She fell asleep when her head hit the pillow, and spent the night dreaming of her husband’s hot kisses.
When she woke up the morning of her birthday, she saw the sky was blue outside, and the sun was brigh
t and gold. She looked over at Stavros’s side of the bed, and saw it hadn’t been slept in. Stavros had never come home last night at all.
Holly heard echoes of Oliver’s laughing voice. Minos men are selfish to the bone. We do what we like, and everyone else be damned.
And worse, Stavros’s words. Love always has a winner and a loser. A conqueror and a conquered.
If she loved him, and he didn’t love her back, which would she be?
With a chill, Holly knew the heartbreaking answer.
* * *
When his eyes opened, Stavros sat up straight from the sofa.
Seeing the full morning sunlight coming from the window, he gave a low curse, then stood up so fast he almost felt dizzy. His muscles were cramped from a long night spent hunched over the conference-room table, and a few hours of unsettling sleep on his office sofa had left his spine and joints out of place.
He stretched painfully, blinking with exhaustion as he looked around his spacious private office. Piles of papers covered his large, usually pristine black desk, along with empty takeout cartons, the remnants of the kung pao shrimp and broccoli beef his support staff had arranged to be delivered for the negotiating team’s dinner at midnight. Stavros had brought the cartons in here to eat privately as he read through the other company’s last-minute counteroffer, striking out lines with his red pen before he returned to the conference room to compare notes with his lawyers.
Sometime around 4:00 a.m., he’d realized his brain was in a fog. So he’d stretched out on his sofa. He’d only meant to rest his eyes for a moment, but now it was—looking at his smartwatch, Stavros cursed aloud—nearly eight o’clock. He was supposed to meet back with his team in ten minutes.
Stavros should have texted Holly to let her know he wouldn’t be coming home. He should have—
He should do nothing. The cold voice spoke calmly in his soul. Keep his distance. Let her know that their marriage could never be more than a domestic and sexual partnership. Romantic love would never—could never—be a part of it. He wanted Holly to realize this without him having to tell her. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her.
The first week of their marriage had been the best week of his life. Pleasure, enjoyment, friendship...and mind-blowing sex. He’d been happy with her. He’d forgotten to be so guarded. He’d spent hours with her, not just in bed, but talking about his past. About his feelings. About everything.
And he’d caught Holly looking at him with wistful longing in her beautiful emerald eyes. Something more than admiration. Something far more than his dark soul deserved.
It had shaken him to the core. He’d crossed a line he shouldn’t have crossed. He couldn’t let Holly fall in love with him. He couldn’t. And not just because he’d never love her back.
Love was tragedy. There were only two ways love could end—betrayal, or death.
It was a thought made all the sharper today, Stavros thought now. The one-year anniversary of when he’d gotten his fatal diagnosis last year. He’d lived, against all odds. But the miracle could so easily have not happened. And though his last medical scan had showed him in complete remission, one never knew. He could die of something else. Or Holly could.
How could anyone think of loving each other, knowing it could only end in tragedy?
So he’d forced himself to turn away from all the joy and light his wife had brought to his days. He’d grimly reassembled the walls that guarded his soul. He couldn’t let her love him. He had to hold the line. He couldn’t be so cruel as to lure her into loving him when he knew it would only bring her pain. He had to fight it.
He couldn’t bear the thought of ever seeing Holly suffer. He had to protect her—even from himself.
But how could he pull away, without making her feel the sting of rejection?
He’d grabbed onto the negotiations for this business deal with force. It was an amazing excuse to create some distance from his wife.
Although spending an entire night apart was a little too much distance. Going into the private bathroom of his office, he brushed his teeth, then spat out the toothpaste. He looked bleakly in the mirror.
There were dark circles under his eyes from stress and lack of sleep. He missed Holly. He missed his son. He wanted to be home.
He had to remind himself, again and again, that he was staying away for their sakes. Because if Holly fell in love with him, sooner or later she’d demand he love her back. When he couldn’t, she’d ask for a divorce. And just like that, their family would be destroyed.
Or maybe she wouldn’t ask for a divorce. Maybe it would be even worse. Maybe she’d stay in their marriage, trapped forever in silent desperation.
Last year, when Stavros had thought he was dying, he’d feared leaving Holly behind as a brokenhearted widow. How much worse would it be if instead, she loved him without hope for the rest of her life, making their marriage a sort of living death?
Stavros’s shoulders ached as he took a quick, hot shower, trying to wash his churning feelings away. Getting out, he toweled off and pulled on the spare suit that he kept cleaned and pressed in his closet.