Mia climbed out of the car, pulling Adam with her. The man had the gall to smirk as their eyes met and Eve resisted the urge to throttle him.
Garrit stood stiff beside her before the main entrance, at the top of the broad stone stairs. She didn’t have to look at his face to know he was glaring. For centuries, the DeLeons had been guarding their lands against Adam, and Garrit was less than thrilled to offer him hospitality. But this wasn’t the first time Eve had met with Adam this way, negotiating with him for the safety of those he had drawn under his influence. She just hoped it would be the last.
Firmly now, she repressed all memory of Troy and her life as Helen. When, for the briefest lifetime, Adam had nearly held her sympathy. If he hadn’t remembered himself now, if he had not remembered her, she would not have been nearly so worried about Mia. Paris had been capable of kindness, even affection, misguided though it was. But Adam wasn’t Paris anymore.
Something glinted off Mia’s hand and Eve felt her throat tighten. They couldn’t have. She wouldn’t. Not even Mia could be so foolish as to run off and marry the first fool she found! But to have that man be Adam was so horrifying Eve found herself trying to will the ring from her sister’s finger.
It was unfortunate that God had not seen fit to grant her that kind of power.
Garrit’s hand tightened around hers as Adam put his arm around Mia’s shoulders and murmured something in her ear. Mia laughed and the two climbed the stairs, coming to a stop less than a meter away.
“Mum and Dad are going to be furious, Mia.”
Her sister pouted prettily. “I don’t see why you can’t be happy for me, Abby.”
Eve raised an eyebrow. “I’m supposed to be happy that you ran off and eloped behind everyone’s back? To someone you don’t even know?”
“I know him perfectly well.” Mia looked up at Adam and smiled. “Ethan, this is my sister, Abby, and her husband Garrit DeLeon.”
Adam smirked. Again. “A pleasure to meet you both.” He extended a hand to Garrit, who ignored it completely. Adam dropped his arm back to his side, and Eve felt his amusement. “Mia’s told me so much about you and your family, Abby. I feel as though I’ve known you for years.”
Garrit ground his teeth next to her, and she felt his hand spasm in her own. She imagined the other was balled into a fist by now.
She tried to keep herself calm. The entire charade was a bit much, even for her. But she didn’t want to think what Garrit would do if she left the two of them alone to drag Mia off. Or what Adam might try to do to him.
“Aren’t you a little bit old for my sister?”
“Mia told me that you and your husband are two years apart, as well. Let me reassure you that I have every intention of making your sister as blissfully happy as possible.”
She glared at him, but he only smiled and pulled Mia closer against his side. Eve turned away, closing her eyes against the memories that surged through her, when she had stood at his side as Helen in Pharaoh’s court, where they had stopped before continuing to Troy, hoping to confound her husband. For all of that, avoiding Paris’s importunities had been a relief after Menelaus. That’s all it had been, she told herself. Paris had just been kind in comparison.
“We’re so looking forward to getting to know you better.” Her voice sounded flat and dead even to her own ears, but it was the best she could do. “Won’t you stay for dinner?”
Mia latched onto her arm and led her into the house, leaving Adam and Garrit a few steps behind. “Really, Abby. Won’t you just give him a chance? Please. For me?”
Eve looked into her sister’s eyes, using the physical contact to search her mind as she did so. There was no aura there, no cloud of Adam’s influence over her thoughts and feelings for him. Either he had been very subtle, or Mia was just so ridiculous that she had fallen in love with the most indecent man who had ever lived.
“I’ll try, Mia.” She glanced back at the men. Garrit was staring at Adam with black fury, and the foyer felt much too narrow to hold the two of them. “This is all just a little bit insane. And you know Mum is going to blame me for letting it happen. It wasn’t fair of you to do this to any of us. Me, or Garrit, or his family! And poor Jean!”
Mia waved a hand dismissively. “Jean and I were never serious. He knew that. You were the one who told me not to fall in love with him. So I didn’t.” She smiled over her shoulder at her new husband. “I fell in love with Ethan instead. Isn’t he gorgeous? And look at his eyes! Have you ever seen anything like them?”
“No.” She didn’t look. She didn’t need to. Those eyes had haunted her for millennia. There was no other man on earth with eyes exactly that shade of gray. “They’re unique, to be sure.”
Eve searched her sister’s face again, hoping for any sign that she had been coerced. If only Adam had forced her, then she could act! Break his hold on her and send him away again where he couldn’t bother her and she wouldn’t have to see him, or wonder what he was doing to her sister and her family.
“Mia, please promise me you’ll be careful. Don’t let him talk you into anything you don’t want. You can’t know him as well as you think you do after only a few weeks. Are you sure this is what you want?”
Mia was still looking at Adam, her eyes alight. “I’ve never been more sure of anything. And did I tell you, he’s filthy rich! Maybe not as wealthy as your DeLeon family, but certainly well off. We’ll never have to work a day in our lives if we don’t want to. Mum and Dad are going to love him once they’ve met him and gotten to know him. And you will too. Just wait!” She squeezed Eve’s arm and then skipped back to Adam, taking his hand and pulling him away from Garrit and off down one of the hallways.
Eve didn’t miss the wink that Adam threw in her direction before he disappeared around a corner. “Mia! Dinner is in an hour. Please don’t disappear!”
There was a noise that sounded like something between an assurance and a laugh, and then Garrit was at her side. “Well?”
She looked up at his face; it was still dark with anger. “Nothing.” She sighed and shook her head. “She’s honestly in love with him. Completely of her own free will.”
He raised both eyebrows, some of the anger replaced by surprise. “And your brother?”
She glanced back down the hall where he had disappeared and frowned. “I don’t know. But I’m going to find out.”
It was storming again and Eve waited to see if that same tree would be struck. In the last month, she’d counted it hit four times. It had been unusually rainy this year, too. She considered herself lucky to have had a clear day for her wedding. But this evening, there wasn’t any lightning yet, just thunder, rumbling and booming intermittently. The windows in the library offered the best view of the storm, and the rising land, and the smell of the books always comforted her.
Eve rested her forehead against the glass of the window and closed her eyes. She had sent Garrit to bed hours ago, along with the rest of the family. He had resisted at first, but she could see how tired he was. None of them would sleep easily with Adam present, even if it was necessary. The only safe place for Mia now was under Eve’s roof, at least until she was certain that Adam wouldn’t harm her. It was the only protection she could offer her sister.
Adam had been pleasant, even charming at dinner, amused by the hostility of the DeLeons around him, and perfectly attentive to Mia. Eve had hated it.
The door opened, and she spun away from the window. Adam was framed in the light from the hall, and Eve realized belatedly that she stood in the dark.
“I trust I’m not disturbing you,” he said.
She snorted, and turned on a lamp. “I’m not sure you could disturb me any further if you tried.”
He raised an eyebrow and shut the door behind him, but he didn’t cross the room, just strolled casually toward her favorite chair, picking things up off the end tables and putting them down. “You think I’m not trying?”
“I have no doubt you have some ulterior motive for all of this. Whether it’s purely to aggravate me, or something else, I haven’t quite figured out.” She stepped back against the window, leaning against the sill. The urge to bleach everything he touched was ridiculous, but she hated having him in this room. Her room, more than any other.
He looked away, trailing his fingers over the leather of the journal that still hadn’t been put back. His suit was in disarray. The jacket open, his tie loose around his neck, part of his shirt pulled free from his pants. She
