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I frowned. ‘Then why are you touching your stomach?’
Her hand quickly relocated from her midriff to my shoulder, her smile little more than a grimace. ‘It’s nothing, I assure you.’
About to refute that assurance, I was forestalled by the end of the music and the applause that followed. And then by the arrival of Iona Petras.
My introduction to Calypso’s mother, along with everyone else in the Petras clan, had been stiff and perfunctory, with no disguising exactly what this bloodless transaction was.
Everyone except Calypso.
‘May I have a private moment with my daughter?’ the older woman asked, although I got the feeling it was more an order than a request, giving me a momentary glimpse of where Calypso had inherited her quiet fire.
My fingers started to tighten on Calypso’s waist, as a peculiar reluctance to let her go assailed me. I strenuously denied it and released her. ‘By all means.’
A silent conversation passed between mother and daughter before Calypso held out her hand. Without so much as a glance my way, they exited the ballroom.
A fine irritant, like a tiny pebble in my shoe, stayed with me throughout all my inane conversations with people I didn’t know and another five-minute ribbing from Neo. By the time my father approached I had the notion that my jaw would crack from being ground so tight.
‘Am I mistaken or do you two seem to be getting along?’ my father asked.
‘You are mistaken,’ I quipped, unwilling to admit how that dance and the feel of Calypso in my arms had fired up my blood.
He grimaced. ‘I was hoping this would be less of an ordeal for you if you got along.’
‘I said I’d do what needs to be done. And I will.’
Despite that small, startling flame of anticipation burning inside me.
Despite the fact that I’d completely dismissed any occurrence of a wedding night until exactly five minutes ago.
That sensation of her slender back beneath my hand...that pulse beating at her throat... The shivers she couldn’t control.
The fire of anticipation flared higher, resisting every attempt to dampen it down.
But did I need to?
This abhorrent agreement hadn’t, thankfully, included a stipulation for consummation. But would it be a true marriage without it?
Enough!
Wrestling with myself over this was beneath me. Everything Yiannis Petras had asked for had been delivered. They would get nothing more from me.
That declaration lasted until my new wife walked back into the room and attempted to dismiss me with a vacant smile, even while her eyes challenged me.
Something locked into place inside me.
A challenge that needed answering.
Without stopping to question the wisdom of doing it, I crossed the wide room to where she stood. Took the hand loosely fisted by her side and brushed my lips over her knuckles.
Satisfaction sizzled through me when her breath caught. ‘Say your goodbyes, Calypso. It’s time to leave.’
* * *
‘So what now?’ I cringed inwardly at the nerves in my voice.
The helicopter ride—my first—from Nicrete to Agistros, the large island apparently owned entirely by Axios, had been breathtaking and exhilarating, and thankfully had not required much conversation. Largely because Axios had piloted the aircraft and I’d felt too nervous to disturb him, even if there’d been anything to talk about.
My mind was still a jumble after our charged snippets of conversation and that little slip on the dance floor, when he pulled me close and the ache in my belly manifested itself, and my last unsettling conversation with my mother.
