Damon didn’t take a seat, didn’t offer one to his father. ‘Why are you here?’
‘I wanted to congratulate you in person.’
The bare nerve of the man was galling.
‘You’re very quick off the mark. I haven’t been married twenty-four hours yet.’
His father’s smile stayed crocodile wide. ‘I never thought you had it in you.’
‘Had what in me?’
‘To marry so...happily.’
‘Happily?’ Damon queried. ‘You mean like you and Mother?’
‘Your mother and I have a very successful arrangement.’
Yeah. An arrangement that was bloodless and only about making the most of their assets. ‘And that’s what you think this is?’
‘Are you saying you’re in love with her?’ His father laughed. ‘I’m sure you love the power and opportunity that come with her beautiful body.’
Revulsion triggered rage but Damon breathed deeply, settling his pulse. He wasn’t going to bite. His father wasn’t worth it. But he couldn’t help declaring the obvious. ‘I’m not like you.’
His father frowned. ‘Meaning?’
‘You have at least one other child that you have done nothing for. You abuse people, then abandon them.’
His father’s expression narrowed.
‘How many others are there?’ Damon asked bluntly.
‘That was one mistake.’
Mistake?
‘I saw you with her,’ Damon said softly, knowing he’d regret the revelation but unable to resist asking.
‘Who?’
‘Kassie’s mother.’ Damon had followed him once, here in Palisades—the opulent island of personal betrayal had taken Damon on a swift bleak journey to adulthood and understanding. He’d seen his father kiss that woman with such passion. Damon had actually thought his father was truly in love. That he was truly capable of it and it was just that he didn’t feel it for either Damon or his mother. ‘Why didn’t you leave us and stay with her?’ He’d never understood it.
An appalled expression carved deeper lines in his father’s face. ‘I would never leave your mother.’
‘Not because you love her,’ Damon said. ‘But because her connections were too important to your career. It was your arrangement.’
Because he was that calculating. That ruthlessly ambitious. That incapable of real love.
‘Your mother and I make a good team. We understand each other.’
By turning blind eyes to infidelities and focusing on their careers. They’d used his funds and her family name. Connections and money made for progress in political circles. They’d had Damon only to cement the image of the ‘perfect career couple’. Not because he’d actually been wanted, as his mother had told him every time he’d disappointed her. And that had been often.
‘So you abandoned your lover and your daughter and refused to help when they were struggling because of the risk to your stupid career and supposedly perfect marriage.’ Damon was disgusted.
‘I offered her money but she was too proud to accept it. That was her choice.’
‘You knew she suffered and you didn’t go back.’
‘What more could I have done, Damon?’ his father asked. ‘Was it my fault she chose to remain in that squalid little cottage?’
Damon understood it now—he’d realised the horrific truth when he’d learned how that woman had suffered for so long, so alone. His father had never loved Kassie’s mother. He’d wanted her, used her and walked away when he’d had enough. When she’d refused his money his conscience was cleared and he’d considered himself absolved.
No guilt. No shame. No heart.
‘It’ll look strange if you don’t invite us both here soon,’ his father said, his callousness towards Kassie and her mother apparently forgotten already. ‘Your mother would like to stay as a guest.’
‘I’m never inviting either of you here,’ Damon said shortly. ‘How can you act as if we’re close when we haven’t seen each other in years?’ Bitterness burned up his throat. He wanted the taint of the man nowhere near Eleni.
‘We’ve all been busy.’
His father hadn’t realised he’d been avoiding him? ‘No. We have no relationship. You’re not using this. You’re not using me.’
‘You can’t get away from your blood, Damon.’ John Gale laughed. ‘You’re my son. Just because we’re more alike than you want to admit, doesn’t mean it isn’t so. You can’t get away from who you are.’
He’d never wanted to be like either of his parents. They were why he’d never wanted a serious relationship, let alone to marry. Why he’d wanted to build his company—his success—on his own terms. In isolation and not dependent on manipulated relationships.
