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‘I don’t want an audience with anyone but you.’ He steered her further away from the line approaching the Princes, now a good two hundred people deep.
‘Shouldn’t you stay with your brothers?’
His massive shoulders lifted into a nonchalant shrug. ‘They can handle it.’
She couldn’t prevent the smile that broadened across her face so widely she felt it pull at every muscle in her face.
Talos wanted privacy for them. This was not a conversation he wanted to have with his brothers and hundreds of guests watching.
Gripping her hand firmly, he steered her out of the ballroom and through all the corridors they’d travelled together three weeks before. He hadn’t expected her to agree so readily to his request to talk. After the way he’d spoken to her the other night he hadn’t expected much more from her than a possible slap around the face.
He also hadn’t expected that she would hold his hand as tightly as he held hers—so tightly it was as if she didn’t want to let it go...
Punching in the security code for his private apartment, he led her inside. Dropping his hold on her hand, he strode to the high window of his living area, braced himself, and then turned around to face her properly.
‘Before I say anything further I need to apologise for forcing you to come here to my island. The contract I made you sign and the pressure I put you under was unforgivable.’
She smiled. ‘Thank you.’
What was she smiling for? ‘There is no excuse.’
‘Maybe not, but I forgave you ages ago.’
‘I treated you abysmally. I refused to take you or your fears seriously because I am an arrogant bastard who thinks only of himself.’
‘The arrogant bit is true...’ She nodded, her eyes ringing with what looked startlingly like compassion. ‘But the rest of your self-assessment is wrong. If you had blackmailed me for your own needs I would never have forgiven you, but it wasn’t for selfish reasons. You did it for your grandfather...because you love him.’
He sucked in a breath and swallowed. ‘I must also apologise for the way I spoke to you the other night. I lashed out at you, which is also unforgivable.’
‘You were in pain.’ She closed the gap he’d created between them and placed her hand on his arm. ‘I should never have forced the issue with you.’
How could she keep forgiving him and making excuses? He didn’t deserve it. He didn’t deserve her.
‘You were right to force it. You were right that what we shared was more than sex. But I was in denial. I lashed out because I find it hard to talk about how I feel, and at the time I was struggling to understand how I felt.’
Those compassionate green eyes held steady on his. ‘And how do you feel now?’
How to put into words what was in his heart? He didn’t know—knew only that he must.
He took a deep breath.
‘All my life I have tried to protect those I...I feel deeply for. I wanted to protect my mother from my father. The night they died I heard them argue. My mother had discovered he was having another affair. She begged him to end it.’
He took another breath.
‘My father was an only child and very spoiled. He was never denied anything he wanted. Their marriage was arranged and he wanted it to be one of duty, not love and to be able to continue having his needs met by whatever woman took his eye. But my mother loved him despite all his faults and couldn’t accept that. Whenever she found evidence of his affairs her jealousy would get the better of her. That night their argument escalated and he turned on her with his fists—just as I had heard him do before. This time I summoned up the courage to try and protect her, but I was too small and clumsy. I made a vow to myself that from that moment I would do everything I could to protect her, but I never got the chance.’
Talos stared at the woman he knew he had to open himself to if he had any chance of winning her love. Her eyes were tugged down into crinkles at the corners, her teeth gnawing at her lips, but she kept her silence, letting him speak of the demons in his heart.
‘You’re the only woman I’ve met who brings that same compulsion out in me. I wanted to protect you—no, I want to protect you. Always.’
‘Is that why you released me from the contract?’ she asked softly.
‘Yes.’
Remembering how magnificently she’d played made him shake his head in awe. Never mind that she’d played as if she were a Mousai, a Muse, one of those beautiful goddesses of music and song—she’d displayed the greatest act of bravery he’d ever witnessed in his life.
