Page 38 of A Diamond Deal
She bit at the inside of her cheek to stem the rage churning her insides that she’d gone so easily into his arms.
But no longer did Poppy think of the press outside.
No longer did the images of the articles she’d scoured play in her mind.
It was just…
His lips.
Konstantinos’s gaze lingered on her mouth.
He may have wiped off the evidence of her mouth, but he could still taste the sweet tip of her tongue butting against his. The yield of her mouth as he pushed his tongue deeper. He knew, and so did she. The tight line of her mouth couldn’t hide it. She could taste him still. Feel his hands on her.
‘Stop looking at me like that,’ she said, but her words lacked bite. Her voice was thick. Breathless.
‘I am only looking.’
‘But they’re all going to be looking in a minute, I just… Aren’t they waiting for us?’
‘So eager to get out?’
She was eager, he recognised, and for that he was pleased. She needed her hate, her anger towards him to be vibrant—visceral—to get her out of the car and into the spotlight.
He’d done what needed to be done for them both. He’d kissed her—made her angry—so when she stepped out of this car her anger would give her strength.
She straightened her spine. ‘I want to get this over with.’
She wanted to escape him.
His jaw locked.
His mind shifted him back to twelve months ago. Returning to Sotiría, carrying the weight of his father’s death on his shoulders, and finding it empty. There had been no trace of her leaving. Her things. Clothes. Her passport. Everything was where she’d left it.
It was as if she’d just vanished.
If he hadn’t been there to see his mother disappear into the sea, to the world she would have just vanished too. But Poppy, she had escaped. Escaped him. And…
Is that what his mother had tried to do? Escape his father?
He swallowed.
He’d done everything right. He hadn’t locked her away and forgotten about her as his father had with his mother. He’d helped her. And still she’d run from him.
‘Indeed,’ he said, and turned his gaze away from her to the door.
He opened it to a flurry of activity. Lights flickered too brightly in his face. He turned away from them all. He didn’t need to stop for questions. They only needed to see her alive to dispel the rumours. They only needed to know he hadn’t failed her as he had his mother.
Poppy lived.
He walked to her door and opened it.
She stole his breath.
She was a vision in red silk.
He offered his hand. ‘Shall we?’
Slowly, she slid her hand into his. He enclosed it.
