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"I think you know," he said with a mock growl and then he was helping her with that pesky tie and leading her to the bubbling tub.
Rowan learned that waterproof lube made lovemaking in the bath much easier and a lot of fun. She also learned that as intense as Lysander could be, he liked to laugh, and intimacy felt even more intimate when that laughter was shared.
~ ~ ~
They ate dinner in their robes on the balcony, though there was a temporary wardrobe rack filled with clothes in Rowan's style, preferred colors and size. When he opted for a robe, rather than dressing, so did she.
Rowan enjoyed the privacy of eating the delicious moussaka and salad on the balcony with Lysander her only companion. They talked about everything from the road works projects in Athens to her desire to go parasailing.
"You've never gone? But why not?" he asked.
Rowan savored a bite of salad before answering. She loved olives and feta in her salad and Lysander's chef mixed a dressing that had just the right balance of tangy vinegar, olive oil and herbs.
"My ex strongly discouraged me from wearing a swimsuit in public," she said after swallowing all that yumminess.
One of the things she missed sometimes about the life she'd left behind was never having to prepare her own food. She was learning to cook though, and it wasn't going too badly. She'd burned a few things, and over salted others, but all-in-all, Rowan thought she was getting the hang of it. She couldn't make anything like this meal though.
Her one and only attempt at moussaka had turned out more like a soup than a casserole.
Lysander's brows drew together, a storm brewing in his dark eyes. "I know Cyrus is a fool, but why not?"
"He wasn't enamored of my body." He'd been embarrassed by her, or at least that was what his words and actions implied.
Rowan had thanked the powers that be more than once that she'd fallen in love with a phantom and not the real man. Yes, Cyrus's attitude had hurt, more in the beginning than the end of their marriage. But once Rowan had realized he'd played a part to woo her into marriage and that the real Cyrus was selfish and lacking in both empathy and compassion, she'd stopped giving his opinions much weight at all.
And that had been before she'd found out he'd been cheating on her since before they even said, "I do."
"So?" Lysander asked with the dismissiveness he always directed toward his half-brother. "Why should that stop you trying something you wanted to?"
"It's not going to now," she said with a shrug. "I'll probably even go on the cruise to Mexico I've always wanted to. I may even combine the two."
"You want to go…on a cruise?" he asked, like the idea was beyond his comprehension.
She stifled a giggle at the look of horror he couldn't quite hide. "Oh, yes. I've always wanted to."
"But Cyrus has a yacht. Surely you spent time sailing on it."
"It's not the same. Whenever we traveled it was with his friends and business associates. Cruise ships are full of strangers, interesting people I can get to know and lots of things to do." She'd found the views the only redeeming element to otherwise nearly unbearably boring trips aboard her ex-husband's yacht.
"You want to meet strangers?" This time the horror was right there for her to see and hear.
She couldn't help laughing. "You sound like you wonder if I'm using all my brain cells."
"I would never imply otherwise," he said quickly, but his expression didn't match his words.
Even as she felt a little bubble of warmth at this indication that though he could be a cranky so-and-so with other people, he was trying to be careful ofherfeelings, Rowan burst out giggling again and shook her head. "There's world class chefs providing the food, nightly entertainment, decks you can hang out on."
"But you have all of that on a yacht."
"Didn't you ever watchThe Love Boatas a kid?"
"No. What is it?"
"It was a show in the 1970s."
"You weren't even born then."
"Syndication," she replied with a roll of her eyes. "People fell in love on board and there was a cruise director who made sure everyone had fun, and a bartender who was a real chick magnet."
