HE’D SPENT ALL day with Kassiani today. Damen couldn’t remember when he’d last spent four hours with anyone, never mind a woman.
And he’d enjoyed almost every minute. The only minutes he hadn’t enjoyed were the minutes where she’d tried to convince him he was a good person, when he knew the truth about himself.
Kassiani. She was something of a revelation.
He’d known very little about her before their wedding, other than she was the youngest daughter, and a rather mysterious figure in her family, one her father had portrayed as eccentric, which was apparently why she didn’t travel with them, and wasn’t paraded about like Barnabas and Elexis. But now Damen could see that Kassiani had been forgotten and ignored by her family because she wasn’t like them—she wasn’t shallow and superficial. She didn’t take advantage of people. She didn’t use others. She actually thought of others.
Thank God her family hadn’t corrupted her, but at the same time, she’d deserved so much better from her family. A great disservice had been done to Kassiani all these years. She actually believed she was fat and unattractive. Unworthy.
It was wrong.
And now he was handling her wrong, too, but Damen didn’t know how to be a better husband. He wasn’t accustomed to being patient or kind. So maybe that was the first step. Practicing patience. And maybe a little bit of kindness.
If Kass was surprised to see him on deck before dinner, she gave no indication. She was standing at one of the railings on the upper deck, and she turned her head to smile at him. “Good evening.”
“Good evening to you. Have you been up here long?”
“Fifteen or twenty minutes. It’s such a gorgeous night. The view is spectacular. The island ahead of us sparkles with light.”
“That’s Mykonos.”
Her brow creased. “Weren’t you and Elexis supposed to visit Mykonos?”
“We were, yes.”
“Are we?”
“No.” He saw the searching look she gave him. He shrugged. “I don’t want to take you where I was going to take Elexis. It seems wrong somehow.”
“It’s okay. I’ve been there. It’s fine, but it’s not my favorite island.”
“Which is your favorite island? Wait, let me guess. Santorini.”
She grinned. “It’s everyone’s favorite, isn’t it?”
“It’s certainly picturesque.” He turned from the view of Mykonos to face her. “How did you know about the honeymoon plans?”
“Elexis asked me to read through the itinerary and make sure she would like it.”
His jaw dropped slightly. “And did you?”
Her shoulders twisted. “It gave me something to do.”
“And you like to be helpful.”
“I like having a sense of purpose, yes. It’s frustrating to me that I’ve gone to school and have a degree and yet my father refuses to allow me to work outside the home.”
“So you’ve never held a job?”
“Charity work. That’s about it.”
“And your brother and sister?”
“The same. Although Barnabas was supposed to work with Dad once he finished university, only he never finished university because his grades were so bad.”
“How does he get his money?”
“Dad transfers money each month into Barnabas’s bank account.”
“Why?”
“I guess it’s like an allowance.”
“Your brother is twenty-eight years old. Isn’t that a little old to be getting an allowance?”
“Dad is afraid that if he cuts Barnabas and Elexis off financially, they’ll cut him out of their lives. And he couldn’t bear that, so he gives them whatever they want.”
“So you get an allowance, too?”
“No.” Her voice was sharp and her smile brief. “I get nothing other than a roof over my head and the food I eat.”
“Why the double standard?”
“Barnabas and Elexis tell Dad what he wants to hear. I don’t.”
“What do you tell him instead?”
“That the company needs more leadership, and the family shouldn’t be sponging off the company. Dukas Shipping isn’t there to be the personal bank account for lazy family members that don’t want to work.”
Damen’s eyebrows shot up. “You’ve said all this?”
“And more.”
His lips twitched. “I can’t imagine he valued the input.”
“Not at all, but he values his business, and I’d be wrong to remain silent when so much is at stake. It could be such an incredible company—”
“It will be, once I’m completely in charge.”
“Are you removing my father as president and CEO?”
“He hasn’t actively managed the company in years. He knows I’ll be taking over after the honeymoon.” He shot her a swift side-glance. “Does that upset you?”
“I’m relieved, actually. Something has to be done. I just...” She sighed, shrugged. “Never mind.”
She turned away from him to stare out over the water and he used the moment to study her elegant profile. She truly was beautiful, with the regal features of a Greek goddess. “Tell me,” he said quietly. “Finish the thought. I want to hear it.”
She glanced at him, eyes bright, lips compressed. “If I was a son, he would have made room for me. I would have been an asset. Instead I was a daughter and nothing but a disappointment.”
Before he could reply, one of his stewards appeared with the champagne he’d requested twenty minutes ago and made a big production about opening the bottle and filling their flutes.
Damen checked his temper as the steward settled the champagne bottle into the ice bucket, rattling the ice as if he was doing the most important job in the world. Finally the steward was gone and Damen handed Kassiani a flute.
“We didn’t have a toast on our wedding night. So, stin yeia sou,” he said, lifting his glass. To your health.
“Yamas,” she answered, to our health, before clinking the rim of her goblet to his and lifting her flute to her lips.
Just watching her bring her glass to her full lips made him hard. He didn’t understand this fascination with her, or why he found it so hard to stay away from her. She was so naturally sensual that she had him in a constant state of arousal.
“What else have you told your father that he doesn’t want to hear?” Damen asked, determined to shift his attention from her luscious mouth to the topic they’d been discussing before the champagne had arrived.
“Dukas Shipping was worth so much more five years ago, when my father first approached you. He’s been cutting away into the principal. You’ve gotten a rotten deal. Instead of the Dukas beauty, you got the Ugly Duckling and a company teetering on bankruptcy.”
“You wanted to work for him.”
“Desperately.” She swallowed hard. “I have tried for years to get him to bring me on board. I even told him he didn’t have to pay me. I’d be an intern. Just let me