Secrets of Cinderella's Awakening by Sharon Kendrick

Author:Sharon Kendrick
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2021-04-12T13:44:52+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

‘MY FATHER WAS a shipbuilder,’ Leon began, pushing the sheet away from his bare torso. ‘And one of the wealthiest men in Greece.’

His words faded away and for a moment Marnie thought he’d forgotten she was there. ‘That explains how you got so rich, I guess,’ she prompted.

‘Actually, it doesn’t.’ His words became coated with acid. ‘I took nothing from him.’

‘Isn’t that unusual?’ she questioned slowly. ‘For a man not to help his kids out financially?’

‘I believe so. Though he certainly didn’t have any problem showering wealth on my two older stepbrothers from his first marriage. But by the time I was a teenager, we were estranged.’

There was a space in the conversation which demanded to be filled. ‘Why was that?’

He shrugged. ‘It’s a long story.’

‘Most stories are.’

He was staring at her, but it was as though he were looking right through her, and suddenly Marnie found herself wishing they were making love again or that she’d let him fix her that drink after all. Something which might have distracted him long enough to change his mind about telling her this. Because wasn’t that the trouble when you found out more about someone—that you might not necessarily like what you heard? That once you had started exchanging confidences it changed the nature of a relationship and meant you might never be able to return to an earlier, easier place? Wasn’t there the fear that he might expect her to tell him stuff about herself?

And she could never risk that happening.

She swallowed down the lump in her throat, knowing it would be better to halt the conversation right now. Make an excuse to leave their sex-rumpled bed to get them a drink or something and hope that he’d forgotten about it by the time she returned.

But it was too late for any U-turn. She could feel the rough brush of his thigh against hers as he changed position on the bed and turned to face her, his handsome features hard as granite, with an expression she’d never seen there before. ‘My mother died when I was sixteen,’ he began.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said, but she spoke with almost exaggerated care, because life with mothers was not her favourite topic. ‘What happened?’

‘She had cancer for a long time.’ He paused. ‘A fact made worse by the fact she didn’t tell me how bad it was. She pretended there was nothing wrong right up until the end and by the time I found out...’

She saw and heard the pain as his words faded out and wished she could take it away. ‘I think terminal illness was handled very differently when we were growing up,’ she said, with some degree of calm. ‘They tried to protect children from the truth without recognising the damage they were doing in the process. Didn’t your father say anything to you, or did he collude with her?’

He shook his head. ‘It wasn’t a case of collusion. They barely spoke. He was never around and I don’t think he

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