She couldn’t bring herself to ask. Instead she took a quick breath and said, ‘Will Helios’s children be sent to boarding school, like you and your brothers were?’
This was a question that had played on her mind since she’d realised all the Princes had been packed off to boarding school. If she told Theseus about Toby, and if he recognised him as his son, would he expect him to be sent away too?
That was if he recognised him as his son.
What if he demanded a DNA test? The thought made her shudder.
So many ‘what ifs’.
If only she could see what the future held.
‘Of course. It is the Kalliakis tradition.’
‘Is it traditional to be sent away at eight?’
‘Yes.’
‘That’s such a young age.’ She thought again of Toby, who still struggled to put his own socks on. To imagine being separated from him for months on end... No, she couldn’t do it. Being apart from him while she was here on Agon was hard enough.
‘I agree. Too young.’
She swallowed back her relief. ‘Did you find it hard, leaving your home and family?’
‘You have no idea,’ he said, his tone harsher than she’d ever heard it.
‘Was it easier for you, having Helios there already when you went?’
He looked at her and paused for a moment. ‘Harder. I was always being compared to him. I wanted to be judged in my own right.’
‘So were you always rivals?’
‘What makes you ask that?’ The intensity of his stare grew.
She pulled a rueful face, knowing she was reaching dangerous territory. ‘I’ve been putting two and two together again. I saw a press cutting about your grandparents’ wedding anniversary party, where you punched him in the face.’
To her amazement he shook his head and burst into laughter.
The transformation took her breath away.
It was the first time she’d heard him laugh since she’d arrived at the palace, and the sound dived straight through her skin.
Almost lazily he reached out and pressed a finger to her lips. ‘You are a very astute woman.’
It was the lightest of touches, but enough for all the breath in her lungs to rush out in a whoosh and for her heart, which was already hammering, to accelerate.
‘Yes, we were rivals,’ he murmured. ‘Helios was always destined to be King. My destiny was to be the perfect Prince, tucked in his shadow. It was a destiny I fought against. I didn’t want to be in his shadow. I wanted to be in the sun.’
His finger drifted away from her mouth and slid across her cheek, leaving flickers of heat following his trail. If he moved any closer he’d be able to feel the thundering of her heart...
He stepped closer. ‘My childhood was a battle for attention and freedom.’
He was going to kiss her.
Her senses were filled with him; his scent, his heat, the masculine essence he carried so effortlessly and that every part of her sang to.
She mustn’t give in to it. She mustn’t.
She cleared her throat. ‘Is that why you’re the perfect Prince now? Are you making up for your behaviour then?’ Judging by the press cuttings, his behaviour over these past few years had been exemplary.
He stiffened. The hazy mist that had appeared in his eyes cleared. He pulled his hand away from her face and stepped back, his regal skin slipping into place effortlessly.
Breathing heavily, Jo tried to collect her scattered thoughts, tried dispelling the tingles racing through her.
He’d been about to kiss her.
And she’d been about to kiss him right back.
She still wanted to. Her mouth ached to feel his warm, firm lips upon hers again.
She could feel the invisible mark his finger had left on her lips, had to clench her hands into fists to stop them tracing it.
‘Yes, you are an astute woman.’ Theseus had regained his composure. ‘Now, unless you have further questions about my grandfather, I have work to do.’
‘I’m done,’ she said quietly, edging away from him, sidestepping into her own office, glad of the dismissal.
Only when she was completely alone did she place her fingers to her lips and trace the mark he’d made on her mouth.
* * *
Theseus stood in the adjoining archway and looked into Joanne’s office, as he’d done numerous times since she’d arrived on his island.
There she sat, hunched over her computer, earphones in, seemingly oblivious to his pursuing eyes.
Any doubts he’d had about Hamlin & Associates sending a relative novice to take Fiona’s place had gone. Unashamed of asking for help with translation when needed, Jo had finished four chapters in three days, passing them to him for approval before sending them to the Oxford office for editing. At the rate she was going she would beat the Wednesday deadline by a comfortable margin.