She’d been worried her dream wouldn’t live up to expectation, but it had.
He made her feel utterly desirable, irresistible and beautiful, and she’d never felt like that in her life before—had never imagined it was possible to feel like this. ‘Thank you,’ she murmured, wrapping her arms around his neck. ‘Thank you for making it special.’
He muttered something inaudible in Greek and lowered his forehead to hers. ‘I am now officially addicted to your body.’
Selene smiled up at him, feeling like a cross between a goddess and a seductress. ‘I think I’m possibly addicted to yours, too.’
‘Good. In that case I’m going to break one of my unbreakable rules and keep you here for another night.’
That statement was a reality check. A dark cloud passing in front of the sun. A reminder that this part of her life hadn’t officially started yet. Soon. ‘I can’t do that. I have to go home.’ Disappointment thudded through her and he lifted his head and frowned.
‘Why?’
‘I have to get back to Antaxos.’
‘I thought you wanted to assert your independence?’
‘I do. And to do that I have to go back to Antaxos.’ She told herself that was her decision. She was going back for her mother, not her father. And nothing, not even the thought of going home, was going to spoil this moment. Her active mind quickly spun a scenario where she was living here with Stefan, spending her days with her body tangled with his.
She stared up at him, wondering if he was imagining the same thing, but his handsome face was inscrutable.
‘Returning home isn’t asserting your independence. It’s regressing.’
‘It’s just a temporary thing.’ She’d kept her plan secret, protected it as carefully as a mother would her child, desperate for it to grow, but all her defences were ripped away after the intimacies they’d shared. ‘I have to get back to the island before my father returns and discovers I’ve gone. If he knows I came to you it will be difficult for me.’
‘Returns?’ There was a sudden tension in his shoulders. ‘You mean he isn’t there?’
‘No. Once a year he spends a week on Crete. That’s how I was able to get away.’
She wondered why they were spoiling the moment by talking about her father.
She wondered why he was suddenly so still. Why his expression was guarded.
‘So you were hoping to return and leave again without him knowing?’
‘Of course. Why do you think I came to you? Why do you think I dressed as a nun? He never would have let me leave had he been on the island. I’ve planned this for so long—you have no idea.’
‘Why go back at all? Stay here with me.’
The invitation was so tempting. ‘I can’t do that. There are things I need from the island—’ Years of playing a part stopped her revealing that final secret part of herself. It was how they lived. Pretending that this was normal. Keeping up the show for the outside world. ‘Important things. But I don’t plan to stay for any time at all. I have to be away again before he returns.’
‘Because you’re afraid he won’t want you to leave? Stand up to him.’ His tone cooler, Stefan eased himself away from her and sat up. ‘Show him you’re a grown-up and he might treat you that way.’
Missing the intimacy, Selene sat up, too. ‘You don’t know my father.’
‘I know that being independent means taking responsibility for your actions and owning them. There is no reason to hide this from him. Tell him you’re with me. Show him you’re not afraid.’
She was afraid. She’d be a fool not to be and she wasn’t a fool.
Selene thought about what happened when someone stood up to her father and she thought of her mother, alone and vulnerable on Antaxos.
‘I can’t do that. Not yet.’ The magic had gone so she slid from the bed.
She felt different.
She felt beautiful.
She was aware of herself in a way that felt new. And she was aware of him. Of the way he watched her as she picked a dress from the clothes he’d bought her. Of the way he looked, his eyes hooded and his jaw shadowed by blue-black stubble.