‘Some unwelcome news was brought to my attention, so I came back a day early.’
A flicker of alarm flashed across her pretty features. ‘Has something happened to your grandfather?’
‘My grandfather’s fine.’ As fine as an eighty-seven-year-old man riddled with cancer could be.
He visited his grandfather every day that he was in the country, always praying that a miracle had occurred and he would see signs of improvement. All he ever saw was further deterioration. The strong, vibrant man who’d been not just the head of his family but the very heart of it was diminishing before his eyes.
Helios and his brothers’ business interests had been so successful that their islanders no longer had to pay a cent of tax towards the royal family’s upkeep and security. They had enough money to keep their people afloat if the worst economic storm should hit. But not even their great wealth was enough to cure the man who had given up so much to raise them, and it hadn’t been enough to cure their beloved grandmother of the pneumonia that had killed her five years ago either. Her death was something their grandfather had never recovered from.
But for once, this evening, he had hardly thought of his grandfather. He’d been sitting rigidly on Amy’s hard sofa, trying to keep a lid on his temper as the hours had passed and he’d waited for her to return.
And now here she was, dressed for a romantic night out with someone else. It was the final punch in the guts after what had been a hellish day.
The straightforward task of asking the King of Monte Cleure for his daughter’s hand in marriage had turned into something infinitely more stomach-turning. The King had received him as if he were a long-lost son, his pride and happiness in his daughter’s choice and her future prospects evident.
Throughout the entire private audience a bad taste had been lodged in Helios’s throat. Words had formed but he’d spoken them as if they were being dragged over spikes. And throughout all the formalities his brain had been ticking over Amy’s less than enthusiastic response to his offer of a permanent role at the palace museum.
To Helios it had been the perfect solution—a way to prove to Amy that she still had a role to play in his life for as long as she wanted, and that he wasn’t throwing away what they had for the sake of a piece of paper tying him to another woman. And, besides, she’d earned the job offer. All his reasoning, everything he’d said to her, had been the truth.
Her response had grated on him.
And then he’d received that message from Pedro and taken his jet straight back to Agon.
‘Where have you been?’ he asked for a second time, noting the way she avoided his gaze at the question.
She sank onto the armchair in the corner, put a palm to her eye and rubbed it, smearing a trail of smoky-grey make-up across her cheek. ‘You have no right to ask. Who I see and what I do with my time is my own business.’
‘If you have taken another lover then I have every right to question you about it,’ he retorted, smothering the nausea roiling in his guts. If she’d taken another lover...
‘No, you don’t,’ she said hotly. ‘You’re the one marrying someone else, not me. That makes me a free agent. I don’t owe you anything.’
Staring at her angry face, it struck him for the first time that Amy was serious about their relationship being over. Until that precise moment he’d assumed her pride and jealousy had been speaking for her. That she’d been punishing him.
‘Who have you been with?’ he demanded. ‘Was it a man?’
She met his eyes and gave a sharp nod.
‘Is it someone I know?’
‘No.’
‘Where did you meet him?’
‘That doesn’t matter.’ She sucked in a breath. ‘Look, Helios—please—leave me alone. What we had...it’s over...’
‘So you’ve jumped straight into bed with another man? Is this your way of punishing me for doing my duty to my family and my country?’
The distaste that flashed over her face answered for her. ‘That’s disgusting.’
He hid the immediate rush of relief that she hadn’t been intimate with this elusive man. The relief died as quickly as it had been born.
‘If you’re not punishing me then why were you out with someone else? Are you so keen to prove your point that we’re finished that you’d humiliate me?’
‘How is me dining with someone else humiliating? And how can you dare say that when you’re the one marrying someone else?’
‘And how can you dare think I’ll let you walk away?’
She stilled, her eyes widening, the flicker under her left eye returning.
‘The reason I came back early from Monte Cleure is because Pedro called to inform me that the curator in charge of my grandfather’s Jubilee Exhibition—a woman who, may I remind you, was taken on despite her lack of experience, because Pedro and I were both convinced she had the knowledge and enthusiasm to pull it off—has decided to quit five months early.’
His anger burned, enflaming him. He would never have believed Amy could be so underhand.
‘Helios...’ She reached out a hand, then dropped it back to her side with a sigh. ‘What other choice do I have? I can’t stay here now.’
‘You’re not the heroine of some old-fashioned melodrama,’ he said scathingly. ‘What did you think would happen? That I would hear you had resigned and shrug my shoulders and say that it’s okay? Or that I would be so upset at the thought of you leaving my life permanently I would abandon my plans to marry Catalina, renounce my claim to the throne and marry you?’
She clutched at the knot of hair at the nape of her neck. ‘I hoped you would accept it and at least try to understand where I’m coming from.’
‘Well I don’t understand or accept it. Your resignation has been refused. You will stay until your contracted period is up or I will sue you for breach of contract.’
Her shock was visible. ‘You wouldn’t...’
‘Wouldn’t I? Leave before September and see for yourself.’
‘The exhibition is almost complete,’ she said, breathing heavily, angry colour heightening her cheeks. ‘Come the Gala and we’ll be ready for visitors—my job will be done. Anyone else can carry on.’
‘“Anyone else” will not have the breadth of knowledge you’ve developed about my grandfather and our ancestors. You signed that contract and you will damn well fulfil it.’
She jumped to her feet, her hands balled into fists. ‘Why are you doing this? Why can’t you just let me go?’
‘Because we belong together,’ he snarled. ‘You’re mine—do you understand that?’
‘No, the Princess belongs to you. Not me. I belong only to myself. You can insist I work the rest of my contract—that’s absolutely within your rights—but that doesn’t change anything else. I will work out the contract if I must, but I will not share your bed. I will not be your mistress.’
Helios could feel the blood pumping in his head. His veins were aflame; needles were pushing into his skin. Deep in his gut was something he couldn’t identify—but, Theos, whatever it was, it hurt.
He’d known from the outset that Amy was a woman of honour. Her excitement at his job offer had been so evident it had been contagious, but she’d refused to agree or to sign the contract until she’d spoken to her bosses at the British Museum face-to-face. If there had been any hesitation from them in letting her take the role she would have refused it, even though it was, by her own admission, a dream come true.
If it was such a dream then why was she prepared to walk away from it now?
And if she was so honourable how could she already be actively seeking a new lover?
He needed to get out of this apartment before he did something he would regret. So many emotions were riding through him it was impossible to distinguish them. He only knew his fists wanted nothing more than to smash things, to take every ornament and piece of furniture in this apartment and pulverise it.
For the second time in as many weeks the violence that lived in his blood threatened to boil over, and he despised himself for it almost as much as he despised Amy right now for seeking to leave him. But, unlike his violent father, Helios knew his own temper would never be directed at a woman. It was the only certainty he could take comfort from.
Striding over to her, he took her chin in his hand and forced her to look at him. Theos, she had such delicate features and such gorgeous skin. He didn’t think there was an inch of her he hadn’t stroked and kissed. He refused to believe he would never make love to her again. He refused.
‘If you understand nothing else, understand this—you will always belong to me,’ he said roughly, before dropping his hold and walking out of her apartment.
* * *
Amy’s phone vibrated, breaking her concentration on the beautiful green sapphire ring she was supposed to be categorising but instead could only stare at with a lump in her throat.
This ring had belonged to Helios’s mother. This ring would one day soon slide onto Princess Catalina’s finger.
The message from Leander was simple and clear.
She doesn’t want to meet you. Do not contact me again.
She read it a number of times before closing her eyes and rubbing at the nape of her neck. A burn stung the back of her retinas.