“I’m relieved to hear it.”
She felt heat climb her cheeks and she shook her head. “Stop teasing me and eat your appetizer.”
Surprisingly, her tycoon listened and did exactly that.
They were halfway through the appetizer when she asked something she’d been curious about for a while. “Are you going to be Neo’s best man in the wedding?”
“Naturally.”
“Are you looking forward to it?” she teased, sure he would grimace and give a negative.
But he smiled instead and said quite decisively, “Yes.”
“You are?” She had not expected that.
“Of course. I worried that Neo had forgotten his dreams of home and family under the pressure of building our empire. When we first left Greece, that was all he’d talk about, how he was going to make something of himself and then make a proper family. He stopped talking about it maybe two years after we settled in Seattle.”
“But you didn’t want him to forget it entirely?” Wow, that was not an ambition she could picture Zephyr encouraging.
“No. He deserves a family, a home that is more than a place to live.”
“Those are some pretty traditional sentiments for a selfadmitted playboy.”
“What can I say? I am a traditional guy.”
That made her laugh. “I don’t think so.”
“What? Just because I am not married does not mean I never desire to enter the state.” He didn’t look like he was kidding.
But she couldn’t get past the feeling he had to be pulling her leg. Zephyr was the original no-commitment guy. He’d made that clear from the very beginning of their sexual relationship. So much so, that she had assumed the first time had been a one-off.
He’d shocked her by coming back for more when they worked together on the next project, and continuing to see her in Seattle after that. But he’d been smart to give her the time to accept the change in their relationship, so she was ready to accept the new “friends with benefits” nature of it.
“You look flummoxed.”
“I feel a little flummoxed,” she admitted.
“I do not know why. It is the American dream, not just the Greek one, is it not? One day, I will find the right woman.” He gave a self-deprecating smile that gave her butterflies. “Hell, I may even fall in love as Neo has done.”
Those words felt like an arrow to her heart, because they implied he had not found that woman, therefore that woman could not be her. After finally coming to terms with her own feelings, that was a double blow to her heart. Her hand went to her necklace again, this time gaining no sense of comfort from the feel of the precious metal and stones. You had to love someone to cherish them.
So, what did that make this gift and all the other gifts he’d given her?
Unfortunately, after hearing his story earlier she feared she knew. This was Zephyr’s relationship currency. Gifts and money. Not love. Not for the mother who had hurt him and not for Piper, either.
“You don’t seem like the home-and-hearth type, Zephyr,” she couldn’t resist saying. “You live in the ultimate bachelor pad and you’ve dated far and wide. And deep and long besides.”
Besides which he saw his relationships with his mother and siblings as monetary transactions.
“As was Neo before he met Cass. Me? I am as desirous of making my mark on the world in that way as any other man.”
“You’re serious?” The words were just a formality, though. There could be no doubt from his tone or his expression.
He was dead serious.
“Why wouldn’t I be? Regardless of what I just said, I do not anticipate falling in love like Neo, but one day I will marry and procreate. Why build an empire if I have no intention of leaving it to someone?”
She didn’t mention his nieces and nephew. Clearly, that wasn’t what he meant. Zephyr wanted his own family. “But you don’t think you will ever fall in love?”
“No.”
That made more sense, even if it hurt enough to make it difficult to breathe.
“But…”
“But what? You loved your ex-husband, yes?”
She grimaced. “Yes.”
“And did that bring you happiness?”
“No, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think love can happen, or make me happy when it does.”
“Perhaps it will happen for you again one day.”
“Maybe it will.” It already had—with him—and his revelations on the Acropolis had only cemented that fact.
However, she could see it wasn’t a truth he would be pleased if she shared. No matter how much that situation hurt her, she could not change it. She suddenly realized she was very likely to pay the price for another woman’s actions. Actions that were decades old, but had not lost the power to hurt or mold Zephyr’s actions.
But Zephyr’s heart was not available to her and might never be.
His lips twisted in distaste. “Love is a messy emotion.”
“No question, but it’s good, too.” Surely he could see that, especially now that Neo was so happily in that state?
“You don’t regret loving Art?” Zephyr asked with calculated cool.
“No. I regret that he was a cheater and a liar and that his love was more words than substance.”
“How is that different from regretting loving him?”
“My love was a good thing.”
“That ended up causing you pain,” he observed wryly.
She couldn’t deny it. Loving Art had nearly destroyed her on every level. And loving Zephyr didn’t look like it was going to be a much better prospect. At least she knew where she stood with him, though.
That was something, wasn’t it?
Zephyr gave one of those self-deprecating smiles he used when negotiating and it made her stomach clench to have him use it on her. “Look, I’m not trying to be the Scrooge of happily ever after, but you and I both know someone loving you is no guarantee they won’t betray you.”
“That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t open yourself to love at all.” She tried to keep the desperation his attitude evoked out of her voice. It wasn’t his fault she’d been dumb enough to fall in love with the wrong man. Again.
“It works for me.”
And she couldn’t fault him for his attitude. Now that she knew his mother had abandoned him to build a better life for herself, Piper couldn’t help understanding Zephyr’s distrust of love.
“But Neo loves Cassandra and vice-versa. Or so you said.”
“Cassandra is one woman in a million.”
The pain those words caused took Piper by surprise, making her heart cramp and her whole chest cavity hurt. Because they implied she was not such a woman. Who was she kidding? Certainly not herself. This whole conversation put Zephyr’s attitude toward her in stark relief.
He didn’t love her. Not even a little. He didn’t anticipate loving her, either. Not ever. Which was really not what she wanted to hear. The pain coursing through her mocked all the promises she’d made to herself after walking away from Art. She wouldn’t lose her livelihood when she and Zephyr’s sexual relationship ended, but