent at all. Or had she? Physically perhaps, at least.

He had an intensely erotic memory of how it had felt to thrust deep into that silken embrace. Her muscles had clamped so tightly around him he’d seen stars.

Angry at his lack of control, he asked curtly, ‘Are you really sorry, though? Or is this just an elaborate showcase of your acting skills to entice me back into your bed so you can try to get pregnant for real?’

Horror at his relentless cynicism made Sasha take a step back. ‘No. How can you say such a thing?’

Apollo’s mouth was a thin line. ‘Very easily, because you did it before, countless times, including the memorable occasion when I came home to find you naked in my bed.’

Shock and disbelief made Sasha take another step back. She shook her head. ‘No, there is no way I would have ever done such a thing.’

Apollo just arched a brow. ‘Why would I lie? You have to agree it made sense. After all, you weren’t pregnant so you needed to get pregnant. Fast.’

Sasha swallowed. Had that really been her? So desperate? Conniving? She struggled to defend herself when she felt as if everything inside her was crumbling. ‘But it’s obvious you don’t want me—why would I have humiliated myself like that?’

Apollo was looking at her so intensely she could scarcely breathe.

He said something under his breath then, a word she didn’t understand, and then said, almost as if to himself, ‘I thought I didn’t want you any more, but now it’s all I can think about. What kind of sorcery is this?’

Sasha’s heart slammed to a stop, and then started again in an erratic rhythm. She suddenly became very aware of her flimsy garments. The silky thigh-skimming negligée and floaty dressing gown. Garments she didn’t feel particularly comfortable in, but apparently she hadn’t favoured comfort over style.