He continued to stare at me for a long stretch. ‘You’re nothing like him. You have a formidable inner strength that he doesn’t—clearly inherited from your grandmother,’ he said.

The low, gruff words opened up a fountain of emotion inside me that stopped my breath, especially when he brushed his lips over mine, as if wanting to seal the words in.

Getting carried away would have been so easy, but I forced myself to pull back. ‘Anyway, I moved from under my father’s thumb to under yours without any intermission—’

He stiffened, his face growing a shade paler. ‘Under my thumb? I made you feel like that?’

I shrugged. ‘You dictated where I would live. How I would live. Without giving me a say. So when you told me to find a way... I did.’

His jaw tightened and after a moment he nodded. ‘I don’t blame you for staging a rebellion. I would have in your shoes too. Perhaps not with anonymity but...that’s understandable considering my reaction to our marriage.’

Tears prickled my eyes, threatening to spill at the thought that he was seeing things from my side. ‘Anyway, my grandmother’s letter left details of a Swiss bank account in my name. I went to Switzerland to see what it was all about. She’d left me the means to live under a new identity if I chose. There was also a box with some of her things in it.’

‘That’s how you were able to live without detection for a year?’ he said.

I nodded. ‘I think she meant me to use it more as a way to rebel against my father than a way—’

‘For you to escape your new husband?’ he finished with terse amusement.

‘Either way, it seemed like a sign.’

A touch of hardness entered his eyes. ‘Leaving your husband tearing his hair out for a year.’

‘You weren’t my husband. You especially weren’t interested in being one the morning after the wedding. You married me to save your precious company, so don’t pretend my absence caused you any personal slight or even—heaven forbid—any anxiety!’

‘You carried my name. You were supposed to be under my care. Believe me, your disappearance was punishment enough—especially when I was left imagining the worst,’ he rasped in a raw tone.

Plastered to him as I was, I felt the shudder that shook his frame, and his set jaw and the flash of bleakness in his eyes spoke to a vulnerability I’d never have imagined him capable of until tonight.

I stopped breathing, because... No, I hadn’t quite thought about it. ‘It wasn’t just our forced marriage, Axios. My father was threatening my mother too.’

Fury flashed in his eyes. ‘What?’

‘He wanted to keep me in line through her. But she made me promise I wouldn’t stay if I was unhappy. It all got a bit too much.’

‘Did he carry out his threat?’

I shook my head. ‘I’m guessing he was too busy playing with his windfall.’