A laugh erupted from her mouth. Whereas she... Ten years hadn’t made a dent on the wants of her foolish heart. Every inch of her body, every beat of her heart wanted to grab this chance with him again. Wanted to find that happiness, that sense of completeness she had had with him in that village.
But not on his terms. Not at the cost of losing herself.
“Oxhi, Andreas,” she managed, her lips stinging from the heat of his lips. The sound of her denial, somehow given voice, filled up her lagging will.
His hand didn’t move from her sex. For a few seconds, Ari wondered if he’d even heard her. He looked up. A flash of consternation in his eyes before he exhaled roughly and buried his face in the valley between her breasts.
The damp warmth of his mouth made her nipples poke through her T-shirt. Ariana shivered, unraveling over the strength it took to resist him.
“I said no, Andreas.” Steady and almost assertive. “Possible you don’t understand the word because you’ve never heard it. Especially from me.”
His laughter, muffled against her body, sent tremors through her. Eyes glinting with humor, he stared at her. But the curiosity was there. He was taken aback by her refusal, she was sure. “You and I both know why you walked into my suite, Ariana.” A sultry dare. “I have never held your desire for me against you.”
So sure of her always. So sure of her devotion, of her hunger for him. Once he’d given in to their desire, she hadn’t challenged him in any way. Wherever he had led with that arrogant confidence, she had blindly followed. When he’d decided they would marry, decided not asked, she’d happily forgotten all her dreams.
Because, of course, this worldly, powerful, sophisticated Crown Prince of Drakon, a man women lost their hearts to, had chosen her.
Her.
No wonder he’d thought she was another part in his privileged life. She jerked away from under him, his supreme arrogance lighting a fire in her. “You’re an arrogant bastard, did I ever tell you that, Your Highness?”
“No.” He pushed his hand through his hair roughly. Harsh and accented. She could have laughed at the irate expression on his face if her mind wasn’t jumping from thought to thought. “You’re right. For a minute there, I forgot that you hate me now.
“You’d never have ventured into my room without a reason. Not unless you were desperate.”
“You’re doing it again.” She cringed at the anger in her voice.
“I don’t understand.”
“You ripped me from my life, brought me to this palace, and you go on your merry way. Again.” For the life of her, she couldn’t stop the last word from tumbling out.
His stillness betrayed his shock. “Ari, help me understand.”
He’d never used that tone with her. He had ordered her around, he’d dared her. He’d condescended to her. But never had he asked her in that tender voice. As if it really mattered to him.
“Ari, so help me God, if you don’t explain yourself, I will—”
“What? You will lock me up?” she said on a laugh. “I can at least count on you to buck me back up.” She sighed. “If all you wanted was a placeholder, why go to the trouble of kidnapping me? Why make promises to me?”
He truly looked so disconcerted that Ariana didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He pushed up on the bed. The sheet slithered to his waist, baring his torso. Lean, ropey muscle stretched tight over his abdomen when he sighed. “If this is about me not breaking down the door to your suite and ravishing you in your bed—”
“I’m not talking about sex. Is that all the use you see for me?”
“By your own admission, I needn’t declare you Queen in front of the whole world if all I wanted was to screw you.” The words were like tremors on the ground. So softly spoken but powerful enough to pull the ground from under her. He pushed a hand through his hair roughly.
Already trying to patch the little rip in his self-control. Already putting the veneer of civility over the confusion she saw in his eyes. The strain his desire for her put in his face.
Ari slowly got off the bed, every inch of her balking at walking away from sure pleasure. But she wouldn’t be able to deny him or herself another time. And sleeping with Andreas when he saw no other use for her was like signing away her soul. Again.
And she couldn’t do that.
Every cell in her wanted to grab this chance fate had given them both.
No, not fate. Andreas had done this. She didn’t care that he called it payback for what she’d done to him.
