Kallie shrugged and stood up, forcing him to move back slightly. ‘I want to go home, Alexandros. Like I told you last night. I’ve had enough.’
He gripped her arms. ‘Kallie…downstairs just now…’ He frowned. ‘Why didn’t you stay there? What the hell is going on?’
She laughed harshly, and when he looked now her eyes were dead. Dread moved through him.
‘Alexandros, you know what happened now. We can both move on.’
Something flashed in her eyes, brief but intense. She quickly masked it but not before he saw it.
‘Please.’ She tried to pull free of his arms. ‘Just let me go.’
‘Not until you tell me what’s happened. When I left you were sitting on that couch, not moving a muscle.’ A different Kallie. With warm eyes. Not this cold stranger in front of him.
Kallie quailed under his look. But if I tell him then he’ll know…
But he’ll know anyway, a little voice reasoned, when the solicitor calls back when he doesn’t hear from Aexandros. All you have to do is pass on the message…
Kallie shrugged again and averted her gaze. ‘Your solicitor rang.’
Alexandros was confused. How could that have had this effect? Then he closed his eyes and groaned inwardly.
He opened them again and clutched Kallie’s arms even harder. ‘What did he say?’
She looked back up. ‘Just that he wants you to call.’
‘I don’t believe you.’
Anger rushed through her. She shook in his arms. ‘Fine. He said that if you want your quickie divorce then you’ll have to sign some papers as soon as you get back.’
Alexandros was very calm, didn’t react, apart from a muscle twitching in his jaw.
‘And why is this making you so upset, Kallie?’
‘It’s not,’ she denied pathetically, even as she trembled and shook under his hands.
‘Isn’t this what you want, too? What you begged for last night?’
‘Of course it is. There’s nothing I want more in the whole world.’
He quirked a brow. ‘Really?’
‘Yes. Please, Alexandros.’ That little flash of something in her eyes caught him again. Giving him hope. Even as she said again, ‘Just let me go.’
He let her go and she stumbled back slightly. He opened his hands, palms out, and backed towards the door, closing it.
‘What are you doing?’ she asked painfully.
‘I’ll let you go, Kallie. But only when you’ve heard me out. I’m going to ask you something and if you still want to go after than, then I’ll let you go…’
He was a huge, steely immovable force. As if she could even get past him. She just shrugged and sat on the bed behind her, her legs feeling wobbly. Soon, she reassured herself, soon I can go and be on my own.
He surprised her by coming back and kneeling down before her. She went to stand up and his hands on her knees forced her back down.
‘Kallie, dammit, stay still. Stop fighting me for one second.’
She opened her mouth and closed it again. And couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Alexandros’s hands on her knees were shaking—ever so slightly, but definitely shaking. And when he looked up, her breath caught at the nervousness that flashed across his face. It couldn’t be…
‘Kallie, I’ve never done this before. It’s new territory for me and it’s taken me a while to figure out what’s been happening…’