Page 51 of Thorns of Desire

“Maybe.”

“No, not maybe. No child should suffer through their parents’ breakup.”

She chuckled. “Well, I wasn’t exactly around for her breakup with my father, was I?”

“It doesn’t make your experience with the others any less unfair,” I pointed out. “It’s not on you to comfort her through her heartbreaks.”

She opened her eyes, meeting my gaze. “You mean when she broke up with you?”

I thought back to the short time that I’d dated Alexandra—if it could even be called dating. She was beautiful and had a magnetism about her, but we never truly clicked. Then the antics she pulled after I caught her littleperformanceat the opera… I had been more than happy never to see her again.

“I’m not sure what we had would’ve qualified as a relationship, let alone a breakup,amorina. I took her out twice, maybe three times before we went our separate ways. It’s hardly a love story.”

“She liked you,” she murmured. “Probably still does. I think it was the last time I saw her cry.”

“That’s regrettable, but I never led her on. I made my intentions very clear from the start. What we had was mutually beneficial—I needed someone to accompany me to events for appearances’ sake, and she was happy to don her finest threads and be wined and dined,” I said dryly. “And anyway, in case you missed it, I’m not interested in your mother.”

I wanted nothing more than to admit to Athena that I couldn’t get enough of her, that I hadn’t so much aslookedat another woman in weeks, but I didn’t think she was ready tohear it. Nonetheless, I’d make it my life’s mission to prove to her that loving someone shouldn’t—wouldn’t—hurt.

“My parents loved each other very much and they were happy,” I told her. “My father would often say my mother left no room for sorrow. That she was the brightest spot in his life. It wasn’t until she died that his life lost its spark. So you see,amorina? It’s losing someone that hurts. But love is worth it.”

She tilted her head pensively. “Then they must be an exception to the rule.”

She had much to learn, but there’d be time for that. For now, I wanted to learn more about her.

“You’re American, right?” She nodded. “Did you like growing up there?”

She sighed. “I guess. We traveled a lot when I was younger, so Europe felt more like home. Sometimes during her tours though, whenever we weren’t in the States, Mom would leave me with a nanny, then go back to the States to take care of urgent matters.”

“She didn’t take you with her?”

Athena shrugged. “I heard she had to go help someone once. A girl.”

“A girl?”

“Unless I heard it wrong,” she muttered. “It’s hard for me to understand Greek unless it’s spoken slowly.”

I tucked that piece of information away.

“So how did you end up picking up the accent?”

“Mom has the American accent, so I guess I picked it up from her.” Wariness crept over her expression before she continued. “After the whole thing with the Triads, we went back and stayed in the States permanently, although we moved along the East Coast quite a bit. Mom lasted only a few years, then she sent me to boarding school and continued touring.”

A knot formed in my chest at the image of her all alone.

“But you had other family in the States,sì?”

She stared at me with a strange expression on her face. “It was always just me and her. But I met Raven at boarding school, then a few years later, Isla, Phoenix, and Reina, so it was worth it.”

The unspoken words lingered. The loneliness was worth it.Cazzo, Alexandra was a selfish bitch to leave her daughter alone after keeping her isolated for so many years.

She could have asked Lykos to take her and he would have. He might have hated Alexandra, but he wouldn’t have faulted Athena. He was big on family.

I bent to kiss her and her lips molded to mine, her tongue eager. Kissing this woman was unlike anything else. She gave as good as she got, her hands threaded through my hair.

“Do you know you have family in Greece?” I asked when she began kissing my neck.

She arched back and blinked, slightly disoriented, before she got herself together.