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He slammed the door shut and loomed over her, his arms folded over his chest. His eyes had darkened to a point of blackness.
‘First of all, do not presume to tell me what I think.’
‘I have to make assumptions because you don’t tell me anything!’
‘What do you want me to say? Do you want me to apologise because my grandfather is dying?’
‘No!’ She clamped her teeth together and blinked back the sudden stinging tears welling in the backs of her eyes. ‘Of course not. I didn’t mean—’
Before she knew what was happening Talos’s control shattered before her eyes.
He punched the wall, blackness seeping out of him. ‘I know what you meant. You think because you have shared confidences with me that I must do the same in return.’
‘No!’ She shook her head over and over, terrified not for herself but for him. She’d never seen such pain before, etched on every line of his face and in every movement of his powerful body.
He seemed not to hear her, kicking the solid wood desk with such force he put a dent in it. ‘Do you want me to pour my heart out about my childhood? To understand where my nightmares come from and why I went so off the rails in my adolescence? Is that what you want?’
‘I—’
‘Do you want to hear about the day I watched my father punch my mother not once but a dozen times in the stomach? Do you want to hear how I jumped on his back to protect her and how he threw me off with such force my head split open on their bedframe? That my lasting memory of my mother is her holding me and her tears falling on my bleeding head? Is that what you want? To know that I couldn’t protect her then and that my vow to always protect her in the future came to nothing, because two hours later both my parents were dead? And now my grandfather is dying too. And I have to accept that as a fact of life and accept there is nothing I can do about it. You want me to share how I feel? Well, it feels as if my stomach and heart have been shredded into nothing. Is that enough for you? Is that what you wanted to hear?’
His eyes suddenly found hers, and he threw his hands in the air and stalked towards her.
‘So now you know all my dirty little secrets and I know yours, is there anything else you want from me or feel I should tell you, seeing as we’re having such a wonderful time trading confidences?’
If it hadn’t been for the wildness radiating from his eyes she would have hated him for his contempt. But she couldn’t. All she felt was horror.
‘No?’ He leaned down so his face was right against hers. ‘In that case, seeing as you’ve got what you wanted from me, you can leave.’
Abruptly he turned away and lifted the phone on the sprawling desk, rasping words in Greek to whoever was on the receiving end.
‘Talos...’ she said hesitantly when he’d replaced the receiver.
She didn’t know what she wanted to say. Couldn’t think of anything to say. What she did want was to take him in her arms and hold him close, but she knew without having to be told he didn’t want that. He didn’t want her or the solace she yearned to give him.
‘We have nothing more to say to each other.’ He seemed to have regained his composure, but his focus on her was stark. ‘We’ve enjoyed each other’s company but this is as far as we go.’
A knock on the door made her start.
Talos pulled it open and indicated for her to leave. ‘Kostas will take you back to the cottage. I hope for everyone’s sake the hypnotist your conductor has arranged for you works, because there is nothing more I can do to help you.’
With as much dignity as she could summon Amalie walked past him to Kostas, who had already set off to the front door.
* * *
Talos kicked the covers off and got out of bed. A large glass of single malt should help him sleep.
He glanced out of the window. Three o’clock in the morning and all was in darkness, but in the downward sloping distance he could see the dim lights of the cottage.
Amalie was awake.
He closed his eyes. He would bet every last cent he owned that at that very minute she was playing his grandmother’s violin, taking the only comfort she could. In his mind’s eye he watched her fingers flying over the strings, imagined the purity of the sound she produced. Knew that to hear it would tear his soul in half. That was if any part of his soul remained. After the way he’d spoken to her the other night whatever had been left of it had been ripped out.
He’d treated her abominably. He still didn’t know where all that rage had come from, knew only that she’d been getting too close. He’d been trying to protect himself. Squashing anything that resembled an emotion down into a tight little ball that could be hidden away and forgotten about.
