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.’

CHAPTER EIGHT

HE WAS UNRAVELLING ME with his low-voiced requests. With this side of him that hinted at the kind of man I’d dreamed of calling husband and father to my child. The kind of man who asked me to take a leap even when I knew that ultimately my path might lie elsewhere.

Tell him.

Maybe this could all turn out differently.

You could have more nights like this, far into the future.

But what if the worst happened? I couldn’t put Andreos through that.

Besides, while Ax had readily agreed to my stipulation...for now...he’d given me no insight as to what would happen beyond that.

But I’d bought myself a little more time—and, Theos mou, I wanted to experience this again. And again. Without angst or acrimony.

Even now, with my limbs weak from their physical and emotional expenditure, hunger was slowly gathering force, anticipation adding fuel to a fire which didn’t seem in a hurry to burn itself out. And if all it took was a simple recounting of my year, where was the harm?