‘The main reason I selected Catalina is because she has no illusions about what our marriage will be,’ he said, massaging Amy’s foot. ‘She has been groomed from birth to marry someone of equal stature. I will be King, but I will never be like my father. Marrying Catalina guarantees that she will never expect more than I can give.’
‘But your mother was a princess before she married your father.’
His mouth twisted. ‘Their marriage was arranged before she could walk. She grew up knowing she would marry my father and she built an ideal in her head of what their marriage would be like. She loved him all her life and, God help her, she was doomed to disappointment. The only person my father loved was himself. Catalina doesn’t love me any more than I love her. There will be no jealousy. She has no expectations of fidelity.’
‘Has she said that?’ Amy asked doubtfully.
‘Her only expectation is that I be respectful to her and discreet, and that is something I will always be. Whatever happens in the future, I will never inflict on her or on anyone the pain my father inflicted on my mother.’
‘I know you wouldn’t hurt her intentionally. But, Helios, what she says now...it doesn’t mean she’ll feel the same way once you’ve exchanged your vows.’ Amy closed her eyes and sighed. ‘And it doesn’t change how I feel about it. I won’t be the other woman. Marriage vows should be sacred.’
Helios placed her foot gently onto the bed before pouncing, grabbing her hands and pinning her beneath him.
Breathing heavily, she turned her face away from him.
‘Look at me,’ he commanded.
‘No.’
‘Amy, look at me.’ He loosened his hold only when she reluctantly turned her face back to him. ‘You are not Neysa—you are Elaine’s daughter, with all her goodness. Catalina is not your mother. Nor is she mine. And I am not my father. The mistakes they all made and the pain they caused are not ours to repeat. That’s something neither of us would ever allow to happen.’
He came closer so his lips were a breath away from hers.
‘And I’m not married yet.’
Her eyes blazed back at him, desire and misery fighting in them. He leaned down and placed a kiss to her neck, smoothing his hand over her breasts and down to her thighs. He inched the hem of her dress up and slid between her legs.
‘Neither of us are ready for this to end. Why deny ourselves when my vows are still to be made and we’re not hurting anyone?’
Amy fought the familiar tingles and sensations spreading through her again as the need to touch him and hold him grew stronger than ever. How was it possible to go from wanting to wrap him in her arms, to chase away what she knew were dreadful memories for him, to sensual need in the blink of an eye?
She writhed beneath him. Her words came in short breaths. ‘I can’t think when you’re doing this to me.’
‘Then don’t think. Just feel. And accept that we’re not over.’
In desperation she grabbed at his hair, forcing him to look at her. ‘But you’ve made a commitment.’
‘A commitment that won’t be fulfilled for two months.’ He slid inside her, penetrating as deep as he could go.
She gasped as pleasure filled her.
‘Until then,’ he continued, his voice becoming heavy as he began to move, ‘you are mine and I am yours.’
Amy tightened her hold around Helios, wishing she didn’t feel so complete with his weight upon her and his steadying breaths softly tickling the skin of her neck. She was a fool for him. More so than she could have imagined.
They’d laid their pasts bare to each other and the effect had been the very thing she’d been scared of. She felt closer to him, as if an invisible emotional bond had wrapped itself around them.
He finally shifted his weight off her and she rolled over and burrowed into his arms.
‘Don’t even think about trying to sneak out,’ he said sleepily.
‘I won’t.’ She gave a soft, bittersweet laugh. Her resolve had deserted her. Those bonds had cocooned her so tightly to him she could no longer envisage cutting them. Not yet. Not until she really had to. ‘You and I...’
‘What?’ he asked, after her words had tailed off.
‘No one can know. Please. Everyone who knew we were together knows we split up. I couldn’t bear for them to think we’re having an affair behind the Princess’s back.’
When they’d been together originally Helios had made no secret of her place in his life. She might not have accompanied him to official functions, or been recognised as his official girlfriend, but she had been his almost constant companion within the palace.
