Claimed for His Duty. Tara Pammi

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.

       CHAPTER FOUR

      STANDING AT THE small balcony that offered a view of the colorful Athens evening ahead, Leah looked out.

      She had been running for the past hour, the one thing that had always grounded her. Yet, all she felt like was running away, and this time, not looking back.

      The panic-fueled urge was like an itch under her skin, a fire in her nerves.

      It was a quarter past five and already the cafes and eateries were filling up with locals and tourists alike. Laughter and excited phrases in Greek swirled up through the air. It was a sight that had brought her a smile countless number of times after another long, lonely day. Today, it couldn’t dispel her anxiety even a little bit.

      Sighing, she went back inside. The pristine white walls that she had refused to adorn with even a single photo closed in on her and she started pacing.

      Why hadn’t she run away before now? Why hadn’t she walked away from Stavros and this...pitiful thing between them that was a marriage, and not looked back?

      Had she been so lonely to cling to this familiar world even knowing that she could never be close to her grandfather in the way it mattered? Had even Stavros’s punishment been better than facing a life alone in the world?

      She would never forgive herself for the part she had played in it, but, to this day, she had no idea that Calista had been using. Had no idea that hiding Calista’s involvement in everything Stavros had abhorred about Leah would go that far.

      Had no idea what it was about Stavros that made the worst parts of her manifest so well.

      Impulse and fear making her movements jerky, she reached her closet and pulled out a shoulder bag that had collected dust from sitting unused for so long. Grabbed a few clothes and threw them in the bag.

      For two days, she had waited calmly, taking Philip’s advice to not do anything rash. Had waited for the explosion from Stavros to come. Had barely slept a wink, was driving herself crazy.

      She couldn’t wait to see if Stavros would take her bait. She would have to cut her ties, beginning with this flat and her job.

      Just as she grabbed her phone, it pinged and the name Stavros popped up on her screen.

      Leah dropped it with a gasp, her heart jamming in her throat. Perspiration condensed on her forehead as she stared down at the phone on the dull carpet.

      It pinged again, jolting her out of her haze. She swiped it open to the text.

      Come down to the café in ten minutes. I have an offer for you.

      An offer? Could she trust him? Had she finally got through to him?

      Will scream if I see your ‘security guys.’

      She waited, her breath hanging in her throat.

      Enough drama, Leah. Come down or I come upstairs.

      The thought of Stavros invading her private space, as much of a jail as it was, sent her fingers flying over the phone.

      Fine, see you in a bit.

      Feeling more hopeful than she’d been in months, she was about to step into the shower when it pinged again.

      Leah...Dress appropriately.

      Leaning against the bathroom wall, she made an utterly juvenile face at the phone. The small space thundered with the boom of her heart.

      Stavros was here because he had bought her bluff. It wouldn’t do to let on how petrified she was inside, to let him set the tone for this conversation.

      It was like a mask she had to wear and the more she did it, the more it felt like she would become that uncaring, selfish person that he had always despised.

      * * *

      He had said ten minutes.

      By the time he spied her crossing the street from her building to the café, it was well over half an hour. In true Leah form, she had also blatantly disregarded his last text.

      The peach-colored silk blouse pressed against her body, neatly delineating the globes of her high breasts as a gust of wind blew across the street. He saw her shiver and grab the edges of the long-sleeved cardigan together.

      Heat uncoiled under his own skin, a soft, sinuous gathering of something molten.

      The silk blouse was paired with an even more flimsy pair of shorts that showcased her long legs. The glint of a toned thigh muscle, the way her wavy brown hair swept into a high ponytail swung with her long-limbed stride as she walked toward the café in her knee-high leather boots turned more than one male head.

      She walked with the innate grace of an athlete, confident in her own skin. There was nothing of the Leah he had married and not because she had grown into her beauty. It was like a fire burned within, one that made her something to behold.

      Was it truly as she had claimed and about her career? Or was it a man? Every cell in him went on high alert at the thought.

      The last man Leah had been close with had been a crook of the first order—Alex Ralston, who was in jail even now for possession and distribution of drugs.

      “When will you learn that defying me only wrecks your own life, Leah?” he said, dragging her down to the seat next to him.

      Crossing her legs in a languorous gesture, she curved her pink-glossed mouth in a too sweet smile. “When will you learn that you cannot order me around, Stavros?”

      As silky soft as her skin had been to the touch, her pulse had been pounding a thousand beats a minute. She was nervous. And yet, she was doing everything she could to not let him see it.

      He waved away the waiter that arrived at their table with a beaming smile for her.

      She waved him back with a friendly smile. When he glared at her, she sighed.

      “I am hungry, Stavros. I rarely, if ever, eat out so I’m going to pretend you enjoy my company and make the most of it.”

      He waited in silence as the young waiter appeared again. Watched in mounting fascination as she ordered three appetizers and two entrees in fractured but perfectly accurate Greek.

      “I’m not eating,” he said dismissively as the waiter left.

      “I know. It’s Friday evening and you’ll have dinner with Helene Petrou, ex-lover and—” a curse flew from his mouth “—current friend.”

      Leaning forward in an elegant move, he pinned her gaze. “How do you know about that?”

      “Philip has his resources.”

      “So your little lawyer asked you to casually throw that into the conversation?”

      “Actually, quite the opposite. He told me not to even betray the fact that I knew anything about