Day after day, his damn wife’s “stuff” crept all over the apartment, taking up space. If he reached for a shirt, there was her yellow dress that had made her look like a voluptuous sunflower.
If he reached for his cuff links, there was her jewelry case filled with the funky costume jewelry she apparently loved collecting.
If, after a long day at work, he went in for a shower, there she was in the giant tub, filled with frothy bubbles and a hundred candles playing peekaboo with damp, soft flesh he wanted to caress, bare thighs he wanted to kiss.
He was the real estate billionaire and even his bathroom was not his own.
The pocket-sized minx was driving him so insane that any given minute he either wanted to throttle her or kiss her senseless.
The only reason he hadn’t stalked out of those apartments was now standing behind him.
Calling him papa without even realizing she was doing it.
Whatever torment Eleni was causing his flesh—and he worried he was going to be walking with a permanent hard-on—Gabriel grinned and bore it, for Angelina had bloomed like anything in the last weeks. The sparkle in his daughter’s eyes every day, the transformation from a sullen child to a lovely, cheerful girl was amazing.
Clearly, his wife knew what she was talking about.
“If you are busy, Papa,” came the tentative voice again, “I’ll return later.”
“No, stay, querida,” he replied softly.
Willing the tension in his muscles to ease, swallowing away the urge to snarl, as he’d been doing at everyone else, Gabriel put his pencil down and turned.
Her dark hair bound in a tight braid and clad in a white shirt and jodhpurs, Angelina looked like a little champion. “Had a good riding lesson?” he asked, signaling her to come into his office.
After a reluctant minute, she slowly entered. He smiled for the first time in days. Like him, his daughter was a very calculating sort of person. In every interaction between them, he could almost see her weighing the risks and advantages.
Wondering if he could be trusted. And yet, if Eleni had been present, she wouldn’t have hesitated even barging in.
“It was a good lesson, although Ellie didn’t join us.”
“Oh?” he said, striving to keep his voice casual. For one thing, he hadn’t known that Eleni was joining Angelina during her riding lessons, although he couldn’t say he was surprised.
Apparently, among all her numerous talents, his wife was a superb equestrian. He hadn’t yet seen her ride but Angelina couldn’t stop talking about it.
It also hadn’t taken him long to realize that Eleni was a very hands-on person, even when it came to matters of Angelina. Nothing was trivial enough—not Angelina’s education, not her outfits, not even shopping and ice-cream trips were delegated to a nanny or an assistant. Yet, he was also aware that she’d shed none of her other duties.
Since Nik’s wife, Mia, was late into her pregnancy with twins and damn Andreas was still MIA, Eleni was playing hostess for Nikandros for many of the state functions of Drakon.
While he grumbled about her taking up space in his suite, the quiet in those rooms when she was out on the social whirl or some palace affair had become unbearable.
Perversely, it bothered him that she had a full life without him when he should be glad that she hadn’t made any demands of him again. That he had acquired a mother for Angelina without having to make any emotional investment.
So why did he feel as though slowly but surely the Princess was winning a game he hadn’t even realized they were playing? Why did he sometimes catch her gaze on him with such stark yearning in it, the same deep, visceral need he felt when he found her scrunched up tight on one side of his bed?
She rarely came to bed before him and she was dressed and breakfasting on the veranda with her tablet in hand when he woke up. Gabriel had seen the evidence of her hard work in the bruised shadows under her eyes, in the sunken tightness of her features.
If she didn’t slow down, Eleni would work herself into an early grave. Yet the woman had a stubborn will that no one could shake.
“So, tell me, are you two fighting?” Angelina prodded.
“Didn’t you ask her the same question?” he said, tugging on her braid.
As had become a habit between them, she swatted his hand away first. But then didn’t let go completely.
As if she needed the guise of that slap to touch him.
“You growl and grumble like a grumpy giant, Gabriel. Of course it took her time to become familiar with your...physicality.”
“Is that why you flinch every time I touch you?” he’d asked Eleni, falling into the lure of those wide, fluttering eyes.
