Ava was adjusting to living in his home just as she’d hoped she would.
When she exited her bedroom,Ava was surprised to find Christos waiting for her. He sat in the nest of pillows where she usually read Theo his bedtime story.
“Come here,” he said.
She walked over and sat down next to him on the pillows. He drew her into his arms, gently rubbing his thumb over her lower lip.
Her mouth was a little swollen from the powerful kiss he’d given her. “I’m sorry if I hurt you.”
“You didn’t,” she said. “It made me think I’d made a mistake asking you to wait until we were married….”
She didn’t want to tell him how she’d stood in front of Maria and Dorothea and that snooty assistant and felt like the dirty little girl from the trailer park, someone who’d never be able to win his attention, much less keep it. That feeling harkened back to something that Stavros had said to her when he’d made a pass at her years ago:Christos will never see you as anything more than some cheap American tail.
Certainly Christos hadn’t come after her when she’d left Mykonos and Greece to return to the States. But she’d always hoped that it had been anger and not a lack of caring that had made him let her go.
“Nothing was happening between Gui and myself. We were just talking.”
“What about?”
“He was giving me advice about dealing with your father.”
“Really? What did he suggest?”
She nibbled her lower lip. “Telling him to go to hell. But somehow I don’t think I can do that.”
Christos smiled at that. “I can’t see you doing that either. I’ve left word with Antonio that you are in charge of our wedding. Don’t let anyone bully you into anything.”
“That’s harder than it sounds. I’m not at all sure I can make the right choices.”
“I’m sure you can. You’re not the same young woman you were five years ago. Don’t forget that.”
“Does that mean you believe I’ve changed? That kiss you gave me when you came in…” Bringing it up might not be the wisest idea but nothing ventured, nothing gained. “It was a real claim-staking kind of kiss.”
“Yes, it was.”
“Nothing happened between Gui and myself,” she said again.
“I know.”
“You trust me?” she asked.
“I trust that nothing happened between the two of you.”
She swallowed hard, wanting to let it go.
“Because you trust your friend.”
“What does it matter?”
“It matters to me.”
“Why? We’re here together. We are getting married.”
That was exactly why it mattered so much to her. And she was so afraid that she was making Christos out to be this great love of her life in her mind. When the reality was…just another lie that she was telling herself.
“Because wearegetting married.”
He tucked her head closer to him, resting his chin on top of her head. “Ava, you are so complicated.”
