He reached out, tipped her chin up, so he could look deeper into her eyes. “Morgan, tell me. How could you doubt me?”

“Because after our honeymoon … after we left here … I didn’t feel loved….” Her voice drifted off as she struggled to piece it together. How lost she’d felt in Athens, how confused waiting for him all day, needing him so much that when he walked through the door, she didn’t know if she should run to him, or hide, ashamed for feeling so empty. “But then, after a while, I didn’t feel anything anymore—” She broke off, bit down into her lip, piercing the skin. “No, that’s not true. I did feel something. I felt crazy, Drakon. I felt crazy living with you.”

“Don’t say that.”

“It’s true.”

He stepped away from her, turned and faced the sea, then rubbed his palm across the bristles on his jaw.

Morgan watched him just long enough to see the pain in his eyes. She’d hurt him. Again.

Hating herself, hating what they did to each other, she slipped past him and continued down the stairs to the water’s edge.

She had to get out of here. And she had to get out of here soon.

CHAPTER EIGHT

HE SWORE SOFTLY, and shook his head.

God, that woman was frustrating. And to think he hadn’t just fallen in love with her, but he’d married her.

Married her.

Long before his wedding day, Drakon had been warned by other men that getting married changed things. He’d been warned that wives—and marriage—were a lot of work. But Drakon hadn’t been daunted. He didn’t mind work. He’d succeeded because he’d always worked hard, put in long hours, never expecting life to be easy.

But marriage to Morgan hadn’t started out difficult. It’d been amazing initially. She’d been amazing, and everything had been easy, since Morgan had been easiness herself … joyful, uncomplicated, undemanding. And then they moved into the new villa in Ekali, the affluent Athens neighborhood, and she’d changed … expressing worries, and then doubts, and then needs which came to sound like demands.

Be home from work early.

Don’t work too late.

Why aren’t you ever here?

And if he were honest, he had worked long hours, really long hours, and the more Morgan pressured him to come home, the more he wanted to be at the office, and he’d told himself he was working late to provide for her, working late to ensure she had everything she needed, when deep inside he knew he was just avoiding going home to her. It wasn’t that he didn’t love her … but he was suddenly so aware of how she now depended on him for everything. It overwhelmed him. How could he meet all those needs? How could he manage her, and his work, and his responsibilities?

While he grew more distant, she grew more emotional, her sunny smiles fading until they were gone, replaced by a woman who looked fragile and haunted, her eyes sad, her lovely face taut, her expression stricken.