The Kyriakos Virgin Bride / The Billionaire's Bidding: The Kyriakos Virgin Bride

He gulped in air. God, what was he to do?

“My family will be here soon. Let’s discuss this later.” And saw instantly it had been the wrong thing to say. Her fury grew until her eyes glimmered an angry incandescent silver.

“Your family? What do I care about your family? I’ve hardly even met them! For almost a week I’ve been trying to get you to introduce me to them. Every time you put me off. Stupid me, I was flattered. Thought it meant you wanted to spend all your free time alone with me. But I was deluding myself, wasn’t I? You just didn’t want me to meet them in case someone let slip that you needed to marry a virgin.”

“It wasn’t like that,” he replied lamely.

“So what was it like? Explain to me, Zac. In little one- syllable words that even a fool like me can understand. Or are you incapable of using those one-syllable words like I love you?”

Zac blinked at the unexpected attack. “You’re not a fool—”

“Oh, please! Don’t give me that. You’ve played me like a master. Convinced me you loved me. Jeez, I can’t believe how naive I’ve been. Why would you fall for me, a—”

“Because you’re young, beautiful and—”

“And a stupid, pretty little virgin?” She gave him a tight smile. When he failed to respond, she added, “So what if I’m young and beautiful. What do appearances matter anyway? It doesn’t say anything about the person I am inside. Good. Terrible. Or didn’t you care as long as I was a pretty stupid little virgin?”

The urge to laugh in appreciation at the clever way she’d twisted her own words rose in him, but one glance at her face convinced him that she would not appreciate it. “Pandora.” He took her hand. “I wasn’t—”

The door swung open. “Zac, people are starting to arrive,” Katy said anxiously, then put her hand over her mouth as she took in their obviously confrontational stances. “I’m out of here. But, brother, you need to get to the crowd downstairs.”

“Katy, I want to introduce you to—”

But Katy was already gone.

“Don’t worry, I introduced myself to your sister all by myself. Tell me, does she also know I’m a virgin?”

Zac took a deep breath and forced himself to ignore the inflammatory remark. “My family is here. I don’t want them embarrassed. Humour me. I need you to pretend everything is fine between us. Please?”

“Pretend? You mean, like you pretended you loved me?”

Zac winced as her bitter words hit home. “My family mean a lot to me. I don’t want them to see this discord between us—not when we only exchanged vows yesterday. We can talk it all out later, I promise you.”

“Later?” She gave him a searing look of suspicion. “When?”

“As soon as my family are gone. Act out the charade for two hours, that’s all I ask.”

“Two hours?” Zac held his breath as she gave him a killing look. “Fine! I’ll pretend for two hours and then we talk.”

He let out a silent sigh of relief. “Thank you. You won’t regret it.”

“I hope not.” There was a fevered glitter in Pandora’s eyes that stirred remorse in him. Hurt sparkled in the clear depths—or were those tears? Hell, he’d never intended for her to find out.

Lunch was finally over. Pandora glared at the five-tier wedding cake, her fingers clenched around a large silver knife. Zac’s hand, large and warm, rested over hers.

“Your hands are cold,” he murmured in her ear.

Her hands? What about her heart? It thudded painfully, cold and bleak in her tight chest. Just thinking about Zac’s betrayal made her poor heart splinter into tiny, painful little pieces. Zac didn’t love her—had never loved her—had only married her because he thought her a perfect little virgin.

Perfect.

God, how she hated that word. How—

“Make a wish,” Zac whispered, his breath curling into her ear. The familiar frisson of desire ran down her spine. His hand tightened around hers and pressed down.

Please, God, let this mess sort itself out, she prayed, and the knife sank through the pristine white wedding cake.

“Later I’ll tell you what I wished for,” Zac’s voice was warm and husky against her ear.

Later? Jeez, but he was arrogant! He sounded so sincere, so loving. And there would be no later for them. Not anymore.

Pandora half wished she could go back to that blissful state of ignorance, before she’d learned the truth. Instead of this emptiness that filled her now. But what use would that be? She’d only be kidding herself. Pretend, Zac had said, and that’s exactly what she was doing.

“Smile,” his voice crept into her thoughts, and a second later a burst of silver-white light exploded in her face.

She looked wildly around at the throng, the people. Katy grinned at her from behind an oversize camera. Pandora struggled to smile back.

No, this was not her life. This public pretence. The glimpse of what her life married to Zac would be like was devastatingly sad. Nothing more than a series of hollow pretences for public show from one day to the next—if she stayed. But she didn’t have to stay trapped in a marriage to a man who wanted her only because she was a virgin.

Pretend?

Never. Zac was about to discover the extent of the error he’d made.

“Good, you are packed.”

Pandora glanced to where Zac loomed in the doorway, immaculate in a lightweight suit over a white T-shirt worn with fashionable European aplomb. “I’m leaving, Zac. The fairy tale is over.” She hefted a suitcase off the bed. “I think it would be best for all concerned if this marriage was annulled.

“Annulled?” Zac stared at her. “Annulled? This marriage can never be annulled. It’s already been consummated.”

Pandora raised her chin a notch. “Then I want a divorce. I’m not staying in a marriage with a man who doesn’t love me.”

A shadow moved across his face. “Pandora—”

She took a step toward the door…toward him. “No, I gave you the two hours of pretend you wanted. You’re not going to sweet-talk me out of this—”

“There can be no divorce.”

Stopping short of the threshold, she looked up at him. “What do you mean there can be no divorce? You’re not the man I married. That man would never have pretended to love me. I want a divorce.”

His face hardened. But instead of taking issue with her challenge, he spoke to the man behind him. “Take the bags, Aki.”

“Hey, wait a minute. Those are my bags and my—”

“You said you were going. Aki will take your bags downstairs for you.”

Was that all he was going to say? Pandora stared into his inscrutable face. Hard. Distant. A world apart from the man she’d married. Her mouth moved, but no words came out. She swallowed.

Was it over so easily?