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You may spend today as you like, but please be advised that I have leaked details of our wedding to the press so there may be some cameras around.
I will join you when I can.
C
Disappointment made her stomach dip, closely followed by a flare of uncharacteristic anger that made her screw the note up into a tight little ball and deposit it next to the ring box she’d left on the table the night before.
He was an ass, that’s what he was, and she shouldn’t have allowed him to get to her last night. Being honest with him, telling him she didn’t want to pretend either, had been a mistake, as had coming around the table to kiss him. She should have shrugged when he’d rejected her, when he’d told her it would never happen between them. She should have told him she didn’t care.
Yet she hadn’t. She couldn’t. She’d never been able to hide her hurt with Annabel either, when her sister had told her she was too busy to talk, too tired to help her with her homework and didn’t want to play any of her silly games. That she had more important things to do.
Annabel hadn’t had time for Glory’s hurts, and since she had enough on her plate already, Glory had decided that it was easier to keep quiet. Easier for her and easier for Annabel too.
So that’s what she’d done last night with Castor. She’d gone back to her seat and said nothing, too embarrassed and upset to even look at him. Then he’d simply got up and walked away without a word.
Was it her fault? Had she done something she shouldn’t? Misinterpreted him somehow? But then how could she have misinterpreted what he’d said when he’d been very clear about what he’d wanted?
‘All I can think about right now is whether you still want your virginity... Because if not, I’m quite happy to take it from you right here and now.’
Her. He’d wanted her. He’d said that.
Except he’d also said,‘Not tonight. Not ever.’
Glory’s hands clenched into fists in her lap, hurt catching inside her.
She didn’t understand him. She didn’t understand why this was painful either. Because why did she care if he didn’t want to sleep with her? What did it matter? She’d told him back in LA that sex wasn’t on the table and told herself that she was fine with it. Besides, she hadn’t known him very long and he’d never promised her anything.
He just made her feel as if she was ten again, constantly pestering her sister for attention that Annabel was too tired to give.
Too tired because she spent every minute of the day working just so they both had a roof over their heads and food to eat.
She knew she shouldn’t let Annabel’s small rejections hurt. Her sister hadn’t been doing it maliciously. She’d only been trying to look after Glory as best she could. Yet they’d hurt all the same, sitting like a splinter close to Glory’s heart, and even now, even as an adult, she could feel that splinter throb inside her.
The only solution was to keep pretending it didn’t matter. That this was merely a job she was doing, a vacation she was having. That she didn’t want him and he wasn’t fascinating and she didn’t care at all that he wasn’t here.
She left the ring box on the table after she’d finished breakfast, then sent an email to Annabel to let her know she’d arrived safely, since she couldn’t bear the thought of actually talking to her.
Once that was accomplished, she settled into the task of doing some serious sightseeing on the island.
It was small, rocky, a little bit wild and utterly beautiful, and Glory loved it. She took a lot of photos on her phone, enjoying the hot Mediterranean sun on the back of her neck, the cloudless blue of the sky and white rocks against the deep turquoise of the sea.
She poked around the chapel where the wedding was going to be the next day; it was tiny and had to be centuries old. It smelled of cool stone and incense, light flooding the small space in front of the altar from the window high above.
Tomorrow, she would be getting married here.
Tomorrow, Castor would be her husband.
The thought shouldn’t have made her feel anything since it wasn’t even real, yet trepidation turned over inside her as she stared at the altar.
No, she wasn’t going to allow herself any nerves. Or if she did, it would only be about what kind of attention it was going to draw, nothing else.
It certainly wasn’t going to be abouthim. Because she didn’t care about him at all.
She returned to the villa and spent the afternoon by the glorious blue infinity pool, sunning herself in her sagging old swimsuit while she read a book stolen from the library, determined not to notice Castor’s absence.
Which turned out to be relatively easy since he remained absent the entire afternoon.
Even after the sun went down and another delicious dinner was served on the terrace, he didn’t appear.
