So the fact that her brother obviously trusted Ares Drakos was intriguing to say the least.
She and Caius had both been affected by their parents’ chaotic and destructive relationship and she knew that it had had a profound impact on Caius to find out that the king hadn’t been his father. She could only imagine what that knowledge would do to your sense of yourself—suddenly finding out you weren’t who you thought you were. The fact that he was still trying to protect her even though he’d had to step aside made her conscience prick. It hadn’t been his fault that their world had shifted on its axis like this.
Then, just when she’d almost convinced herself that she was actually alone and not with a taciturn uninvited guest, Ares’s voice came over the throb of the engine. ‘So, I presume you know what you’re doing if you’re sailing this boat by yourself?’
Cassie glanced at him reluctantly and hated the way her heart skipped a beat. He was sitting, legs sprawled, bag on the seat beside him. Arms out across the back of the seat. For all the world as if he had chartered the boat and she were just an employee.
She wasn’t used to people making her feel prickly and she didn’t like it. ‘We’ll soon find out, won’t we?’
She turned back to face the horizon as he said, ‘Wouldn’t it have been easier to hire a catamaran with a crew? Plenty of space to lounge about and work on your tan.’
Cassie made sure the chart plotter was set with the right coordinates and turned back to face Ares and folded her arms, glad she was wearing more clothes this time. Well, apart from her cut-off shorts.
‘My aim was to take this boat tripalone.’
Ares took off his baseball cap and ran a hand through his hair, making it even messier. And was his jaw even more stubbled today? But did he look a little pale under his tan? Green, even? Eyes a bit pinched? He seemed supremely relaxed but Cassie could sense a very subtle tension in his form. Before she could wonder about it too much he said, ‘Don’t you have any friends to play with?’
Cassie’s hackles reached nuclear levels because he was unwittingly highlighting the fact again that she was alone and hadn’t anticipated feeling this…lonely. At all. She did have friends; they just had pretty normal lives and weren’t available to go sailing on a whim.
She gritted out, ‘Not that it’s any business of yours, but I do have friends. Good ones. And maybe I want to be alone to gather my thoughts.’
‘Ah yes, no doubt to contemplate the new job you alluded to last night, becoming Queen of Sadat Sur Mer.’
Casssie’s jaw gritted even more. ‘You mean last night when I was led to believe you had no idea who I was?’
He had the grace to look sheepish. ‘I told you that was a mistake. You had a right to know who I was.’
‘Yes, I did. But clearly it was far too tempting to mock me and make a fool of me.’ Cassie was surprised at the depth of emotion that spiked. As if he’d somehow had the power to hurt her by deceiving her.
She turned back to the horizon that was wide and empty except for little smudges of other boats and islands in the far distance.
‘I’m sorry.’
She tensed, wondering if she’d heard right. Then his voice came again. ‘My intent was not to deceive you, princess. I mean that.’
Cassie hated the way his apology made her tension dissipate. She glanced at him, and now he was sitting forward with his hands linked between wide-apart legs.
‘So why did you?’ And then she added, ‘And don’t call me princess. My name is Cassie.’
Last night she’d told him,I’m Cloe.She pushed the memory aside.
He looked as if he was gritting his teeth and then he said, ‘Cassie.’
He couldn’t be further from the intense brooding stranger from last night who had enveloped her in his strength and heat, coaxing her to a climax before she’d even realised what was happening. And he also didn’t seem inclined to answer her question.
‘Look,’ she said eventually, ‘I’m heading for Santorini. I’ll drop anchor and bring you to the island on the tender. You can make your own way from there. You obviously don’t want to be here and I don’t need babysitting.’You are going to be a queen.Cassie could almost hear Pierre’s scandalised voice in her head.
But Ares was already shaking his head anyway. ‘No can do. While you’re insisting on taking this little pleasure trip, I’m by your side.’ He sat back again and regarded her. It was patently obvious that he judged her as selfish and spoiled.
Little pleasure trip.He riled her up so easily, it was a little scary. She knew she shouldn’t let him get to her but she was putting hands on her hips and facing him. ‘Did you ever judge my brother like this when you and he met up onyourlittle pleasure trips to exclusive nightclubs and bars?’
He had the grace to flush slightly. Cassie felt ridiculously pleased that she could get to him.
He said, ‘You looked me up.’
Cassie faced back to the sea, hands on the wheel. ‘Of course I did. It’s only because I don’t snoop on my brother’s social activities that I didn’t recognise you, but now that I know you share his playboy…proclivities, last night makes a lot of sense. But if I had known who you were I wouldn’t have let you come within five feet of me.’
Ares surged up from the seat in her peripheral vision and Cassie tightened her hands around the wheel. She looked at him. His face was dark.
