by Susanna Carr
“We have a problem,” he said and watched her shoulders tense as if she was ready to argue. “The weather is too severe for travel.”
Jodie’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t believe you.”
Stergios clenched his jaw. He was unaccustomed to anyone questioning his word. He gestured at the window. “Look outside.”
She glanced out the window. “It’s not that bad. You’re making this up. You will stop at nothing to keep me away from your family.”
“I want nothing more than to get you out of my home, pethi mou.” He rubbed his hands over his eyes. “I would swim to the Volakis Island if it meant getting you out of here, but we are just going to have to suffer each other’s company.”
She crossed her arms and looked away. “For how long?”
“Possibly until tonight.” If they were fortunate. “I promised I will get you to the wedding and I will.”
“I’ve decided not to go to the wedding,” she said quietly. “I want to return to Athens and then go back to New York.”
“Why?” She had been insistent that she needed to attend the wedding. She had been in a panic when he had delayed her. “What has changed?”
“Nothing.” Jodie walked over to the fireplace and perched on the sofa’s armrest.
“I was right,” he said as he followed her. “You had been out for revenge. But this detour ruined your plans.”
Jodie rolled her eyes. “You are obsessed with this idea of revenge. Why do you think I want revenge on your family? Because of how I have been treated?”
There was some truth to that. He was not proud of how his family behaved. Jodie had been young and vulnerable and they made her feel unwanted. If he had been in the same position, he would have wanted some payback. “Your father didn’t shield you. Instead of revenge you want to repair your relationship with him. It doesn’t make sense to me.”
“I was never close to my parents and I’ve been estranged from my father for four years. My mother wasn’t able to bond with me from the beginning.” Jodie looked at the floor, her cheeks turning bright red as she revealed the truth. “I thought I had come to accept that this is the way our family interacted. But then Mom died unexpectedly of a heart attack.”
“And you felt the loss of what could have been,” he murmured. He had those unguarded moments after his father died in prison.
She gave a sharp nod. “I’m twenty-two and I know it’s too late to get the parents I needed when I was a child. But I wanted some family connection before it was too late.”
“Gregory Little doesn’t know how to be a father,” Stergios decided.
“I know,” Jodie said as she idly swung her foot. “But it would mean a lot to me if my father was interested in what was happening in my life. If he called or visited me. Included me in a family celebration.” Her foot stopped as she exhaled sharply. “Anything that would make me feel like I’m not alone and forgotten.”
Stergios frowned. “That’s all you want?”
“You wouldn’t understand.” She blinked rapidly and dabbed her fingertips against the corner of her eye. “You are surrounded by family. They are involved in every part of your life, whether you want it or not. They care about you and, in return, you protect them. That’s what I want.”
“You want my family to take care of you? Protect you?” Had his mother been right? Did Jodie secretly want to be an Antoniou?
“No, no, no,” Jodie said with a small smile. “I don’t want to be part of your family. I want to be part of mine.”
“Going to New York won’t make that happen.”
“It’s not going to happen wherever I am. I ambushed my father and he’s on guard.” She tilted her head back and gave a groan of regret. “I approached the so-called reunion the wrong way and I can’t repair it.”
“Your plan is to walk away and act as if Gregory doesn’t exist?” That didn’t sound like something Jodie would do. She was the most tenacious person he knew.
“Yes, it’s finally time to admit defeat.” She dropped her hands and slowly stood up. She took a deep breath and set her mouth in a determined smile. “Look on the bright side, Stergios. After tonight, we will never cross paths again.”
This was what he wanted. Needed. Yet Stergios fought back the bleakness as he imagined a future without Jodie. Instead of the peace he craved, his world was colorless and deathly quiet.
Stergios shook his head, ridding himself of the image. That didn’t make sense. Life would return to normal once Jodie was gone. It would be better. He silently walked back to the window, knowing that the pilot couldn’t get here fast enough.
* * *
Jodie’s head jerked up as the lights flickered. She checked her watch for the hundredth time. Night had fallen and there was no update from the pilot.
She nervously bit her lip and stared at the flames dancing in the fireplace. The helicopter had to show up and take her away. She wasn’t going to be stuck here for another night. Alone with Stergios.
As Jodie watched him through her lashes, Stergios prowled around the room, glaring at the crashing waves and torrential rains. Throughout the day the tension between them had ebbed and flowed. One moment they could talk easily and share a laugh. And then, quite suddenly, the atmosphere would change. The tension between them now stretched until she swore it shook.
Jodie rubbed her thumb against her lips. She shouldn’t have let that kiss happen but she couldn’t resist another taste of the passion she’d experienced long ago. She had found her response alarming and she had been on edge all day.
Stergios probably thought she responded that way with every man. But she had been celibate for a long time and no man intrigued her enough to take him to her bed. She was determined to wait for a man who cared about her. A man she could trust with her body and heart.
