The Greek Bachelors Collection. Rebecca Winters

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СКАЧАТЬ gut-wrenching sense of rejection filled her as she saw Theo’s not loving her blink larger than the sign in Times Square. Everyone knew.

      “Will you swing by our place on your way home and take Zephyr overnight? The sitter can’t stay,” Theo said. “I’ll text her to let her know.”

      “What? No!” Jaya protested in shock. “Why—?”

      “Of course,” Gideon cut in smoothly. “Our pleasure.”

      “But we’re going straight home,” Jaya insisted. “Aren’t we?”

      “We’ll use the family suite here tonight.”

      “Theo—” Jaya began.

      “Please let us do this.” Adara set a light touch on her arm. “Theo never asks me for anything.” Leaning in to buss Jaya’s cheek with her own, she whispered, “Please don’t give up on him.” With a tight smile of concern, she and Gideon hurried away.

      Speechless, Jaya watched them depart. “This is crazy. Why did you do that?”

      “Crazy? We both know we need to talk.”

      She hugged herself into her wrap, cold despite their staying inside. As he nudged her toward the elevators, she stumbled.

      “I don’t want to talk,” she mumbled. This was her problem, not theirs. She had known what she was marrying. Maybe he would come to love her eventually, but not if she forced it.

      “There’s a switch.” He eyed her as he brought out his card and got them into the private elevator.

      “What is?”

      “You being the one who doesn’t want to talk. Especially after you taught me it’s the only way to fix things. Why are you trying to take that away from me now?”

      “I’m not,” she protested as they entered the family suite. “I just don’t see any use this time.”

      “Why not?”

      “Because I don’t want to hear again that you don’t love me and never will!” The outburst surprised even her. She pulled her wrap tighter around her throat, turning away to hide her hurt.

      He drew a long, harsh breath then heavy silence descended.

      She waited.

      Nothing.

      A choking little cry of protest escaped her. “And there you go again, withdrawing—”

      “It’s not easy for me, Jaya! I don’t even know how to love, not properly. I still feel awkward kissing my son, like the more I want and need him in my life, the more likely he’ll be snatched away.”

      “Not by me! I’m not trying to take away your heart either. Love isn’t something to dread.”

      “I know that,” he cut in. “But people knowing how I feel... When that woman said we were in love tonight, I lost a bit of sanity. I couldn’t bear for them to know how much you mean to me. It makes me too vulnerable.”

      It wasn’t the statement she was looking for, but it was close enough to make her turn and look at him. “Do you mean that?”

      “The last thing I feel toward you is dread, Jaya. When I walk through the door, I’m relieved, like some kind of unidentified pain has stopped. I’m so damned happy to see you, it’s embarrassing. Is that love? You tell me. I’ve never felt like this toward anyone. It sure as hell isn’t anything like what I feel toward my sister,” he growled.

      She pressed a hand to her diaphragm, reminding herself to keep breathing because she felt as though the wind had been knocked out of her. Somehow she found her voice. “Each time I see you, I’m filled with intense joy, like I’m finally home and safe again, no matter where we are.”

      Reaction seemed to spasm across his features. “When you say things like that, I almost don’t want to believe it. It means too much and I trained myself not to care, not to want, but I crave those things you say, Jaya. They make me start to hope.”

      “For what?” A fragile bubble of optimism was building in her, but she was afraid to grasp it in case it burst.

      He visibly struggled, feet shifting, glance cutting to the door before he hardened his stance and lifted his chin, no defenses anywhere on him as he revealed both somber vulnerability and an achingly tender warmth toward her.

      “That you might come to love me one day.”

      Her own controls fell away, leaving her floating in a void, jaw slack, mind wiped clean by shock. A hot pressure flared in the back of her throat, urging her to speak, but all she could say was, “I’m such an idiot.”

      Before she could cover her face and absorb how appallingly stupid she’d been, she glimpsed how her words affected him. The tightening and closing, the dimming of his eyes.

      “I thought if I told you how much I love you, it would scare you,” she blurted, lurching forward a step. “I’d make you feel too much pressure. Like you were failing me because we’re not equal, but I shouldn’t have held back. I should have told you.”

      “That you love me,” he clarified in a voice that rocked between disbelief and shaken anticipation. He came forward to grasp her arms. “That’s what this is? This feeling like if we have a disagreement, I’ll die of loneliness? That if I’m hurting I don’t want anyone around except you, and if you’re there I can bear anything, that’s it? That’s love?”

      She nodded, blinking matted lashes. A tickle of wetness ran onto her cheek. “That’s how it is for me. I want to tell you things I’d never admit to another soul.”

      He cupped her face in gentle fingers, his eyes blazing with heat and admiration and adoration. “Then Jaya, I have loved you for a very long time.”

      She couldn’t breathe. Her heart had grown too big for her chest. Her mouth wouldn’t form words because her lips were quivering.

      He soothed them with the pressure of his own. The tender kiss deepened by degrees past sweet wonder into heat and passion and a deep need to express their love completely. They knew each other’s signals and they were even more evocative now. He cupped her breast and held her heart. She pressed her lips to the pulse in his throat and only a very fine, translucent wall separated her from his lifeblood.

      “Oh, Theo, I’m sorry—”

      “Shh, I shouldn’t have made you wait, either. I just didn’t know...”

      “I know. I love you.” She kissed him again, unable to control the outpouring of emotion, passion, her need to connect.

      He slowly drew back, but only to offer a smug smile. “I scored us a free night of babysitting.”

      “How could I not love you for that?” She was bursting with joy at how carefree he looked. Like he’d fully broken free of his shell and all of him was available to her.

      He swooped to whisk her off her feet and into the cradle of his arms, making her gasp in surprise. As he started for the bedroom, she СКАЧАТЬ