He’d come for her. From what Nikandros had said, Andreas had scoured the world for her for two years, while Theos had clammed up. At the cost of risking his duties to the crown.
Of course, the man didn’t know what it was to love. But to the best of his ability, Andreas had kept that commitment he had made to her. Was it his fault she wanted what he couldn’t give?
“You promised me I could carve whatever role I want in your life, in this life, and yet you...you deny me every step of the way.
“I don’t think you quite know what to do with me.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“You denied my visit to the women’s shelter.”
“It is not safe for you.” His jaw tightened. “And damn it, Ari, you made the trip anyway. You drove the security staff nuts with your little stunt.”
She tilted her chin up, raring to go at him. “You forced me to it. Just as you created office space for me in the palace. In a bloody wing of the palace, Andreas. My career is not a joke.”
“As my wife and Queen, you will be far too busy to take up a full practice. This way—”
She pushed her face into his, her blood running hot now. “Did I let you down in any way? Did I not act as the perfect ornamental wife?”
His mouth twitched. Finally, he was catching on. “I couldn’t believe my own eyes that it was you. So biddable and meek.” He took a step forward. The predatory glint in his eyes sent sparks up her spine and she took a step backward. “All I could think of was whether I wanted you like that in bed.”
“Andreas, I... I will do everything you need as your wife. But it doesn’t mean I’ll give up a single part of my life. It doesn’t mean I’ll let you or your staff decide how I live my life. I...can’t...we can’t make the same mistakes all over again.”
“Kala,” he said, almost conciliatory in his tone. “Tell me what you want from me to achieve that.”
She straightened her spine. “For starters, I want my laptop, my personal belongings and my case files. I need to speak to Magnus. I want someone allotted to me, someone other than Petra, to see to my needs.”
Every spark of humor disappeared. “No.”
“What do you think I’ll do over Skype, Andreas? Disappear like they do on spaceships? Have Skype sex with the man I lied to for ten years?”
“I do not like another man’s name and the word sex together on your mouth, agapi mou. If you want to negotiate with me, you should know better than to provoke my ire.”
“There are things I can do to help Magnus, until he finds a replacement. A couple of the cases, those two women are my friends. The law does very little to protect them from their powerful, abusive husbands. Too many people have already let them down. I refuse to be one.
“I can’t just disappear off the face of earth and let them believe the worst.
“You have your commitments and I have mine.”
The lines around his mouth deepened. His dark eyes became flat, all that emotion wiped away. But Ariana was beginning to learn his cues again. The harder something hit him, the more shuttered he became. As if he could only implode. As if showing that emotion meant actually feeling it.
As if it were handing a weapon to Theos to use against him.
He pressed his fingers to his temple, his jaw clenched so tight that it might break. “Is that what I did to you, what motivated you to study law? Were you afraid of me, Ari?”
“What? No, of course not.” The truth that she had left unsaid glimmered like a phantom around the room, sending a cold whisper through her. When his expression didn’t budge, she hurried on. “For years, I was directionless. I hated my father for forcing things on me, so I never even discovered what I would enjoy, what I would be good at. I joined Magnus’s legal aid agency as a clerk. Literally my job was to keep the filing in order.
“The more I saw the women that came through the agency’s doors, the more I thought of my mother. My father never beat her, as some of those women were, but he...abused her just the same and I was powerless then.
“But I realized I could change that. I worked hard to get my law degree.
“I can still provide help to Magnus with the paperwork. And I want a couple of my friends to be flown here. Rhonda is going through a rough patch and Julia has no place to stay since her husband froze all their assets until the divorce proceedings finish.”
Something like shock filled his eyes and Ariana felt a surge of satisfaction. Clearly, until this moment, he hadn’t taken her seriously. “Here where?”
“To Drakon. To the King’s Palace.”
“You want me to provide sanctuary for two women who are running away from their husbands, and maybe even the law? To turn the palace into...some sort of pseudo-shelter?”