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‘Theós mou…what did I say?’ Leo exclaimed, vaulting back upright again and hauling her up into the circle of his arms.
‘I’m just so h-happy!’ Letty sobbed into his shoulder. ‘I was worried you were a sex addict rather than a player and I didn’t think you’d consider therapy—’
‘Listen to me for once. I was never a player. I never did one-night stands. I picked one woman and would be with her for a couple of months…a mistress, rather than a lover, though,’ Leo hastened to explain.
‘But why…mistresses?’ Letty demanded, struggling to get the stupid, far too emotional, tears back under control because she knew he had to think she was crazy to react like that to a declaration of love.
‘Think about it, Letty. I never knew love. When I was still pretty young my grandfather informed me that I would be expected to marry but that the men in my family always had mistresses. It was what he called “a tidy solution”. He had one. I assumed my father had one, although he assures me he didn’t. It seemed normal not to want to get involved, other than sexually, with a woman. My mother’s love is the vaguest, most distant memory. My stepmother had no time for me and I soon understood that she didn’t love my father either,’ he explained. ‘Although Panos tried to be affectionate I backed away from it because Katrina was worse if Ana or I took my father’s attention away from her. I didn’t know what love was. I didn’t know what it felt like…’
‘And what does it feel like?’ she asked her volatile husband.
‘Like living in a storm where everything’s magnified and little things assume too much importance,’ he groaned. ‘When we were on the island it wasn’t that I resented the time you spent with the kids, it was that I wanted more of you myself and it wasn’t working out that way. Only when you were gone did I appreciate how confused I was, how everything seemed different with you and I didn’t understand why until I had the space to think it through.’
‘And decided that it was love? Are you sure?’ Letty, ever the doubter, questioned.
Leo laughed with unholy amusement as he gazed down into her anxious face. ‘Nobody was more shocked than I was to appreciate that I loved you, but then you’re a pretty special woman so it’s not really that surprising. You didn’t want me for my money, except to help your family. You didn’t want me for my body.’
‘And where did you get that idea?’ Letty asked as she began unbuttoning his shirt with alacrity.
‘Yes, but it’s not only for sex, is it?’ Leo studied her. ‘Although, if it is, I’m not strong enough to say no, you can’t have me until you return my feelings…but do you think you could…eventually?’
Not impervious to the vulnerability in his stunning gaze, Letty pretended to ponder and then said, ‘Truth is… I started falling in love with you that first day in your office too. There was just something about you and, apart from the commitment phobia, I liked everything else about you a lot.’
‘You…did? You didn’t show it.’
‘Obviously I tried to hide the fact that I found you attractive when you told me you were suggesting a platonic marriage,’ Letty pointed out. ‘But somehow that inappropriate attraction just kept on getting stronger, which is why I probably succumbed on our wedding night.’
‘And then I wrecked it all again within hours.’ Leo sighed. ‘I’m sorry, sincerely sorry that I kept on flip-flopping all over the place like a stranded fish on the shore. I didn’t know what I wanted at that point, apart from you, and my brain was still fighting with this concept of sacred bonds.’
‘Are you ever likely to let me forget that phrase?’ Letty teased as he shed his jacket and his shirt and dragged her down on the bed with him, solely to hold her close, both arms wrapped tightly and possessively round her while she continued to contemplate her glittering eternity ring with satisfaction.
‘Probably not. It doesn’t feel sacred to me, but then I’m too earthy for that kind of attitude,’ Leo murmured apologetically. ‘But when you’re not there, everything feels uncomfortable and lonely and depressing. When did you see that photo of Dido and me lunching?’
‘The first week we were apart,’ she said with regret.
‘I knew something was wrong, but I didn’t want to broach it on the phone. Didn’t it cross your mind that only a man in love phones you at least three times a day?’
‘Nope… I’ve no experience of men in love,’ she reminded him. ‘Oh, Leo, I’ve been such an idiot—and so unhappy without you.’
‘Well, you’re truly stuck with me now,’ Leo proclaimed with unashamed approval. ‘And, what’s more, we’re likely to have an enormous family because we are going to want to have children of our own, aren’t we?’
‘You mean, you’re actually comfortable with that idea?’ Letty asked in wonderment.
‘The more the merrier,’ Leo assured her. ‘I really love the kids. I know I’m selfish sometimes when it comes to you, but I really like having them in our life.’
‘That’s good because it’s likely to be years before you get a baby from me. I want to finish my training first,’ Letty informed him gently.
‘Enough talking and enough warnings…’ Leo covered her mouth with his in a long drugging kiss before breaking free to add, ‘We need some mistletoe downstairs. I want to watch my father trying to manoeuvre your mother under it.’
Letty rolled her eyes. ‘It’s a friendship, Leo…nothing else.’
‘Want to make a bet?’ Leo was convinced that, whether either party appreciated it or not, their respective parents were getting attached to each other and it was no surprise to Leo that, having finally been exposed to a normal middle-aged and kind-hearted woman, his father was attracted to her after so many years living with a brittle fashion queen many years his junior, who made constant demands for luxuries the older man could rarely afford to provide.
‘No, I don’t do bets,’ Letty told him circumspectly, circling his beautiful mouth with her own, nipping at his lower lip the way he had taught her because, yes, she was a very fast learner in some departments. ‘Allow me, though, to know my own mother better than you do…and she said, “Never ever again, that’s me done,” after divorcing Robbie.’
‘You haven’t a romantic bone in your body, Letty,’ Leo groaned.
‘I’ll put up the mistletoe for our benefit,’ she promised. ‘Goodness knows, I’ve got every other Christmas extra on display.’
‘Yes, I liked the giant reindeer and the elves.’
‘You mightn’t like them when you see what they cost.’
‘I don’t care. It all looks fantastic, like a real home, and I’ve never had that before,’ he told her huskily as he began to snake down the zip on her dress by tiny increments.
‘You’re breaking my heart, Leo…and being far too cool and subtle—just rip it off!’ Letty told him cheerfully. ‘I love you enough to forgive you anything… Well, just about…not other women—’
‘I’ve got you, and I don’t need anyone else. I love you more than I ever thought I could love anyone.’
Letty stretched luxuriantly, every romantic bone in her body that she denied twanging to that announcement but, true to her determination not to get slushy, she told him he was wearing too many clothes and it was remarkable how fast he got out of them.
