Kristo
I slipped my arm around her waist and guided her up the steps of the company jet, glancing around to make sure no one was watching or following us. If some of the tabloids caught wind of what was going on, they would get to break the news to my family before I did, and that would defeat the point of this whole scheme. She smiled at me gratefully as I opened the door for her, and the two of us stepped inside the jet together.
“I’ve never been in a private plane before,” she confessed as she looked around, eyes wide while she took everything in.
“Well, get used to it.” I cocked an eyebrow at her. “You’re going to be seeing a lot of it these the next few months.”
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” she murmured, mostly to herself. She looked down at the ring on her finger once more, the one that matched mine, and then back at me, a playful smile on her face.
“You know, you’ll need to get me something a little more impressive if you really want to sell this,” she remarked. I grinned.
“You don’t think you’ve gotten enough money out of me already?” I shot back, and she held her hands up.
“I thought you said I should name my price,” she reminded me, as she settled down into one of the luxurious leather seats next to the window.
“I have my limits,” I replied, sitting down opposite her, and I found myself eyeing her as we began to head down the runway to get back to Connecticut. I couldn’t believe she lived so close to me. What were the chances? It would make all this a heck of a lot easier to organize, that was for sure.
She closed her eyes as we angled up and into the air, leaving me alone with my thoughts once more. This was reckless, even for me, a stupid idea by any measure of that statement. I would set up a contract when I got home, as discreetly as I could, something quick and easy that lasted around a year, after which, the two of us could part company, and my nonna would just have to deal with me being a divorced man. I was pretty sure she was going to be mad she hadn’t been invited to the wedding, but if I could lean into the romance angle, she would accept it. I would just have to avoid the detail that the reason she hadn’t been there was that neither of us could remember actually marrying each other. When I’d checked at the nearest casino, I’d found a wedding certificate between the two of us confirming we had, indeed, decided to wed that night. I still couldn’t imagine what in the fuck had been going through my damn mind, but I was making the best of it now.
That amount of money, though. She had been so specific when I’d asked her, so dead-certain on the price she wanted me to pay to keep her around for the next year. I knew there would be a story behind that amount, but I had no idea what it was. I watched her as she slept and tried to figure her out. Maybe she was a gambler? Maybe she wanted to buy a home or something? Maybe she was paying off debt? I had no idea, but I would have plenty of time to figure out precisely what she had going on in her life. She was going to be my wife, for fuck’s sake. Well, she already was, but soon she’d be stepping up to actually play the part, and that meant spending a lot of time together. I was interested in finding out her backstory, what led her to accepting an offer as batshit crazy as the one I’d posed to her.
When I looked back at her, her eyes were open again, but she hadn’t said a word. I hoped to Christ she wasn’t having second thoughts about this idea. We hadn’t signed any contracts yet, and even if we had, if she didn’t want to play along, there wasn’t much I could do about that except whip the money out from underneath her. I was already committed to the idea, to the knowledge that it would please my grandmother and satisfy my father and probably give the stockholders a little more faith in me too. If I could convince her to stick this out, it would pay off in ways I was already mentally reaping the rewards to. I couldn’t handle it if she decided to back out now.
“You all right?” I asked, and she glanced up at me as though I’d dragged her back from somewhere else entirely. She managed a tight smile, but I could see the tension written all over her face.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she replied. “Just tired. And a little hungover still.”
“I can get them to bring us something to eat.” I looked around for one of the stewards, but she shook her head.
“No, I’m fine.” She waved her hand. “I just need a little time, that’s all. This has been … this has all been a lot.”
“You’re not having second thoughts?”
“No,” she replied, but she didn’t sound certain. “I just want to get home and see my sister, that’s all.”
“Oh, you live with your sister?” I tried to make conversation, grabbing on what I could. She nodded.
“I have for years,” she replied, turning her gaze out the window. I couldn’t read the expression on her face, didn’t know her well enough yet. It was unnerving. Usually, I was good at getting a read on people no matter how long I’d known them, but there was something impenetrable about her that threw me off no matter how hard I tried.
“And you’ve lived in Connecticut the whole time?” I pressed. I felt as though I was interviewing someone for a job, which in a way, I supposed I was.
“Yeah, that’s right,” she replied. It was more than tiredness plaguing her at that moment. It looked like something else entirely, like she was literally struggling to keep her body upright. A deep-seated exhaustion came off her in waves. I paused for a moment, waiting for her to ask me something, but she stayed quiet, returning her gaze to the window as we broke cloud cover and the sunlight beamed through the glass. Well, that would just give me some time to think. My mind was already thrumming at the thought of everything this marriage could do for me.
