Kassiani abruptly stopped herself.
She couldn’t let herself go there, not yet, because he certainly wasn’t there. But would he ever be able to love her? Would he ever be able to give her what she needed?
She had things.
She needed love.
Heart aching, she forced her attention to other topics. “I remember hearing that some of your cousins would be attending the wedding, but not your mother. She didn’t go to Athens, did she?”
“No. She doesn’t like to travel.”
“Then why not marry at the church in your village?”
“It wouldn’t be proper or convenient. There are no hotels on Adras. There would be nowhere for the reception—”
“Your villa wouldn’t be large enough?”
“The church wedding is important, but our family church in the village is humble. And the locals would be uncomfortable with the outsiders flooding the town. My mother, especially, would be uncomfortable with the attention. Far better to marry in Athens and keep that part of my life separate from my mother and those who know her.”
“So she wasn’t hurt by being excluded?”
“I offered to fly her in, she said no. I offered to send the boat for her. She said no. She doesn’t like to be out of her element, and I can respect that. Why make her unhappy? She is a simple woman. There is no room in her life for wealthy or pretentious people.”
“So you only see her when you return home?”
“Yes.”
“And when was the last time you returned home?”
“To Adras?” He paused. “Christmas.” Then he shook his head. “Actually, the Christmas year before last. It’s been a while.”
Almost sixteen months. Kass chose her words carefully. “You will introduce me to her?”
“Before we leave, yes.”
“But not right away?”
“There is no rush. I would rather you settle in. Become familiar with the villa and the gardens and the estate.”
“Are you worried that your mother won’t like me?” she asked carefully, aware that most mothers did not like their daughters-in-law. Her paternal grandmother, Yia-yia, had certainly never thought Liliana—Kassiani’s model mother—was good enough for her son. From the start there had been bad blood between her grandmother and mother, and it had never improved during the marriage, either. Yia-yia had moved in only after Kassiani’s mother and grandfather were both gone. “You do not have to worry about protecting my feelings,” she added. “I will not be crushed if your mother doesn’t like me.”
“Are you truly so unlikable? Do you not expect anyone to enjoy your company?”
There was something in his tone that made her lips twist. He sounded almost affronted on her behalf.
“Would it surprise you to learn that I enjoy your company, kitten?” he added. “Or is that not allowed?”
The corners of her mouth curved, and she felt that whisper of hope return, even stronger than before. “It is allowed. I get fuzzy on the rules, but that is most definitely allowed.”
* * *
The sun was still relatively high in the sky as Damen’s yacht neared Adras. The weather remained almost unbearably perfect, and the colors of the Aegean were so clear and true it almost made Kassiani’s heart hurt. The blue overhead teased the blue of the sea, and in the distance, she could see the dark green of the groves dotting the island. For a moment Kass was reminded of California’s Napa Valley, and how the grapes rolled up and over the hills, but then the sun reflected brightly, blindly, off the water, and she was firmly back in Greece, with this intense brooding husband of hers who overwhelmed her in every possible way.
Feeling a prickle of awareness, she turned her head and discovered that Damen was watching her, and just like that, heat enveloped her, and an awareness of how he made her feel, and all the ways he pleasured her, and how easily he dissolved her defenses. Even without touching her, she felt breathless and weak. Or maybe that’s because she remembered how he held her down on the couch and claimed her last night, taking her with slow, deep thrusts before withdrawing and slowly entering her again. It had been maddening and exciting and she’d begged for him to thrust faster, but he’d held off until she was panting and writhing and trembling and only then did he finally let her come. The orgasm had been intense, and he’d held her after, and in that dreamy place between pleasure and reality, she’d felt so close to him, so much a part of him, as if they were two halves of a whole, and whole only when together.
She knew it was an arranged marriage, but the lovemaking and sexual intimacy only served to make her feel more...more of everything, both good and bad.
“We’re here,” he said, breaking her reverie.
She blinked and focused on the island, and yes, they were close. The yacht was slowing down, too, carefully approaching a narrow dock that extended out into the water.
“It must be quite deep here,” she said.
“It’s not a good swimming beach, no,” he answered. “But there is a fantastic view from the house.” He gestured above, pointing to a mass of white buildings set among the green covering the slope. “My villa and pools are just there.”
It took a little bit of time for the crew to moor the yacht, and while the crew was tying the ropes and dropping anchor, two open-air Jeeps came tearing down the mountain.
Damen offered his arm to Kassiani as they disembarked, and then thanked the staff before walking her to one of the lifted Jeeps with the large off-road tires. There was no step stool, or low sideboard to step on, and before she could even ask for help, Damen wrapped his hands around her waist, and lifted her into the vehicle.
Just the feel of him against her back, and his breath against her nape, made her breath catch and her skin sensitive.
“Could your mother please join us for dinner tonight?” Kassiani asked as he slid behind the steering wheel.
“No.”
“Or at least, could she join us for drinks?”
“No. You’ll meet her before we leave, but there is no need to introduce you right away.”
“But there is! She’s your mother, Damen. I’d like to have a good relationship with her, if possible, and it’s disrespectful of me not to reach out to her early—”
“She’s not going to be a big part of your life, Kassiani, and I’m becoming annoyed that you keep pressing the issue.”
Kass balled her hands into fists. “So it doesn’t matter what I want?” she said huskily. “It only matters what you want.”
“Discussion closed.”
She stared at him, hurt, and frustrated, and more than a little furious. What she felt didn’t matter to him. She was not a real person, or a valuable person. In his mind she was just another thing he owned...another person to command. “I’m not your employee,” she answered lowly, fiercely. “You cannot issue commands. Correction, you can, of course you can, but I don’t have to listen, or respond to them. In fact, you’ll discover I respond so much better when you treat me like an equal.”
“I am not going to do this here,” he ground out. “Not in front of my staff.”
She averted her head, angry, and furious and hurt, so hurt, so impossibly hurt, and she didn’t understand how in just a week he could make her feel so much when this was just an arranged marriage, and it was only a