Christo smiled. A wicked, glinting thing.
‘I didn’t realise I’d find crosswords so enjoyable. What’s our next clue?’
He was teasing her. It lit up his face with a mischievous sort of amusement. She tried hard not to smile herself. She shouldn’t be having fun. She shouldn’t. Reality would intrude soon enough.
Thea shut the crossword book. ‘I don’t want to risk hearing about any more of your odd culinary extravaganzas.’
‘Not my experience with sea cucumbers in China? Where’s your sense of adventure?’
‘I’ve never been encouraged to have one.’
‘Shame... I’m travelling to New York in a few weeks. I thought you might join me.’
Her heart leapt. He was going to the city her mother had promised to take her.
An awful yearning replaced the sense of fun. It clutched at her, twisting hard. She toyed with the corner of the book in her lap, staring out past filmy curtains to the floodlit balcony. The illuminated olive trees waved silvery in the night breeze.
‘I’ve never been out of Greece.’
Christo leaned forward, forearms on his thighs. His wedding ring glinted in the lights. ‘What was your father thinking?’
That if he kept her in a cage she wouldn’t fall, like her mother had before her marriage.
‘He’s protective. There was always a driver. Always a bodyguard. Something I rely on now.’
The lie caught in her throat. Her father had been her jailer. Demetri his enforcer.
‘Come to New York with me and you’ll have a driver. I’ll also organise one of my security detail to attend you. If that’s what you want.’
It was. Desperately. Because here was her way to locate Alexis. Christo had power and reach she didn’t. If anyone could find him it was her husband.
‘I’d like to bring my own bodyguard.’
‘My men are all provided by Raul. Highly trained and supremely trustworthy.’
Could she tell him the truth about Alexis? That he was the child her mother had been forced to relinquish? Her half-brother, who’d kept her going on her darkest days?
No lies. No manipulation.
No. She couldn’t trust anyone who did business with her father—especially if that business involved her.
She licked her lips. ‘I only trust Alexis Anastos—the man my father engaged.’
Christo lounged in his chair, but there was a tension about him which told her he was watchful.
‘Where is he now?’
‘I’m not sure. He was released prior to our marriage. Said he was going to take a long holiday. Something about working with me making him need one.’ She laughed. It sounded hollow.
Christo’s eyes narrowed. His body stilled with predator-like intent.
‘How close were you to him?’
The question was measured, quiet. But the implication of the words burrowed under her skin. What did he think she was? A hot roil of anger seethed inside her. Newly married and already seeking out someone else? Anyhow, they had an agreement—one she loathed, but she’d stick by it nonetheless.
‘He was like the brother I should have had!’ she snapped.
Christo cocked his head. Stupid. Her emotion would give everything away.