‘Where are you?’ she said as his name flashed up on the screen.
‘Agape, forgive me.’ He paused. ‘A last-minute meeting was scheduled with the trade and industry minister.’
‘And you had to be there?’
‘Yes, of course I did,’ he said coolly. ‘Do you have a problem with that?’
Too right she did, but Lucy held back from saying so because the sensible side of her knew she was being unreasonable, while instinct told her she was only going to make matters worse if she turned this into a battle. Yet Drakon was worth fighting for, wasn’t he? For Xander’s sake mostly, but for hers too.
Because no matter how much she tried to tell herself it shouldn’t be happening, her feelings towards the man she’d married were growing—feelings which had never been part of their marriage deal. Unstoppable emotions which had been nurtured during their brief honeymoon and taken on a life of their own. She tried blaming it on her lack of experience, convincing herself that a woman who’d reached the age of twenty-eight without ever having sex would be in danger of mistaking physical pleasure for something else. Something which felt uncomfortably like love. And she didn’t want to love Drakon. The last thing she could afford to do was to waste her emotions on a man who’d told her right from the start that he didn’t believe in love. Because that would be a self-destructive course and would detract from something she could do. Something positive and good—which was to strengthen the bond between father and son.
Because if Drakon wanted their marriage to endure, which was what he said he wanted—then he couldn’t keep the baby at arm’s length the whole time, as he’d been doing until now. She didn’t think he was necessarily being unkind to Xander. It was just that he didn’t know how to love him because he had no experience of parental love to fall back on. Maybe he had to learn to be a good father another way, and maybe she could help...
So just do it, Lucy thought to herself. It’s no good complaining about the state of your life if you don’t do anything to try to improve it.
She spun into action that same day, signing up for family membership at the local gym which she sometimes passed on her way to the park. Mayfair didn’t run to budget gyms so the one she joined was eye-wateringly expensive, but it did have the benefit of a super-sized swimming pool. She tried it out a few times—in fact, her hair was still damp when Drakon arrived back from Singapore, his black eyes faintly bemused as he saw the drying locks of hair clouding around her shoulders.
‘What’s all this?’ he questioned as she went into his arms to kiss him.
‘I’ve joined a gym.’
‘That’s good,’ he said absently as his phone began to trill in his pocket.
She made no further mention of it until the following Sunday morning, just as Drakon replaced his empty coffee cup and told her he was going to read through a new contract in his study, but Lucy shook her head, feeling her heart pounding nervously in her chest.
‘I’d much rather you didn’t.’
There was a split-second pause. ‘I’m sorry?’
‘Not today, Drakon. I wonder...’ she licked her lips ‘...would you mind coming swimming with me and Xander instead?’
‘Swimming?’ he demanded. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. At his age?’
‘They can start lessons as early as four weeks,’ she informed him calmly. ‘In fact, he’s had a couple at the new gym already but they’ve got a class this morning and it would be nice to have some company.’ She sucked in a deep breath. ‘I think you might enjoy it. And before you trot out all the reasons why that’s not possible—can I just ask what’s the point of being one of the world’s most successful men if you take less time off than the average factory worker?’
Drakon met her resolute expression and felt a flicker of mild irritation at the fact that she was so openly defying him. Yet he couldn’t fault her logic, no matter how much he’d like to be able to. In fact, there was little about his new wife he could fault—and hadn’t that been the biggest revelation of all? She was...
He studied her.
She was surprising. She was like the first soft shimmering of spring after the harshness of winter. Like a welcome sea breeze which whispered over your skin on the hottest day of the year. Her skills as a mother had never been in question because Drakon had known exactly what he didn’t want from someone taking on that particular role. His mouth hardened. He’d wanted someone as unlike his own mother as possible—without her brittle exclusion of her own children, and her all-encompassing absorption in her philandering husband, and her preoccupation with her own appearance. He’d wanted someone soft and caring and honest and true. Someone with a heart and someone with a conscience—and Lucy had ticked all those boxes, and more.
He swallowed. Much more.
He hadn’t been expecting her to keep surprising him as a lover, nor imagined he would find it difficult to drag himself away from the seductive sanctuary of her arms each morning. Sometimes he would even find himself glancing at his watch at the end of a working day and itch to get away, but he forced himself to work as late as he’d always done, because independence was key to his success. Wasn’t that one of the reasons why his Singaporean trip had provided such a welcome relief and the space he needed? Because no way was he ever going to rely on another human being and open himself up to pain.
Yet Lucy wasn’t asking for the world, was she? She wasn’t demanding emotional reassurance, or expecting him to bolster her unrealistic dreams about marriage. She simply wanted him to accompany her while she took the baby swimming. Not the biggest ask in the world.
‘What time do you want to leave?’ he growled.
‘In about an hour.’
‘I have a couple of calls I need to make first.’
‘Of course you do,’ she said, with a smile which somehow niggled him.
The gym was only a short walk away, reached through an oasis of a garden square which was new to him, but then, it was a long time since he’d taken a walk in London just for the sake of it. Feeling like a man who had just emerged from a long sleep, Drakon heard the unmistakable sounds of birdsong coming from the bare branches of a tree, before peering down at a carpet of snowy white flowers whose white tips were pushing their way through the grass.
‘Snowdrops,’ said Lucy as she followed the direction of his gaze.