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As one of his hands slowly rose to cup my face, it seemed he wanted to delve deeper, perhaps even attempt to understand how we had become caught in this tangled web. But then he slowly withdrew, his demeanour resigned, even a little weary.
An urge to soothe him spiked through me. I managed to curb it, barely managing not to fidget under his piercing scrutiny.
‘Did the agreement stipulate that we needed to...to consummate the marriage?’ I asked.
He froze, and a sizzling, electrifying look entered his eyes. I got the feeling that he’d been waiting for this...that somehow coming to this point was what that sense of heightened expectancy had been all about.
‘Not specifically, no.’
‘But you don’t know that it won’t be held against you...against us...further down the line?’
He gave an indolent shrug even while his eyes continued to pin me in place. ‘He’s your father, Calypso. You tell me.’
I couldn’t rule it out. And I suspected Axios knew that.
‘Maybe he will. Maybe he won’t. But I can’t take the risk.’
With my mother’s words echoing in my heart, my hunger for freedom grew with every second.
He took a slow, steady step towards me. His hands at his sides, he simply stared down at me, his only movement the deep rise and fall of his chest.
‘What does that mean, Calypso?’ he queried softly.
‘It means I want there to be no room for misunderstanding later.’
Slowly, his hand rose again, his knuckles grazing my cheek. My shiver made his eyes darken.
‘I need to hear the words, so there’s no misunderstanding now.’
Heat suffused my face, as if chasing his touch. But his gaze wouldn’t release me. Not until the words trembling on my lips fell free.
‘I want to consummate this agreement. I want you to...take me.’
The full force of the words powered through me, shaking me from head to foot. Dear God, this wasn’t how I’d imagined losing my virginity. None of this was how I’d dreamed it. So why did my insides twist themselves with...excitement?
For the longest time he simply stared at me, a myriad of emotions crossing his face. Eventually that dark gleam returned in full force, his presence filling the room as he turned his hand and brushed a thumb over my lips.
‘Are you sure you don’t wish to discuss...art?’
The thickness of his voice displaced any levity his words attempted. And it drove home that this was happening. My wedding night. No, it wasn’t the one I’d dreamed about, but really, if life was fair, would my father have tossed me in as part of a hundred-million-euro deal?
That thought was buried beneath the turbulent need climbing through me as he dragged his digit back and forth over my lip.
‘I’m sure,’ I answered, in a voice that sounded nothing like mine.
He tilted my gaze to his, making a gruff sound at whatever it was he saw on my face. His head started to lower—just as the other delicate subject raced to the forefront of my mind.
Tell him. He’s going to find out soon enough.
‘There’s something you should know.’
One eyebrow rose in silent question.
‘I’m a virgin.’
His fingers froze beneath my chin, his whole body turning to marble. ‘What did you say?’
I swallowed the knot in my throat, praying the shivers would stop coursing through my body. ‘I’ve never done...never been with a—’