‘I might not be able to deny my blood, but I can deny you access to my wife and to our home,’ Damon said coldly. ‘You’re not welcome here. You’ll never be welcome here. I suggest you leave right now, before I have the soldiers throw you out.’
‘Your wife’s soldiers.’
‘Yes.’ Damon refused to let his father get a rise out of him. ‘Don’t come back. Don’t contact me again. And don’t dare try to contact Eleni directly.’
‘Or?’
‘Or I’ll let the world know just what you are.’ He’d strike where his father cared the most—his reputation, his image.
John’s eyes narrowed.
‘It will be much better for you to return to New York and whatever project it is you’re about to launch,’ Damon said lazily. ‘And no more gleeful interviews mentioning Eleni and me. You’re showing your lack of class.’
That blow landed and Damon watched as his father’s complexion turned ruddy. After that, John didn’t stick around and Damon slowly wound his way back up to Eleni’s apartment. He’d done the right thing getting him out of the palace as quickly as possible. But his father’s slimy insincerity stuck.
He didn’t want it getting to Eleni. As soon as the baby was born he’d begin the separation process because she’d be so much better off without him. But he’d still be the Princess’s ex-husband, the father of her child. Another prince or princess.
Too late he realised her life was now intrinsically tied to his. His gut tightened as he mulled the possible configurations of their futures and the fact that she would always be part of his world. In the cold light of day he realised he’d not ‘won’ anything at all.
Nor had she.
But he’d meant what he’d told her. Relationships never lasted. Not for anyone. And certainly not him. Never him. He refused.
He paused for a moment outside her apartment door to draw in a breath. Then he let himself in. It was too much to hope she was still in bed. She was dressed in a simple tee shirt and skirt and his wayward body tightened at the sight of her lithe legs.
‘Where have you been?’ she asked, sending him a sleepy smile, but her sea-green eyes were too searching for him to cope with.
‘I have a company to run,’ Damon said sharply, picking up his tablet and staring at it. Hard. ‘I’ve neglected it long enough while tracking you down.’
Silence filled the room, tightening the invisible string connecting his eyes to her body and in the end he could no longer resist the tug.
A limpid look was trained on him. ‘Perhaps you should have slept a little longer.’
He couldn’t help but smile at that most princess-polite sass.
She wandered over to the window, affording him an even better view of her legs and the curve of her body. She had no idea of her sensuality.
‘So what have you been working on that’s caused your mood to...deteriorate?’
‘It’s not important.’
‘It wouldn’t have anything to do with your father, would it?’
He froze. ‘Your palace spies have reported in already?’
‘No spies. I saw a replay of the interview with him at the airport.’ She turned to face him. ‘Is he here?’
‘He’s already left.’
; ‘You didn’t want me to meet him?’
‘No.’ He didn’t want to explain why. But he saw the wounded flash in her eyes. ‘He’s not a nice man.’
Her lips twisted. ‘You don’t need to protect me.’
‘Yes, I do.’ He huffed out a breath and glared at his tablet again, gripping it as if it were his life-support system.
His marriage to Eleni could be nothing like his parents’ one. For one thing, it wasn’t about to last. It wasn’t about his career and never would be. It was about protecting his child. It was about protecting Eleni.
‘Are you sure it’s me you’re protecting?’ she asked quietly.
He glanced across at her. ‘Meaning?’
‘Your father...and you.’ She looked uncomfortable. ‘You’re not close...’
‘No.’ Damon couldn’t help but smile faintly. Definitely not close. ‘I haven’t had contact with him in almost five years.’
‘None at all?’
He shook his head.
‘He cheated on your mother.’ She still looked super awkward. ‘Kassie at the hospital...’
‘Is my unacknowledged half-sister. Yes.’
‘But you’re in touch with her.’
