But for once, this evening, he had hardly thought of his grandfather. He’d been sitting rigidly on Amy’s hard sofa, trying to keep a lid on his temper as the hours had passed and he’d waited for her to return.
And now here she was, dressed for a romantic night out with someone else. It was the final punch in the guts after what had been a hellish day.
The straightforward task of asking the King of Monte Cleure for his daughter’s hand in marriage had turned into something infinitely more stomach-turning. The King had received him as if he were a long-lost son, his pride and happiness in his daughter’s choice and her future prospects evident.
Throughout the entire private audience a bad taste had been lodged in Helios’s throat. Words had formed but he’d spoken them as if they were being dragged over spikes. And throughout all the formalities his brain had been ticking over Amy’s less than enthusiastic response to his offer of a permanent role at the palace museum.
To Helios it had been the perfect solution—a way to prove to Amy that she still had a role to play in his life for as long as she wanted, and that he wasn’t throwing away what they had for the sake of a piece of paper tying him to another woman. And, besides, she’d earned the job offer. All his reasoning, everything he’d said to her, had been the truth.
Her response had grated on him.
And then he’d received that message from Pedro and taken his jet straight back to Agon.
‘Where have you been?’ he asked for a second time, noting the way she avoided his gaze at the question.
She sank onto the armchair in the corner, put a palm to her eye and rubbed it, smearing a trail of smoky-grey make-up across her cheek. ‘You have no right to ask. Who I see and what I do with my time is my own business.’
‘If you have taken another lover then I have every right to question you about it,’ he retorted, smothering the nausea roiling in his guts. If she’d taken another lover...
‘No, you don’t,’ she said hotly. ‘You’re the one marrying someone else, not me. That makes me a free agent. I don’t owe you anything.’
Staring at her angry face, it struck him for the first time that Amy was serious about their relationship being over. Until that precise moment he’d assumed her pride and jealousy had been speaking for her. That she’d been punishing him.
‘Who have you been with?’ he demanded. ‘Was it a man?’
She met his eyes and gave a sharp nod.
‘Is it someone I know?’
‘No.’
‘Where did you meet him?’
‘That doesn’t matter.’ She sucked in a breath. ‘Look, Helios—please—leave me alone. What we had...it’s over...’
‘So you’ve jumped straight into bed with another man? Is this your way of punishing me for doing my duty to my family and my country?’
The distaste that flashed over her face answered for her. ‘That’s disgusting.’
He hid the immediate rush of relief that she hadn’t been intimate with this elusive man. The relief died as quickly as it had been born.
‘If you’re not punishing me then why were you out with someone else? Are you so keen to prove your point that we’re finished that you’d humiliate me?’
‘How is me dining with someone else humiliating? And how can you dare say that when you’re the one marrying someone else?’
‘And how can you dare think I’ll let you walk away?’
She stilled, her eyes widening, the flicker under her left eye returning.
‘The reason I came back early from Monte Cleure is because Pedro called to inform me that the curator in charge of my grandfather’s Jubilee Exhibition—a woman who, may I remind you, was taken on despite her lack of experience, because Pedro and I were both convinced she had the knowledge and enthusiasm to pull it off—has decided to quit five months early.’
His anger burned, enflaming him. He would never have believed Amy could be so underhand.
‘Helios...’ She reached out a hand, then dropped it back to her side with a sigh. ‘What other choice do I have? I can’t stay here now.’
‘You’re not the heroine of some old-fashioned melodrama,’ he said scathingly. ‘What did you think would happen? That I would hear you had resigned and shrug my shoulders and say that it’s okay? Or that I would be so upset at the thought of you leaving my life permanently I would abandon my plans to marry Catalina, renounce my claim to the throne and marry you?’
She clutched at the knot of hair at the nape of her neck. ‘I hoped you would accept it and at least try to understand where I’m coming from.’