When her eyes opened wide and she grinned at him Ares fought the counter urge to scowl. The fact that it had unnerved him to hear about her reaction to her parents’ marriage and to see her lose her sparkle was far too disturbing to countenance. And why he was encouraging her in her pursuit of this wish list…he really was losing it.
‘You’re not going to let me see it?’
Cassie shook her head and held her arm against herself. There was a big white plaster over the tattoo that she’d got along the inside of her wrist. ‘Not yet anyway. I need to keep it covered for twenty-four hours.’
They’d returned to the boat a while ago and Cassie had taken her shopping down to the cabin. Ares was delaying the moment he would have to go down there and shower and change. He was a coward. He knew it and it sat within him like an acidic little demon.
Cassie had prepared a light dinner of pasta and salad and it was surprisingly delicious. Ares asked, ‘Where did you learn to cook?’
‘Go on, you can admit it, I’m not what you had me boxed away as on first sight.’ She grinned at him and it made his chest feel full.
‘You are definitely a novel experience.’
‘I was obsessed with cooking shows when I was small. The palace kitchen staff set up a small area for me so I could pretend to cook alongside them. The main cook, a woman called Maria, was probably more of a mother to me than anyone else. She was kind and warm.’
‘Sweet story.’
Cassie just grinned even harder at him. ‘What about you? Don’t they teach you to cook in the army?’
Ares nodded. ‘Rudimentary stuff, yes. I can cobble together a meal with whatever is there.’
‘Great, then you can do dinner tomorrow night.’
Ares grimaced at the thought of lingering down in that cabin with the boat around him, encroaching on him. Darkness. Cruel hands and fists raining down on him.He’s just some rich kid who no one cares about.
He swallowed it all down and looked at Cassie. ‘That’s fair.’
Cassie stood up and gathered the plates. ‘I’m going to get ready. See you back up here in an hour?’
Ares nodded. The sun was setting, turning the sky pink and orange and ochre. But already he was dreading seeing what concoction Cassie was going to appear in because he knew she could be wearing an oversized sack and he would burn for her.
He smiled mirthlessly to himself. This was torture pure and simple. All of his sins were being called in and there was nothing he could do about it.
Cassie looked at herself in the mirror and her heart thudded too loudly. She’d heard Ares coming down, doing something with dishes in the galley area, and then after a silence he’d gone back up. It was as if he didn’t like coming down into the cabin. Sleeping on the deck. She shrugged to herself. Maybe it was an army thing. He certainly hadn’t held over anything, like being precious, from his days as an heir to a vast fortune.
She still felt a little raw after that far too revealing episode earlier when she’d reacted to seeing the couple arguing. They’d caught her by surprise, the violence of their words and actions hurtling her back in time before she could steel herself against it. She still had such an immediate visceral response to witnessing confrontations. And Ares had noticed. And put two and two together once she’d let slip about her parents. It had surprised her how easy it had been to reveal that, even if she hadn’t revealed the extent of how much it got to her.
She’d sensed an affinity with him, as if he understood something of how it affected her.
She’d plaited her hair and coiled it up onto her head. She’d put in dark-coloured contact lenses again—just in case. Heavy eye make-up. Glitter across her cheeks.
She was wearing a light blue silk jumpsuit. Sleeveless and with a deep vee, gathered at the waist and at the ankles. Sticky tape holding it in place was preserving her modesty but she knew deep down with an illicit thrill that she didn’t much care about preserving her modesty around Ares.
She wanted him. It beat deep within her. Even with all of his grumpy surliness. Today, she’d seen something lighter and that smile. She could still remember it, and how it had transformed his face. It had made her feel pathetically triumphant. But also something else, something more emotional.
No.Not emotion. Desire. She wanted to kiss him again. Feel his hands on her. She wanted him to show her how it could be, so that, no matter what happened, she would have this to treaure inside herself for ever.
She knew she wouldn’t even notice another man while he was in the vicinity. He was magnetic. And…a small rogue part of her wondered what it would take to really make him crack open. Lose his control. The thought of being able to have that effect on him was seriously heady.
But doubt crept in. Maybe after that first night her gauche responses had put him off. And now he was here as her reluctant keeper and the last thing he’d want to do was sleep with her. He resented her. She was less worthy than any other client he could have.
And then Cassie shook herself out of it. Shewasworthy. When Ares looked at her, he really looked at her. She wasn’t invisible to him. Except, earlier, when he’d told her he hadn’t been thinking or assuming anything about her, that had felt like a knife sliding into tender skin. It had shocked her how much his words could hurt her. He was still little more than a stranger. And yet one who had become central to her existence.
Cassie suddenly felt vulnerable—Ares’s opinion meant something to her. She wanted him to like her. Care for her. Respect her.Want her.And that was too dangerous. He already had the power to hurt her.
Maybe sleeping with him was not a good idea.
She vowed to try her best to slip away from him tonight. Find another man who could make her want him as she wanted Ares. Surely that wouldn’t be so hard? He couldn’t have ruined her for other men after little more than a kiss?
