“As if you could ever love anyone!” She still felt sick remembering how he’d once said, I never claimed to love you.
“You’re right. I’m not sure I know how to love anyone.” As she gaped at his honesty, Leonidas shook his head. “But I know I can protect and provide. It is my job as a man. Not just for her. Also for you.”
“Why?” she whispered.
Leonidas looked down at her.
“Because I can,” he said simply. He took a deep breath. “I might not have the ability to love you, Daisy. But I can take care of you. Just as I can take care of our daughter. If you’ll let me.”
Daisy swallowed hard.
“But, marriage...” she whispered. “How could we promise each other forever, without love?”
“Love is not necessary between us—or even desirable. Romantic love can be destructive.”
Destructive? Daisy looked at his clenched jaw, the tightness around his eyes. Had someone broken Leonidas’s heart? She fought the impulse to reach out to him, to ask questions, to offer comfort. Sympathy was the last thing she wanted to feel right now.
“What about marrying someone you despise?” she pointed out. “That seems pretty destructive.”
“Do you really hate me so much, Daisy? Just because I was afraid to tell you my last name when we met? Just because, when a man tried to sell me a forgery, I pressed charges? For that, you’re determined to hate me for the rest of your life? No matter what that does to our child?”
She bit her lip. When he put it like that...
Her heart was pounding. She thought of how she’d felt last October, when she’d loved him, and he’d broken her heart. It would kill her if that ever happened again. “I can’t love you again.”
“Good.” Leonidas looked down at her in the falling light. “I’m not asking you to. But give me a chance to win back your trust.”
Her heart lifted to her throat. Trust?
It was a cruel reminder of how she’d once trusted Leo, blindly believing him to be perfect. How could she ever trust him again?
Daisy looked down at her short waterproof boots. “I don’t know if I can.”
“Why won’t you try?” His face was in shadow. He tilted his head. “Are you in love with someone else? The artist who owns this apartment, Franck Bain?”
“I told you, he’s a friend, nothing more!” Daisy kept Franck’s marriage proposal to herself. No point in giving Leonidas ammunition. She shook her head fiercely. “I don’t want to love anyone. Not anymore. I’ve given up on that fairy tale since—”
Her voice cut off, but it was too late.
Leonidas drew closer. The light from the hallway caressed the hard edges of his face. “Since you loved me?”
A shiver went through Daisy. Against her will, her gaze fell to his cruel, sensual lips. She still couldn’t forget the memory of his kiss, his mouth so hot against her skin, making her whole body come alive.
No, she told herself angrily. No! She’d allowed her body to override her brain once before. And look what had happened!
But she still felt Leonidas’s every movement. His every breath. Even though he didn’t touch her, she could still feel him, blood and bone.
He looked down at her. “You don’t need to worry, then,” he said softly. “Because we agree. Neither of us is seeking love. Because romantic love is destructive.”
She agreed with him, didn’t she? So why did her heart twist a little as she said, “Yes, I guess you’re right.” She took a deep breath. “That doesn’t mean I can just forgive or forget what you did.”
“You loved your father.”
“Yes.”
“He meant everything to you.”
“Yes!”