He nodded. ‘It’s what I’ve wanted ever since he handed me that runner-up medal.’
There was a long silence that stretched out into the darkness, and then her eyes found his and she said quietly, ‘I don’t believe you.’
Around them the air seemed to tremble at her words. As if a storm was approaching. Only the sky above was clear and cloudless.
‘You think I’m lying? After everything I just told you.’
There was another silence, and then she took a step forward. In the moonlight her face was as pale and serious as it had been that first day outside the Stanmore, when she’d told him he should apologise to her.
‘Yes, I do. But only because you’re having to lie to yourself. Look, we both know patience isn’t one of your virtues, Achileas. If you really wanted to punish your father as badly as you say, then you would have been desperate to get on with it. As soon as you saw Andreas you would have told him about the engagement. But you did the opposite—’
‘It wasn’t the right time.’
‘Of course it wasn’t.’
Her voice was gentle—too gentle—and something inside him...something that had always been hard and impermeable...started to crumble.
‘It’s never going to be the right time. Because you don’t hate your father and you don’t want to punish him. You love him and you want to get to know him.’
His heart was a dark weight in his chest as he felt her hand touch his.
‘He reached out to you.’
Taking a breath, he forced himself to speak. ‘I’m just a means to an end for him.’
‘Maybe.’ She was silent for a moment. Then, ‘Or maybe he needed a reason to reach out. He’s old and ill, but he’s also proud. He made some choices when he was younger than you—wrong choices—and maybe forcing this marriage on you is his way of trying to right those wrongs without losing face.’
She stroked his cheek with her fingertips.
‘I don’t know for sure, but I think you have more in common with Andreas than just your looks.’
She was so certain of the goodness of his motives, so certain that there was good in the world. He envied that belief and he wanted to prove her right.
But she was wrong.
Wrong about the world.
Wrong about him.
‘You’re right.’ Watching her face soften, he hated himself for what he was about to say, but he couldn’t pretend—not to Effie...not now. ‘Andreas and I gave up on each other a long time ago. Me marrying you can’t change that, and it won’t. You see, I can’t forgive him, and I don’t love him. I don’t know how to love, and I don’t want to know.’
He couldn’t put himself in the position of needing someone. Couldn’t risk yet more rejection, more pain.
‘I’m not like your father,’ he said. ‘I can’t gamble my happiness on someone else’s throw of the dice. And I know that’s not what you want to hear but I don’t want to lie to you. Not now. Not anymore.’
In the moonlight, her eyes were like polished amber stones, vivid like flames against her flushed cheeks. He leaned forward and kissed her softly, feeling his own body flame in response. But as he moved to deepen the kiss her hands pressed against his chest and she backed out of his arms.
‘Effie...?’
He watched her turn and walk slowly towards the water, and then she reached around and undid the ribbon around her throat. His heart missed a beat as the blue chiffon fluttered down her body onto the sand.
His gaze sharpened.
She was completely naked, her head to one side as she gazed down at the tiny waves rippling over her feet. He swallowed, dry-mouthed. Silhouetted against the moonlight, her body was the single most erotic sight he’d ever seen.
‘What are you doing?’ he said hoarsely.
She didn’t look back at him. ‘I’m going for a swim.’