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And as he pushed her onto her release and found his own, only pleasure remained.
Not contracts, not shadows of old fears, nothing but the man who was a perfect fit for her. Nothing but the man who had awakened every part of her.
“I found the proof today, Stefan,” Clio whispered, as she lay supine in Stefan’s arms. Maybe it was the fact that after a long time, she felt completely at peace. That she felt secure about herself, about the direction her life was heading in.
Even if the future was still an enigma.
Maybe it was just the fact that the man who held her to him so tightly with his arms around her, as if he couldn’t let go, had made love to her so well that the postcoital haze had lent her false courage.
The thing she knew for sure was that she wanted to tell him. She couldn’t remove his pain about losing a friend of so many years, but she could at least give him the satisfaction of bringing Jackson to justice at last.
Stefan stilled behind her. It was so complete that she wondered if he breathed anymore. Suddenly, his arm around her felt like a lead weight.
“I have lost every penny I had.” The words rushed out of her haphazardly, the weight of saying them out loud stunning her anew.
“What, bella?”
The sheets rustling around her, Clio lifted his arm and turned around. Caught the resigned look in his eyes just as he blinked and chased it away.
With the gears in her head running finally, understanding dawned in her.
She swallowed the knot of hurt in her throat that felt like glass. He had thought she was commenting on the state of her funds, asking for a handout in a roundabout way.
Kicking into a sitting position, he pulled her up, until she was sitting by his side on the enormous bed. When he looked at her again, there was nothing but curiosity. “What are you talking about, Clio? If you need money, all you have to—”
Clio stopped his words with her palm over his mouth, before he could deal her more than a surface scratch. It was his automatic reaction to any question, from any woman regarding money, she pacified herself.
He had made a conscious decision to ask her politely about it instead of seething with distrust and contempt.
It was a step forward in their fragile relationship.
That was the best she was going to get from him.
Pulling her hand into his, he laced their fingers together and kissed the back of her palm. “Clio?”
Shaking her head to chase away her stupid misgivings, Clio offered him a small smile.
“I’m sorry. It hadn’t quite sunk in and saying it out loud finally did.”
With his finger under her chin, he tilted her face up. “Clio, I want honesty between us, bella. Above everything else. That’s how this began,” his knuckles tapped her chin, “and that’s how I would like us to continue.”
Her stupid, grasping, desperately greedy mind latched onto the fact that he wanted this, whatever this was, to continue.
She was on a slippery slope in this relationship they had now, and yet, she wasn’t scared or afraid.
All she cared about right now was that he wanted her, in his life, in whatever capacity it was. Her heart thudded so loud it was a wonder he didn’t hear it. “Of course. Do you remember I told all you guys about my aunt Grace once?”
“The one who hated your parents and vice versa?”
Smiling, Clio nodded. “She had always been sweet to me when I was growing up. She died a couple of years after I came to Columbia. I went to her funeral and found out that she had bequeathed me a bit of money. I think it was her way of high-fiving me for walking away from everything that my parents had wanted for me.”
Stefan grinned. “Sounds like a sweet lady.”
“She was. You should have heard her swearing. She did it like a sailor. Anyway, it took a few years for the legalities to go through and I received the money a year after we graduated. About twenty-five thousand pounds.”
Pushing back from her, Stefan stared at her. “But if you had that much cash in hand, why did you have to borrow from Christian? Why not use it to secure your rent or to pay off your school debts?”
“Because my parents knew that Aunt Grace had bequeathed me that money. My mother even commented that for all the claims I had made, I was happily taking handouts. So I locked it up in a secured bond, determined to make it in New York through my way.
“And when I was broke, it was better being obligated to Christian than letting them learn that I needed help.”
“You are a stubborn woman, bella. Isn’t it enough you turned your back on such a prestigious family and started a new life halfway across the world?”
