Page 66 of Modern Romance March 2025 (5-8)

“Something for your business then.”

My spine stiffens. “What?”

“Your interior design firm. You’ve only been in business for a couple months. Plenty of opportunity for—”

“No. Thank you.”

He’s watching me now, his unnervingly direct gaze tinged with curiosity. I pause, trying to figure out the best way to phrase my next words. To stay strong and not let him glimpse the insecurities that still haunt me.

“As I move on with my life, I want to make a clean break. No ties to Greece, or anyone from my past.”Including you.“I also want Tessa’s Interiors to succeed on its own merits. On the work I put into it. Using my trust fund to get started felt like a compromise to begin with. Accepting handouts from my…” I look down at the table, unable to look him in the eye. “From my husband would negate my independence.”

His shoulders stiffen. Now he’s frustrated. Rafe and his brother Gavriil are renowned for their ability to make deals, to come up with mergers and sales most people in the property development community can only dream of. Stymying him shouldn’t bring me pleasure. But it’s interesting seeing this side of him, watching as he tries to come up with something to appeal to me.

The only thing I want is something I have no interest in receiving from Rafe. When I have a family of my own, I want it to be with someone I love and who loves me in return. Who won’t place business above all else. Who will look at me and see me, want me, for who I am and not what I can bring to the table.

Rafe continues to stare. He’s mentally analyzing what he knows about me and trying to come up with something, anything, to persuade me. It’s not fair on my part to be upset at his lack of feelings toward me. He never once led me on.

I just wanted it to be different.

“We’ve always gotten along well, Tessa.”

Gotten along well.

Bland, banal, boring.

I take another sip of my wine as I think about Nathan. Yes, the man is essentially a puppy in human form with his huge smile and affable personality. But I’ve seen the way he looks at my sister, the little things he does because he knows it matters to her. And on one embarrassing occasion, I walked in on him pressing my sister against a wall as he kissed her like she was his last breath of air. Nathan had been mortified. Katie had laughed until tears rolled down her cheeks.

And I…I’d been slightly embarrassed. Amused. But beneath it all, envy had coursed through me like poison. I don’t want to be Rafe’s brother’s friend who happened to be a convenient wife. I want passion. Romance. Love.

“Yes, we have.”

“I don’t like making threats.”

I arch a brow. “So don’t.”

“But I will if my hand is forced.” His voice is deadly calm, his eyes glittering. “If I were to lose my role as head of Drakos Development’s European and Asian divisions, thousands of people would be at risk for losing their jobs.”

Oh, yes. Pile on the guilt. Not like I don’t suffer from enough of it already.

I sigh. Would eight more months of marriage really make that big of a difference?

Yes. Perhaps if he hadn’t come to Paris and had simply written or emailed, I could have agreed. But seeing him here now has put fresh cracks in my healing but still broken heart. I just want this to be over. Surely there’s some other way for him to work around this condition with the will. It’s so archaic in nature, so controlling, it’s almost laughable.

“Tessa.”

Hearing my name on his lips has me gripping my wineglass so tight I’m afraid I might snap the stem. It pulls at my heart, but it also tugs at that part of me that was awakened nine years ago. The first time I saw Rafe through a woman’s eyes. I can still see him kneeling next to me on a moonlit balcony, silver light glinting in his dark hair as he gave me the faintest of smiles. Can feel the warmth of his fingers sliding over my skin when he took my hand in his. It lasted all of a second.

But that one second changed everything.

My pulse kicks up as an idea glimmers at the edges of my mind. Faint at first, but then it solidifies, takes shape even as the rational part of my brain tries to squelch it.

It’s ridiculous. Foolish. It would be doing the exact opposite of what I just told myself I needed. Yet the more I think about it, the more tempting it becomes. Yes, it would potentially be putting my heart on the line. But I’ve proven to myself I’m so much stronger than I ever thought possible. And even if I occasionally struggle, the end result would be more than worth it.

“There is something.”

I can almost feel his sense of victory as his mouth tilts up at one corner.

“Name it.”

---