“If that is what you require.” He smiled at her over his coffee. “But, of course, my bed is always open.”
She made a vague kind of noise, her gaze going back out to sea. She didn’t finish the yogurt on her plate, and this bothered him. Didn’t an athlete’s body need fuel? “I have to get to my first class. I don’t suppose your Lurch is about to drive me?”
He rose. “I will drive you.”
“Are you certain that is wise? Why, we’ve just spent the night together. Shouldn’t you make sure to put some distance between us so I don’t misunderstand?” She batted her eyelashes at him.
Teasinghim.
He did not know what to do with it. No one teased him. No one had ever dared tease him. Perhaps when he’d been young and it had been mean-spirited, but those boys had paid.
She was not being mean-spirited, though, so he did not know what to do with this. It was something lighter, more familiar.
She sighed, stood and then patted his chest like he was a challenging puppy she was trying to train.
He was so agog, he simply took it.
“You need not concern yourself with me. I have no hopes for the future. From you or anyone else. I am considering this revenge plot nothing but a vacation from my real life on the way to making my father suffer for once. Trust me, Zervou, a woman in my position can’t afford foolish daydreams. And I never take risks I can’t afford.”
He should be happy with that. Relieved. Instead he felt something like…sad.
For her.
Ari tried not to be uncomfortable when one of the guys who worked at the gym saw Zervou drop her off. They’d seen her leave with him. They’d seen him come into the gym twice now.
Besides, that was the whole ruse. Let people know they were together. God knew the men who worked here likely had more of a gossip network back to her father than the high society restaurants and resorts Zervou frequented.
So she pretended today was no different than any other. Zervou’s…presence was about to be very common. If she stayed at his estate for the next few weeks, working up to an engagement announcement, he might have to drive her around quite a bit or have someone else do it. She had never had the option to learn how to drive.
She still wasn’t sure how she felt about staying at his estate. Did she insist in a separate room, call last night a one-off? Insist once was good and enough. Just the taste she needed to know what sex was like, and that was quite enough.
Or did she give in to what her body wanted? More ofthat. Because last night had most certainly not been enough. It seemed like seeing just a small crack of light. She wanted to throw the door open and see the whole tableau.
But she knew too much of something that amazing could be the start of an addiction. One that would hurt to break. Ruin her to break.
No, she would not be ruined.
She went to the locker room to ensure all the things she’d left behind yesterday were still in her locker. She got ready and tried to put all thoughts of what happened after her work away.
She taught her first class. It was one of her favorites. A smattering of angry teenagers as she’d once been, either happy to spend their summer mornings learning how to fight or sent here by well-meaning adults.
The boys were always trying prove some kind of dominance over her, and she enjoyed proving them wrong at every turn. Not just a personal satisfaction, but a hope it would be a lifelong lesson thatmightdid not always get them what they wanted.
The one girl she had in the class was always trying to earn Ari’s approval, so Ari had to be careful not to give it all the time, though she wanted to. What the girl lacked in muscle and substance she made up for in determination and attitude.
After class, she had some training of her own, followed by an intense workout. After her too-large breakfast this morning, she’d need to ensure she gave her all in both.
But before she could move into her cardio plans for the morning, she was summoned into her manager’s office.
Lefteris owned the gym, and though he had been initially skeptical about her back when she’d been a teenager brought by her dedicated teacher, he’d since become her staunchest supporter. A support she believed in the most because she’d had to earn it.
She didn’t know why he would call her in today, unless there was some kind of issue with her upcoming fight.
The fact that didn’t cause her any worry had her chewing on her bottom lip as she walked toward his office. She should be devastated at the possibility something might go wrong with the fight. Her life was a series of fight, everything else revolving around those perfect moments of letting her bodyfight.
But a strange sense of relief tried to worm its way through her. Like she was…tired. Burnt out.
But that couldn’t be possible, so she shook that odd feeling away and knocked on Lefteris’s door. At the gruff “come in,” she entered.
