A pang smote her. She was not looking forward to returning to Athens, but she knew they must. Xandros needed to get on with all the work that making his merger with her father’s business entailed. That was what they had married for.
Their marriage was a means to an end—nothing more than that.
The fact that she and Xandros had become lovers was irrelevant to achieving that goal.
That is what I have to remember and never forget. The day the merger is accomplished is the day our marriage ends and we go our separate ways.
She turned away from her reflection, not wanting to see the woman there—the woman whose life had been transformed in ways she had never realised it would be when she had first landed on this beautiful enchanted island. Tomorrow they would be leaving, but she would arrive back in Athens a different person. There could be no going back to the one she had been.
She felt emotion catch at her, but let it slip away. It was best that it did. Best to simply pick up her flowered shawl and make her way out to the walled terrace. Maria, she knew, had prepared a farewell feast for them, and Xandros would be waiting for her. She must make the very most of this last evening here.
In Athens it would be...different.
She would not have his constant company...would need to be self-reliant. Already she had resolved to fill her days productively. Exploring Athens, learning Greek, and
even, she had decided, picking up her online studies. Qualifications were never wasted, and when she was back in England they would come in useful even with the incredibly generous divorce settlement Xandros was promising her.
She might start her own business...make investments...after all, she had the rest of her life ahead of her. Her life beyond Xandros...
She felt a chill strike her and pulled her shawl a little closer around her shoulders.
Yet it did not seem to warm her.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
DESPITE HER RESOLVE to be self-reliant when they were back in Athens, and not expect Xandros to dance attendance on her, Rosalie found she had to keep reminding herself that his priority was not her—it was making the merger he had married her to achieve a reality. It meant he spent long days at his office—long days in which she had to occupy herself.
She did just as she had resolved to do—assiduously exploring the city and its cornucopia of ancient treasures, attempting to learn the language as she’d told herself she would and picking up her online studies again, courtesy of the brand-new laptop Xandros had presented her with. She also, at Xandros’s behest, sampled the many upmarket fashion shops in Athens in order to extend her designer wardrobe yet further—it was frivolous, but wonderful to be able to indulge herself as a budding fashionista...
After the grim, exhausting slog of her London life she knew she should only be grateful that her days now were this easy, and if her evenings alone in his apartment stretched, with Xandros often not home till late, and working weekends as well, she refused to let herself feel neglected.
She had no right to feel that way.
No right to miss him or to miss the leisurely pace they’d enjoyed on Kallistris.
On Kallistris, by day and by night, they had made slow, lingering love, with Xandros’s skilled mouth and fingertips drawing from her such sensual bliss that it had been a white-out of the mind. Now there was only urgent passion, swiftly sated. When she awoke he was already up and getting ready for the office, leaving her with a brief kiss and nothing more.
She sighed, feeling guilty. She should not let herself be like this. She had so much! A life of ease and luxury. She had no right to feel so down. No right to want yet more.
To want Xandros to herself while she had him.
She frowned—where had that come from? That reminder of their time being limited. Of course it was—she’d known that from the very start! Neither of them was committed to the other except for the time they had allotted to stay together in this brief, temporary marriage.
You knew that from the start! And you knew that his focus was going to be on getting the merger done! You’ve no business to feel neglected or feel sorry for yourself!
But as she heard his key in the lock—early for him on this Friday evening—she felt her spirits life instantly and her mood soar. She’d seem almost nothing of him these last two weekends since returning to Athens.
Tossing his briefcase down on the sofa, Xandros swept her up into his arms. ‘At last! A weekend not in the office!’ He kissed her, and set her back, resting his hands on her shoulders. ‘Time to party!’ he told her.
He took a deep breath before speaking again, his words sounding heartfelt.
‘I’ve slogged long enough—I want a break. So how about it? Let’s rig ourselves up and head out! It’s the birthday party of a friend of mine and I don’t want to miss it—and...’ he nodded at her and his expression was telling ‘...it’s high time I showed you off! But first...’
His grip on her shoulders changed, becoming a caress. The expression in his face changed, too, and gold glinted in his eyes.
‘But first,’ he said again, ‘I want to make up for all my neglect of you—’
With a catch of her breath and a quickening of her veins Rosalie realised what he intended.