Page 90 of Modern Romance July 2025 #4-8

She had braced for his disgust, but it surprised her how much it hurt to see it so fiercely alive and well. It surprised her how sensitive she was to his regard and how badly she wished he had softened a little with time.

Not that she let him see any of that. If her history of being a shameless liar had been good for one thing, it was the shell of indifference she had developed to protect herself.

She lifted her chin and offered a cool, collected smile. “Hello, Damian.”

“No,” he said flatly in English. Then, to his assistant, he said in Greek, “I’ll work remotely as time allows.”

“Yes, sir. The pilot is preparing for takeoff. Is this a matter for security?” He darted a wary glance at Carmel.

“No.” Damian switched back to English. “She’s leaving.”

He strode past her without another glance, heading down the hall toward the elevators.

“Damian.” Carmel hurried after him, careful to keep her heels from sliding out from under her on the polished marble. She waved the envelope at him. “I only came to give you this. Read it, sign it, then we never have to speak again.”

“I already don’t have to speak to you.” He jabbed the call button, not even looking at her. “In fact, I distinctly remember telling you I never wanted to see you again.”

“I know, but…” I want to apologize. “Please, will you take this?” She continued to hold out the paperwork. “It’s time. You know it is.”

He ignored it, exactly as he had the first set of divorce papers she’d offered.

The doors opened and he stepped inside.

She followed.

Now he looked at her. Straight down his nose. His cheek ticked as he seemed to debate whether to give her a hard shove out of the elevator. Out of his life. But that would require he touch her. He jabbed a button instead, expression dismissive, gaze aimed straight ahead.

Her stomach twisted, but she pressed on.

“Don’t you want to close this chapter?” she asked.

“No. I would rather stay married and continue to bring shame upon your family name.” He was quoting what her father had said of their marriage. “But wait.” He pinched his chin in a mock ponder. “Have I got that the right way around?”

The severe sting of a hard blush hit her cheekbones and sent a withering path of culpability down her spine.

“I won’t pretend I don’t deserve that. But isn’t that more reason to sever ties?”

“Did you just say you won’t pretend you don’t deserve that?” His tone balanced between spite and dark laughter. “That almost sounds like honesty, Carmel.”

“It’s a new thing I’m trying.” She flashed a facetious smile.

“Good luck getting people to buy it.”

The doors opened into a small waiting room with windows onto the roof where a helicopter waited. Damian strode straight out into the blistering sunshine.

Carmel didn’t have time to think. She ran after him and shoved herself into the space of the open door to the chopper, blocking him from climbing inside.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” He sounded as astonished as he was enraged.

“Getting what I came for. I want a divorce, Damian. Sign this. ” She tapped the envelope against his chest.

“I know you’re the ultimate spoiled rich girl who thinks the world bends to your will, but it does not. I do not.”

They were too close. She could feel the animosity radiating off him, but there were pheromones within it that spoke to her body in ways that couldn’t be explained. Her bones softened and her pulse tripped, and she was accosted by a sense of breathless anticipation.

“It will take five minutes,” she said in a voice growing husked by reaction.

His pupils were pinpoints in orbs of bitter dark chocolate. In her periphery, she saw his hands flex. His whole body was coiled muscle that she expected to spring at her any second.

“I don’t have five minutes. Move or I’ll move you myself,” he warned.

“And give me something to use against you?” It was beneath her to threaten him like that. She wouldn’t, but she had a lot of practice fighting dirty and some habits were hard to break. “Right now, this is a no-fault, irreconcilable differences divorce. Let’s keep it that way.”

“You haven’t changed, have you?” he said with tired spite.

It was the cruelest thing anyone could say to her. Coming from him, someone who’d seen her in ways she’d never revealed to anyone else, someone who’d made her want to change, it was even more hurtful.

“Is this how we’re playing things? With intimidation and threats?” He crowded closer, voice turning low and menacing. “Are you absolutely certain you want to test me right now?”

