Page 7 of Contractually Wed

“You think I can’t tolerate you,ne?” he said, softening without wanting to or seeming like he was. “Leave it to time.”

“Fine.”

“You’ll be expected to spend a little time in Greece every year,” he said, purposefully making it vague.

Apprehension filled her eyes.

“Is that a problem, Jia?” he asked softly, pressing down hard on his curiosity. Now that he had her, a true asset if he’d ever known one, nearly locked up, he didn’t want to spook her.

“My entire life is in New York.”

“But you’re willing to give it up for Rina, no? And to be honest, it doesn’t look like much of a life to me.”

“You don’t know anything about me,” she said, the protest without fire.

Instantly, he felt the need to soothe her, for more than the obvious reason. “And your last condition for me?”

“Oh, I’m saving that one for later. It’s more in the lines of a wedding present,” she said, feathery eyebrows wriggling up and down.

Apollo felt the most insane urge to grab her and kiss the insouciance out of her. He wanted to reduce her to nothing but sounds and gasps, to wrest some kind of control from her, to prove to himself that she and her sister were interchangeable.

Christos, the thought of a kiss had never aroused or riled him so.

When he didn’t say anything, she stood up, even though there was little space between his legs. “The wedding,” she said, looking down at him now, “has to be a quiet, city hall affair. I can do Thursday and—”

He shot to his feet too. “No, absolutely not.”

They were standing close enough that her chest grazed his just so. “This is an arrangement, a boardroom deal. Do we have to dress it up as some big romantic affair?”

“Yes.”

“Fine. Don’t blame me if I disappear the day before the wedding and you find Rina walking toward you.”

“Are you planning to?”

“My family isn’t going to be happy about this. Not justnot happy. They might do anything to stop me.”

“Because you’re your father’s golden goose,” he finished, finally understanding her point. She seemed to have no illusions about her value to them. And yet, every time she talked about them, something sad and desperate filled her eyes.

“And I come with the same stock options as Rina. You can have them after two years of blissfully wedded life.”

Apollo had never sought to punish the man’s children for his sins. Marrying Rina after Jay had dangled the stock in his face, especially after he’d discovered that she had the spine of a noodle and would serve well as a wife, had been simply another step toward his goal. But with this woman, it felt like she was turning herself into a willing victim for her family.

It left a bitter taste at the back of his throat.

She waved her phone in his face, the action and her general irreverence and her body language all nearly alien to him. “Text me when you have the license.”

“I have the license. Only the name needs to be changed.”

She pressed a palm to her chest, her eyelashes fluttering. “Oh, how romantic.”

Just as she bypassed him, Apollo reached for her. She fell into him with a soft oomph, her thighs pressing into his. “I have agreed to all your conditions,ne? I have one too.”

“I’m not giving you any more dirt on my father.”

He grinned then and cupped her cheek slowly. “What a diabolical mind you have, Jia. I have something more personal in mind.”

Her eyelashes fluttered rapidly, like butterfly wings, and her lips too. “What?”

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