‘Why didn’t you just tell me how important this was, and ask me to come with you?’
Unbidden, the words that came surprised even himself. ‘I didn’t want to risk that you’d say no.’
He felt her small hand reach his elbow and gently pull him about to face her.
‘You have to trust me, Dimitri. If I knew how important this was, then of course I would come with you. But trust works both ways, Dimitri. You can’t demand truth and fidelity from me, and not give it in return. So if there is something that I don’t want to do or, in fact, do want, then you have to trust me too.’
But, in the darkest reaches of his heart, he knew that this was what he was most afraid of.
* * *
Anna shifted uncomfortably in the back of the limousine taking them to the gala at the exclusive hotel in Kavala, the same limousine that would pick them up at the end of the night and return them to his apartment nearby.
Had it only been last night that Dimitri had opened himself up to her? She felt as if years had passed. She was beginning to see through the mask that Dimitri wore to the child, the vulnerable boy who’d been lost and needed, deserved, kindness. Beneath his words she’d felt his pain, and was finally beginning to understand his need to secure certain things for their daughter. She’d once so easily dismissed his notion that something might happen to her, or to him. For her it was hypothetical. For him it had been real. A lesson hard learned.
She felt that they’d made a step forward last night. That slowly they were forging connections she both longed for and feared. But she also knew that he was holding something back. Because he was speaking of a childhood pain, not the pain of the present that she could see hovering around him like an aura.
Flora and Amalia had stayed back at the island, neither Dimitri nor Anna willing to upset Amalia’s routine for just one night. A few hours ago, Amalia had played with diamonds and pearls as if they were plastic bricks, Anna’s heart lurching as she saw her daughter’s chubby fist gripping enough jewels to support them for a lifetime. The same expensive jewels that now hung around her neck like a noose.
The cool silks of a turquoise dress skittered over her skin like a caress—one that she hadn’t received from Dimitri since their conversation the night before. She had marvelled at how the beautiful colour had sat against her sun-darkened skin. Never before had she seen the colour of her skin as anything other than something that marked her as different, that reminded her constantly of her father’s absence from her life. But here, in Greece, it came to life; she came to life. Stunning was how Dimitri had described her one night. Beautiful, another, and more recently his. But the night-time words were left in the dark, and the day...?
She had darkened her eyelashes with liner and mascara, accentuating features she now wanted to own, to shine as if both her appearance and her emotional scars had made her who she was today. She’d dusted the lids of her eyes with a golden shadow, bringing the vivid green of her irises to light. Was it Dimitri’s confession, his struggles with his past, that had helped her find her own strength? The fact that this incredible, powerful man, with his own dark secrets, could be proud and confident? If only he had chosen her for herself...the unwelcome secret voice of her heart whispered.
Brushing that thought aside, and focusing on an inner sense of confidence, she proudly walked up the red carpet that lined the steps to the incredible hotel built within an old imaret in the port town halfway between Thessaloniki and Istanbul. As they passed through the high, sweeping archways she ignored the flash of the press’s cameras, the questions called out to Dimitri. She followed his actions, smiled when he smiled and, when he turned to her and claimed her lips with his own, shock momentarily gave way to desire, inflaming hopes of what might come after the gala.
The moment they entered the gilded ballroom, sound hit her like a wave, a thousand voices in a hundred languages echoing off the stone walls and marble floors, but all hushed in an instant, turning to greet Dimitri like a long-lost friend. After the fourth introduction, Anna stopped trying to remember people’s names, instead taking it all in and falling back into warm greetings she was well versed in from her experience at the bed and breakfast.
When Dimitri guided her towards yet another group of people she felt herself smile as she recognised the man that stood in the centre of a tightly knit group. The sheikh who had been at their wedding, the royal she had been almost too scared to speak to, now greeted her with warmth the moment his eyes lit on hers.
‘Dimitri, so kind of you to join us,’ said the heavily accented voice with mock reproach.
‘I knew that this evening would be doing well in your more than capable hands, Danyl.’
‘Anna, lovely to see you again,’ Danyl said, bypassing Dimitri’s compliment.
The lack of formality between her husband and the prince drew only the slightest of frowns from the two dignitaries, who made excuses and left the small group. Anna’s eyes were drawn to the cool beauty pressing herself against the sheikh. In Anna’s mind, she was exquisite. Ice-blonde hair, perfectly swept back, as if ready and waiting for a crown, topped a face with the palest of skin. Milk and honey was the first thing that came to Anna’s mind.
‘Allow me to introduce Birgitta Svenska,’ Danyl said without making eye contact with the woman, his tone as bland as if he were reading off a restaurant menu. Anna thought she saw a brief flash of hurt in Birgitta’s features.
‘A pleasure,’ the woman said in cultured tones that betrayed no hint of a Scandinavian accent. Her gaze remained cool and assessing, until she took in Anna’s husband. Calculation turned to appraisal, and Anna was surprised by the fierce streak of possessiveness that ran across her shoulders.
‘Any sign of Antonio?’ asked Dimitri as if he too had somehow passed over the European beauty.
‘He couldn’t make it. He sends his apologies. Emma’s morning sickness has kept her in their apartment in New York.’
Anna smiled. ‘You should tell her to try ginger tea. It certainly worked for me.’
Dimitri turned to her. ‘You had morning sickness?’
‘Yes, Dimitri. Oddly enough, it’s actually quite common,’ she replied, gently mocking him. Though her tone had clearly done nothing to assuage the sting reflected in his gaze.
‘I hadn’t expected her to be experiencing it so soon. He only just called to tell me the news,’ he said, turning back to the Sheikh of Ter’harn. ‘Anything new from Australia?’ Dimitri asked.
‘Nothing you cannot find out for yourself, Dimitri.’ It was then that Anna was reminded of the sheikh’s true power, the look in his eyes enough to quell an army. Her husband responded only with a raised eyebrow.
‘She is fine,’ Danyl reluctantly admitted.
‘She?’ Anna couldn’t help querying.