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Too far gone to resist, I cupped his jaw, gloried in the sharp stubble that pricked my skin, delighted when he turned his face deeper into my touch. I explored him with the same thoroughness with which he’d explored me, until his breaths turned ragged and his stomach muscles clenched with the tightness of his control.
Throwing my legs wider, I let my gaze find his. Our visceral connection thickening the desire arching between us, he surged sure and deep, filling me in places that went beyond the physical. Because as Neo began to move, a kind of joy filled my heart. One that prickled my eyes and made me cling tighter, cry out a little louder.
Because while it was wondrous it was also terrifying, this feeling. Because in those moments when sweat slicked from his body to mine, when he fused his lips to mine with a heavy, passionate groan and stepped off the edge with me, as I touched his scar and felt his pain echo in my heart, I knew this would never, ever be about just sex for me.
When it was over, when I was exhausted but sated, my hand traced the whorls of raised scar tissue, my heart squeezing as I thought of what he’d suffered.
‘So was it a helicopter crash or a ski accident? The papers couldn’t seem to decide on one or the other,’ I said.
He stiffened, then gave a bitter chuckle. ‘When have they ever bothered about what’s the truth and what isn’t?’ Silence reigned for a handful of seconds before he added tightly, ‘It was on a black run in Gstaad. A run I’d skied many times before. But familiarity and expertise don’t mean a thing if there’s a lack of concentration.’
I frowned. Neo wasn’t the type to court danger by being reckless. The ruthless efficiency with which he’d steered events from the moment he’d learned of his child was testament to the fact that he didn’t drop the ball. Ever.
Unless... ‘Something happened?’
Grim-faced, he unconsciously tightened his hand on my hip. Not enough to hurt, but enough to signal that whatever memory I’d roused wasn’t pleasant.
‘The company had just started a major international push when Anneka and I got together. She was part of the ski season crowd who worshipped the slopes. I didn’t mind so much when she chose to party with her friends without me. But when she told me she was pregnant—’
He stopped at my shocked gasp. ‘Your fiancée was pregnant?’
His face turned even grimmer, his jaw clenching tight before he nodded abruptly. ‘But I began to suspect that she was chasing more than prime snow when she was away.’
‘She was cheating on you?’
‘I sensed she wasn’t being truthful about a few things. But she denied it and I...’ His jaw clenched tight for a single moment. ‘I chose to believe her. She convinced me to let her stay in Gstaad for a few more days before coming back to Athens. On the morning I was supposed to leave, she wanted to ski on the black run. She was an excellent skier, but she was pregnant with my child and I didn’t feel right about letting her go alone. So I went with her. It started snowing heavily almost immediately. I lost sight of Anneka for a moment and lost my concentration.’
He stopped.
‘I woke up from a coma three weeks later. Just in time to hear her plotting with her lover about how they would pass off their child as mine long enough to get a ring on her finger and all of my wealth. Within minutes I had no child, a duplicitous fiancée and the dreadful news that my injuries had ended any hope of my ever fathering a child naturally.’
As I was grappling with that, his turbulent gaze found mine.
‘Do you understand now why hearing you’d destroyed my one last chance prompted my reaction?’
His stark bitterness threw ice-cold dread over me, keeping me numb for a minute before sensation piled in, puzzles slid into place.
With a horrified gasp I moved away from him, pulling the sheet tight around me. I suppressed another sharp cry as pain lanced me and the weighted certainty that another woman’s transgressions had been the measuring rod I’d been judged against all along froze me from the inside out.
‘So I’m Project Two Point Zero?’
He frowned. ‘Excuse me?’
‘You thought I was lying when I said I was pregnant. Then you accused me of trying to foist another man’s child on you. Then you thought you’d hedge your bets by marrying me, on the off-chance the child was yours. How are those imagined offences of mine any different from what your fiancée did to you?’
He reared up, his face tightening further. ‘For one thing, we’re married. And for another, you barely touch the possessions I’ve showered on you. You don’t drive, or ask to be driven anywhere. The thought of going to a social event makes you grimace.’
‘So my saving grace is that I’m not a fashion whore and nor do I salivate over the dozen supercars you store in your garage? What makes you think I’m not just biding my time, lulling you into a sense of complacency before I strike?’
One insolent eyebrow rose, as if the idea was amusing. ‘Are you? And how do you propose to do that?’
‘Give me time—I’m sure I can come up with something.’
‘You won’t,’ he parried arrogantly. ‘You want to know how you’re different?’
I pressed my lips together, the strong need to know almost overwhelming me.
‘The only thing that gets you fired up—truly fired up—is your work. Your eyes light up when you’re in the boardroom, challenging men and women with years of experience to better market an idea. Anneka got fired up by shopping until she dropped. The reason she was an ex-supermodel by the time she was twenty-five was because she’d gained a reputation for being unprofessional and lazy—partying and skiing were the only things she lived for. Sometimes I’d go two or three weeks without seeing her because she was too busy flying around in my jet to spend time with me.’
