of the hotel suite and kissed her breathless, saying when they came up for air, “I’ve been wanting to do that all day. You look amazing.” She happened to be wearing one of her own modest navy skirts with a canary lace top over a lemon-colored cami. Nothing flashy or fantastic.
Then, when they’d decided on a penthouse apartment a few blocks from Adara and Gideon’s, with a view of the park and a rooftop patio and pool, she’d watched him close the deal with an emotionless handshake. When the agent left them alone, an ominous silence descended, worrying her.
She rocked Zephyr on her hip. “Are you sure? You don’t look pleased.”
“You said you loved it.” He snapped his head around.
“I do! You’re the one who went into lockdown when I said I thought this was the one and could we have one more look.”
He didn’t like it when she called him on his standoffishness. She was learning his tells and noted the tick in his brow and the muscle that clenched in his jaw. But being blunt was the only way to get him to open up enough for her to understand him and not feel closed out.
“I didn’t mean to.” He kept one hand fisted in his pocket, his mouth tense and outlined in white.
The look he flashed at her was both impatient with himself and...not distrustful, but like he wasn’t sure of her. With a cross noise, he shrugged. He kept a proud bearing, but it was like he was headed to the gallows, he was so stiff and withdrawn as he pulled his hand from his pocket.
“You know I’m the furthest thing from a romantic,” he said gruffly. “But I thought if we decided this would be home, it would be a good time to give you this, as a sort of... Hell, I don’t know.” He showed her the sparkle he held. “An official start?”
She gasped. “You picked up the ring?” They’d chosen the stones two weeks ago, but she hadn’t expected to see the finished setting until right before the wedding.
“I figured if you said yes to the apartment, you were probably going through with the wedding so...”
He was nervous!
Too awed to laugh, she rushed forward to kiss him. Zephyr got in the way, of course, little fists grabbing at Theo and catching a chest hair so he winced and pulled away long enough to take him. Then he pulled her back into him like a pirate grabbing a wench, angling her over his arm as he kissed her like he really meant it. Like he wanted to devour her because he desired her so much.
Jaya straightened her ring on her finger now, the memory of their kiss embedded into the piece as irrevocably as the oval cut sapphire. The goldsmith had created a setting that looked as if he’d cut a blond band open then twisted it, setting the rare purple stone between the scrolled ends. He’d finished the tails with ever shrinking pink diamonds. The result a piece with such femininity, it made the extravagance subtle and elegant.
Much like the stunning mini-villa behind her, she thought ruefully, lifting her gaze to the view of the Parthenon lit yellow-gold by the fading sun. They’d decided on Athens for the wedding. It was a less grueling flight for her family and worked for his.
It was like a fairy tale, but she’d had another run of doubts as recently as last night. They’d had dinner with Adara and Gideon. Nic and Rowan had their own apartment in the city, but had joined them in the family suite. The babies had reunited into a loud, happy flock that Theo had stood apart from while the others dove in with quick hands to retrieve a dropped toy or change a bottom. Gideon, as Adara had predicted, took to Zephyr like he’d made him, rolling on the floor with all the children, far more relaxed than she’d ever expected the cool, stern Director of the Board for the Makricosta empire to be.
Theo, on the other hand, wasn’t as forward with his affection, waiting for the little ones to come to him, saying something about them probably not remembering him.
After a night of agonizing whether he shared her dream for a loving family, she’d woken to find Theo on his back on the lounge floor, Zephyr lifted like a superhero above him, both of them laughing as Theo lowered him to make growling noises against his little belly. It was exactly the game Gideon had played with all the children the night before.
She’d pretended she needed her phone to hide her moved tears.
He just needs someone to show him how to love, she reasoned. She was that person. Somehow she’d overcome her mistrust and was falling for him. It was only fair to believe he had the capacity to love her back, given time and enough trust between them.
A door opened and closed in the suite behind her.
Her ruminations fell away and she smiled with anticipation, expecting him to come to her. Sometimes he checked on Zephyr first, if he was napping, which he was. Then they’d neck until they were breathless and oh, why weren’t they married yet? She was growing impatient to feel his skin, his hands, him.
Swallowing the rush of feeling, she blinked the smeared colors of the Parthenon from her eyes and turned with a beaming smile.
And saw Theo making out with a woman against the wall, just inside the entry doors of the penthouse.
No.
Squinching the wetness from her eyes, she swiped her forearm over them as she stumbled on bare feet across the marble tiles of the rooftop garden, around the end of the pool and up to the point where the air-conditioning of the interior blended with the heat of the outdoors.
Maybe that was her own body causing the hot and cold baffling through her as she stared with disbelief at a familiar back. His shoulders flexed beneath his white shirt as he guided a woman’s leg to his hip then slid his hand under the edge of her polka dot skirt. Sharp pink talons poked through his brown hair as they kissed.
A million thoughts whirled like tornado debris in her mind. He had said he was going for a haircut. That wasn’t the shirt he was wearing this morning. Where did he think she was that he would bring some floozy back to where they were staying?
Nothing in the world could have prepared her for this. Except a senior chambermaid had taught her what to do in exactly this situation on her first day of work ten years ago.
“Housekeeping!” Jaya blurted in a shrill voice.
With a squeal, the woman’s platform sandal clapped to the floor.
He barely lifted his head. “Come back another time.” He chased another kiss.
It was Theo’s voice, but the way he ignored her wasn’t Theo.
“Demitri?” she hazarded.
His head came up again and he sent a laconic glance over his shoulder. “Jaya?”
“You’re married?” the woman gasped.
“Hell, no. My brother’s fiancée. Jaya, we’re going to need some privacy. Can you...?” He gave her a “shove-off” motion.
“Of course.” She grasped for her wits and searched for her purse. “I’ve been waiting for the baby to wake so I could go shopping, but if you’ll listen for him—”
Demitri released his partner and reached for the doorknob, blocking Jaya’s exit as he pressed his mate through it. “Wait for me at the elevator,” he told her as he kissed her pout and gave her a pat on the behind before closing her out.
Jaya returned her purse to the side table and folded her arms, waiting for his next move with her brows in her hairline.
He turned to her with an amused smile. “Well played.”
Now she saw him properly, she could see the resemblance was strong, but not identical. He was obviously younger and not quite as handsome as Theo. Too devilish.
“I thought leaving babies with bachelor uncles was how your family does things.”
He snorted. “I remembered you as shy and quiet. Made me wonder where Theo found the...”
His pause prompted her to fill in one of the thousand slang