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Her lips parted in surprise. Damn it! She’d been careless. ‘What do you think? Of course, I had a stupid crush on you.’
His jaw tightened.
‘But I was just a girl.’
‘Twenty-two,’ he pointed out.
‘And inexperienced and sheltered, thanks to my parents and brother. You were unlike anyone I’d ever known. But it wasn’t real, Alex. None of that was real, and none of this is real.’
‘The sex was real,’ he responded sharply, surprising them both.
Her lips parted as she tried to think of how to respond. But Alex was there first, his voice low and determined. ‘You are my wife, and you want me just as much now as you did then. You cannot keep running from this, Theresa.’
Her eyes swept shut, the delicious sound of her name on his lips driving shards of need through her. He was right, she was running, because the alternative scared her senseless. ‘We’ve negotiated the terms of our marriage,’ she said, forcing cold resignation into her tone. ‘I have no intention of reneging on our agreement.’
‘That’s not good enough.’ She wondered at the dark undercurrent to his voice. ‘I’m not going to let you sleep with me and pretend it’s all because of a contract.’
She pulled her lower lip between her teeth, wobbling it uncertainly, eyes huge in her face.
‘In fact, I’m willing to cancel that condition of our marriage. Forget I ever suggested it.’
The colour drained from her face. Familiar feelings of rejection slashed through her. ‘You don’t want—’
‘What I want,’ he interrupted swiftly, closing all the distance between them and lifting her in one motion, so her body was pressed to his and her legs moved, of their own volition, to wrap around his waist, ‘is for you to admit you want me as a woman wants a man. Not because of the grief we shared that night, and not because of some deal we made before we were married. I want you to listen to your body and accept the desire flowing through you.’
But how could she? Tessa had been so badly burned by Alex that night, and then Jonathan had only compounded her hurt. How could she surrender to this?
Deep down, she knew that he was right, but that didn’t mean there was no danger here.
She wanted him, with all her soul, and not because of Stavros, not because of their marriage contract, but because her body yearned for him on an almost mythical level, only to confess that to Alex would make her far too vulnerable to the kind of pain she was determined to avoid.
‘It’s never going to happen,’ she denied, her voice wobbly now, her words husky.
He stared at her, long and hard, and she tilted her face, lips parted, aching for him to kiss her, even when a part of her felt as though she was breaking apart.
‘Never is a very long time, agape,’ he said with a lift of his shoulders, dropping his hand so hers fell away likewise. Her body felt flushed by ice water. ‘If you change your mind, you know where to find me.’