Stergios wasn’t that man, Jodie decided as she fought with the weight of disappointment. She watched him lean his shoulder against the window. He had proven it that night four years ago.
“Where did you go after you left the wine cellar?” Jodie cringed as the words spilled from her mouth. She knew better than to bring up that night.
He stared broodingly through the window. “As far away as I could.”
It suddenly occurred to her and she looked around. “You came here, didn’t you?”
Stergios hesitated. “Why would you think that?”
She burrowed deeper into the couch and stared at the fire. “This is your getaway. Your sanctuary.”
“Doesn’t feel like it,” he muttered.
“It’s isolated here. Secluded. With all communication cut off, this is the only place you will find solitude. That’s why you didn’t know I was banished until it was too late,” Jodie said with a sigh as the truth hit her. Stergios wouldn’t have abandoned her like that if he had known.
“I should have stayed and protected you.” His voice was heavy with regret.
Jodie wished he had stayed but she’d instinctively understood that he had been fighting demons of his own. That was why she had lied to protect him. It had been her turn to take care of him. “What did you do while you were here?”
“Went quietly insane,” he said softly.
She frowned at his serious tone. “Why?”
He gave her an incredulous look. “Do I have to spell it out? I had taken advantage of a vulnerable girl. A virgin. My stepsister. What kind of man does that?”
She raised her hand to stop that train of thought. “Okay, first of all, I was an adult at the time. A woman. And I was not vulnerable.”
“I took your virginity,” he said in a growl. “I’m not proud of that.”
His words shouldn’t hurt so much. That moment had been life-changing and he wanted to forget it. Erase that night completely. “You didn’t take it,” she argued hotly. “I gav
e it to you.”
He pushed away from the window. “You had no say in the matter.”
“Yes, I did!” she said as she leaned forward. “You were the one I wanted. I had lusted after you.”
He stopped in his tracks as his gaze sharpened.
“That’s right. I lusted after you.” It had been thrilling, scary and all-consuming. “It was not a crush. Not a passing interest. It was an obsession. I tried to hide it because I knew you would reject me.”
“You hid it very well.” He tilted his head back and closed his eyes. “It’s good I didn’t know.”
She blinked when the lights flickered again. “Why?”
“You had become a temptation,” he said as he dragged his hands down his face. “I had done everything I could to deny myself. I left home...”
Jodie gasped. “That was why you went abroad? Because of me?”
Stergios crossed his arms as if he was holding himself back. “I knew I had to get out before I did something.”
“You were only gone for a couple of months.” She had been overjoyed when he had returned to Greece that summer. She hadn’t questioned why he came back so soon. “What happened?”
His gaze darkened. “I came to realize that Dimos wanted you and it was only a matter of time before he made his claim. I couldn’t let that happen.”
“It was never going to happen because I had no interest in him.” She remembered what Stergios had said about that night. That wasn’t the only reason I stopped Dimos. Jodie’s heart began to race as she made the connection. “You weren’t protecting Dimos or the merger that night. You were protecting your property.”
Stergios remained silent as a ruddy color stained his high cheekbones. She saw the possessive gleam in his eyes and something wicked and primal flared deep inside her.
“I did not belong to you!” she insisted. “I belong to no man!”
“Oxi, you belonged to hundreds.”
She flinched from his cold statement. “You couldn’t bear to look at me after we had sex. And what? I was supposed to wait around in case you changed your mind and wanted to bed me again?” She shook her head when she realized that was exactly what he had expected. “I moved on, Stergios, just like you did. Just because you were my first doesn’t mean you own me.”
Stergios clenched his jaw and she felt the anger pulse from him. The tense silence plucked at her nerves and all she could hear was the crackle of the fire. She knew she was getting into dangerous territory.
Jodie cleared her throat. “I don’t think the pilot is coming for a while and I’m getting hungry.” She bolted from her seat and hurried to the kitchen.
She felt Stergios was right behind her. It was as if she was being pursued. Cornered. Her skin tingled as her stomach clenched. Why wasn’t he giving her space? Why didn’t he stay in his separate corner now, when she needed some distance?
“You gave your virginity to me?” he asked hoarsely. “Why would you do that?”
She turned around suddenly and collided into his hard, muscular chest. Jodie jumped back and crossed her arms against her chest. It was a flimsy barrier against such a man.
“I shouldn’t have put it that way,” she said. “It makes it sound like it was a gift. Like there is some obligation or responsibility attached to it.”
“There is,” he said roughly.
She didn’t agree with his outdated view but she knew it was useless to argue. “If that’s how you felt about it, why did you give up looking for me? Why didn’t you ask me to marry you?”
“Would you have accepted?” he shot back.
“It’s hard to say.” Jodie fought for an inscrutable expression. She would have accepted. Without question or hesitation. She wouldn’t have cared that he didn’t respect her or love her. Knowing that, it was a good thing he had stopped looking for her. “You didn’t answer my question,” she said huskily.
