Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 68810 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68810 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
She had used to refuse him, but now she didn’t, thinking that maybe, maybe spending time with another guy – especially someone who was Kyr’s opposite – would finally work at opening her eyes to the truth.
Albeit fraught with sexual tension, the time she spent with Adrian remained technically platonic. The most he was able to do was occasionally put an arm around her shoulders, and only when he caught her off guard.
All of this was but a rebellious phase for Pollyanna, years too late because she had never had a chance to experiment or explore. However, the world didn’t see it quite that way. In her naiveté, Pollyanna didn’t realize at all that even her tamest and most cautious flirtations were already quietly making waves in all of Athens. If perhaps she had a close friend who moved in the same circles she and her husband did, she would have been warned. But the problem was, Pollyanna didn’t have anyone. Her life on the island had been like living in a glass bubble and although she got along well with Mairi, the wife of Kyr’s other best friend Damen Leventis, Pollyanna had never been able to confide in the older woman, finding the latter too intimidating.
And so Pollyanna continued to go out on dates with Adrian, and not once had it occured to her that people would notice or that Kyr would know. In her innocence, she had forgotten that she wasn’t just any single mother suffering from heartbreak and reeling from her husband’s betrayal. She was also Pollyanna, wife to billionaire Kyrillos Gazis, and the fact that she was playing around was a big thing in Greek society.
Chapter Eight
News had wings, as the popular proverb went, but it often came last to those who were involved. Not so for Kyrillos Gazis. He had known from the first day about Adrian Pachis’ advances towards his wife, had known when the gossip mills started to spread malicious rumors about his wife and her ardent admirer.
He knew when everyone had started laughing at him behind his back, knew everyone thought that his wife was openly cuckolding him with a younger, shallow party boy. But Kyr forced himself to let it be, knowing better than most why it was happening.
The world didn’t know he was the one who had betrayed her first, didn’t know that it was only for their children’s sake that his Pollyanna had kept her pain to herself.
All the same, Kyr knew that it was only a matter of time before their paths crossed, and this came sooner than later. Following his meeting with a Russian investor, Kyr had left the hotel and gone out for a walk, something he tended to do when he felt too unsettled.
And that was when he saw them.
It was the familiar sound of laughter that had made him stop dead in his tracks, and when Kyr had turned towards the sound, everything inside him turned cold at the sight of his wife laughing at something another man was saying.
She and the boy were having dinner with a large group of friends, but they were acting like they had a world of their own, with the way their heads were bent close together. Although they weren’t touching at all, the air of intimacy about them was unmistakable, and Kyr’s jaw clenched at the way the two looked good together.
Both of them were the same age, both of them seemingly fun-loving. The boy’s dark good looks were perfectly complemented by his wife’s strawberry blonde beauty, and even their outfits were a cute match, with the boy wearing jeans while she had on a cute flare skirt.
When Pollyanna raised her cup of coffee to her lips, that was when she saw him standing outside the cafe, and a stricken look fell over her face. He only had to look at her to know it had just occurred to his wife how bad things looked now – and from the very start. It would have made him laugh if things didn’t feel so hopeless.
You’re married to me!
And you’re here, out with another boy!
Of course it would look bad!
But her innocence, no matter how much it frustrated him, was also what had attracted Kyr to her, and he knew he would never want her to change.
So he forced himself to move first, entering the coffee and heading towards where his wife was seated, stiff and pale-faced. People started to gape and whisper when they realized who he was and what was happening, but Kyr ignored this. Bits of conversation from his wife’s table reached him, and Kyr’s jaw clenched when he realized he had no fucking idea what they were talking about. Snap chat? What the hell was that? What if he just slapped the fuck out of the boy and have everyone chatting about it? Would that make sense?