KristoHow long had my family been getting on me to get married? Longer than I could remember. And things had taken a major uptick as soon as I had stepped up to take over the business. They thought it would look better to our investors and everyone involved with us if I could project this image of a settled-down family man, someone who could prove he was consistent and reliable and trustworthy. It had gotten to the point now that every time I flew over to Greece to see my grandparents, my grandmother would have zeroed in on some other helpless young girl she was sure would make a perfect wife for me. The woman would be dragged along to some family gathering while pretty much every one of my relatives spent the entire evening trying to push us together, and I would have to politely explain at the end of the night that I wasn’t looking for a relationship like that. And it would play out over and over again as though they were just waiting to find the right woman and thought that as soo
AmayaAs the car pulled into the spot outside my condo, I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. What the hell was this guy going to make of my tiny little place?Jolene was staying at the home, had been for the couple of days I was out of town, so at least I wouldn’t have to explain her presence there to him, which was a relief. Still, this guy had more money than anyone I’d ever met before in my life. He was going to think I lived in a hovel compared to whatever palace he stayed in.He hadn’t even blinked when I’d named my price for going through with this. It was enough to pay off all my debt as well as comfortably cover a full year’s worth of bills and living expenses for me and Jolene. It would give me the chance to get ahead, to climb out from beneath the pile of debt that had been near-crushing me the last six months or so. The thought of my future opening up like that in front of me was dazzling in a way I couldn’t put into words, as though the sky had spread wide before me to show
Amaya“Toby!” I headed over to his cage, and he came scuttling up to the bars. It was clear he had missed me. One of my neighbors had agreed to come in and feed him, but Toby was a social little ferret, and he always liked attention where he could get it. I’d be leaving this place for a year, and there was no way in hell I could leave him behind. I was going to bring him with me, and Kristo was just going to have to deal with it.I gathered all my stuff up and scooped up Toby’s cage as well, heading back through to meet Kristo in the living room. He hadn’t moved, as though he had no idea how to interact with a place like this.“Who have you got there?” He nodded to the cage, and I giggled as Toby sat up on his hind legs and glared at Kristo. He was often possessive and liked to make it known he was the most important man in my life. Kristo leaned down to look him in the eye, and the two of them looked so funny staring each other down like that, I found myself dissolving into a mess of
KristoI woke up on the couch, feeling almost as bad as I had when I’d come to the night before. Fuck, how long had it been since I’d slept the night anywhere but a bed? As I peeled myself upright, rubbing my eyes and stretching out my crunched-up muscles, I remembered why. Because couches weren’t built for sleeping, and I was too old to pretend I could still pull this off.By the time we’d arrived at my place the night before, it had been so late that both of us had wanted nothing more than to just get some sleep.“We should get to bed.” I’d yawned as soon as we’d taken her stuff out of the car and dumped it in the living room. She was swaying slightly on her feet, clearly so exhausted, she could hardly think.“Do you mind …” She fell silent for a moment, clearly trying to think of the best way to phrase whatever was about to come out of her mouth.“Mind what?” I prompted her. I was too tired to play games, to mess around and tease it out of her.“Could I sleep in the bed by myself?”
Kristo“Coffee,” she croaked, leaning up against the island in the middle of the kitchen. “I need coffee.”“Coming up,” I replied, stretching out a kink in my neck that the couch had given me. I added a little sugar to sweeten it for her, stirring quickly. I took mine black, but then I had been drinking it for years and preferred it that way now. I picked up the long handle of the briki and carefully poured her a small cup, handing it over.“Careful. Just sip on it,” I warned her. “It’s probably different than what you’re used to. More bitter.”“The stronger, the better,” she said, and she took a sip. She sighed with pleasure as the flavor hit her tongue. “Mmm, that’s good.”She gestured to the briki as I poured myself a cup and took a sip.“What’s that thing? I’ve never seen one before.”“It’s a briki,” I replied. “I got used to making coffee with them when I was visiting my family in Greece, so I brought one over here to use.”“You’re Greek?” She cocked her head to me.I nodded. “Yu
AmayaI sipped on the coffee and waited for my husband to come out of the shower. I couldn’t help but think of him in there all alone and wonder what would have happened if I’d slipped in there to join him. It was a tempting thought, but I was still a little nervous about thinking of us together that way. He was so hot, so cut, and I felt like I’d been squidged into my clothes in comparison. Maybe that’s why he’d picked me to stick this out, because he thought he could see me as a wife compared to the, no doubt, supermodels he likely dated before me.Wife. Husband. There were those words again. I knew they were accurate, nothing more than accurate descriptors of what the two of us shared, but they didn’t sound right in my brain. I had lain awake the night before in that enormous bed in that big, empty white room and wondered about the two of us together. Husband and wife, wife and husband. A married couple. I was living in my husband’s apartment, waiting for him to come out of the sho
Amaya“My sister used to live there with me,” I began, burbling so fast, I didn’t have time to think about how I barely knew this man I was spilling my secrets to. “She has a lot of issues. Physical ones. I was caring for her for a long time, but then I finished up grad school, and I needed a job. I couldn’t be there for her as much as I wanted, so I found this place for her, a facility where they can look after her, but it’s so expensive.”“What about your parents?” He frowned. “Can’t they help you out with her?”“My parents …” I trailed off. I never wanted to have to say what I knew I needed to. I didn’t want to tell him the truth, but I knew I had to if I was going to convince him I was serious about this and that I needed his help. I guessed he would have to hear the truth about me and everything I’d been scrambling so hard to keep under wraps all this time.“My parents died a long time ago in an accident,” I continued quickly, bluntly, hoping if I just got these words out sooner
KristoWhen she’d told me the truth about her sister and her parents, I couldn’t help feeling a deep pang down in my soul. I wasn’t sure what it was at first. Maybe it was sadness, sympathy, something deep and dark and gloomy stirred up by her story. Maybe it was the fact that I didn’t even think to doubt or second-guess her. As she spoke, I knew the story was true, that she would never try to deceive or lie to me. She didn’t look me in the eye, but all I wanted to do was pull her into my arms, to console her and let her know that no matter how bad and how difficult things got, I would be here. At least for this year.I promised her the contract and gave her some privacy, but my mind was racing as I stepped out of the room. What if I was being taken for a ride? I barely knew this woman. For all I knew, she could be trying to con me out of a huge pile of cash. Maybe that story was well-rehearsed and completely fake. But then I thought back to the way the tears had shone in her eyes as