“Marital activities,” she repeated in an astonished huff. A pink flush hit her cheeks, though. Pretty and shy and deeply aware.
Her flickering gaze was avoiding his, but he could see the latent sensations were teasing her, same as they were him. All he’d been thinking about since Illi interrupted them was that he wanted to crush Tanja close and celebrate her and be inside her.
“What do you expect?” he asked gruffly.
“I don’t know what to expect from you!” Her anger resurfaced in a frustrated pang that caused a twist in his chest. “One minute you’re so sweet with Illi and acting like a superhero, rescuing me and getting me a doctor. It makes me think I was right to be so enamored with you five years ago. Then you’re ordering me to stay married and wear high heels to gala luncheons and resume having sex.”
“I will never order you to have sex. Tell me you know that,” he growled. “It’s pretty damned insulting if you don’t.”
Her mouth quirked in concession. “I do, but you’re still expecting a lot.”
“Oh, like fatherhood?”
She stared flatly at him, refusing to engage on that one.
“Am I really expecting that much? It’s dating, Tanja. Dinner and dancing and cocktail parties. Things we should have done rather than jump into marriage. What part of that bothers you? You’ve never been shy with strangers, so don’t act like talking to people is a chore.”
“I schmoozed my father’s customers, asked them where they’d been and where they were going. That doesn’t mean I know how to talk about history or modern art.” She looked to her nails. “You didn’t find me that interesting or you would have stuck around.”
“Tanja.”
“I don’t want to be this insecure,” she blurted, fist punching the air beside her thigh again. “I don’t want to go back to thinking I’m less than you are.”
He snapped his head back. “Why did you ever? You’re not.”
“I don’t have this, Leon!” She threw her arm out to encompass the yacht. “I didn’t have anything you wanted enough to bring you back to resume our marriage. The only thing I can give you now is a divorce and I can’t even give you that! So what do I have that you want? Except...” Her wary, limpid eyes sent a sabre straight into his heart.
“Be very careful what you say next.” He flattened his hands on the table, more incensed than he’d ever thought someone could make him. “Because sex has never been a transaction for me. I will not turn it into one with my wife.”
“What would it be then?” Her shoulders rose and fell, arms flailing helplessly. “Because we’re only pretending we’re married—”
“We are married.”
“We’re going to pretend that we’re staying married and—”
“And act like any other couple who is married. Why not?”
“Because the only people I’ve ever slept with have been men I had feelings for. Men I thought had feelings for me.” She jabbed a finger at him. “And you don’t.”
CHAPTER SIX
LEON DIDN’T GET a chance to respond to that. There was a knock and Georgiou let himself in with his PR manager, Ester. Their amiable smiles died as they hit the wall of tension between her and Leon.
“Should we come back?” Ester asked, looking between them.
“No. We have to get the press release hammered out,” Leon said grimly.
Tanja sat back down, body buzzing with adrenaline. With the idea of having sex with him. Was it what she wanted? Yes. On a strictly physical basis, she absolutely did want to finish what they’d started last night.
Emotionally, she didn’t know if she could withhold enough of herself to walk away unscathed afterward. They called it “making love” for a reason. She knew herself well enough to know she would fall in love with him. She’d done what she could to dismiss and deny how badly he’d hurt her when he left, but she’d been crushed.
“Tanja?”
She was yanked out of her reverie by Leon’s voice. His expression was inscrutable.
“Do you agree?”
Ugh. She’d completely missed everything that had been said and had to beg Ester to repeat it. A few minutes later, they had settled on a statement that she and Leon had married years ago in Canada. They had separated when he returned to Greece and recently reconciled. They were on a second honeymoon, enjoying the family they had started together.
The truth of how their daughter had come into their lives wasn’t addressed. The announcement was very short on details, very tall on fairy-tale ending.
Tanja was put in a pretty wrap dress with a tropical print. Her hair was left loose and windswept while subtle makeup enhanced her features. They were photographed in casual settings around the yacht, some with Illi, some with just her and Leon.
They were standing against the rail in the bow, the sun setting behind them, when he touched her chin. She lifted her gaze, and all her turmoil got tangled up with the inscrutable emotions in his eyes.
As she read lust and remorse and something bright and fierce and possessive, her heart juddered to a stop in her chest. His thumb grazed her lips once, twice. Then he dipped his head and pressed the most tender kiss imaginable onto her mouth.
Last night’s passion flared anew, blue with confusion in its center, but twisting a coiled flame of wistful longing and sparkling with the embers of dreams she’d believed were nothing but smoke and ash.
She curled her hand around his hard, flat wrist, losing herself to the sensation of his lips traveling over hers, turning a simple kiss into an exploration. A journey from regret to reconciliation.
How could a man kiss like this and feel none of the things that were swelling within her to the point of causing a deep, anguished ache?
His hand slid down to her neck and he slowly withdrew. Could he feel the way her pulse was pounding against the heel of his palm?
“That’s beautiful,” she heard from her right. She ducked her head. She’d forgotten they were under scrutiny and was mortified by all she must have let show nakedly on her face.
“That’s enough,” Leon said with an abrupt edge in his tone, cutting short the photography session with a jerk of his head.
When Tanja would have broken away from him, his arms hardened, keeping her in his embrace an extra second while he searched her expression. She set her hand on his chest and looked to the water, trying to compose herself.
But she felt his heart racing beneath the layers of muscle and bone, calling to her to stay close. Share in the tumult.