Cassie snorted, making it clear what she thought about that, and then she observed, ‘We really don’t come from such different backgrounds. You said “sisters”—how many siblings do you have?’
Ares shifted as if uncomfortable. Tough. He knew practically everything about her. He said, ‘Just my older brother and two younger sisters. Both are already married with children.’
‘And your brother?’
Ares shook his head. ‘Not yet but he’s under pressure. He’s already CEO and his children will inherit the legacy and carry the name. I was never really interested in the business.’
‘How could you have been if you were made to feel it wasn’t your destiny?’ Cassie observed. Ares said nothing, just looked at her.
Then she divulged, ‘If I have children they’ll carry my name.’
‘That makes sense.’
Cassie’s mouth twisted. ‘You’d be surprised how many men would have an issue with that.’
‘I don’t see the issue. Once I walked away from my inheritance my name lost its value.’
‘But you started in the army. That’s hardly a fortune-making venture.’
Ares looked at her with a clear warning.
Cassie smiled. ‘No-go zone.’
He looked at her. ‘No-go zone?’
‘Caius and I have “no-go zones”, when one of us strays too close to something we don’t want to discuss.’ She leant forward as the waiter gave Ares the bill. ‘Are you close to your siblings?’
Something very fleeting crossed his face, and disappeared. ‘At one time, maybe, but not now. We haven’t been in touch for years.’
It was an enigmatic answer but Cassie didn’t push it. She said, ‘That’s sad. I don’t know what I’d do without Caius. I always wished we had more siblings, to take the pressure off just us.’ She thought of her twin, and how that might have changed so much. Or perhaps not much at all. They’d never know.
Ares shook his head. ‘More siblings doesn’t mean less pressure, it’s just more opportunities for manipulation.’
Cassie was fascinated by all that Ares was revealing. ‘Your parents were manipulative, then?’
He let out a bark of laughter. ‘You could say that. But let’s get back to what you want to get out of this…moment of freedom.’
No-go zone.
Cassie sighed, looked up and then back and said, ‘You won’t understand.’ He would laugh at her silly wish list. But then, he didn’t laugh so maybe he wouldn’t.
He said, ‘Try me.’
Cassie sighed and divulged, ‘OK, I’d like to go to the Uffizi in Florence, during the most packed part of the day; I’d like to go horse-riding on a beach at dawn; I’d like to ride a motorbike along Route 66 in America…but I’d settle for an empty stretch of motorway anywhere really…’
Ares’s eyes opened wide. ‘You can ride a motorbike?’
Cassie nodded. ‘Caius taught me.’
Ares muttered something that sounded like, ‘Of course he did.’ And then, ‘Why the Uffizi on a busy day? When you could get the place shut down just for you?’
Cassie grimaced. ‘That’s exactly why. I went on a school tour and there were so many daughters of important people in my class that the place was shut down just for us…but I always felt ashamed. It was eerie. I couldn’t enjoy the art. I felt like we were stopping people from enjoying it. So I’d like to go back, pay to get in and queue with everyone else…soak up the experience with fellow art lovers.’
Ares had a slightly arrested expression on his face and then he said, ‘Is that it? Not an especially extravagant list.’
‘I’d like to get a tattoo and go clubbing, proper sweaty-all-night-until-the-sun-comes-up dancing clubbing…’
Now he grimaced, and ignored the bit about clubbing. ‘A tattoo? Isn’t that a bit of a cliché? Don’t tell me, not one of those Mandarin symbols that no one really knows what they mean.’
