‘I wanted to see you.’
She shook her head. ‘You saw me earlier.’
‘I wanted to see you properly. And for you to see me. Here. Like this.’ He waved a hand around, gesturing to the roses and candles.
‘What?’
She grimaced, knowing she sounded as if she had about two active brain cells and barely able to care. ‘I don’t get it.’
‘I made a mistake.’
‘When?’
He strode towards her and she clamped her mouth together, crossing her arms over her chest.
‘I made a mistake when I let you go. I made a mistake every day I didn’t look deep inside myself and see what was holding me back from you. I should never have let you leave.’
Alice was completely shocked. ‘What?’
‘I made a—’
‘No.’ She lifted a finger to his lips, silencing him, her eyes huge and beseeching. ‘Don’t you dare.’
Now it was Thanos’s turn to look confused.
‘Don’t you dare think you can turn up after all this time—over three months—and say anything that’s going to make this okay.’ She glared at him, anger—the sweet relief of anger—everything she needed. ‘Don’t you dare think you can ever say or do anything that will make this all right.’
He lifted his hands and cupped her face, holding her still, holding her gently. ‘I’m so sorry I hurt you.’
Except that.
His words were like treacle on her spine. ‘Damn it.’ She bit down on her lip, closing her eyes, but it did nothing to stop the tears from squeezing out of the corners.
‘I’m sorry I didn’t understand what we were. I’m sorry that you left and I felt like I’d been ripped into a thousand pieces and I still didn’t see why. I’m sorry that I have been missing you and pining for you and thinking of you every day and it still didn’t occur to me to realise that you have taken over my mind and soul in a way that is rare and beautiful and special.’
She sobbed, shaking her head and not really even knowing why.
‘I’m sorry that I got so fixated on needing to control eve
ry single thing about us that I ruined it. I’m sorry that I hurt you, not once, but every single day that I stayed away. I’m sorry that I left you here thinking I don’t love you when the truth is you are every breath in my body.’
She could barely breathe now, and her small sobs were little explosions firing from her.
‘I’m sorry,’ he continued, his own voice heavy with emotion, ‘that I didn’t understand what love was, what true love is, because I have never felt it before. But I get it now. I see how it is the way we fit together, the way we are together, the way I feel because of you—the fact you make me want to be a better man, a better person, you make me want to deserve you. You make me happier than I’ve ever known possible. I am so head over heels in love with you, Kyria Stathakis, and all I want is to tell you this.’
She blinked, her stomach rolling.
‘That’s not true,’ he amended quickly. ‘What I want is to make you my wife again, properly and for real. Not for show but because I do not want to go another day without you. What I want is to bring you back to the island, to have you at my side, not because we had a deal to fool a kind old man, or because I’m paying you, not because you are desperate for financial help and I offered that, but because you love me and I love you, and there is no way we should be anything other than together.’
Alice sobbed, her shaking head turning into a nod and then nothing as she tried to compute what was happening.
‘I love you,’ he said simply, his hands framing her cheeks. ‘And if you tell me I have ruined this beyond repair, I will try to prove you wrong. I will do whatever I can to fix this, for as long as it takes. I will be here, waiting, hoping, needing you but knowing I lost any right to expect you could possibly love me the day I let you walk out of my life.’
‘Please don’t,’ she groaned, finally, tears in her voice. ‘Please, just...’
‘What?’ His voice was gravelled. ‘Tell me what I can do.’
She lifted her hands to his chest, staring at her splayed fingers, her eyes wide. ‘I don’t understand.’ And she didn’t, but it didn’t stop her from believing and knowing. It didn’t stop her from trusting.