“Aris…” I begin, but he stumbles forward, pushing me against the shower wall. His face finds the crook of my neck and he nuzzles into it. The only sound is the water hitting the marble. For a second I think maybe Aris has passed out standing up, but then I feel it. His body trembling against mine. His shoulders shaking up and down. He’s crying. I don’t know what to do or say, so I do the only thing I can do. I wrap my arms around his torso and I hold him tight as his silent sobs rack his body. We stay like this until the water turns cold, and then Aris lifts his head.
“Let me grab us a towel,” I tell him, turning the water off. I find a couple towels under his sink and snag them. I hand one to him and keep one for myself. Without caring that I’m in the room, he pushes his briefs down and wraps his towel around his waist. Diverting my eyes, I say, “I’m going to get these wet clothes off. Can I borrow some clothes?”
“Yeah.” He nods once and steps out. “I’ll leave them for you on the bed.”
After stripping out of my wet clothes and wringing them out in the sink, I wrap the towel around me and then walk into Aris’s room. He’s in there, still in his towel. He’s sitting on the edge of his bed with his head bowed and his face in his hands. I’ve never felt so helpless.
“Hey.” I step in front of him, and he lifts his head slightly. “I don’t know what to say,” I admit. “Do you want me to take you to the hospital? I think that’s where Kostas is…”
Aris’s eyes bulge out of their sockets and then form into thin slits. “He killed her,” he hisses. Of course he blames his father. I don’t blame him. Everything she said. She might as well have handed Ezio the gun. “No, I don’t want to go to the fucking hospital, and you shouldn’t either.” He glares at me, and his hands grip my forearms.
“It should’ve been him, not her,” he sneers. “He should be fucking dead.”
“I know,” I agree. “I hate this for you.” My cell phone rings out somewhere in the villa. “Let me go grab that. It could be Kostas.”
“Kostas?” Aris spits. “Who fucking cares?” We’re both silent for a minute and then Aris says, “You’re not thinking of still marrying him, are you?” He stands from the bed, now towering over me.
“It’s…it’s not up to me,” I tell him. He knows this. He knows I’m being forced. He was there when my fate was sealed.
“That was before!” he roars. “Everything has fucking changed.” He stalks toward me and I back up, my lower back hitting the edge of the dresser. I wince in pain. “You can’t marry him, Talia! Didn’t you hear my mother’s dying wishes? To you? To me? To Kostas?”
“I know.” I nod emphatically. He’s starting to scare me. His chest is heaving in anger, and I’m trapped between him and the dresser. My phone continues to ring, but I can’t answer it because it’s in the other room. “I know what she said,” I tell him softly, hoping to calm him. “And I want to give her what she asked. But in order to do that, I’m going to have to talk to Kostas. That might be him calling.”
Aris flinches at Kostas’s name. “He’s not going to listen. He always does what our father says. He’s going to make you marry him. And then my father will get what he wanted. You can’t marry him. You can’t.” He shakes his head. His eyes bore into mine, and he almost appears to be possessed. My hands shake at my sides. I need to figure a way to get to my phone, or get out of here. Something’s not right. Something is off.
“I understand,” I say to Aris to placate him, “I will—”
Aris cuts me off. “No, there’s nothing you can do. There’s only one way to stop Kostas. There’s only one reason he would call off this wedding.” His eyes rake down my body, stopping when they get to the knot holding my towel together. Reaching forward, he tugs on it enough to loosen it, but not enough to make it fall. “If you’re tainted…then he won’t want you, and my dad won’t get his way.”
“Then I’m as good as dead too,” I choke out, pushing at his chest. “You know that.”
Another sob makes his entire body shake. “Fuck, Talia, I’m sorry.”
Relaxing in his arms, I gently hug him. “It’s okay.”
“He doesn’t deserve you,” he murmurs, his breath hot against my ear. “He doesn’t deserve you.”
A shiver runs down my spine when his lips latch onto the side of my neck. He sucks on my flesh in a reverent way. My towel slides down, exposing my breasts.
“Aris,” I whisper. “Aris, stop.”
He pulls away enough to look me right in the eye. His are bloodshot from crying and drinking. Before I can grab the towel, his lips crash to mine in a demanding kiss. I abandon trying to keep the towel on in an effort to push him away. Turning my head, I manage to break the kiss.
“Aris,” I whimper. “Please—”
His grip finds my jaw as he guides my face back to his, attacking my lips once more and silencing me. As he kisses me, all I can think about is how bad this is. If Kostas finds out his brother was kissing me, it’s not going to end well for me.
He’ll kill me.
My thought has me frozen in fear. Distracted. Worried. Confused. Hot skin against my own has me crying out in shock.
Holy shit.
Aris is naked and he’s rubbing his erection against my stomach. This is bad. Really bad. I have to put a stop to it. My hands find his chest and I push against him to no avail. He’s strong. Really strong. Oh God.
Kostas will kill me.
He. Will. Kill. Me.
Aris’s strong hands bite into the backs of my thighs as he lifts me. I scream against his mouth as terror floods through me. His mouth consumes mine as he shoves my ass against the dresser.
No. No. No.
I claw my fingers down his chest, trying to stop him. My lips finally break from his and I scream. But that one small moment allows him to nudge the head of his cock between my spread thighs and he thrusts.
One thrust to destroy my world.
Another scream rasps from me as everything spins around me.
Numb. Darkness closes in on me and numbness takes over. Pain tears at me from the inside out while I try desperately to block it out.
He will kill me. Kostas will kill me.
Oh, God.
What have I done?
A loud, ugly sob rattles from me and my body goes limp.
I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die.
“You’re not going to die,” Aris growls, dragging me to the heinous act, making me realize I’m chanting those words.
I squeeze my eyes shut, blocking out the way he drives into me in a painful way. I try to ignore the way he kisses my neck and grips my breast.
This can’t last forever.
This. Can’t. Last. Forever.
I’m crying so hard I can’t breathe. Loud hiccups resound from me and snot runs down my lip. Everything aches, but it’s my heart that hurts.
Why did he do this?
Why?
He makes a grunting sound and then heat floods inside me. A burst of elation rushes through me. He’s done. He’s fucking done.
“You’re not going to die,” Aris says again, swiping away the snot from my lip with his thumb. “I won’t let him hurt you.”