‘That’s going to be quite a challenge for you then, isn’t it?’ She gave him a pointed look. ‘I can see nothing but hatred in your eyes.’
‘You should consider yourself fortunate that I am actually prepared to marry you. On the basis of what I witnessed this evening, I could take Emily off you permanently.’
‘So I’m supposed to be grateful that you’re forcing me into marriage, am I?’
‘You could do a lot worse.’
‘Yes, I suppose I could,’ she shot back sarcastically. ‘I could have married someone who loved me.’
‘You had the chance to do that four years ago but you threw it away.’
‘There is no way of convincing you, is there?’ she asked, ashamed that tears were prickling at the backs of her eyes. ‘You still see me as a thief. You will always see me as that.’
‘I am prepared to put aside the past to deal with our future,’ he said. ‘We have a child to consider now. It would not be good for Emily to hear about that incident. I will make sure no one speaks of it ever again. Besides, as far as I know, only my mother, Eleni and I knew about it.’
Charlotte frowned. ‘You didn’t tell anyone else?’
‘No.’
‘But…but why not?’
‘I thought it best at the time.’
‘But how did you explain our sudden parting?’ she asked. ‘Surely people wanted to know what had happened between us.’
‘I told them you had study commitments back home, which was partly true. You would have had to return at some point to finish your degree, even if I had asked you to marry me. I would not have expected you to sacrifice your education.’
‘And yet you are demanding I sacrifice the whole point of my education now—my career.’
‘You have a child, Charlotte. You have clearly struggled to provide for her alone. Once we are married and settled into a routine you can think about returning to your career. There are numerous opportunities on Santorini for a person with your qualifications.’
‘You really expect me to do this, don’t you? To just walk away from my life and take up with you.’
‘You do not have any choice. It is either marry me or lose your daughter.’
‘Even though by doing so I will be losing myself?’
‘You will not lose yourself, Charlotte,’ he said. ‘I will try to be a good husband to you.’
‘Does that mean you’ll be faithful?’
He held her challenging look for a long time before answering. ‘That remains entirely up to you.’
She narrowed her eyes at him. ‘What do you mean by that?’
‘If you do not want to conduct a normal physical relationship with me, then I will have no choice but to have my needs met elsewhere.’
She gave him a disgusted glance. ‘You mean pay someone?’
His eyes swept over her in a raking manner. ‘Up until now I have never had to pay.’
She tightened her mouth. ‘I only took that money to help my sister. I was never going to sleep with you.’
‘So what changed your mind?’
Charlotte turned away in case he saw her vulnerability. She could hardly tell him she was still in love with him, even though it was painfully true.
‘I asked what changed your mind,’ he said again.
She turned back around once she was sure her expression was bland with indifference. ‘Sex with an ex holds some sort of appeal, don’t you think? I wanted to see if you still had what it took.’
‘And your verdict is?’
She had to look away. ‘Revisiting relationships is always fraught with the danger of disappointment.’
‘If you were disappointed you showed no sign of it,’ he commented wryly.
‘A hungry person would think contaminated food is a feast,’ she returned with an arch look.
‘So you thought it was worth the risk?’
She gave a little shrug.
‘But we do it rather well, don’t we, Charlotte?’
She gritted her teeth and crossed her arms over her chest, scowling furiously. ‘I hate myself for responding to you.’
He moved across to stand in front of her, his hand tipping up her face so she had to look at him. ‘You are always going to respond to me, agape mou,’ he said. ‘It is something that is inescapable.’
Charlotte could feel the magnetic pull of his gaze as it held hers, all her senses going into overload as his eyes dipped to her mouth. Her lips buzzed in anticipation of the erotic pressure of his mouth on hers, her skin prickling all over at the thought of his body invading hers so commandingly, her eyelids slowly closing as she prepared herself for his devastating kiss…
‘Mummy?’
Charlotte’s eyes sprang open as Emily padded into the room.
‘Darling…’ She rushed across the room to crouch down before her daughter. ‘Is your arm hurting?’
‘Yes…’ Emily gave a little sob. ‘And I had another bad dweam.’
‘I’m here now, sweetie,’ she soothed.
‘And so am I,’ Damon said.
Emily rubbed at her eyes and padded over to him. ‘I was dweaming about you,’ she said, looking up at him with huge black eyes.
‘W-were you?’ Damon felt his throat tighten as he looked down at the little pixie face in front of him.
‘I fought you were going to go away…’
He bent down to her level, his eyes warm as they met hers. ‘I am not going away, little one. You can count on that.’
‘I can’t count past ten,’ Emily said with a sheepish look. ‘Mummy’s been teaching me but I’m not berry good.’
Damon felt as if someone had clamped his heart in a vice. He had never felt such emotion before. ‘You are only three years old,’ he reminded her. ‘You have plenty of time to learn.’
‘Can you count to a hundred?’ Emily asked, slipping her thumb into her mouth and sucking so hard he could hear it.
He smiled as another emotional gear shifted in his chest. ‘Yes, I can.’
The tiny thumb came out long enough to ask, ‘Will you teach me?’
He gathered her into his arms and breathed in the small child scent of her, his heart contracting at the thought of all he had missed out on so far.
‘I will teach you whatever you need to learn, little one.’
‘Mummy?’ Emily peered past her father’s broad shoulder. ‘Did you hear dat? Daddy’s going to teach me to count to a hundred.’
Charlotte smiled even though her face hurt with the effort. ‘That’s wonderful, darling. I’m sure he’ll be a wonderful teacher.’
Emily snuggled up close to her father as he carried her back to the spare bedroom. ‘I like having a daddy,’ she said, hugging him tight around the neck with her little arms.
‘And I like having a daughter,’ Damon said, trying to control his voice.