Page 52 of Modern Romance September 2025 1-4
Katla’s blue gaze is frostier than the Arctic circle. ‘I don’t care who else lives with you. I don’t want to go.’
‘Noted.’
‘I could have family I want to spend Christmas with.’
‘Do you, in fact, have family you want to spend Christmas with?’
There’s another flare of anger in her gaze, but she doesn’t respond, which tells me everything I need to know about that.
The lift begins to slow, then stops, and the doors open.
‘You’re no better than him,’ Katla mutters as I gesture for her to step out first. She clearly means her ex-husband, and I almost smile at how close to my own thoughts is the observation.
‘Two differences,’ I say as I follow her out of the lift. ‘One, I’m not threatening you physically. And two, you actually want to come with me.’
She stops then and turns to me, her eyes glittering with anger. I stare back, daring her to challenge me, to deny me, to lie to me.
Her soft, luscious mouth firms and I can tell she’s desperate to protest. I almost want her to, so I can prove to her yet again why she’s lying both to herself and me.
‘Well?’ I raise a brow. ‘Come now, my ice queen. You can tell me. Am I wrong?’
CHAPTER SIX
Katla
Ulysses is standingin front of me in Tanaka Plaza’s foyer, his golden-eyed stare full of challenge, and I desperately want to point out to him that I’ve already said I don’t want to go—didn’t he listen?
He’s just so arrogant, soinsufferablyarrogant, that I want to punch him in the face, which isnotlike me at all. It’s John, that’s the issue. John and threat he’d whispered in my ear, just as Ulysses and his bodyguards came striding out of the Tanaka offices, about how I’d better come with him or else.
I don’t know why I felt such relief the moment I saw Ulysses or why I’d been so certain he would help me. I’d only seen his sharp golden gaze flare with anger as he took in the situation with John, and when I asked him to hold the lift he agreed.
So my furious reaction to him now is likely because he saw that I was afraid. And I hate that he saw it. I hate that he saw my vulnerability too. Also, I’m not best pleased with myself for not expecting that John might do something drastic, and for letting myself be at the mercy of my fear, like some stupid damsel in distress.
My emotions are always an issue. For my mother they were a problem she couldn’t and didn’t want to solve, and for John they were something to use and manipulate, so it’s easier if I keep them all locked away.
But, where Ulysses is concerned, they seem to escape no matter what I do, not to mention being more volatile than I expect. And right now I don’t like how he’s put me in a position where I have to give him the truth. Truth I don’t want to give up, because I don’t want him to know that, the moment he said he was taking me to Athens with him, all I felt was relief.
I was so full of anxiety when Ulysses pulled me into the lift. I had no idea what I was going to do, because John knows where I live. He has my address and I wouldn’t put it past him to come to my apartment to resume our ‘discussion’.
It’s a whisper of the same fear I had as a kid, when my mother suddenly announced that she wanted to move on—go to France, or to Spain, or to Germany, because she was bored with where she was and needed a change. I didn’t do that change well, and it happened so often that anxiety about moving soon became part of my life.
John played on that anxiety when we first met, promising me safety and security, that I could trust him with anything. Except I couldn’t trust him and, while I know leaving the country will keep me safe from him, who will keep me safe from Ulysses Zakynthos?
He promised he won’t hurt me, and I believe that, but I still don’t trust him an inch, not given the way he used my desire against me up in Mr Tanaka’s office. And I don’t want to admit to him that Idowant his protection.
It’s a terrible position to be in—I don’t want to lie yet I don’t want to tell him the truth. The worst part is that somehow he knows that. Somehow he can see the fight that’s going on inside me right now, and is daring me either to tell him the truth or to lie straight to his face.
But the truth will mean allowing him to have a piece of me, and I’m not sure I’m ready to cede that right now. However, I can’t lie either, so in the end I decide simply to say nothing at all.
I turn my back on him, heading to the doors that lead out of the building and onto the street. Yet I can feel him behind me. I realise that even staying silent has given him something and that he’s pleased about it. I can virtually feel the smugness radiating from him.
Outside, a car is waiting, a chauffeur holding the door. Ulysses indicates I’m to get in, but I baulk. ‘I don’t have my passport and I don’t have any luggage,’ I say, irritated. ‘We’ll have to go via my apartment.’
‘No,’ he says in the kind of tone that suggests arguing with him will not be tolerated. ‘The jet is slotted for departure in an hour and I can’t afford to miss the window. I have to be in Athens for Christmas or my sister will have my head.’ His eyes gleam. ‘Everything you need will be provided for, I assure you.’
It’s strange that such an arrogant, self-assured man who doesn’t seem to care about anyone else’s feelings but his own should be so concerned with his sister. It shocked me when he mentioned her, and I can’t deny it makes me feel a bit better about going with him. It humanises him, which I resent, because I don’t want him to be humanised. I’m quite happy seeing him as a monster.
I want to protest again, that I need my clothes, and definitely my passport, but arguing isn’t going to get me anywhere; I already know that. It didn’t get me anywhere in Mr Tanaka’s office when he demanded I give him my time, either. Still, I can’t let him have all the power. I can’t let him walk all over me. I let John manipulate me, I let my mother make me feel broken and I’m tired of other people taking advantage of the way I sometimes miss things.