‘Yes.’ He sighed and put the tablet down on the low table. ‘My father isn’t. My mother pretends she doesn’t exist. Kassie is too proud to push for what she’s owed.’ He leaned back on the edge of the sofa, folding his arms across his chest. He’d had to find out what had happened. ‘I once saw him with her mother,’ Damon said. ‘Years ago when we lived here in Palisades.’
‘That must have been hard to see.’
Damon frowned at the floor. ‘I couldn’t understand why he didn’t leave us for them when it was so obvious...’
‘Did you ever ask him?’
About five minutes ago and his father had confirmed what Damon had learned in later years. ‘His career was too important. It was always too important to both my parents. The only reason they had me was to tick that box on their CV—happily married with one son...’
‘But they must be proud of you.’
He laughed bitterly. ‘Proud of a teenager who wasted his time making lame computer games?’ He shook his head.
‘But now you have a hugely successful company. More than one. How can they not be—?’ She broke off and her expression softened. ‘You shouldn’t have had to “achieve” to get the support any child deserves.’
‘I got more than my half-sister did,’ he muttered shortly. ‘He wouldn’t even support them financially. Her mother died a long, slow, painful death. Kassie has been struggling since.’
‘Is that why you got in touch with her?’
He nodded. ‘But she wouldn’t let me help her.’ He rolled his shoulders. It still knotted him that Kassie had refused almost everything he’d offered. ‘I can understand it.’
Sadness lent a sheen to Eleni’s eyes. ‘And your parents are still together.’
‘Still achieving. Still silently seething with bitterness and unhappiness. Still a successful marriage. Sure thing.’
‘He cheated more than once?’
‘I expect so,’ he sighed.
‘So.’ Eleni brushed her hair back from her face. ‘That’s why you made it clear our marriage is only to provide legitimacy for our baby. Why you think no relationship lasts.’
‘As I said, a child shouldn’t be raised in the household with unhappily married parents.’ Unloving parents. ‘We married for the birth certificate, then we do what’s right. I didn’t want this baby to be a tool for some political purpose. Not paraded as the future Prince or Princess or whatever. And I won’t abandon it either.’
‘I understand,’ she said softly. ‘I don’t want that either.’ She bit her lip and looked down at the table between them. ‘I’m sorry your parents...’
He held up a hand. ‘It’s okay. We all have our burdens, right?’ She’d lost both her parents. She had expectations on her that were far beyond the normal person’s. He shouldn’t have judged her as harshly as he had.
‘Damon?’
He glanced up at that roughened note in her voice.
Storms had gathered in her sea-green eyes. ‘This baby was unexpected, unplanned...’ she pressed a hand to her flat belly as she gazed across at him ‘...but I promise you I’ll love it. I already do. I’ll do whatever it takes to protect and care for it.’
‘I know.’ He believed her because she already was. He’d seen her stand up to her brother—knew that had been a first for her. And she was trying here, now, with him.
But somehow it made that discomfort within him worse. He wasn’t like her. He didn’t understand how she could love the child already. The truth was he didn’t know how to love. He had no idea how to be a husband. He sure as hell had no idea how to be a father. When he’d first suspected she might be pregnant his initial instinct had been not to abandon his child. He was not doing what his father had done to Kassie.
But he had no idea how even these next few months were going to work. The tightness in his chest didn’t ease. Disappointment flowed and then ebbed. Leaving him with that void. He ached for a real escape.
‘Is that the photo Giorgos approved for release?’ Eleni’s voice rose in surprise.
He glanced at the muted screen still showing the number one news item of the world.
‘Yes.’ He cleared his throat. ‘There’s another with him in it as well, but this is the one the media have run with.’
‘I can’t believe he chose that one. It’s...’
‘What?’
‘Informal.’
Damon knew why the King had chosen that particular picture. Eleni looked stunning with her skin glowing, her hair and dress beautiful...but it was that luminosity in her expression that was striking. While Damon was looking at her with undeniable desire, she was laughing up at him—sparkling, warm, delighted. This image, snapped in that moment in the garden, would sell the ‘truth’ of this fairy tale.
