Modern Romance November 2019 Books 5-8. Dani Collins

singular, searing thought that I wanted to remain here indefinitely charged through my daze, forcing me to move. Forcing sanity back into this madness.

      But even as I gathered her to me after my return from the bathroom she was unravelling me again, the hand on my chest reaching deeper as she turned her face to me.

      ‘Ax?’

      ‘Hmm?’ Unfamiliar dread clenched my gut, escalating the notion that somewhere along the line I’d fallen under her mercy and her whim.

      Her breath fluttered out in an almost reverent exhalation as her eyes lifted to mine. ‘You’re the only man I’ve ever been with. I just thought you should know.’

      That gift, freely given when it could have been withheld in light of our circumstances, punched and winded me. The notion that opening up to her had possibly earned me this unsettled me even more.

      Questions and wants and needs surged higher than before, racing to the tip of my tongue before circumspection halted them. I wanted more from her. But did I have more to give to her and to Andreos?

      I pushed back the dismaying sensation.

      She was staying…for now.

      That unsettling little addendum would be tackled later. After much-needed regrouping.

      ‘Efkharisto.’

      The word emerged deeper, graver than I’d expected. I did nothing to offset it. Nothing but accept that things had to be different.

      Nothing I’d seen of the marriages around me had fuelled a need to embroil myself in one—not when they strained so easily and threatened to break at the smallest hint of adversity.

      But, in the hypothetical scenarios where marriage had crossed my mind, I’d known that unshaken faithfulness and stalwart support would be the cornerstone of its success. Not the kind of marriage held together by financial worth—the kind my grandfather had struggled to hold on to and ended up paying dearly for.

      That reminder cooled my jets long enough to let in rational thought. Long enough to know that Calypso and I needed a base of trust from which to operate.

      Which meant getting her to open up about her secrets…

      I decided to come at it from a different angle. ‘Are you ready to tell me why you chose to leave Greece?’

      Her eyes shadowed and her lashes swept down. But before I could catch her chin and redirect her attention on me she lifted her gaze, her eyes boldly meeting mine with a resolution I wasn’t sure whether to welcome or battle.

      ‘Okay.’

      Relief stunned me. ‘Okay?’

      She nodded. ‘I want whatever time we have remaining to be peaceful.’

      I forced my teeth not to grit at the reminder of a timescale. ‘Good.’

      A touch of nerves edged her features. When she went to move out of my arms, I caught her back. ‘It would please me if you stayed right here for this.’