‘But he’s a wealthy man, Thanos. I know because I looked into him, when I was old enough to do a search on the Internet. He’s wealthy and married with other children. I have no idea how many women he treated as he did my mother, but I do know he was in a position to help us and he never did.’
Thanos’s eyes glittered in his handsome face and he was, temporarily, at a loss for words.
‘She wrote to him, begging for some kind of financial assistance. When I was eleven, I earned a place at a prestigious selection school. It was a scholarship but didn’t cover the cost of boarding and uniforms—which were out of Mom’s reach. She wrote to him. He flat out refused.’
Anger shot through Thanos. ‘How could he refuse? Surely there was some legal obligation, setting aside his obvious moral obligation.’
Her eyes were awash with memory, as though she’d been sucked back in time. ‘No. He’s British, and the American courts couldn’t enforce anything. Despite the fact he’s incredibly wealthy, he had no interest in helping my mom with frivolities such as, you know, food, let alone a private education for me. Besides, she couldn’t really afford a good lawyer, so...’ Her voice trailed off.
‘She did try to get him to at least contribute something.’ Alice shrugged as though it hadn’t mattered. ‘But he sent nothing except lawyer’s letters, all of which took more money to respond to.’
Thanos stared at her, no idea what he could say to make this better.
‘I hate him,’ she said simply.
Thanos’s eyes showed his own feelings quite clearly. ‘So do I.’
And at that Alice laughed, and it was as if the sun were bursting out from behind a storm cloud. Everything tilted a little, shifting and reshaping, and Thanos’s breath burned in his lungs as he stared at her and wondered how the hell he hadn’t noticed how beautiful she was the first moment he saw her. How come it had taken him days to recognise the danger here? To see not only that she was attractive, but also that he was obsessively attracted to her?
He’d already spent more time with her than he ever had with a woman he was sleeping with. Shared more of himself. Cared more for her stories.
But he didn’t panic—too much. Because he was controlling this; he had rules and boundaries, and every intention of abiding by them.
‘Tell me about this bikini,’ he said, his tone completely different, lighter, teasing, a relief from the emotional heaviness of their previous conversation.
‘What would you like to know about it?’
‘A great many things, Kyria Stathakis,’ he drawled slowly.
Did you buy it with me in mind?
The question was on the tip of his tongue but it created an impression of dependence he didn’t wish to encourage, so he pushed it aside.
Alice, though, shifted her attention to her body, her cheeks heating pink, as though she was just realising that she was practically naked beside him.
‘I had no idea what I would need for this...job,’ she said quietly.
‘Job?’
‘Our marriage.’ She lifted her fingers to mime inverted commas, which shouldn’t have bothered Thanos at all. It certainly shouldn’t have made him feel a rolling of nausea in his gut.
‘I mean, this is so far outside of my wheelhouse,’ she said with a self-deprecating laugh, gesturing around the boat. ‘I live in suits at work and yoga pants at home.’ Her shoulders lifted in a shrug. ‘And I wanted to fit in. To make this seem realistic.’
‘You do fit in.’
She pulled a face. ‘Only because I did my research.’
‘Research?’
‘Uh-huh. And Kosta was right about one thing, Thanos. There are a lot of pictures of you on the Internet.’
Something inside Thanos tightened painfully over his chest, like a metal arm being pressed hard to his sides.
‘So?’ The word came out harsher than he’d intended.
Alice didn’t appear to notice. ‘I needed to see how your usual, um, friends...’ her cheeks heated pink and he wondered how he hadn’t realised her degree of inexperience earlier ‘...dressed. The kinds of clothes they wore. This bikini seemed pretty standard.’
Thanos stared at her, unable to pinpoint why he was so annoyed at that revelation, unable to explain why he felt frustrated and...something else. Only that her casually delivered explanation filled him with a sense of being weighted down.