the billionaires virgin

chapter three

Her kohi-rimmed eyes opened wide, and in their familiar dark depths he saw shock and disbelief and a crashing wave of panic.and then the shutters came down, and she turned her gaze away concentrating once more on the marble flagstones as her steps , faster now, edged her sideways , as far away from him as she could get, even as they passed . her robe fluttered in the breeze of her own making , a scent that took him back to a different time and a different worl----a scent that tugged at him like a silken thread.

He stopped and turned,resenting himself for doing so but at the same time unable to prevent himself from watching her flight, bristling that she could so easily brush past him, angry that once again she could so easily dismiss him.

So many years,and she'd found not one word to say to him. Didn't she owe him at least that?
Damn it to hell if she didn't owe him one hell of a lot more!

'Athena!' The name reverberated as hard as the stone of the cloister,no request but a demand, yet still she didn't stop, didn't turn. He didn't know what he'd say if she did. He didn't even know why he'd felt compelled to put voice to a name he'd refused to say even to himself these last ten years or more. He has no doubt she heard him, though. Her quickening foot steps were even faster now, her hands gathering her voluminous gown a above her feet to prevent her from tripping on its length as she fled.

'Athena!' He called again, louder this time, his voice booming in the stone passage way, although she was already disappearing around the corner, her robes fluttering in her wake.

Damn her!

So maybe he was no more interesting in small talk than she was, but there was once a time when his voice would have stooped her in her tracks----a time when she could no more have walked away from him than stopped an breathing.

Fool!