Forever and Ever, My Greek Billionaire(27)

For a moment, he wanted to explain. For a moment, he wanted to roar out his fury, his pain, his emptiness. But then tiredness settled on his shoulders, and he knew he wouldn’t do any of those things. What was the point? Even knowing where she had come from, even knowing what she had done, it didn’t matter.

He still could not live without her, and the pain in her eyes told him it was the same for her.

Stavros cocked his head backwards, indicating Ingrid in silence. “I can’t let you in here, obviously.” He affected a grimace.

She could only stare at him, unable to understand why he said those words of all things.

He forced a smile. “Let me just take a shower and I’ll join you in your room instead.”

He pulled her towards him, and sheer shock made her unable to resist.

“I missed you, you know.” Stavros bent his head to kiss her on the hair—

She stepped back.

That kiss...

With that moan in the background...

She had never felt so cheap in her life, not even when Stavros had left her naked on the floor like a discarded whore, his cum still leaking down her legs.

It was that look in her eyes again. Devastating. Crippling. Defeated. But he told himself it would pass. Even when everything in him revolted at what he was doing, at what he was about to say, even though his own fucking heart told him it was not supposed to be like this between them, Stavros forced himself to ignore all the internal clamor.

Adopting a light voice, he said, “Don’t be like that. You know the real score between us. I’ll just take a quick shower and be with you in a minute.”

He touched her cheek.

She flinched.

Stavros forced himself to ignore it, murmuring, “Be a good girl and wait for me, mm? I promise I’ll make up for my absence. I’ll let you even call me motherfucker.”

The door closed in her face.

No. Only when she was alone in the hallway did she find the strength to answer him. No, Stavros. She had thought she knew the real score between them and he didn’t, but as it turned out, it was the opposite. He had known and she hadn’t.

But she knew now.

She fumbled for her earbuds. She clutched her phone, but the screen was now wet with her tears, one drop after another, falling, making it hard for her to swipe and click. But she finally did it, and the music started playing again in her ears.

One day, Stavros.

She started walking away.

You’ll know that all this was for you.

But for now she had to go.

She just couldn’t take it anymore.





Chapter Ten





It was a routine by now. He would wake up in the morning and check the room next to his. He would do it again every two hours, regularly without fail, telling himself that one day she would be back.

But a week had already passed and she still wasn’t back.

Slowly, Stavros lowered himself to sit on the edge of her bed. The room was completely bare, shorn of Willow’s personality. She was a messy person, he knew. She only needed a few minutes to make a room completely hers the only way she knew how. Rumpled sheets, dirty clothes on the floor, and piles and piles of research strewn all over the room, taped to the wall, stuck between the pages of a Bible.

But this room had none of that.

It smelled clean and fragrant, new and unoccupied, all signs of Willow’s presence ruthlessly erased by housekeeping.

The pain he had felt the first time he had learned she was gone had only grown each day, and he wasn’t sure if it would ever go away. If he wanted to, he knew that he could and would be able to find her. But that didn’t feel like the right thing to do.

If he went after her, it would be no different from willingly putting the blindfold on his eyes, and he just couldn’t do that anymore. It was not right.

He loved her. It was a truth he freely embraced now, but that had never been the problem. The point where everything had gone wrong was when Willow made it obvious she could not love him. She wanted him to love her, wanted him to be faithful to her, even when she was unable to do the same things for him.

And at one point, he had been tempted to let that happen. At the weakest point of his life, he had allowed the beliefs his parents had harnessed in him to shape his decisions. He had been willing to take whatever crumbs she felt like throwing his way because he had thought it wasn’t right for him to ask for more.

After all, love couldn’t be forced or bought. It couldn’t even be earned. God knew he had tried everything with his parents and it hadn’t worked.

Leaning forward, he rested his elbows on his knees and clasped his hands in front of him.

Please have her come back.

He couldn’t remember the last time he had prayed, but he knew it was the only thing he could do now.

If she came back, he would love her and he would teach her to love him.