She set her hand in the middle of his chest. The contact sent a jolt of white-hot electricity through her.

If she hadn’t been face-to-face with him, stares already locked in challenge, she might have missed the way his pupils exploded.

The air crackled. A magnetic force tried to pull her forward.

Her gaze dropped to lips she longed to feel against her own.

Maybe she hadn’t changed, if she was longing for things that were likely to destroy her.

“Me synchoreíte,” the pilot blurted as he came around the tail of the helicopter. He started to turn away.

Damian jerked his head up, flashing her an accusatory glance.

“Come back. I’m ready.” He switched to English to say to Carmel, “I’m meeting someone important to me. I don’t want to keep her waiting. Move. ”

She tried not to flinch at the mention of “her.”

“I’m sure she would want you to be free of me.” She made a wild, split-second decision, turning to grasp the handle on the open door. She levered herself into the luxurious passenger cabin of the helicopter and took a seat.

“Do you have a death wish?” Damian asked in a growl of amazement.

“What are you going to do? Push me out while we’re in the air?” Her fingers shook as she buckled in. “That’s one way to get what I came for.”

“Don’t tempt me!”

“You seem to be in a hurry. I’m accommodating that.” She tried to overcome the tremble in her voice. “You can read through the papers while we’re in the air.”

“Since when do you have an ounce of consideration for anyone else?” he asked as he levered in to sit beside her.

“It’s another of those fashionable things I’m trying.”

He jerked his head at the pilot who was hovering uncomfortably, silently telling the man to proceed with takeoff.

“I’m not flying you back here,” Damian said. “You’ll have a long walk to the ferry slip.” He sent a pointed look at her shoes. “It departs at ten in the morning so you’ve already missed it.”

“I’ll manage.” It wouldn’t be the first time she’d found herself at loose ends in a strange place. She had credit cards. At least this time she’d be sober.

“I bet you will,” he muttered, implying she would press herself onto the nearest man.

Which was not an unfounded accusation. She’d been taught manipulation by a master. She hid her shame over that behind a stiff mask of indifference.

The pilot locked the door, then closed himself into his own cabin. The rotors began to turn, causing the sunlight to strobe around them.

“Will you please read this now?” She offered the envelope.

“No.” Damian brought his phone to his ear and told someone in Greek that he would miss their meeting. A string of business calls followed.

She took the opportunity to text Atlas’s driver not to wait for her, then informed the housekeeper that she would be away for the night. She would have to offer some excuse to Atlas, too, but he was in New York. She had time before she had to reach out to him.

As they flew south across the water, she realized they were headed to Damian’s island south of Mykonos. They had met while she’d been cruising the Cyclades with friends five years ago, but she’d stayed with him on Mykonos, never seeing his actual home.

The people she’d been with hadn’t been real friends, either. They’d left while she’d still been in bed with Damian, not that she’d minded at the time, but their lack of regard for her was indicative of the company she’d kept back then.

Growing up with her father’s fortune at her fingertips, Carmel had always had a lot of people around her.

They’d all been up for adventure and partying, especially when she covered the bill, but none had ever stood by her with true loyalty or love.

The ones who’d possessed any sense had quickly distanced themselves from her chaos while the rest were there for a good time, not a long time.

She had pruned those hangers-on from her life once she began taking stock and saw how detrimental they were to her.

These days, she had one real friend: her sister-in-law, Stella.

Their friendship was still new and, really, Stella was teaching Carmel how to be a friend.

Stella was naturally warm and thoughtful and unconditionally supportive, which were unmastered skills in Carmel’s repertoire.

Carmel aspired to be more like Stella, though.

Her sister-in-law was lovable . Watching Atlas, a certified hard-ass, turn into a gooey-centered pushover around his wife was hilarious and stupefying and envy-inducing.

No one would ever look at her that way. Not if she didn’t change.

