He had spilled Tyler’s indiscretion with Faith in a perverse moment of selfishness, acting directly against his own larger purpose of having her here.
It was a weak, impulsive, juvenile, completely uncharacteristic move.
And suddenly, his control over this thing between them, his control over his spiraling desire for her, over the maelstrom of emotions she released in him, was more important than anything else.
Because even his worry over Venetia hadn’t blunted his awareness of this woman. “No, I haven’t forgotten.”
Her blue eyes held that same shimmering honesty that he had come to expect from her. “That woman, she wanted you. Wherever we go, there is always at least one woman who wants you.”
Her statement was in reality a question. For the past four days, he had been only thinking of himself.
She had obviously taken his distance to mean that he didn’t want her anymore.
His desire for her was a near-constant hum in his blood. And it was the very intensity of it that had shackled him. Lust had ever been only a function of his body until now, not his mind or heart. “I don’t want her or any of them.” He knew what she wanted to hear, yet some devil in him wanted her to ask, wanted to hear her admit it again.
Now, when she wasn’t still reeling from the truth about Tyler; now, when it was only Nikos that she saw. And nothing else.
Her teeth clamped on her lower lip, she straightened her shoulders. And rose to the challenge. “Are you still interested in me?”
He laid his palm horizontally on her rib cage, felt her heart race under his fingers. “What do you think?”
She pushed herself into his touch, her gaze challenging him. “Then what are you waiting for?”
“You want this because you’re angry with Tyler, hurt by what he did.”
“I’m not hurt by what he did. If I didn’t have to worry about you, I could actually be enjoying this glimpse into your filthy rich life right now.”
Furious surprise rolled through him. “You are worried about me?” The question hurled out of him before he knew.
“Of course I am. Anyone with eyes can see how much you love Venetia, how worried you are about her. That night after they left, you spent the whole night looking for her. And I...” She took a deep breath, “I don’t want anyone to be hurt at the end of this. Not Tyler, not Venetia and definitely not you. And I don’t know how to tell you to not worry so much, how to make you see that she’s far stronger than you give her credit for. She saw me kissing Tyler, Nikos, and she didn’t crumble.”
“You think that’s the only sign of her weakness? She saw my father shoot himself. It has hurt her in ways I can’t understand.”
She clasped his hand with hers, willing him to look at her. A shaft of sensation traveled up his arm. She was so tiny, so delicate compared to him. “Tyler won’t let her do anything, Nikos. What happened between him and me, it was just as much my fault. He would never do anything to hurt her.”
“He was ready to walk out on her. That’s what I said he would do.”
“Yes, but because he wanted to do the right thing by her. Doesn’t that tell you something? Or are you just too stubborn to see it?”
“I’m not discussing them with you.”
“Don’t. Believe me, I don’t want to, either. Venetia’s probably having the time of her life, and here I am, stuck with you. You hold me responsible for everything that’s happening—”
“I don’t hold you responsible for any of this. I just don’t trust you to tell me if Tyler contacts you.”
Lexi clamped her mouth shut. There was no point in even denying it. He knew her too well. “Okay, fine. But I don’t have a phone and I don’t think I can even sneeze on the island without you knowing, so can we stop with you dragging me around like unwanted baggage?”
“Unwanted baggage, thee mou?”
“You look at me as though you want to open a space portal and throw me through it. Do you understand what it took for me to say those words to you last week?”
He tugged her hands higher and tighter as his lower body pressed into hers. Lexi closed her eyes and fought for some much-needed oxygen. Her skin felt as if it was on fire, her limbs molten with longing. “Ever since I realized what a pathetic idiot I have been all these years, I have also realized that I’m not completely without appeal.”
He grinned and she pressed on, growing bolder. When he smiled like that, she wanted to roll over in the warmth of it. She wanted to press her mouth to his and revel in it. “I might not be packing in the boob and leg department and probably hold little attraction to a man with refined tastes like you, but there are other fish in the sea. Cute, dimpled, down-to-earth fish like Piers, for example, who find me attractive and wouldn’t dream of calling me any names in a million—”