Claimed for His Duty. Tara Pammi

are the most honorable man I know, Stavros. Until I met you, I didn’t know what it was. There are days when I still don’t. But Leah’s threat concerns Giannis. You need to make a decision soon.”

      “I already made one. Five years ago.”

      “Then why have you left her under someone else’s care, kept her at a distance? Either she’s truly your wife or you’re through with her.

      “You can’t hang both your lives in limbo as if it was some sort of penance.”

      A chill seeped into his skin despite the fact that he was sweating. Stavros let Dmitri go. “What if she hasn’t changed? What if she...”

      “Give her a chance at least, Stavros. To prove you right or wrong.”

      It was Dmitri that finally left the room.

      Everything Dmitri had said was stuff he had already been over a thousand times.

      The moment Dmitri had called him, guilt had clung to Stavros.

      All his life, he had tried to do his duty by his grandparents, by Calista, by Giannis. He hadn’t let his own fears or wants matter. He had always done the right thing. He knew what he had to do now, knew Leah deserved a chance. And yet, he wavered, for the first time in his life.

      Never had his mind or body been so out of sync as it was now.

      Five years ago, he had let his anger detract him, and now the intensity of his want for her was a weakness he had never had to deal with before. He wiped his face and looked at himself in the mirror.

      He had let nothing but his responsibilities, his sense of duty, guide him his entire life.

      Nothing was going to change that, not his reckless, selfish, brazen wife of all people in the world.