She watched the muscles twitch in his cheek. “Any marriage with you would have been disaster!”
“You weren’t thinking about our compatibility,” she said as the hurt bled through her. “You thought you deserved a woman better than me. You weren’t going to settle for me when you wanted a woman who shared your heritage and your status.”
“My marriage will be a strategic alliance,” Stergios said with no apology. “It will give my family and me unlimited power and influence. And when that happens, nothing and no one could ever harm us again.”
“So it doesn’t matter what kind of woman you marry?” She didn’t believe it. Stergios would want a “good girl” for a bride. Someone sweet and obedient.
“I need a wife who doesn’t cause trouble,” he said harshly. “A woman who can create a peaceful—”
The lights flickered and extinguished, plunging them into complete darkness.
Jodie gave a startled jump. She automatically reached out and curled her hand against his forearm. She felt his soaring tension under her fingertips. “Stergios?”
“The generator should kick on,” he said in a strained voice.
She waited a few moments but the darkness remained. The wind howled outside and she heard Stergio’s labored breathing. “I don’t think it will,” Jodie whispered.
“It has to.”
He said it as a prayer. Her fingers clenched against his arm. “Or what?”
The beat of silence stretched before Stergios responded. “You don’t want to know.”
CHAPTER SIX
HE WAS INSTANTLY transported to the time he had been held captive. It was dark and he was shivering. The metal cuffs chafed at his wrists. Blood trickled from his mouth as fear pulsed inside him.
Jodie’s fingers flexed against his arm. “Uh...Stergios?” Her voice sounded far away. “I have a confession to make. I...um... I don’t do well in the dark.”
Join the club, he thought as the memory dimmed. But her admission didn’t sound right. He recalled how often she frolicked around the gardens at night when she didn’t think anyone was watching. She had been fearless and free.
“Is it okay if I hold on to you?” she asked as she curled her arm around his.
“If you have to.” Turmoil churned inside him as he broke out into a cold sweat. He didn’t want to be touched. He needed to keep his distance but he couldn’t deny Jodie’s request.
“It’s kind of dark in this kitchen, don’t you think?” Jodie carefully turned them toward the door. “Can you take me back to the main room? I would feel better sitting by the fire.”
He remembered the campfire his captors had gathered around every night. It was the only thing that held back the dark wilderness. But he had always been far away from the campfire and didn’t get to enjoy the heat or the light.
Stergios silently walked Jodie to the main room. He was very aware of how her body brushed against his arm. Only she wasn’t leaning against him. She felt strong and confident.
“I guess my problems with the dark—with nighttime, really—happened early on.” Jodie’s voice was soft and soothing. “I think it started at my first boarding school. It was an eerie place and the older girls told us ghost stories.”
Jodie’s voice went in and out but her hold on his arm remained firm. His tension diminished when he saw the glow from the fire. There were still too many shadows and dark corners, but he was able to guide Jodie to one of the sofas.
“Thank you. Would you sit with me?” she asked as she patted the cushion next to her. “It would make me feel safer.”
He reluctantly sat with Jodie even though he knew it was a bad idea. She didn’t know what he was like in the darkness. It could take some time before the lights came back on.
“I got kicked out of that school a few years later,” she continued as she curled up on the sofa, her dress riding up her thighs as she tucked her legs undern
eath her. “They had given me several chances but I wasted them all. The next school I went to was horrible. I didn’t last long. Maybe a month?”
Stergios didn’t look at her. He silently watched the fire as he tried to push the memories away. It had happened years ago. Some of his recollections were blurry and some were just an intense, overwhelming feeling. But there had been some moments that were razor sharp no matter how much he tried to forget.
“The school in South Africa was nice and I made some great friends there. Now, looking back, I should have tried harder to adapt.”
She fell into silence. He didn’t like that. He wasn’t following every word but he clung to the gentle rhythm of her voice.
“You purposely got kicked out of every boarding school,” he said gruffly. “Why?”
Jodie shifted uncomfortably in her seat as if she was embarrassed. “The letters and phone calls from home had stopped,” she told him. “I didn’t see either of my parents during the school breaks. I was being left behind and I couldn’t let that happen.”
The woman was so afraid of becoming invisible. He didn’t understand it. She grabbed attention wherever she went. She hadn’t been in Athens for years and yet her name was still on everyone’s tongue. “So you did everything you could to get your parents’ attention.”
“I broke every rule I could think of. I cheated on tests even when I knew the answers. I snuck boys in my room just to get caught and I planted liquor bottles where they could be found. I did whatever would require a call to my parents. Or better yet, be sent home.”
“It didn’t work,” he murmured. Her stays at the Antoniou estate were brief and rare.
“No, it didn’t. My actions had the opposite effect.” There was a hint of regret in her voice. “The more stunts I pulled, the less my parents wanted anything to do with me. They sent me to places so far away that I couldn’t visit home. It was as if they didn’t know what to do with me. I felt abandoned.”
