Coming here like this had been a gamble, but one he’d had to take. Knowing how he felt about her, he couldn’t possibly let another day go by without telling her. Without being brave, as she was brave.
But the sight of her hastily leaving the venue had his whole body on alert. He finished his speech quickly, and slipped off the stage while the crowd was still filling the room with near-deafening applause.
‘Genevieve.’
She blinked her eyes open in anguished shock at the voice that had been tormenting her dreams, and her every waking thought, for months on end. She lifted a shaking hand to her mouth, covering the gasp, the sound of shock, of pained betrayal.
It was too much.
She had wanted to see him so badly, but having it take place like this, as a matter of happenstance, because of some charity he was involved with, cut her to the bone.
‘Excuse me,’ she said, eyes filling with tears as she turned and tried to make her shaking legs cooperate.
But he was right behind her. ‘Wait,’ he said, and when she didn’t stop, his hand reached out and caught hers. ‘Please,agape. Give me a moment.’
Her heart ached.Agape.Love.
‘Don’t,’ she whispered, closing her eyes again as a tear rolled down her cheek. His touch was perfection, but it was also a cruel taunt. She pulled her hand free, and rubbed it against her thigh.
‘A moment,’ he said, moving to stand in front of her, his eyes raking her face with a look of deep concern. ‘I am begging you, Genevieve.’
She tried to swallow, but her throat felt completely constricted, her mouth dry, her brain hardly able to keep up.
‘What do you want, Nikos?’
A muscle jerked in his cheek. ‘That’s difficult to explain.’
Her heart tightened. It shouldn’t have been. If it was good news, it would have been the easiest thing in the world to say.You.
‘Can we speak in private?’
She looked around, for the first time becoming aware that the entrance to the hotel was far from discreet. High-profile guests milled, journalists too.
‘I really can’t,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘I mean, I can’t talk to you. I can’t do this again. It’s been four months of torture, of agony, of hoping that each day I would wake up and not feel as though I’d lost a part of myself, and it’s not getting better. It’s never getting better,’ she sobbed, taking a step back from him and twisting her engagement ring out of habit. His eyes dropped to her hand, eyes flaring, and she felt the betraying nature of that gesture, and wanted to curse. ‘But seeing you again, it’s just going to make it harder. I can’t… I can’t start all over again. I have to believe I’m making progress, even though it doesn’t feel like it. I have to believe that day by day I’m one step closer to getting over you,’ she pleaded, as though he could click his fingers and make this all better for her.
Though she’d refused to go somewhere more intimate, Nikos moved his bulky frame to stand between her and the entrance of the hotel, effectively creating privacy for Genevieve by shielding her from view.
‘I have to go,’ she whispered, shaking her head, staring up at him imploringly. The fact he was here in Washington, and she had no idea for how long, or where he was staying, or any of those vital details, just drove home to her how estranged they now were. Her heart was bursting into a billion pieces.
‘Do you think I have not also missed you?’ he said, voice dark, as his eyes roamed her face. He was close enough that she could feel his warmth, and her whole body was aching with a need to lean forward and feel his strength, too.
Anger shifted through her chest. ‘What?’
‘I have been on the island, and you are everywhere there. You are in the trees, the sunlight, the sound of rain on the roof, the fireplace, the bed, you are in my soul, my heart, my very being. I have missed you, Genevieve, in ways I cannot even fathom. I have felt as though I am barely alive, walking this earth, having lost my true north, my reason for being.’
His words were everything she’d wanted to hear, but it was too late. She was so bruised and battered, she couldn’t forgive him for putting her through this. She’d given him her heart, and, vitally, her trust, and he’d wanted neither.
‘You came to Washington and happened to run into me, and now you’re telling me this? What if I hadn’t been here tonight? What if I hadn’t—?’
‘I came here for you,’ he contradicted. ‘This—’ he gestured to the hotel ‘—was a guaranteed way of seeing you. I didn’t know, otherwise, if you would agree to meet.’
Her jaw dropped. ‘But I’m not even meant to be here.’
‘I put in a call.’
‘You put in a call,’ she repeated, dumbfounded.
‘I know the owner of your paper.’
