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His face tightened. “I’m offering an olive branch here. It would be nice if you would accept it.”
“Why the sudden change in heart?”
“My parents’ marriage was a political one. Amicable enough in the beginning out of the respect they had for each other. My mother came from an aristocratic family—she knew her role. But the one thing she couldn’t handle were my father’s affairs. Not unusual for a sovereign, but my mother has a great deal of pride. It was her one stipulation and he broke it.
“Their marriage became a war zone,” he continued. “Our home became a war zone. I will not have that for my child. Our child.”
“But can you trust me? Truly trust me?” She fixed her gaze on his. “We need that above all else if this is going to work, Nik.”
His lashes lowered. “I will work on it.”
Her heart dropped. She had the feeling he might never trust her. Never let go of what he thought she’d done. But what choice did she have but to try to make it work?
She spun away toward the wardrobe in search of her shoes. “You need to get ready.”
“Sofi´a—”
“Not now, Nik.” She turned around and faced him, hands on hips. “Every reporter in Akathinia is waiting for me to step into that ballroom so they can analyze me from every angle. So that they can further expose my deficiencies and label me not up to snuff. So let’s just get it over with, shall we?”
His eyes widened, then narrowed. “The press will come around. You need to be patient and stop worrying so much about what people think. I saw the coverage of the charity event. You didn’t look like yourself at all. Stop hiding under that shell of yours and let people see you.”
“So they can dig their claws in deeper?” She rolled her eyes. “No, thank you.”
“I wouldn’t do that again if I were you.”
“Do what?”
“Roll your eyes.”
“Why? Because you’re a king?
“Because it’s disrespectful.” He stalked toward her. “What’s really bothering you?”
Her chin dipped. “I just told you.”
“How did the designing go today?”
“Not well. Nothing’s working. I threw them all out.”
He shook his head. “You can’t force it. You’re pushing too hard with everything. Give yourself some space. Take a day off.”
“It’s my sanity,” she growled.
“Good thing, then, I’ve set aside some downtime for us.”
“Downtime? Isn’t that an oxymoron for you?”
He ignored the gibe. “Things are in control for the moment. Idas will sign. Which means you and I are going away for the weekend where we are addressing all of this, Sofi´a. All of it. I can’t be fighting battles on multiple fronts.”
And there was the real issue. Not him caring about her. She was taking up his precious brain space.
She lifted her chin. “I don’t have time. I have a wedding to plan.”
“To supervise,” he corrected, stripping off his tie and starting on the buttons of his shirt. “And we aren’t going far. Just to the summerhouse.”
The one on the private island off the shore of Akathinia Stella had pointed out on their tour? Her stomach curled in on itself. “It’s not necessary. We can work things out here.”
“Like we’ve been doing?” He lifted a brow as he shrugged out of his shirt. “We are good together, Sofi´a. We will make a great team together if we can iron out this discord.”
“If that’s even possible.”
“Oh, it’s possible.” He threw his shirt on the chair and breezed past her on his way to the bathroom. “The only variable is how long it takes for you to give in to what you know is the truth. And how I make you do it.”
Her breath caught in her throat. “Did I actually like you once?”
He paused in midstride, his mouth tugging up at the corners in one of those rare devilish smiles that made her heart go pitter-patter. “You adored me once, glykeia mou. I’m sure you can get that loving feeling back.”
“Oof.” She stared at him as he walked into the bathroom. Her engagement ring shimmered in the light as she made a rude hand gesture at his back. The cursed ring.
“Haven’t you already doomed us with this ring?”
He turned around, the smile fading from his face. “I bought you that ring because you loved it. Because we don’t need luck. We can do this, Sofi´a. You just have to make the call.”
