The Kyriakos Virgin Bride by Tessa Radley Read Free Book Online Page A

here. I don’t want them embarrassed. Humour me. I need you to pretend everything is fine between us. Please?”
    â€œPretend? 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.”
    â€œLater?” She gave him a searing look of suspicion. “When?”
    â€œAs soon as my family are gone. Act out the charade for two hours, that’s all I ask.”
    â€œTwo 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.”
    â€œI 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.
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    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.
    â€œYour 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—
    â€œMake 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.
    â€œLater 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.
    â€œSmile,” 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.
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    â€œGood, 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.
    â€œAnnulled?” 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