‘But you were in Ayia Hera for twenty-four hours. Why did you stay a whole day?’
His profile held grim satisfaction. ‘I discovered that he’d fallen on hard times. The fiancée he’d ruined my family for had left him and cleaned him out. I got my lawyers to buy everything he owned for a pittance, including his precious manor, and turned it into my one and only three-star hotel. It didn’t deserve a five-star treatment.’
She gasped, her stomach hollowing at the calculating retribution he’d wrought on his own father.
He threw an unapologetic glance at her. ‘You think me callous? He was a coward who condemned my mother to a miserable life because he didn’t want to suffer a little discomfort. I may have his blood flowing through my veins, but that is all that links us. I’ve made my peace with that.’
‘Okay,’ she murmured. After a beat, she added, ‘I’m sorry about the necklace. I know it’s a symbol of everything you’ve achieved,’ she murmured, the enormity of it settling heavily on her.
He frowned. ‘What?’
‘Isn’t that why you want it back so badly?’
He continued to stare at her as if he was puzzled. Then he surged to his feet, strode away to the window. She could see the restlessness vibrating off him. She sat up, pulled up the sheets to her breasts and wondered whether she’d pushed him too far as she watched him rake his fingers through his hair.
Finally, he turned to face her. ‘I used to think so...’ He stopped again, his frown deepening.
Her heart sustained its frantic beat and she had no idea why what he’d left unsaid was so important. ‘But?’
His gaze swept away from hers. ‘It’s not just that. It’s the last piece of her that I have.’
The quiet words lashed at her heart. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said again.
His nostrils flared slightly but his gaze didn’t reconnect with hers. The sensation that she was missing something heightened. But then he nodded and she decided not to probe any further.
A minute later the decision became null and void when he walked back towards her.
The revelations of the past hour swirled through the room, ravaged memories unsettled between them. But soon another emotion gained supremacy. By the time he mounted one knee on the bed and prowled over her, their focus had shifted from past to present.
‘I want you,’ he rasped in a low, charged rumble.
‘I want you too,’ she whispered, unable to hide her need from him.
He made a very male sound of satisfaction before dropping his head to ravish her mouth. Time ceased to exist as they chased after pleasure that seemed to intensify with each touch and each kiss.
Eventually, it was the need to satisfy other hungers that propelled them out of bed.
They raided the kitchen, feasting on cold cuts and French bread and wine. Xandro tried to tempt her with caviar, then mercilessly mocked her as she gagged on the peculiar taste.
‘I’m glad I’m not the only one who detests fish eggs,’ he confessed.
‘Then why do you keep it?’
He shrugged. But then his eyes slid away from hers.
‘Oh.’ Her mood dampened by thoughts of previous lovers who had shared similar meals with him in this very kitchen, she started to turn away.
He caught her by the arms and pinned her against the central island. ‘Don’t turn away from me,’ he muttered thickly against her mouth. There was an odd note in his voice that struck something soft inside her. If she didn’t know better, she would’ve imagined he was feeling vulnerable about what he’d shared with her.
Welcome to the club.
In the space of a few hours they’d laid heavy revelations at each other’s feet.
‘I’m okay. Seriously,’ she stressed, more to reassure herself.
‘You are not. I wouldn’t be either if our roles were reversed.’
What those words did to her heart Sage didn’t want to admit, even to herself. Because their effect suggested her emotions weren’t as fleeting as she wanted them to be. ‘Stop it. You don’t need to pretend. I’m aware I don’t have any rights here.’