CHAPTER TWELVE
ITWASEXACTLYthe same as before, Effie thought dully as the launch bumped lightly over the waves. Except the last time Achileas had bundled her into a waiting vehicle he’d got in beside her. This time she was alone.
Back on the island, she made her way to the villa. Every step, every breath was an effort. Finally, she reached her bedroom and collapsed on the bed. She felt numb—almost as if she was floating outside of her body, watching herself.
If only that were true; then she might not have made such a mess of everything...
Her breath caught in her throat as she thought back to how she had wished for more experience. Now she had it. From a declaration of love to heartbreak in ninety seconds. Even though she had warned herself to stay detached. Told herself not to get involved.
But logic and sense were no match for love.
Love was blind, unthinking.
And in her case unrequited.
His lack of love for her was as obvious and undeniable as her love for him. And it didn’t matter that they shared this exquisite bewitching chemistry. Sex wasn’t love. It was a part of it, but love was about so much more than bodies moving in harmony.
It was about more than ‘I’ll see you when I see you.’
A pain such as she had never felt before, that surely didn’t have a name, clawed at her insides, and she got to her feet and stumbled onto the balcony. Outside the sun was softening and she breathed in deeply, the salt-scented air calming her as it had that first day.
The first day...
She could still remember that mix of panic and exhilaration as she had stood looking out across the Aegean. Everything had been ahead of her then—a future filled with possibilities. And for the first time in her life, she had been a part of those endless variables, doing more than just conjuring up adventure in a bottle.
She was living it, sharing it with Achileas. Except she wasn’t. Not then, not now, not ever.
Her hands gripped the rail. Was that what it had felt like to her father? That yearning, unshakeable conviction that you were different...that the odds didn’t apply to you. She had seen it so many times with Bill—the same trajectory of fervent, unquestioning belief, the euphoria as his horse nosed ahead of its rivals, and then the stunned disbelief as it lost.
She had never expected to feel that way herself. She’d always thought she was like her mum, and she had got dangerously close to following in Sam’s footsteps, but she wasn’t going to make the mistakes that Sam had made with her father, caring for a man who lied to himself his whole life.
And Achileas was lying. She knew he wanted, needed Andreas’s love, but she wasn’t going to wait and watch the lies he was telling himself destroy him. And her.
The ring on her finger caught the sun, sending a rainbow of dancing light across the pale stone. Reaching down, she tried to pull it off. She might as well get used to not wearing it.
But the ring wouldn’t budge.
It was too much.
Emotion choked her, and she covered her mouth with her hand and gave in to the tears she’d been holding back ever since Achileas had walked away from the jetty.
But she couldn’t cry for ever.
Two hours later, she splashed her face with cold water and stared at her reflection. She had never loved anyone before, but she knew she would never love again as she loved Achileas. There was no other man like him.
Her mouth trembled. Just thinking that made her legs buckle, but even though she had lost him she still had a life to live. It would be less of a life in so many ways, but she had her mum, and her friends, and thanks to Achileas’s investment she would have the chance to make her dream of creating her own perfume brand come true.
She wasn’t going to take all the money. Just the amount the bank would have given her if she had made that meeting and got the loan. Obviously, she would leave the ring behind too. Soap would get it off...
She turned towards the bathroom.
Her heart stopped.
Achileas was standing in the doorway, his blue eyes still, his face taut in the hazy light.
‘Are you okay?’
The tightness in his voice made her hands ball into fists. She wanted to reach out and touch him, but he wasn’t hers to touch any more. He never had been.