Maisey Yates - His Ring Is Not Enough

And then, suddenly, he pulled away and she nearly lost her balance. The guests were clapping, and the pastor was making his pronouncement, but she couldn’t pay attention. Her head was swimming, her legs shaking.

“Smile,” Ajax whispered in her ear, and it kick-started her brain again.

Never let them see you cry.

So she did smile, a bright, false smile she didn’t feel, and he led her down the aisle as the band played.

They went back up the stairs. Into the house.

The doors closed behind them, and Ajax started loosening his tie.

“Don’t we need... Should we... The photographer.”

“Do you honestly think I want pictures?” he asked, his voice rough.

“I...I had thought... It’s our... We paid for the photographer.”

“I’m sure the press in attendance got enough. I am not interested in posing for photos. What I would like is alcohol.”

“You don’t drink.”

“Not usually.”

Never. She’d never seen him drink. That wasn’t the best for her ego. That marrying her was driving him to drink.

“What about the reception?”

“I am far too eager to take you back to my villa and consummate the marriage,” he said, his tone dry as sand. “We’ll have to skip it.”

“Wh...what?”

“We’re leaving. Now.” She didn’t want to leave now. Not while she felt so...shaken.

But they were.

He took her hand again, and they went out the other direction, out the front doors, where there was a limo idling. He opened the back door for her and she got in. He gathered up the skirt of her dress and put it in behind her before getting in and closing the door.

He looked out the window and she followed his gaze to the photographer standing on the step. “Let’s give him a picture,” he said, his voice nearly a growl.

“The windows are tinted.”

“He’ll work around that. It’s his job to get the shot after all.”

He hauled her to his body, her breasts, precariously close to making an exit from the bodice of her dress, pressed against his hard chest. And then, for the second time in the space of five minutes, she was being kissed by Ajax Kouros.

After consigning Ajax to the “fantasies that were never going to happen” bin, two kisses in such short succession were shocking.

His tongue delved deep, tasting her, sending a shock wave through her, straight to her core. And again, she found herself responding, helplessly, intensely. She speared her fingers through his hair, held on to him for all she was worth.

She couldn’t pretend she didn’t feel this. Couldn’t pretend that the touch of his lips against hers didn’t light a fire in her body. Couldn’t pretend that no matter what her emotions were doing, no matter how she’d shut them down, she’d never wanted a man the way she wanted Ajax.

He removed his lips from hers and pressed a kiss to her neck, down lower, lower...oh...yes.

Then he lifted his head. “Drive,” he said, the order clearly meant for his driver and not for her. He kissed her neck again, his tongue tracing a circle over her skin before the limo exited the driveway of her family’s estate and went out onto the main winding road that led back down to the highway.

Then, he moved away from her, all of the heat from the earlier moment completely gone. As if cold water had been thrown on a flame.

“What was...all that?”

“I was not in the mood to deal with questioning—were you?”

“I... No, I suppose not.”

“We’ll need to get a story together, one that matches, before we talk to the press.”

“Right, okay, I see the merit in that.” Her lips felt swollen and hot, and she felt dizzy. What had just happened to her? She looked down at her hand, where he’d placed a ring only moments before, and she wondered if she was involved in some kind of weird dream.

“There will have to be an explanation for why it was you and not Rachel who walked down the aisle today.”

“And the truth won’t work? That she realized she loved someone else?”

The expression in his eyes could only be described as fierce. “No, it does not. Would it be so simple for you?”

“I suppose not. But please let’s come up with an answer that doesn’t completely burn my pride. I’ve had enough of that in the media.”

“We both have issues of pride, it seems. I do not intend to hurt you, Leah, but none of this was part of my plan.”

“Clearly.”

“I imagine it wasn’t a part of yours, either.”

“Well, this morning I was getting ready for my sister’s wedding, and it turned out to be my wedding. And now I’m married and sitting in a limo on my way to...I don’t even know where. Maybe you told me, but I forgot because that’s just the kind of day it’s been.”

“My home. We weren’t planning on going on a honeymoon until things had started settling at Holt.”

“Are you going to New York?”

He shook his head. “Not yet. But I will be working from my office here on getting things in order. Your father has left everything in magnificent working order, and the transition has been well under way for a while, but even so...”

“Business first. I don’t have anything to wear,” she said. “I have this dress. I don’t have...panties.” The words sort of slipped out, horrifying her as they did. She didn’t feel savvy, or self-contained, or well-protected. She felt dazed. “I don’t have deodorant. My suitcase is back at the house.”

“I will have all new clothes sent over if you like. And your things from New York.”

“My things from... What?”

“You’ll be living here with me. We will of course travel to New York, but we’ll stay in my penthouse there, not in your apartment or flat or whatever it is you have.”

“It’s a very nice apartment.”

“We will live together. We are husband and wife after all.”

“Oh. Right. Yes. We are.”

“You sound shocked.”

“Are you not?”

He looked her over, dark eyes assessing. “I am a hard man to shock, Leah, but all things considered, I am a bit.”

He was so dry, so condescending. It wasn’t fair that he was so in control. That his mask never slipped. Because she was confused and a little freaked and kind of in internal upheaval and he just...wasn’t.

He was all cold and calm and stare-y.

Blessed reality was starting to trickle in. Cold. Unflinching. It provided a harsh portrait of her slipups over the past few minutes. Over how stupid she’d let a couple of kisses make her when she knew better than to let that happen. Or, she at least knew better than to let anyone see it. She knew better than to reveal anything.

“You really want me to live with you?” She crossed her arms beneath her breasts, then thought better of it when she realized just how effectively that hoisted them up.

“Need is the better word,” he said. “I will not risk this appearing to be anything but real.” He put his elbow on the armrest of the car and put his hand on his forehead. The first sign of him truly not being all that okay.

They were silent for the rest of the ride to the house. And while they climbed the mountain, anger built inside her. Blessed anger that helped her armor feel fortified.

The limo wound its way up the mountain that would carry them to Ajax’s home. She realized she hadn’t been there. He came over to the family’s estate for parties in Rhodes, and he visited her family’s penthouse in New York, but she’d never visited him here, not after he’d got a home.

She’d never seen where he’d lived as a teenager working on the estate, either, but she’d been a child then so it wasn’t all that surprising.

Double gates came into view, then they parted as the limo approached. And beyond them was a sleek, modern home with windows that opened it all up to views that surrounded it. Mountains behind, the ocean, glimmering bright in front. Bright pink flowers climbed the walls, the only nod to a traditional Greek villa.