But how?
And what if she couldn’t get him to respond?
Kass grabbed her phone and, while struggling out of her gown and layers of girdles and undergarments, researched men and arousal. Peeling her stockings off, she found quite a few sites offering numerous tips on how to please your man in bed, ranging from “Twelve Erogenous Zones That Shouldn’t Be Ignored” to a very useful and practical article on “How to Give Unforgettable Oral Sex.”
Naked, she headed into the adjoining white marble bathroom and, careful not to get her hair wet—it was still coiled up in an elaborate updo—she used the body wash in the shower to try to rub some of the marks out of her skin, but the angry red marks created by the corset weren’t ready to fade. Leaving the shower, she wrapped herself in the white robe hanging on the back of the door, and then sat down on the edge of the bathtub and began reading everything she could about pleasing a man.
She was still reading when she heard a firm knock on the bathroom door. “Are you hiding, mikrí sou gynaíka?”
Her Greek was a little rusty, but not so rusty she didn’t understand his words. Are you hiding, my little wife?
She jumped up and turned her phone off. “No.” Kassiani opened the door and faced him, tugging the lapels of the robe so that they better covered her chest. “I’m using your robe. I hope that is okay. I’m sorry. I didn’t think to bring any clothes with me.”
“I don’t think either of us was thinking clearly.” He hesitated, and then shrugged. “This isn’t going to work. I’ll ask the crew to find something for you to wear and then my security will get you back to the villa at Sounio.”
“Am I that much of a disappointment?”
“You’re not a disappointment.”
“Then why send me away without giving me a chance?”
“Because I was engaged to Elexis, not you.”
“But Elexis left and I was there.”
“The Dukas sisters are not interchangeable!”
“Because I’m not beautiful like her?”
“Because you’re not hard like her.” He didn’t quite yell, but he flung the words at her with enough ferocity to make her flinch. He must have seen her reaction because he dropped his voice. “I wanted a wife who wouldn’t feel. A woman I couldn’t bruise. I don’t know you very well, Petra Kassiani, but my gut says you feel, and feel deeply.”
Heat rushed through her, and shame, because he was right. She did feel deeply but she hated that aspect of her personality, far preferring her intellect over her emotions. “I understand the kind of marriage you want. I won’t ask you to romance me. I won’t expect flowers and poetry—”
“Or tenderness? Or kindness? Or patience?”
“I can’t believe you’re capable of all of the above.”
“Well, I am. Trust me.”
“You were marrying Elexis to help save Dukas Shipping.”
“I was marrying Elexis to dismantle Dukas Shipping.”
Her eyes widened and her heart skipped a beat. “I don’t believe you,” she whispered.
“If you stay here, if you remain my wife and the agreements and contracts hold, there will be no Dukas Shipping in five years. It will all be Alexopoulos Shipping of the Aegean.”
She stared at him, skeptical, but also wary. “Is this your way of making me throw up my arms and run back to my father? Am I to choose him and his business over you?”
“I am nothing to you. You are nothing to me—”
“I married you. You are my husband.”
“But you do not know me. You should have no loyalty to me.”
“I pledged to care for you and be a good wife. I intend to keep my vow.”
“Even though I want to destroy what’s left of your father’s business?”
She didn’t immediately answer, taking needed time to form an answer. “From the beginning this was to be a merger of families and businesses. The stronger business always wins in mergers. You are the stronger partner and change was inevitable.”
He turned away and walked through the French doors to the deck. She could see him run his hand across his jaw, once, and then again. He was battling himself, she thought. He was battling and she didn’t even know his fight, but whatever it was, she was firmly on his side. She had to be. She had chosen him, and she’d wanted a new life. A different life. She’d wanted to be an Alexopoulos, and not a Dukas, and if she wasn’t careful he’d cart her back to the mainland and she’d be back with her father, which was the last place she wanted to be.
Kassiani followed him outside. Clouds half covered the moon, casting shadows on the deck. She couldn’t see Damen’s face clearly. But his shoulders were rigid, and even from this angle, he looked utterly unapproachable.
“Damen.”
“Go back inside. I can’t think clearly with you near me.”
“Maybe that’s good.”
“It’s not.”
The night had cooled and a wind blew, tugging at her hair, and the label of her thick white robe. “Please, just give me a chance—”
“For God’s sake, do not beg, Kassiani.”
“Just give me a chance. One chance. That’s all I ask.”
“Why?”
“I want out. I want a life away from my family—”
“You’re not going to get a happy family with me.”
“I’m not asking for a fairy tale. I’m not pretty and popular. I find dating a nightmare. I’m so awkward but at the same time, I’m practical. I know you were marrying my sister because you wanted heirs. Obviously she’s not ready to marry and be a mother, but I am. I want children. I’ll be a good mother, too. So give me a chance to show you I could be a good wife, and...please...you. If I can’t, and you have no...interest...despite my best efforts, then I will go home, and I’ll accept your decision. But I can’t accept rejection before I’ve had a chance to prove myself—”
“This isn’t about you,” he gritted, spinning around, features twisted. “This is about your father manipulating me—”
“But you got everything you wanted...the deals, the ports, the ships, the agreements, everything but Elexis. And you said you didn’t love her, so why can’t I be a substitute bride? Why can’t I be the woman to give you your children? Is it because I’m so much plainer?”
“No.”
“You protested too quickly.” She struggled to smile. “I don’t believe you. But that’s okay. I know what I look like—”
“Stop it, Kass!” He grabbed her by the upper arms and gave her a shake. “Stop this madness. Because it is madness. I may not have been born with much, but I would never take a woman against her will, and you were forced into this marriage by your father to save his hide, not yours.”
“But that’s not true. This marriage saves mine. This marriage gets me out.” Her voice broke. Tears fell. “I hated living in that house on Nob Hill. I have never fit in, never belonged, and I’m fully aware of who I am in that family. I’m the ugly one. The embarrassing one. The one they choose to leave behind. Marrying you lets me escape that legacy. You give me a new life, and a future.”
“You’ll be no happier with me.”
She hesitated, a lump welling in her throat, a lump so big it made swallowing hurt. “I know it’s not easy to look at me—”