Emily let out another sigh. ‘They haven’t quite disowned him but they refuse to accept he’s gay. They think it’s a stage he’s going through or something. They even blamed me for turning him to “the other side”. I got the most horrible phone call from his mother accusing me of being such a rubbish partner he had no choice but to look elsewhere for comfort. They refuse to meet his partner, Tim, and they’ll only see Daniel if he comes to the house alone. It’s terribly sad.’
He touched her face again, his expression suddenly wistful. ‘You’re a good person, Emily.’
‘So are you,’ Emily said, holding his gaze.
A shadow moved through Loukas’s eyes before he gently moved her aside to vacate the bed. He picked up his trousers and, stepping back into them, zipped them with a sound that sounded suspiciously to Emily like a punctuation mark.
‘Let me guess,’ she said, sitting upright. ‘You have some urgent work to see to?’
A frown flickered over his forehead. ‘Emily...’ His voice had that note of reproof in it that made her feel like a child who had overstepped the mark. ‘You don’t understand...’
‘I understand more than you give me credit for,’ she said. ‘I know how guilty you must feel. I can’t imagine how painful it must be to—’
‘Do you?’ he asked, eyes glittering. ‘Do you really know what it’s like to ruin someone’s life and never be able to do anything to fix it?’
Emily swallowed a tight lump as big as a pineapple. ‘You can’t fix it, but you’re not going to help your sister or your mother by keeping your distance. They love you, Loukas. They want to be connected to you, but you seem to prefer to keep them at arm’s length. They shouldn’t have left this afternoon. They shouldn’t have felt they had to go. They shouldn’t have had to ask if you wanted them at your wedding. You should’ve insisted they stay for the rest of the weekend at the very least.’
He dragged a hand down the length of his face, the sound of his palm against his stubble overly loud in the silence. ‘When I got back to the villa from a walk they’d already left. Chrystanthe informed me the butler from the cruise had collected them moments earlier.’
‘But would you have asked them to stay?’
He let out a long stream of air. ‘No, probably not.’
Emily got off the bed and, without bothering to cover herself, came up close to wrap her arms around his waist. She craned her neck to look up at him. ‘Perhaps we can ask them to stay a few days before the wedding so I can get to know them better, plus get Ariana’s dress sorted. Would you mind?’
His arms came around her to hold her closer. ‘It’s impossible to deny you anything when you stand naked in front of me. But then, I guess you know that, don’t you?’
Emily gave him an impish smile and lifted her mouth to his descending one. ‘I was counting on it.’
CHAPTER SEVEN
WHEN EMILY CAME DOWNSTAIRS the following morning, Loukas had already been up for several hours. He had left her to lie in bed, giving her tea and toast and making her promise to rest as long as she wanted. She found him in his study, working at his computer, but he pushed his chair back when she walked in and came over to take both her hands in a gentle hold. ‘How are you feeling?’
‘Pretty good, actually,’ she said. ‘I think having that tea and toast first thing really helped.’
He gave her hands a tiny squeeze, his expression guarded. ‘Emily, I’ve made an appointment with my lawyer to see to a pre-nuptial agreement. He’ll be here in an hour.’
Emily rolled her lips together, her gaze slipping out of reach of his. A pre-nuptial reminded her of how everything was different about their relationship. She knew it was an insurance policy, and it made sound financial sense for him to insist on one, as it would for any person in a couple who had independent wealth or assets they wanted to protect. But it was an unnerving reminder of the step she was taking—a step that was a long way from her dream of happy-ever-after. ‘Fine. That’s good. Makes sense to get things on the level from the get-go.’
He lifted her chin with the tip of his finger. ‘I know how that must make you feel, but I will be very generous in the event of a divorce.’
‘Don’t you mean when we divorce?’
His mouth tightened for a brief moment and his hand fell back by his side. ‘It would be wrong of me to expect you to stay with me indefinitely. It’s not what either of us want.’
But what if I do want it?
Uh-oh. I knew this was going to happen.
What?
You’re falling in love with him.
Emily pushed away the thought as if she were shoving something to the back of her wardrobe. She would sort it out later. Much later. Of course she wasn’t in love with him. How could she be? Just because they had smoking-hot sex didn’t mean they were Mr and Mrs Happy Ever After. It meant they had awesome chemistry—that was all. ‘Right, of course,’ she said. ‘But it just sounds a little weird to be going into marriage with the idea of a divorce being a given rather than a possibility.’
‘There is no need for our divorce to be anything but civil and entirely mutual.’
He made it sound so polite and clinical. How far away from her dream of a fairy-tale relationship was this heading? But she had to remember the baby. She was only agreeing to this because of the child they had made together. She owed it to their baby at least to give Loukas a chance to be a present and actively engaged father. She had seen too many fathers distanced from their children in messy break-ups. Even the most devoted fathers were often thwarted by custodial arrangements in the event of a separation or divorce. This way she could give Loukas a chance to build a solid relationship with their child, but she wouldn’t be tying either herself or Loukas down indefinitely.