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“Against the wall?” she said, licking her lips. “I’ve gained weight and you’re not in prime condition. That would be—”
“Ah... There’s my ever-sensible wife,” he said with another laugh. And she looked at him again with that same hungry glint in her eyes. As if she wanted to wrap herself up in his laughter. For an indulgent second, he let himself believe that she was driven by the same thing as him. “Leave the logistics to me,yineka mou. I’ve not disappointed you so far, have I?”
“No. Sex with you is...something else. Granted, I have almost zero experience and you have loads, so maybe that’s the reason. Not some unknown magic as I foolishly assumed.”
“You’ve seen my schedule, Mira. No man can have as much sex with as many partners as the tabloids make out while he runs an international conglomerate, runs million-dollar charities and participates in outrageous, death-defying stunts,” he said, using her own words. “As for between us, yes, sex becomes something I can’t define either.”
“I want it too, because you want it,” she said, with a harsh exhale. She rubbed a hand over her neck and chest in a sensual gesture that tightened his own body.Christos, seeing her aroused by just his words... It was a high unlike any he’d ever known. And he’d chased them all through the years, looking for this...this sensation of falling and yet somehow feeling grounded. “You like the danger of it. The thrill of it,” she said, studying him, but not hiding the fact that it thrilled her too.
Theos, if she continued in this vein, he was going to be putty in her hands soon.
“Watching you want me is the biggest thrill I’ve ever known,yineka mou. Watching you fight that innate composure and decorum and that starchy sensibility of yours just for me... That’s the thrill I’ve always chased.”
She walked toward the French doors, her eyes watching him the entire time. “And yet I’ve been throwing myself at you since I’ve come back.” Her tone carried more than a hint of pain and self-doubt and suddenly, he loathed himself for putting it there.
“You can’t doubt my desire for you. You shy away your gaze right now but you can see the proof,ne?” Her gaze slid to his crotch and then back up, setting him on fire. “Stop arguing and come to me, Mira.”
She shook her head, the stubbornly infuriating woman, continuing the ridiculous game he’d started. “You’ve been keeping me at a distance, in more ways than one. I want to know why.”
“We’ve both been exhausted by the end of the day, Mira. You know that.”
“Too exhausted for sex at night? Even if I swallow that, what about during the day when you’re no more than a few doors away from me? Don’t tell me the reckless playboy Aristos Carides, known for his risky escapades, doesn’t have sex during the day?”
“Mira—”
“Too exhausted for sex...look at you lying through your teeth to spare my fragile feelings. This day is full of surprises, huh?” Another snort as she rubbed her temple with her fingers. “You know I laughed when Yana showed me this article about how married couples have less sex or some such nonsense. I guess at least we can claim that we’re truly a married couple now.”
He didn’t smile this time, watching her thoughts play out across her face. He wished there was a way to turn on the subtitles to those emotions with the flick of a button. He wished he could take back the distance he had imposed between them, even though the decision itself had been a rational one.
He rubbed a hand over his head, pulling at his hair in frustration. That’s what he got when he tried to be rational and honorable—an upset wife.
Theos, Mira had opened herself up to him today. No, she’d been doing it ever since she’d returned. It was that stubborn tenacity of hers—once she set her mind to something, she didn’t back down. She’d been waving a white flag that he’d not only refused to acknowledge but actively discouraged. And instead of rewarding her as he should’ve done, he’d let his own doubts and fears ruin their truce before it began.
He’d hurt her yet again while he’d tried to figure out his own head.
The silence in the darkening room stretched, and he felt as if they were standing on the cusp of something. Would they move one step forward or two steps back again? Had he crushed the tentative hope she’d been trying to bring to their relationship?
“As tempting as the idea of providing you with a thrill is—” she pressed a hand to her abdomen “—I don’t feel so good anymore.”
“What’s wrong?”
“This whole day I thought...”
“Mira, what did you—”
“I’m hungryandI feel a headache coming on.” As if to confirm her claim, her stomach let out a loud growl right on time.
He straightened from the desk, reaching out a hand to her. “Then let’s satisfy at least someone’s appetite tonight.”
If his barb landed, his wife didn’t betray it even by the flicker of an eyelid. And that’s how Aristos knew that damned armor of hers was back. As clearly as if she’d slammed a door in his face.
Mira wiped her mouth and settled back into her seat with a groan that seemed to have sprung from the very depths of her.
Seated across from her, Aristos sighed as the satisfied sound sent a jolt of lust through his body.
“That pasta and that chef are a gift to the universe. Do you think I could bribe him with my...charms?” she said, adjusting the neckline of her dress until her cleavage was more prominent. “I mean all of this is going to waste anyway.”
Anger and something else glinted in her eyes as she held his gaze. Aristos let his own dip to her chest, let her see the full force of his desire for her. “Not funny,yineka mou.”
