Page 15 of The Billionaire's Last-Minute Marriage
Perhaps she had wanted to test him. Or maybe that small, scared part of her had hoped that if he knew, he might have called the whole thing off. Either way, they both knew that she was only a temporary fixture here. She would never truly fit into Xander Mytikas’s perfect world on a permanent basis. She faltered a little at the thought, her steps scuffing slightly on the carpeted aisle between the jet’s plush seats.
A firm hand cupped her elbow, fingers sliding around her skin like a band of steel. Holding her balance upright and preventing her from entering into an embarrassing tumble backwards as she sat down in her seat.
‘I’m sorry, I get a little clumsier if I’m distracted.’
‘That happens a lot around me, I’ve noticed.’ He raised one brow, his lips quirking with wry amusement. ‘Do I distract you?’
Pandora stiffened. Of course he couldn’t know the impact that such a benign statement would have on her. But then again, he had no idea of the extent of her difficulties.
‘I’m sure you’ve noticed many of my quirks by now.’ She took a deep breath. ‘It’s because I’m autistic. If you have something you’d like to ask me about that, go ahead.’ It was only once the words had left her mouth that she heard the hostility in them, and the defensiveness she was so used to holding at bay.
He raised a brow at her tone. ‘If you’re asking if I intend to interrogate you about the nuances of the autism spectrum, I thought I might save that for our wedding night.’
His words entered her mind on a jumble, and for a moment she couldn’t focus on anything other thanwedding nightand the shockingly intimate picture that it evoked in her mind’s eye. She coughed, realising he was probably being sarcastic, but she still needed to take a few hearty gulps of ice water in an effort to cool her deviant mind. It didn’t work.
‘Not that this is actually our wedding night in any real sense...’ He tailed off, looking mildly concerned when she stood up again rather suddenly.
‘You can, if you want. Interrogate me, I mean.’ She moved away from him, inspecting some of the delightful desserts that had been laid out on a tray at the bar. A bar on a plane...this place was utterly ridiculous and she was pretty sure she’d never enjoy normal travel ever again.
‘I wasn’t actually planning to interrogate you,’ he assured her with a frown. ‘You haven’t mentioned it to me before today, for your own good reasons, I’m sure, and despite my recent harsh demands...’
He stood up too, his powerful form only taking two strides before he was leaning against the counter beside her. She stiffened, inhaling the beguiling scent of him and feeling it stir up her senses ever more. Damn him. For a moment she almost wished he would say something inappropriate, like insist that she look at him, just so she could have an excuse to be as worked up as she currently felt.
‘I do tend to respect people’s boundaries, normally,’ he said gently. ‘These past twenty-four hours or so haven’t exactly been business as usual for either of us.’
‘I don’t feel the need to disclose my diagnosis with everyone I meet, but that doesn’t mean I avoid the topic either,’ she explained stiltedly. ‘As my husband, I assumed you might need to know, in case it ever came up.’
She felt a familiar tic in her jaw as she spoke, her body reacting to the uncomfortable conversation. She waited, counting her own breaths as Xander seemed to measure his own words before responding.
‘Do I need to know all the details, if you’d rather keep them private?’ he asked. ‘I mean, do you need me to know them in order for me to understand you better?’
The air around them went too quiet, and she swore that she could feel a hum begin in her chest and move upwards into her throat. The surge of emotion choked her, somewhere between her chin and her collarbone. She swallowed hard, grateful that she was facing away from him so that he wouldn’t see just how deeply his words had affected her.
No one had ever asked her that before...
She had always tried not to let her difference define her, but the truth was it did. It was a part of her identity, one that she had worked hard to understand and accept with love. The only problem was that other people didn’t always see it that way. The idea that he wasaskingif she wanted him to understand her better...she had never even considered it.
‘I didn’t mean to sound flippant.’ He moved closer, his face coming into view by her side. ‘I simply mean that it’s not a requirement that you tell me everything. This marriage will only work if we each maintain our personal boundaries.’
Pandora simply nodded and turned her back to continue making her tea, knowing that his words held a thinly veiled warning. The trouble was, she had always had difficulty with impulse control. And right now, Xander was a shiny red button, that readdo not press.
So, of course, she immediately wanted to find out what would happen if she did, how far she could push him, even as the thought of it scared her to her core. It made no sense and yet it made her chest prickle with a kind of terrible excitement. The kind of excitement you only felt when you knew you were skirting the edge of danger. ‘Chaos personified’, he had once called her during a particularly frustrating meeting... He had no idea.
He moved past her, his suit trousers brushing against the voluminous skirt of her dress. Breath entered her lungs with such sharpness it almost hurt.
But as he paused, his eyes questioning hers silently before he moved back towards his seat, she realised with sudden clarity that she no longer just had a crush on her boss...this man was now her husband, and if she wasn’t very, very careful she could easily find herself well out of her depth.
Xander lay back in the jet’s recliner chair, sleep still evading him. The memory of that look on Pandora’s face when he had moved in to kiss her cheek at their wedding... He definitely hadn’t imagined the heat in those silver depths. But this was a woman he needed to keep at arm’s length. He had known that from the very first moment he’d laid eyes on her and she’d smiled so warmly at him.
Of course, he’d soon understood that was pretty much how Pandora Quinn treated everybody that she worked with. Her sunny chaotic personality in the office was notorious. As was her seeming naivety, which he had seen in action a few times when he’d noticed people trying to take advantage of her kindness.
He’d put an end to that rather quickly, making his displeasure known to them.
Xander realised for the first time that he had not truly considered how a woman might feel at being a replacement bride. For there was no denying that was what she was.
He thought of the very first night that he’d seen Pandora Quinn, two months before he came to work in New York. That night she had simply been a nameless blonde who had caught his eye at the annual Mytikas Charity Gala, a pompous grand affair that Zeus had thrown every year under the guise of raising money for Greek orphans, when really it was simply another opportunity that he’d used to conduct his own nefarious dealings.
Her eyes had been what had drawn him first, filled with such tension. He had never been the kind of man attracted to a damsel in distress, but he had watched as she’d struggled to disengage from conversing with one of the wealthy businessmen in attendance, backing slowly towards one of the exit doors that led to the foyer. But the other man hadn’t seemed to get the memo, and so after observing closely for a couple more minutes and feeling his own blood pressure rise, Xander had intervened.
