She thought he had, but now as he trampled over every request she wanted, sticking true to his word of not caring what she wanted anymore, she wished she could go back to the tentative relationship they had before, where he waited for her, and she avoided him at all costs.
Now, he wasn’t waiting anymore.
He was adamant about making her his, even against her will, and that was how she found herself sitting in this restaurant on a Saturday night, tucked away in the corner where the lights were dim. The setting looked romantic, yet the mood was anything but.
There was tension in the air, not the romantic, exotic tension of two lovers who desired each other, but a palpable tension,thick enough to cut with a knife, only one that enemies could have, not lovers. She sat further away from him than most would ever on a date, and it also didn’t help that two of his men stood on either side of them, which caused most people to stare at them whenever they walked past.
They probably thought an important official was here to eat when it was just a criminal, who had too many enemies to eat alone without his men in a restaurant.
Moments later, the waiter came back with two wine glasses and an expensive bottle of wine. Honey already knew it was expensive because Antonis was an expensive man. He would never walk around with anything less than finer things.
Honey watched as the waiter poured a small amount of wine into each of their glasses, and she was almost ready to tell him to pour more because, at this point, that was what she would need to get through this night without losing it. Her skin prickled with annoyance and anxiety, and she felt that if anyone touched her the wrong way, she would explode, specifically on Antonis.
After the waiter left, Antonis took a sip of his wine. “This is good. This is one of the finest wines from Barcelona from the time of the war.”
Honey ignored him, not caring about how fine the wine was or where it had come from. At first, she had planned to drink it to get through this night, but now, she didn’t want it anymore, so she pushed the glass away.
“You won’t try it?”
“No,” Honey said, tersely.
“You won’t try me,” Antonis said, chuckling bitterly, and Honey arched a brow in question.
“You’ve never been willing to try with me,” Antonis explained.
“You’re my boss,” Honey said, but Antonis looked unimpressed.
“I almost would have believed you, but while I was out of commission, my nephew was in charge, and that hadn’t stopped you.”
Honey swallowed thickly, realizing that she couldn’t deny that. But when she thought about it, Nikos had never felt like a boss to her, and maybe it was because she hadn’t necessarily acknowledged him as one then.
At the time, she still only saw him as a philandering asshole who was going around sleeping with every woman in the Gentlemen’s Club. But then she realized, it was because Nikos had never acted like her boss. He had never imposed his feelings on her using his title. He had never made her feel uncomfortable. She had never had to worry about Nikos holding anything against her at her job even when she was running from him.
What she wanted had mattered to him, and he hadn’t just seen her as some toy he wanted to possess, and that was all she would ever be to a man like Antonis— a possession.
Their table was quiet even after the food arrived, and though Honey could admit that it smelt good, she refused to eat, pushing the plate away from her as she had done with the wine. At first, Antonis ignored her and ate his food, but after ten minutes passed, he suddenly slammed his knife down, causing some nearby people to jump.
His men visibly shifted, uncomfortably, but Honey remained unmoved as she continued to act as the doll that Antonis so desperately wanted her to be.
“You won’t even give your food a try.”
“If I wanted to go out to dinner, then yes, I would. But I didn’t want to go out to dinner, so why would I eat?”
“Honey, you’re testing my patience,” he gritted out, and Honey scuffed.
“And you don’t think you’re testing mines?” Honey barked back, feeling as if she could jump out of her skin. “I’ve told you multiple times that I didn’t want this with you, but just like everything else, you ignore it. What I want doesn’t matter to you, so what you want doesn’t matter to me. Unless you plan to force-feed me.”
It was only after she said it, that she started to wonder if Antonis intended on doing that. Even after having known him for four years, she felt like she was walking in uncharted territory with him now.
The man sitting in front of her now was completely different from the man she had known before. If she felt like jumping out of her skin now, she was pretty sure Antonis felt the same, like every bit of control he had developed over the past few years was disappearing from him.
He was tired of waiting, but she was tired of him waiting, period.
She wanted to go home. She wanted to return to the past. She wanted to have never started a relationship with Nikos just so he could still be alive at this moment, just so she could hear one of his stupid one-liners again. She was in pain, and Antonis wouldn’t even allow that to happen.
“Do you think I wouldn’t be able to?” The question brought chills down her spine as her heart raced. “Honey, I’m a man starved of you. You’ve left me in a dry desert with no water. What do you think I’m capable of?”
Her nose wrinkled in disgust. “Get your own damn water.”
