“You have some time to rest if you’d like. We have reservations for dinner tonight, then tomorrow we will go for a little sail.”
She turned to him, nose wrinkled. “Sail?”
“Do you object?” It would make for an excellent photo op, so her objections would be overruled, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t listen to them.
“I suppose not. I’ve never been.”
He shook his head. “Growing up on the water and never sailing? We will rectify such a shame then.”
Her mouth curved ever so slightly. That small smile, as if he’d pleased her, did something very foreign to him. Very…soft.
He found himself frowning. Unsure. But uncertainty was a death knell, and he would not tolerate it.
“How long will we stay?” she asked, eyes back out on the water.
“Two or three days. It depends on if we hear any rumblings of your father. I assume it will take at least an engagement for him to risk being seen, but one never knows for sure.”
She nodded along. “And when will this fake engagement occur?”
“When the time is right.”
She clearly did not care for that answer. “I have a fight next month. I can’t be…vacationing and eating all the time. I have to prepare. Train.”
“This can be arranged around and during vacations. You only need to inform me what you need. All your needs will be met.” With a start, he realized he felt that statement a little too deeply, recognizing a feeling he thought he’d eradicated from inside himself.
The need to please, fix, protect…when it was never wanted or reciprocated.
No, he would not fall into that old pattern. He was in charge here. She would take his help, whether she liked it or not. No choices here.
But he could endeavor to make her understand that. “I have no desire to put roadblocks in your life, Ariadne.”
She made a considering noise but didn’t agree. Which frustrated him, and frustration wouldn’t do. So he lightened the mood.
“Consider me more…guardian angel than anything else.”
She snorted as he’d expected, rolling her eyes. Giving some humor to the situation so she did not seem quite so…sad.
He did not want her to be sad. He did not want her unsure. Because they would not suit his purposes.
That was all.
After an insanely delicious dinner, they had returned to their private little beach villa, and Ari had retired to her room. She hadn’t expected to be able to sleep, still worried about her mother. But something about the large meal and the long day had twined exhaustion with satisfaction, and she drifted off almost the moment her head hit the pillow.
She awoke, groggy and disoriented. But after a few moments of finding her bearings, she realized she felt…rested. Her neck wasn’t tight with tension, and she didn’t have the usual headache from clenching her jaw in her sleep.
Almost as if good food and a fantastic bed were half of what she was missing in her daily life.
“Well, don’t get used to it,” she muttered to herself, throwing the covers off.
She had a daily routine, and she had not adhered to it yesterday. So she needed to today. And probably more than just her normal routine considering the amount of food she’d been eating since getting wrapped up in Zervou’s orbit.
For a moment, she paused, thinking of him. It all felt like too much—the food, vacation, paying for her own mother to seek treatment for her addictions, but it was just a drop in the bucket for a man with his wealth. And it got her closer to her own personal vendetta. And his.
Something she needed to remind herself of so she did not get caught up thinking he’d beenkindyesterday. He had simply been a man with money using it to get what he wanted, and since these things were also what she wanted, it was acceptable to go along with it.
In a fight, one did not pull a punch simply because someone else was looking elsewhere. And life was nothing if not a fight. So, she would land whatever punches she needed to with no guilt, no concern.
Take what you need. It’s the only way to survive.A motto from her boxing coach when she’d been younger, and she held tight to it now as she surveyed the spacious bedroom.
