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‘I can keep the fact I’m looking for someone behind Mr Callas’s back a secret. But...’ He held up the scrap of paper with a name and address on it between his fingers, hissing his words through gritted teeth. ‘A tattoo?’
‘Your job is to keep to our agreement. Mine’s to deal with Christo.’ She narrowed her eyes. ‘Every action has consequences. Take responsibility for yours and let me worry about my own.’
Sergei looked heavenward and muttered something. It might have been a curse, or even a prayer. She waited for him to finish.
‘Do you know where this place is?’ she asked.
‘Yes.’ He screwed up the piece of paper and stuffed it into his trouser pocket. ‘It’s where I get mine. Shall I call for the car now?’
She raised her cup to him in a toast. ‘Perfect.’
They drove to the tattoo parlour without speaking. Sergei was taciturn at the best of times. Today his silence seemed ominous. As they parked, she tried not to think about how Christo would feel, or why his good opinion mattered.
Sergei scanned the narrow back street. After a short while he opened her door and ushered her out. ‘Would you like me to come in and hold your hand?’ His words were dry as alum.
She patted his rock-solid forearm. ‘I bet I have more tattoos than you.’
He raised an eyebrow. ‘I doubt it. Perhaps when you’re done we could compare?’
Thea laughed. His sense of humour was unexpected. She saw why Anna liked him. ‘Now, how would we explain that scene to Mr Callas?’
Sergei grunted in reply as they walked into the bright white waiting room. He took his place, standing to attention near the door.
Thea was invited through by a large man with more ink than bare skin. Not her usual artist, but it didn’t matter. She riffled through a portfolio of his work. He appeared skilled. Anyway, she knew what she wanted. She couldn’t turn back now. The need for it slid through her veins like a drug.
She took off her shirt, felt her heartbeat slowing to a sleepy rhythm.
The man moved behind her. ‘Nice. And you want another where?’
‘At the end. Follow what I designed with Marco last time. Make sure it stays below the bra line.’
She lay forward, relaxing as the man prepared. Calm spread over her at the familiar routine, soft and cocooning as a goose down quilt. This was her reward. For the forced marriage. For every hurt. No matter how hard people tried to shape her into their own image, no one could steal the essence of her. Here was her proof—in the secrets scribed on her body.
‘Ready?’ the man asked.
‘Yes.’ It was almost a sigh of relief. She smiled and closed her eyes as the needle bit into her skin.
* * *
Something had changed. Thea seemed happier. There was a sense of peace about her now, as they sat down to breakfast. She glowed with a mysterious, ethereal kind of beauty that tugged at him.
Christo had seen that look in women who were pregnant, the secret joy. Strange imagining that with her when it was impossible. Yet still the thought trickled through him with a slide of warmth.
Rather than picking at the food, as she’d done since New York, today she ate a large meal. It pleased him in an inexplicable way to see her looking more settled. He wasn’t sure why he cared. Yet he felt a deep satisfaction in her new-found happiness.
A partnership. That was how their relationship had begun to feel. Something he’d never expected when he’d checked off the list of things he must do to ensure Atlas’s safety.
What would it be like to have a true partnership? A woman in his mind, his bed, his heart?
He looked over the table at his wife. Strange how he’d never thought he’d ever be married. Especially now there was an odd companionship in their forced togetherness. Some comfort in having another person in his home who might learn to care, as he was learning.
Thea. A luminous mystery...so much of her hidden. The desire to unlock her secrets, stuck under his skin. To inflame the passion which kindled between them. No games. No reining anything in. Both of them allowed free flight to every fantasy.
He’d felt in New York how it would be, with the force of a blow. All his desires exploding into life in the bright burst that was Thea.
She looked at him and smiled, a soft tilt to her lips. The allure of her rushed through him, and a clutch of need gripped him in a way he’d never felt.
‘There are some more people you’ll meet at the party,’ he said, trying to ignore the pull that drew him to her.