She’d spent far more time in his apartment than she had in her own, and whenever he had come into the museum he would seek her out. He would touch her—not sexually...he at least had a sense of propriety when it came to that in public...but he would rest his hand in the small of her back, lean close to her, all the little tells of a possessive man staking his claim on the woman in his life. And if work or duty took him away from the palace she would be the one to look after Benedict.
It had only been on the inside, emotionally, that they had been separated. But not any more. At this moment she didn’t think she had ever felt as close to anyone in her life.
‘Discretion will be my new name,’ he acquiesced.
‘And when you marry you will let me go.’
He stilled.
Watching for his reaction, she saw his eyes open. ‘That gives you two months to find my replacement,’ she whispered. ‘I want to know that you’ll release me from the palace and from your life. I appreciate it means bringing my contract to an early end, but I don’t think I’ll be able to cope with living and working here knowing it’s the Princess you’re sleeping with.’
When he married their bonds would be destroyed.
He breathed deeply, then nodded. ‘I can agree to that. But until then...’
‘Until then I am yours.’
CHAPTER NINE
HELIOS CLICKED ON Leander Soukis’s profile and stared hard at it. There was something about the young man’s chin and the colouring of his hair that reminded him of Amy, but that was the only resemblance he could see. How could Amy share half her DNA with this layabout? Amy was one of the hardest workers he’d ever met, which, in a palace and museum full of overachievers was saying something.
And how she could be from the loins of Neysa Soukis was beyond his comprehension. Helios had done his homework on Amy’s birth mother and what he had learned had not given him hope of a happy ending.
Neysa was a social climber. Approaching fifty, she still had a refined beauty. She had a rich older husband, who doted on her, and a comfortable lifestyle. Helios vaguely recalled meeting her husband at a palace function a few years back. Neysa had married him when she was twenty-one, less than two years after having Amy. Why she hadn’t confessed to having had a child he could only speculate upon, but his guess was that it had nothing to do with shame and everything to do with fear. No doubt she’d been scared of losing the wealth that came with her marriage.
Neysa had put money before her own flesh and blood. If Helios had his way Amy wouldn’t be allowed within a mile’s radius of the woman. But he understood how deep blood could go. That morning he’d met his nephew for the first time. He’d felt an instant thump in his heart.
This little boy, this walking, talking dark-haired creation was a part of him. His family. His bloodline. He was a Kalliakis, and Helios had felt the connection on an emotional level.
It might break her heart in the process, but Amy deserved to know her bloodline too.
Whether the Soukis family deserved her was another matter...
If they did break her heart he would be there to pick up the pieces and help her through it, just as Amy had been there with a comforting embrace whenever the pain of his grandfather’s illness had caught him in its grip.
Thinking quickly, Helios drafted a private message. If having a decree from the heir to the throne didn’t motivate Leander to bring his mother and half-sister together, nothing would.
* * *
‘Amy, you’re late for your meeting.’
‘What meeting?’ she asked Pedro in surprise, looking down at him from her position on a stepladder, from where she was adjusting the portraits lining the first exhibition room. She wanted them to be hung perfectly, not so much as a millimetre out of alignment.
The museum and the palace tours had been closed to visitors all week in order to prepare for the Gala. As a result the palace and its grounds were in a state of absolute frenzy, with helicopters landing on the palace helipad on a seemingly constant basis. And the Gala was still a day away!
She’d never known the palace to be such a hive of activity. There was a buzz about the place, and information and gossip were being dripped in from so many sources, including the more serious museum curators, whose heads were usually stuck in historical tomes, that it seemed like a spreading infection.
The Orchestre National de Paris had arrived to great fanfare, a world-famous circus troupe had been spotted lurking in the grounds, the gardens had been closed off to allow even more blooms to be planted... Everywhere Amy went something magical was occurring.
The exhibition was to all intents and purposes ready for the very exclusive private tour that would be conducted after the pre-Gala lunch. Another, less exclusive tour would take place on Sunday, and the museum and exhibition would open to the public on Monday. From then on it really would be all systems go. Ticket demand had exceeded expectations.