He stepped forward. She lowered her gaze. Maybe her reason for not signing the papers was something he hadn’t considered—not until now. Did she have regrets? Was she hoping for a reconciliation? If so, she was going to have a very long wait.
As though she could read the direction of his thoughts, her head rose. Their gazes caught and held. An old spark of attraction flared to life. This shouldn’t happen. He was over her. But the longer she stared into his eyes, the harder it became to remember why this was a bad idea—a very bad idea.
He reached out to her. His fingers traced her cheek. Her skin was soft and subtle. “Is this what you wanted?”
“No.” But her voice lacked conviction.
“I think it is. Remember how good we used to be together?”
Her gaze never left his as his fingers trailed down her jaw to trace her lips. Her eyes dilated as she inhaled a swift breath. The little voice in his mind that said he shouldn’t be doing this became more and more distant—like the night he insisted they elope. He’d ignored that little voice then and he ignored it now. He had to prove to her that she’d made the biggest mistake of her life when she’d walked away from him. This time he’d be the one doing the walking.
His free hand wrapped around her waist, pulling her voluptuous curves snug against him. Her soft jasmine scent teased his senses. Every time he detected that scent, he thought of her—of her body next to his. It had been so long—so terribly long since he’d been this close to her. She wanted him, too. The passion was there in her eyes.
Buried emotions, desires and longings bubbled to the surface. He needed her—wanted her. The breath hitched in his throat. His head dipped, replacing his fingers with his lips. Her mouth didn’t move at first. His touch was gentle, holding back the powerful rush of desire raging through his veins. His heart hammered against his chest.
His mouth brushed over her petal-soft lips. Just as sweet and tempting as he remembered. He wouldn’t scare her away—not again. She just needed a moment to remember how amazing they’d been together. No one could forget that—not even him.
The next thing he knew her hands slipped up over his chest and wrapped around the back of his head. Her nails scraped up over his scalp as she pulled him closer. A moan swelled in the back of her throat as their kiss intensified.
He knew it. She still wanted him. If there was one thing they always had going for them, it was chemistry. The distance they’d endured had done one very obvious thing—it’d intensified the sparks arching between them, making them combustible.
Her lips moved with frantic need under his. Her excitement only aroused him more. Somewhere along the way the kiss became less about teaching her a lesson and more about him filling that empty spot in his chest. How had he lived so long without her? Her kisses were like a wellspring of life. They sealed the hollow spots in his scarred heart.
Not about to let this moment end, he scooped her up in his arms. Her hands braced on his chest. She pulled back. Her eyes were filled with a mixture of rousing desire and confusion.
“I thought you might want to continue this inside.” His voice came out deeper than normal.
“Sì...um, no.” She struggled against his hold on her. “Put me down.”
“But, Zoe—”
“I mean it. Put me down.”
With great regret, he did as she asked and lowered her feet to the ground. His jaw tensed. His back teeth ground together.
The moment had slipped through his fingers just like the whirlwind marriage had slipped past him. One minute they were whispering sweet nothings to each other in their palace suite—the next he was returning from a meeting with the king to find their rooms empty except for a note on his pillow that said, “Sorry. This was a mistake.” A blasted note! That was all she had felt it necessary to leave him.
“That shouldn’t have happened.” Her fingers pressed to her lips.
His gaze challenged her. “You certainly seemed to be enjoying it.”
This time she didn’t turn away. “I did, but it wasn’t right. We can’t recapture the past.”
How was he supposed to argue when she was the only one making sense right now? He was the one who was supposed to be saying these things. All it’d taken was one kiss and everything had become mixed up and turned around.
He raked his fingers through his hair. They needed to finish this here and now. This time he wouldn’t let himself get distracted, no matter how sweet her kisses may be.
“You’re right. We can’t go back in time.” He mentally kicked himself for trying such a stupid stunt. “But that doesn’t mean you don’t owe me an explanation for running out on me—on our marriage.”
“It’s too late to get into all of that.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“Fine. If you want to know the truth, it’s simple. I left because I’m not right for you. I never was and I never will be.”
Frustration churned in his gut. “That isn’t an explanation. That’s an excuse.”
“Trust me. It’s all you need to know.”
Her unwillingness to be forthcoming only irritated him more.
“Fine. Keep it a secret. You seem to be good at holding things back. It really doesn’t matter anymore. But you will explain why you didn’t sign and return the annulment papers. So if you don’t want money and you obviously aren’t interested in a reconciliation, why else continue our marriage?”
HE WAS RIGHT about one thing.
Zoe had been holding back but not for the reasons Demetrius was suggesting.
She never imagined how it might look to him. At the time, she’d been so caught up in her fear for her mother’s safety to think clearly. A call from the polizia had burst the illusion of happily-ever-after. That long-ago call had made her face reality—accept the graveness of her mother’s illness.
Until the polizia had found her mother wandering the streets in her nightgown, lost and confused, Zoe had been living in a state of denial—unable to accept the harsh sentence this disease was exacting on her mother. It had been all too easy to get caught up in the rush of love—of the promise of a fairy-tale ending—rather than to acknowledge that she was on the verge of losing the one person who meant the world to her. But Zoe didn’t have that excuse now—not when Demetrius thought the absolute worst of her.
Her gaze moved to the steps. An escape was so close and yet so far away. The sandy beach looked so inviting. But she couldn’t. Not yet. Not until she got to the bottom of this mess.
She rolled back the memories. Though it had all taken place less than a year ago, in so many ways it seemed like a lifetime ago. She clearly remembered the day the annulment papers had arrived. They’d been messengered to her apartment. They’d nearly destroyed her to read, but somehow she found the strength to pen her name on them. As for the check, she just couldn’t accept the money, especially after the way things had ended. She clearly recalled ripping it into itty-bitty pieces.
At the time, things had been so hectic. Her mother’s situation had been in flux. There were doctors’ appointments. And with her mother’s rapidly declining condition, lots of tests. But Zoe was certain she’d taken care of the annulment papers.
Her head started to pound. “I know I signed the papers. I...I don’t know what happened to them after that. A clerk must have misplaced them because I don’t have them.”
“And that’s it? That’s your only explanation?”