This image stole his breath.
But now another picture of him flashed on the screen—him at an event with another woman. Then another. Inwardly he winced. It seemed anyone who’d dated him in the past wanted their five minutes of fame now and had opened their photo albums to show off their one or two snaps.
‘Wow, lots of models, huh?’ Eleni muttered, her rasp more apparent. ‘That’s very billionaire tech entrepreneur of you.’
‘It wasn’t a deliberate strategy.’ He stepped nearer to her, needing to touch her skin. ‘They just happened to be at the parties.’
She subjected him to a long, silent scrutiny. ‘You know my history. I don’t know yours at all.’
‘You mean lovers?’ He grinned in an effort to shake off the prickling sensation her piercing greenish gaze caused. ‘I’ve had a few. No real girlfriends. There’s nothing and no one to trouble you.’
She didn’t look convinced.
He shrugged. ‘I’m busy with my work and I like to be good at it.’
The ugly fact was he was a hollow man—as success obsessed as his shallow parents. Just less visible about it. He liked to think he had a smidge more integrity than they did—by refusing to use other people to get to where he wanted to be. Utter independence was what he craved.
‘Do you know I’ve got at least twenty new work offers today purely because of my involvement with you?’ he said a little roughly.
She lifted her eyebrows. ‘And that isn’t good?’
‘I haven’t earned these opportunities, Eleni.’
‘Perhaps you could take advantage of them to enable other people to progress as well. To create jobs and other contracts—’
Her naive positivity hit a raw nerve. ‘I built my company from scratch.’
‘And you don’t want your association with me compromising your success story?’ Her cheeks pinked. ‘At least you had the choice to forge your own path. I’m one of the most privileged people on the planet and, while I am grateful for that, I’m also bound by the rules that come
with it. I couldn’t do what I want.’
And it seemed she still couldn’t. He grabbed his tablet again and showed her the endless list of invitations and formal appearances the palace official had sent him. ‘Is this amount normal?’ he asked. ‘Which would you usually decline?’
Her eyebrows shot up. ‘None.’
None? He paused. ‘There are too many requests here.’
Were they were trying to schedule her every waking moment? Damon wasn’t having it.
‘You don’t say no.’ The shock on her face said it all.
She really was a total pawn in the palace machine. Well, he wasn’t letting them take advantage of Eleni, or her child, or him. Not any more.
‘I’m okay with saying no,’ he said.
‘Well, I don’t like to be perceived as lazy.’ Her lips tightened. ‘Or spoilt.’
And that was why Princess Eleni had always done as she was told—wore what was expected, said what was polite, did what was her duty. She’d obediently played her princess role perfectly for years.
Except when it had come to him. That night with him she’d done what she wanted. She’d taken. And since then? She’d argued. She’d stood up for herself. She’d been everything but obedient when it came to him...
He didn’t want that changing because she felt some misguided sense of obligation now she was married to him. Hell, she was likely to want to play the part of the ‘perfect wife’ but he wasn’t letting it happen. For the first time in her life, he wanted Eleni Nicolaides to experience some true freedom.
‘Why did you want to stay in Palisades rather than go to Giorgos’s safe house in France?’ he asked roughly.
She looked down. ‘This probably sounds crazy, but it’s actually more private here.’
‘You’re happy to be trapped inside the palace walls?’
She shrugged her shoulders. ‘It’s what I’m used to. I can show you how it works.’
He didn’t need to know how it worked. He had a headache from all the gilded decorations already. ‘I know somewhere even more private.’ He rubbed his shoulder. ‘I think we should go there.’
‘You don’t understand—’
‘Yeah, I do. I know about the paparazzi and the press and the cell phones in every member of the public’s hands. But my island is safe. It’s secure. It’s private.’
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