Stay With Me (33 page)

With a smile, I replied, “Yeah?”

“How would you feel about eloping?”

I couldn’t help myself from laughing. When he didn’t laugh back, my smile dropped and my eyes widened in an astonished look.

“You’re serious?”

“Dead serious.”

My heart froze as I looked at him with a dumbfounded look on my face.

With a sigh, he pushed his hand through his already messy hair then dropped it. With a shake of his head, he focused back on me. His eyes looked troubled and the only thing I could think of was his family wouldn’t bless our union.

Tears filled my eyes as I looked down.

Would our lives always be like this? Always fighting to prove we belonged together.

Squaring off my shoulders, I decided our life together was worth whatever fight we had to go through and I was not giving up on another dream of mine.

Sitting up, I pulled the sheet up and covered my body. I wasn’t sure I would be ready for his answer, but I asked it anyway.

“Why do you want to elope?”

T
HE LOOK IN
Kilyn’s eyes was a mix of fear and strength. I knew she thought what I was going to say was something bad.

“The moment my family finds out I’ve asked you to marry me, two things will happen.”

She sucked in a deep long breath and braced herself. “The first will be my mother getting on me and saying it’s too soon, even though we’ve been together for almost six months.”

Lifting her brows in a quizzical manner, she asked, “And the second thing?”

“They will insist we get married in our church. If you weren’t baptized in a Catholic Church, it will become a huge affair.”

I could see her body physically relax. “They won’t disagree with the marriage?”

With a laugh, I shook my head. “Baby, look around at this hotel room my father got for us. Do you really think he doesn’t want you to be a part of our family?”

Her eyes searched around the room as she let out a chuckle. “I guess I’m letting my thoughts get ahead of me.”

Reaching for her hands, I pulled them up to my lips. “Kilyn, my family is crazy. They are big and loud and no matter how long we are married someone is going to say something about you not being Greek. That’s something we both need to come to grips with and realize that it doesn’t matter. What matters is I love you and you love me. I want to spend the rest of my life together with you. As much as I love my family . . . you’re going to be my new family.”

Her lips parted as a small smile spread over her beautiful face. “Your mother will not be happy with us eloping.”

I shrugged. “So we don’t tell them.”

When she looked away and took in a deep breath, I knew something was wrong.

“Talk to me, ladybug.”

She swallowed hard and turned back to me. Her eyes were bright and full of happiness, yet they held a sadness there too.

“When I was little, I used to tell my parents that when I got married I was going to have a wedding on the beach. My mother would sit with me for hours, it seemed like, as we went through wedding websites and I planned my wedding. I even had a book that I would print stuff out and put it in there. I was no different than any other little girl when it came to dreaming of my fairy tale wedding. I even had a checklist.”

I smiled and took her hand in mine. Shit. I can’t believe how selfish I was being. By trying to save her from a Greek overload, I was stripping her of something she wanted.

“When that night happened with Peter . . . he stripped away every dream I ever had. In my mind, I thought for sure no man would ever want to be with a girl who was tainted.”

My chest squeezed as I thought about what that fucker did to her. “Kilyn,” I whispered as she held up her finger.

“Wait, let me say all of this.”

I closed my mouth and gave her a nod.

“Until I met you, Thano, I didn’t have any of those dreams anymore. You reached deep inside of me and turned my life back on. Piece by piece I felt myself coming back. On the outside I pretended like everything was great . . . and in some ways it was. But I was missing something I longed for. Love.”

Her hands came up and cupped my face as the most breathtaking smile appeared. “Your love. You, Thano. I don’t want to run anymore. I love you and I know the road ahead of us is going to be hard at times, but I don’t want to start our life together running away and getting married.”

With a smile, I slowly nodded. “Then we won’t. Tell me what you want, ladybug.”

Her eyes seemed to have kicked up their intensity. They were filled with love but also with a confidence I’d never seen before.

“I want a beach wedding. I want Claire there and her parents. I want your parents there. I want to shop for an expensive as hell wedding dress and I want to see you standing next to a beautiful blue ocean looking handsome as hell in a black tux.”

My heart felt as if it was going to pound out of my chest. It was in that very moment I knew I was going to give her everything she asked for.

“Do you know how turned on I am right now?”

She laughed and shook her head. “Why?”

“Because I love how strong you are. You know what you want and you’re not afraid to say it. It’s sexy as fuck.”

