Chapter 47Maya.Maya was only vaguely aware of the things going on around her. After that first pass into oblivion, she registered being carried into a car. She heardAlex’s worried voice as he murmured to her, but she closed herself off from him, folding inward.When she next awoke, she knew she was in a bed. As she looked around the room, recognition sparked, and with it, a surge of fresh agony, hot and raw, seared through her body and robbed her of breath.He wouldn’t do this. Surely even he could not be so cruel as to bring her back to the place they’d shared and the place he’d brutally shoved her from.She reached for the tears, expecting them to come, but curiously all she felt was an odd detachment, a void of nothingness coupled with the need to get out of this place.When she sat up, her gaze flickered to a chair by the window occupied by Alex’s sleeping form. He was slouched against the arm, his clothingrumpled and the stubble of over a day’s beard shadowing his jaw.She wa
Chapter 48AlexAlex woke with a monster catch in his neck and shifted in the too small chair to alleviate his discomfort. He had wanted to spend the night with Maya tucked into his arms, but she had resisted his touch at every turn, becoming sodistraught that he’d had no choice but to retreat.He had taken the doctor’s advice and phoned a therapist as soon as he had returned to the apartment with Maya. The therapist was due to arrive this morning to speak with her. Alex just hoped she would be able to.His gaze moved to the bed, and when he saw it empty, he shot to his feet. He started to bolt from the room, but a glimmer of something on the nightstand caught his eye. When he saw her engagement ring lying there, dread tightenedhis chest. He ran from the room in search of her. As he went from room to room, his panic grew. She wasn’t anywhere to be found.Even as he hurled himself into the elevator, he dug out his cellular phone. As soon as the doors opened in the lobby, he ran out a
Chapter 49Maya. Maya shivered as she eased down onto the cold stone bench and clutched her arms around her trembling body. She glanced down at her feet but couldn’t summon any rebuke for having gone out in the chill without shoes or a coat. The only thought she’d had was to get away as quickly as possible. She couldn’t face Alex now.Now she knew why she’d been drawn to this place. Her thinking spot, indeed.Just hours before that last night, she’d sat here, afraid of how Alex would react to her pregnancy. She’d been right to be afraid. He didn’t trust her. Hebdidn’t love her. And he had left her to her fate with the kidnappers.She refused to allow the memories to roll back in her mind. They simply hurt too much. At least now she realized why she’d chosen to forget. All those weeks of living in fear as her kidnappers waited for their demands to be met had palednext to the betrayal Alex had handed her when he had refused.How could anyone be so cold? Wouldn’t he have been willing t
Chapter 50 Alex Alex strode into the Imperial Park Hotel, waving off members of the staff as they hastened to greet him. The elevator was being held open for him, and he got in and rode it to the top floor. A few moments later, he walked into the luxury suite usually reserved for VIP guests. His brother met him in the sitting area, and Alex scowled furiously at him. “Why didn’t you bring her back to the apartment?” he demanded. “She became hysterical at the mere mention of it” Theron said. “She was set to run as far and as fast as she could. I had to promise I wouldn’t take her back to the penthouse.” Alex swore and closed his eyes. He brought his hand to his face and pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers in a weary gesture. “She’s about to break,” Theron said quietly. “Bring your therapist here to talk to her. Maybe she can help.” Alex looked sharply at his younger brother. “You seem concerned about her.” “She carries my nephew.” His lips pressed together in a gr
Alex paced the confines of his New York office as he waited for Roslyn to arrive. He didn’t want to be here. He wanted to be with Maya . Theron had stayed with her, and Alex simmered with impatience. Her condition hadn’t changed. Even when she’d awakened, she’d been distant, unfocused,there but not there. It was as if she’d gone to a place where he couldn’t hurt her anymore.He closed his eyes and tried to focus on the task at hand. When he heardZuri enter, he stiffened. It was all he could do not to rage at her, not to breakbher skinny neck. It took everything he had to smile and act as though nothing was wrong, as though he didn’t loathe the very ground she walked on.“You wanted to see me?” Zuri said breathlessly.“I did,” Alex murmured. He let his gaze run suggestively over her body even as his flesh crawled.Her eyes brightened, and her stance immediately became suggestive.“I’ve only just become aware of the lengths to which you went to try and get my attention,” he said with a
Maya was dimly aware that she was being carried yet again. It wasn’t Alex . She was intimately familiar with his touch. For a moment she panicked, and then she heard comforting words being spoken in Greek and then in English.“Rest easy, little sister. You are safe.”“Where are we going?” she asked weakly.“Someplace safe,” he soothed. “Alex won’t allow anything to happen to you.”She wanted to protest that Alex wouldn’t do anything for her, but she couldn’t muster the energy. At some point, she heard Alex , and she cursedthe fact that she immediately felt safer and that some of the panic abated.She felt the brush of lips against her forehead and then firm hands tucking her into bed. Fingers stroked through her hair, and warmth enveloped her.“You are safe, . I’ll never allow anyone to hurt you again.”“Don’t call me that,” she cried. “Never again.” But she held to Alex ’s promise even as her heart screamed in protest. He’d lied to her. She couldn’t believe anything he said. And yet
Maya stood in the bedroom, staring out the window with unseeing eyes.Nothing Alex did at this point should hurt her, but he still had that powerover her, much to her dismay.“Maya.”She swung around to see Alex standing in the doorway. He looked tired, his features drawn and his eyes worried. There was something else in hisexpression. Sadness and...fear?He started forward, a little hesitantly. “We need to talk.” She tensed then braced herself for what she knew would come. His repudiation of her. She turned her face away but nodded. Yes, they needed to talk and get it done with.His fingers curled around her chin, and he gently turned her to face him. “Don’t look like that, agape mou. I do not like to see you so sad.”“Please,” she begged. “Just say what it is you want to say. Don’t draw it out.”He lowered his hand to capture her wrist. His thumb brushed across her pulse,which jumped and sped up at his touch. “Come, sit down.”She let him lead her over to the bed. He eased down beside her
Over the next few days, Alex saw to her every need. He coddled her,pampered her and fussed endlessly over her. He told her often that he loved her,though he was careful to keep a respectable distance between them.It would seem he went to great pains not to pressure her in any way. He wouldn’t use the passion that sparked between them as a means to sway her, and for that she was grateful.Two days after Alex had asked her to marry him again, his brothers came to visit. Maya tried to excuse herself, thinking that they’d want to discuss business with Alex , and to be honest, she still felt awkward and shamed intheir presence even though she’d done nothing to deserve their censure.But it was her they asked to speak to, and she stared at them in bewilderment as they looked gravely at her.“We have acted unforgivably toward you, little sister,” Theron said. Piers nodded in agreement. “It is understandable if you never forgive us. We were harsh. There is no defense for our treating you