Certainly not the man who ended his latest call and removed his jacket with impatience, tossing it to the seat across from him.

“Why now?” he asked flatly.

Oh, God. She had scripted this thousands of times. The words were there, but they were jumbled on her tongue and difficult to push past her lips.

“I…um…” She swallowed. “I’ve been making a lot of changes to my life.

I’m…” She rolled her lips inward and carefully stacked her hands on the envelope in her lap, contrite.

“I’m sober now. I’m running my mother’s company and trying to…

” She cringed inwardly, wishing this wasn’t necessary, but it was.

“I’m trying to make amends with those I’ve hurt. ”

He released a choked noise. “This is your idea of making amends? By lying your way into my office and forcing your way onto my helicopter?”

“Is this not how apologies work? I’m joking ,” she insisted when his mouth tightened.

Humor was one of her go-to defense mechanisms and one of her few good qualities, not that she always used it appropriately, but she couldn’t be expected to change everything about herself, could she?

“Look. You’re right,” she conceded. “This wasn’t the best way to approach you.

I could have had the lawyer send this, but I wanted to speak to you.

I wanted to face you and acknowledge that I behaved very badly.

I knew that marrying you would upset my father.

That wasn’t kind to you. I genuinely did believe I could help you, financially, but I deserve your anger and dislike for pulling the rug on that.

I should have been more honest about how he would react. ”

She was trying to hold his gaze so he would know she was being sincere, but he was wearing such a hard, implacable expression, it felt like she was throwing herself uselessly against a rough, brick wall.

She was collecting nothing but bruises, but she swallowed the lump in her throat and pressed on.

“He’s no longer in my life. My father.” Cutting Oliver away had been like using a rusty scalpel for self-surgery, but she felt lighter these days, having excised him.

“I also wanted to tell you…” A hot pressure rose behind her eyes. The burn in her chest spread into her throat, thinning her voice. “I wanted you to know that I didn’t actually, um, cheat on you.”

He snorted disparagingly.

“What I mean is…” She nervously licked her lips. “I didn’t have sex with that man. I kissed him. Obviously. You saw that. And I took my top off so it would look like we were having sex, but I didn’t actually sleep with him.”

She realized her hands were clenching the stiff white envelope into a cone. She smoothed it flat and dared a look at him.

“I’m very sorry.”

“I’m no longer that gullible idiot you met on Mykonos.”

“I never thought you were.”

Another snort.

“No, I mean…” She held up a hand. “Okay, I thought everyone was gullible enough to believe whatever I told them. I actually thought that it didn’t matter what the truth was.

Lying to you was never a personal attack.

I wasn’t trying to trick you . It was the way I lived.

” God, that was humiliating to admit. “This is what I’m trying to convey to you now, that I am genuinely trying to be a more truthful, sincere person.

Letting you believe I cheated on you was a lie.

I have deeply regretted it since the moment it happened.

I’m truly sorry, Damian. I promise not to lie to you again. ”

“I cannot imagine why you think I’d care one way or another what you say, how you feel, or who you sleep with,” he said with derision.

She dropped her gaze to hide how deeply that pierced her.

“Or that I could possibly bring myself to believe a word coming out of that deceitful mouth of yours. Here’s what I know is true, Carmel.

I’ve seen the headlines. Your father got sick of your spendthrift, devious, disgraceful behavior and kicked you off his payroll.

God knows you couldn’t possibly work for a living so you’ve come to the Bank of Divorce for a piece of the fortune that I built without your help. ”

“No—”

“I would also bet my hard-won fortune that you have another sucker on the line, one you can’t marry because of this.

” He pointed at the envelope. “So, no, Carmel. I will not sign your papers. In fact, I will happily spend every last euro I possess on legal fees fighting that divorce. I will break both of us before I will give you anything you want. This is what you get when you poke the bear. Maybe you should have listened to me and stayed out of my sight.”