Paris in spring was beautiful, but Ares took no notice, heading straight to the cafe by the Seine, where Rose worked. It was just on closing time and most of the customers had left already, but Ares wasn’t in any mood to wait.
He had with him a couple of security staff who discreetly got rid of the last two customers, then stationed themselves outside the cafe door. Rose was inside; he could see her through the windows, standing beside the counter and looking down at something.
And he had to take a slow, silent breath as everything drew tight inside him, the fury that had sustained him all the way from Greece turning into something hotter and more demanding.
He tried to shove it away as he pushed open the door and stepped inside, tried to ignore it as the door closed behind him, but as Rose turned her attention to the door, and those big golden eyes of hers met his, it erupted inside him like a volcano.
He froze, his control hanging by a thread, knowing that even moving one muscle would annihilate that thread and he would be closing the distance between them and dragging her into his arms.
You will never let her go.
He couldn’t do that. He wouldn’t.
Rose’s eyes widened, an expression of shock crossing her lovely features, to be followed by one of pure joy, as if seeing him had been the best thing to have ever happened to her in her entire life. Then just as quickly as it had appeared, the joy faded into something harder, more determined, and her chin lifted, her spine straightening.
The warrior ready for battle.
Instantly he wanted to cross the space between them and bring that battle right to her. Match her and master her and make her his.
But he closed his hands into fists and stayed where he was instead.
‘Why did you not sign those documents?’ he demanded, getting straight to the point. ‘You need to be free, Rose. You do not need to be married to me any more.’
‘And I told you that I don’t want to be free, remember?’ she snapped straight back. ‘Not of you.’
‘It’s been a month. You really still—’
‘Nothing has changed.’ She looked so fierce as she took a step towards him. ‘Nothing.I told you I wanted to choose my own cage and I have.’
Frustration curled inside him, made more acute by the feeling rushing through him, the powerful need to get close to her, have nothing between them. ‘I can’t give you what you want. I told you that. Not to you and not to any children we have—’
‘What do you want, Ares?’
‘What?’ The question was so out of left field he couldn’t process it. ‘What do you mean what do I want?’
‘I mean, what doyouwant?’
‘The promise I made to Naya—’
‘No. What doyouwant foryourself?’
He stared at her, the words not making any sense for a moment. Then they did and his brain instantly provided the answer.
Her. You want her.
It felt like someone had put their fingers around his throat and was squeezing hard, choking the breath from his body.
She only looked at him, all the ferocity gathering into a bright, hot, burning look that rooted him to the spot.
You know why you’re here. Why you flew across a continent to get to her. And it’s not to sign divorce papers.
It was that feeling inside him, the one he didn’t want to examine. The one he didn’t want to feel, not again. Because he’d felt it before. He’d felt it with Naya. The same and yet different this time, because it was Rose standing in front of him.
Rose, who wasn’t afraid of him. Who matched him will for will. Who laughed with him and fought with him, and in the end trusted him. Rose, who hadn’t let any of the experiences she’d gone through grind her into dust, but who’d emerged victorious. Rose, whose courage shocked him and who’d grasped what life had given her and had bent it to her will.
Rose, who touched his scars as if they were more than reminders of his failure.
Rose, whom he knew now he’d fallen in love with despite every part of him trying to resist.