Anguish made her feet slow as she collected her clothes from last night and went into her suite. She’d been granted a reprieve, yes, but had she rendered her eventual confession worthless by not admitting the truth now? Because surely, once she told Sakis just who’d texted her, he’d damn her for ever?
She loved him. Everything about Sakis made her heart beat faster and her soul ache with regret that they hadn’t met in another time...a time before she’d been forced to hide her past and unknowingly compromise her future.
Her phone buzzed as she stepped into the grey-and-black platform heels that matched her grey Versace suit.
She knew who it was before she pressed ‘answer’.
‘I need more time,’ she blurted before he’d finished speaking.
Silence. ‘You haven’t been found out, have you?’ Greg demanded.
Brianna sank down onto the hard seat of the dressing stool in her suite’s walk-in closet. ‘No, but you calling and texting me at three a.m. doesn’t help.’
‘If you haven’t been found out then what’s the problem?’ he fired back.
‘I just... There’s a lot of attention on me right now. I need to make sure I do things properly or this will end badly...for both of us.’ Her skin burned with each lie. And any minute she suspected the heavens to crack open and lightning to strike her down.
He gave an irritated sigh. ‘I have to go out of town unexpectedly. I could be a few days, maybe a week. You have until I get back to get me the information I need. If you don’t have it on my return, it’s game over.’ His tone vibrated with dark menace. ‘Word of warning—don’t test me, Anna.’
The name scoured across her senses, making her flinch. She was no longer Anna Simpson. Deciding to change her name had been a step in reinventing herself but it wasn’t until she’d seen herself through Sakis’s eyes that she’d felt truly reborn.
He’d called her amazing yesterday. And throughout the night he’d shown her a powerful ecstasy beyond the physical, made more wonderful because of her feelings for him.
The thought of living without him, of walking away, sent a poker-hot lance of pain through her heart. She was still silently mourning losing Sakis when she walked into the dining room.
The sight of the assorted platters of pancakes, waffles, chocolate and strawberry syrup and endless more condiments made tears prickle her eyes.
Sakis sauntered towards her, one eyebrow raised. ‘We made love long and hard last night, and not once did you cry. I’m trying very hard not to let my ego be dented by the fact that it’s the sight of pancakes for breakfast that makes you cry and not our lovemaking.’
‘I... It’s not... No one’s ever done anything like this for me,’ she finally blurted.
His expression morphed from teasing to compassionate in a heartbeat. ‘It’s the least of what you deserve, glikia mou.’ Cupping her face, he sealed his mouth over hers.
Tell him. Tell him now.
But how could she tell him about Greg without it all coming out wrong? And how could she confess her love without it sounding like a tool with which to beg his forgiveness?
She’d been gifted extra time with him. And she selfishly, desperately, wanted that time. Maybe she could use it to show him how much he meant to her.