She wiggled her eyebrows and purred, “Should I keep telling you all the things I want?”

“Yes.”

“I want you buried deep inside of me telling me how much you love me.”

Pulling the sheet away from her, she let out a small scream and giggled while I pulled her legs down and got her flat on the bed.

Crawling over her, I slowly began working my cock into her until I was buried balls deep inside of her. I hovered my lips above hers and softly said, “Done.”

Peering over to Kilyn in the passenger seat, my heart skipped a beat. Neither one of us was able to wipe the smiles off our faces. The last few days had been incredible. We only left the hotel room once and that was to go get lunch. The rest of the time we ordered room service and made love in every single room and on I swear every surface we could find.

“Have you told Claire yet?” I asked.

Kilyn turned and grinned from ear to ear as she looked at me. “No. I want to see her reaction in person.”

With a lighthearted chuckle, I nodded. “So, do you want to pick a date?”

She sucked in her lower lip and began chewing on it. “Thano . . . I need to tell you something that I probably should have told you a few months ago.”

My heart dropped. Her eyes turned serious and I swear my hands started to sweat as I wiped each one on my pant legs.

“Do I need to pull over or something?”

She chuckled. “No. Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. It’s just, with us being engaged, I feel a bit guilty for not saying anything. I don’t want you to worry about how we’ll afford to pay for the wedding.”

My head snapped over as I looked at her. I quickly looked around and pulled into a grocery store parking lot and put my truck into park.

Unbuckling, I turned to Kilyn. “There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do to make you happy. You know that right?”

She nodded.

“I’m not the least bit worried about paying for our wedding. If you wanted to have it in a French castle, I’d make it work.”

Lifting her brow, she tried not to laugh. “Mmm, that might be kind of fun.”

Taking her hand in mine, I squeezed it. “I’m serious.”

Her face softened. “I know you are and I love you for that. But that’s not what I’m trying to say. Um, well, I’m just going to tell you.”

I nodded and held my breath.

“When my parents died, they, of course, left everything to me. My father was very successful and was also very business smart. I kind of have . . . well . . . let’s just say I’m not hurting for money.”

Narrowing my eyes, I said, “Okay. Well, that’s good baby, but I’m not worried about that. I get paid pretty well, so the last thing I’m worried about it money.”

She nodded and gave me a weak smile. “Thano, my parents’ estate is valued at over 5 million dollars, or it was the last time I met with my father’s lawyer. With his investments and real estate properties, my father wanted to make sure his family was always taken care of.”

I closed my eyes and slightly shook my head before opening them again. “What?”

Chewing on her lip, she nodded. “I hope you’re not mad I didn’t say anything, but I’ve never touched the money except to pay for college, and I haven’t been to my house in about six years.”

“Your house?”

“Yeah, my parents’ house here in town. They also own a place in the Bahamas. That’s where I went a few months back when I left for a few days.”

I was so confused. “Why were you in an apartment or living at Claire’s if you had a house?”

With a shrug, she gave me a weak smile. “I haven’t been able to go back there. In all honesty, I’m afraid to go, and I really need to probably sell it. I’ll never live there.”

“Why?” I asked.

Her eyes filled with tears. “It would feel like I’ve lost them all over again if I stepped foot in there. I can’t do it.”

My heart broke as I saw the sadness in her eyes.

“What if I went with you?”

She sniffled. “You’re not upset I didn’t tell you about the money?”

I turned and opened my door, getting out of the truck. Walking around the front, I opened her door and pulled her out. Cupping her face with my hands, I looked directly into her eyes. “Kilyn, I wouldn’t care if you had a billion dollars. I love you for you. This doesn’t change anything about how I feel about you. If you told me you never wanted to touch your parents’ money I’d be perfectly fine with that. This right here—”

Pointing between our two bodies, I smiled. “This . . . this is all I care about. You and me. Us.”

Tears fell from her eyes as she slammed her body against mine. “I love you, Athanasios. I love you so much.”

“I love you too, ladybug. More than you’ll ever realize.”

She pulled back and looked into my eyes. “My parents set aside an account that was strictly for my wedding. I used that money for college but my father’s investors are good at what they do and it’s made some money.”

With a smile, I pushed a loose strand of brown hair behind her ear. “Then you plan the wedding of your dreams, baby. And if we need more money I’ve got money set aside.”