Page 71 of A Vow to Set the Virgin Free

“I’m sorry,” said Athena.

Hannah forced a smile. “It’s okay. I mean... It isn’t. But they were never very much around when I was younger anyway. I was away at school all through the year, and then even when I was home they were often gone. Off on adventures. When I was sixteen they... They were killed in an accident. They were on a canoeing trip and their boat capsized. It was terrible. But my father was good friends with Apollo, and he... Anyway, Apollo is the manager of my trust. And my guardian. Until I am twenty-five.”

Looking at her, Athena guessed that was a few years away.

“And how old are you now?”

“Nineteen.” She smiled very prettily, in that way nineteen-year-olds could.

“He gives you freedom?” Athena asked.

“Oh, yes. I’m very grateful to him.”

But there was something hollow in the way that she said that.

“And you and Cameron are... You’re his wife?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

She felt sort of guilty, but she didn’t know how far their ruse needed to go.

“It must be quite something. To have all that focus on you.”

There was a wistfulness in Hannah’s tone that made Athena feel sorry for her.

Then she wondered... If she was any different than this girl. Who wanted a man so far out of her reach he might as well have been on another planet.

No, you know it isn’t real. The desire might be, but you know you will have to move on after. You might be Greek. You might have a family. McKenzie is just a name he gave you, but it isn’t your name. You have to find your name. Remember that.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“ALLTHETIMESwe talked and you managed not to tell me that you have a ward.”

“It wasn’t relevant to any of our business.”

“I see.”

He stared at his friend hard.

“Don’t judge me,” Apollo said. “Athena is clearly under your thumb. And you know exactly which way I mean that.”

“I haven’t touched her. Not the way that you mean.”

He hadn’t. Even now, he hadn’t.

“But youwantto,” Apollo said.

“She’s beautiful. Who wouldn’t want to?”

Apollo poured himself a measure of scotch, then turned to look at Cameron. “Why the sudden pretense that you’re a man of honor?”

“I might ask you the same.” He looked hard at Apollo. He onlysuspected, he wasn’tcertain, but when his friend looked away, it confirmed it.

He had a forbidden attraction to his ward. A woman who was substantially younger than him, and under his protection.

“Touché.” He knocked back his scotch, his breath hissing through his teeth. “I have done very few things in my life that are worthy of being called honorable. Looking after Hannah is one of the few. I owed her father. He was... He was a friend.”

“Friends I don’t know about.”

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