Page 19 of Modern Romance Collection March 2025 (1-4)

Avoidance wasn’t practice, so she needed to be around him. She wouldpracticeher indifference all the way to Athens. Because she did notlikehim, no matter how her body betrayed her with its attraction to him.

And maybe hedidfind her attractive, and that all wasn’t some trick or ruse. That only meant he had no standards and was likely desperate for anything after agreeing to keep from engaging in any affairs for the duration of their marriage.

Not that him agreeing meant hewouldkeep his hands to himself when it came to other women.

Probably especially if you refuse him.

She physically shook her head as if to dislodge that thought from her brain. It was not her responsibility to…to…dothatin order for him to keep his hands to himself. That was on him and his ridiculous plan.

She’d packed her bag. She’d no doubt need to go shopping once they were in Athens if she was going to be leaving his house. She didn’t mind looking a little blend-into-the-background and drab if it suited the moment. But she wasn’t going to stand next to him looking likestaff.

She was his wife.

And no amount of times she reminded herself of that could make the reality really take root. But she handed her suitcase off to his assistant when they came to collect them. She met Athan at the car that would drive them to the airport at the appointed time.

He greeted her charmingly, as if she hadn’t been avoiding him for two days, and then chatted inanely about the weather the whole way to the airport, and then more once in the air, about what was to come.

“I have arranged a few intimate dinners. Couple to couple, that sort of thing. We won’t discuss business. They’ll be friendly outings. I will go into the office this week, normal hours, so you may do whatever you like during the day. Might I suggest some…shopping.”

She scowled at him. Even though she’d been planning on it, she certainly didn’t like to betold. “It is hardly my fault I packed for ajoband ended up in aruse.”

“No, indeed. But you’ll need to shop all the same. I’ll have a calendar made up for you, including dress code and expectations so you can figure out what you need.”

She had to bite her tongue to keep from arguing. To argue with him would be childish. A knee-jerk reaction to being told what to do.

And Lynna wasneverchildish. She wasalwayscalm and cool and unbothered by other people’s nonsense and attempts to impart their will on her. Whether he wanted to or not, whether he approved or not, she would go shopping when she pleased and for what she pleased.

She assured herself of this over and over again, failing at concentrating on the book she was reading as the flight took them from Mykonos to Athens. They touched down, deplaned, then got in another vehicle.

Lynna had very purposefully avoided Athens for quite some time. Ever since she’d helped Mom clean out their home and put it on the market. When she visited her family, they usually got together near Rhys’s school in Thessaloniki or she paid for them to come see her in London when she could manage the expense.

She couldn’t help herself from watching the city pass by, feeling nostalgia for a childhood that had been sosimple. But that nostalgia started becoming dread as they didn’t turn into the city center. Instead, they seemed to be driving around and north, very near where she’d grown up. So close that her heart seemed to clutch in her chest.

Would they drive by her childhood home? Where she’d grown up and left at eighteen thinking the world was hers for the taking?

Only to have her stable, loving family’s world torn apart.

But the car did not turn down the street that would have led them there. Still, they didn’t drive much farther before the car stopped at a gate, and after a few moments, drove through onto a brick drive toward a beautiful white mansion, all classic lines and lots of green surrounding it. So that it felt as secluded as any country estate.

This was not at all what she’d expected. “This is your home?” she asked, suspiciously. “For one single man?”

“I bought it with an eye toward the future. Besides, if I really need to stay in the city overnight, I simply stay at a hotel. So why not have a comfortable home base?”

An eye toward the future.So he’d bought the house for the beautiful Regina and future children. And still, Lynna didn’t think it quite fit. They seemed like such a modern, sophisticated couple and this felt…

Like a home. Likeherchildhood home. And her parents had been Constantine’s opposites. Her father used to joke that that was what made them such good business partners. Yin and yang. And she had heard Constantine, on more than one occasion, say he envied the Carew family. For their warmth and theirstability.

Had it all been a lie? Waseverythinga lie?

“Did you love her?” Lynna heard herself ask before she thought better of it. Before she centered herself in the present instead of the past. Oh,God, she should have never vocalized that question. She should have never evenwonderedthat question.

But Athan considered this without giving some scathing response or knowing grin. “I liked her well enough. Enjoyed her company. Was looking forward to a life together, getting and building what we had both decided we wanted. But love? I don’t think I understand the concept of love.”

“What do you mean you don’t understand theconcept?”

“Human beings are selfish and destructive by nature. It’s biology. We can decide what we believe is right and wrong, and follow that, but emotions are not…decisions we make. Love is no evolutionary response. So what is it?”

He looked at her expectantly, like she was supposed to know, and know well enough to explain it.

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