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Ares gave a low, sardonic laugh. “You should see your face right now.”
Breathing the sea air, she tried to smile. “And here Ivy thought all she had to do was get knocked up and you’d instantly fall in love with her.”
He snorted. “I’m a more difficult mark than that, I’m afraid.”
“I know.” She tried to keep the bitterness from her voice.
Ares turned toward Ruby. The red sunset glowed like blood against his cheek. “You know better than anyone.”
“I never saw you as a mark.”
“That’s what made you different.” He took another drink, looking out at the waves against the nearby shore. “After that, it was too late to save myself for love, so I threw myself into one-night stands at university, with women too busy with their own lives to care about mine. But visiting Athens the summer before senior year, I met a girl so innocent and sweet, she reminded me of my old dreams. I quit sleeping around and planned to marry Diantha as soon as I graduated.”
He stopped, staring out at the waves.
“What happened?” she said softly, though she already guessed.
“My father died unexpectedly a few weeks before graduation…”
Tears filled Ruby’s eyes as she remembered how she’d felt when her own mother had died. She whispered, “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. He died of a heart attack while drinking and taking drugs trying to simultaneously satisfy two women in his bed.” He tilted his head thoughtfully. “All things considered, I think it’s how he would have wanted to go.”
Ruby’s mouth was wide. Looking at her, he gave another low laugh, then poured himself another drink from the ouzo bottle.
He took a gulp of his drink. “Rushing to Athens to seek the comfort of my beloved, I found my sweet, honest virgin naked in the arms of another man.”
“Oh, no,” she breathed.
Setting his glass down on the table, he looked at her. “If my father hadn’t died, I never would have known. I would have married Diantha, even if my parents disinherited me for it. I would have been willing to sacrifice everything for love.” He gave her a crooked smile. “I thought that was what love meant.”
Ruby took a deep breath. “I’m sorry—”
He cut off her sympathy with a hard gesture.
“I never forgot that lesson. My parents were right all those years, teaching me not to care.” He looked away. “I inherited everything. The company. The wealth. This island.” He gave her a cynical smile. “The whole Kourakis legacy.”
Reaching across the table, Ruby put her hand over his. She repeated helplessly, “I’m sorry.”
“I wanted you to understand.” Ares looked down at her hand. “Who I really am.”
“I get it,” she said over the lump in her throat.
His dark eyes pierced hers. “I haven’t trusted anyone for most my life,” he said in a low voice. “I’ve never wanted to try to love again. Or commit.” His dark gaze burned through her in the twilight. “Until now.”
It took several seconds for this to sink in. She breathed, “What?”
“I want to try.” Reaching out, he tucked a dark tendril of her hair behind her ear. “Perhaps I’ll learn to love you. Over time.”
Ruby’s mind was spinning. Was this how it was supposed to be? He would learn to love her? Something inside her shrank at the thought. But if this was the best Ares could do, shouldn’t she accept? And be grateful? “And our baby?”
“Her, too.” He tilted his head. “But now you know the worst about me. I wouldn’t blame you for running far and fast. Why would you want to marry a man like me? To tell you the truth, I think you deserve better.”
Shocked tears lifted to her eyes. “Marry…?”
Sitting across from her at the small table on the edge of sea, Ares stared at her for a long moment. Then he rose from his chair.
She stared, wide-eyed, as he fell to one knee before her, as the waves of the sea pounded against the sand below.
Reaching into the pocket of his beach shorts, Ares withdrew a small black box. The sunset streaked violent shades of scarlet and purple against the sky as, opening the black velvet box, he held it up.