“Why don’t you touch me now and see?” the minx had taunted him.
The Princess had become bold. Just like his daughter, there was always a sparkle in her eyes, a spring in her step. It was strangely exhilarating to see Eleni come into her own as a mother.
She’d be a fierce lioness, a great mother to any of their children. The errant thought dropped into his head like a small explosive.
With a muffled curse, he ran his fingers through his hair. If he took her, and every cell in his body wanted to, Gabriel knew he was making a deeper commitment. It could never be a convenient arrangement. He already couldn’t bear the thought of another man with her, much less touching her or kissing her. And if he did, he couldn’t just move on to another woman.
It was not the example he wanted to set for his daughter. And more than that, it was not what the Princess deserved.
So what the hell was he then signing on for? A true marriage? A relationship with respect and loyalty she already had from him, so was this about passion? God forbid, emotion?
“Papa, you’re not listening.”
Falling to his knees, which he knew she liked, Gabriel made an apologetic face. “Sorry, Tesoro.”
“Anyway, I wanted to ask Ellie if you and she were fighting. She’s been a little quiet this past week and to be honest, I think she’s very sad,” she said with the stunning perception of a child. “I went to see her yesterday afternoon and she...she wasn’t feeling well. So I wanted to ask if you were the reason and to tell you to lay off.”
“Lay off?” he said, his mouth twitching at the fierceness of her tone.
“Yes, lay off. I think she’s already in shock about her old friend. As strong as Ellie is, it’s a lot of people to worry over.”
His interest perking up, Gabriel casually said, “Old friend?”
“I heard Nik and her talking about it. She was crying and he held her and said he was sorry. I have never seen her like that.”
A jolt went through Gabriel. He couldn’t imagine his strong, efficient, smart wife crying. There was a core of steel inside of her, he realized now, an integrity nothing could puncture. She had loved the man who’d deserted her for years, remained loyal to him.
Gabriel had never known anyone to be capable of such depth of feeling.
“Please, Papa. Will you be nice to Ellie and ask after her?”
It was the first time his little girl had asked for something. It was the first time she’d looked at him as if he were capable of something good and positive.
But even if she didn’t, nothing could stop him from finding out exactly what his wife was crying over. “Of course,” he said, hugging his little girl.
CHAPTER EIGHT
IT TOOK GABRIEL all of two hours to locate his wife.
He looked in the direction in which the groom pointed and came to a standstill at the sight in front of him. With a nod, he dismissed the groom and another staff member, feeling strangely possessive of her.
Without that brisk, matter-of-fact quality to her, she looked fragile and lonely and a rush of protectiveness filled him.
She sat atop a huge pile of hay, her arms around her knees tucked tight against her chest. As if she meant to scrunch herself into nothingness. Shards of sunlight filtered through the wooden slats of the barn, picking out the bronze and gold highlights in her hair. Bathed in the sunlight, she looked like a golden goddess—untouched by cynicism, all soft edges.
“Princesa?”
She looked up, her eyes wide and round in her face. Wariness filled her expression, a sudden tension in the slender set of her shoulders. “Why do you insist on calling me that in that mocking tone? It says you think I’m anything but.”
“Does it matter if I think you a princess or not?”
“No,” she said, half to herself. “Did you need something? Is Angelina looking for me?”
“I don’t need anything, but Angelina’s worried for you.”
“She’s sweet, but I didn’t think it was proper for her to see me like this.”
“I defer to your superior judgment on that.”
“Why are you suddenly being nice to me?” she said, not even looking at him.
“I have been ordered to be nice to you. With the fiercest of threats.”
“Ah...now I get it. This is Angelina’s doing.” As if he did not give a damn about her.
“If I had known you were...unwell, I would have come after you myself.”
“Please, all we have is honesty, Gabriel. Don’t take that away too.”
“Relationships are not my strong point and ours...our relationship hasn’t been easy or straightforward from the beginning.”
“Because you decided that I deceived you. Because you’re incapable of trust.”