“That last night, at the gala—”
“I’d had a crappy evening and an even crappier few days without you—“
“It didn’t look that way when I arrived,” she inserted with a humorless laugh. “My God, the women were practically giving you lap dances.”
He held his hands out in very Greek supplication, at the same time sounding anything but supplicant. “Will you just let me finish?”
“Go ahead.” She folded her arms, tilting her head to one side as she waited. “I’m dying to hear all about your babe-magnetism.”
“Snark doesn’t become you, Tinkerbelle,” he growled.
“Totally losing my identity after marrying you has brought out the worst in me, it seems. Gosh, where could that have come from?”
“You’re not losing your identity. You are my no-shit-taking Tinkerbelle, and you will remain so, and mine, as long as I have breath in my body.” The fierce possessive light blazing in his eyes momentarily robbed her of speech. Her brain scrambled until she managed to pick up the thread of their conversation.
“Put your rings back on. Be the woman I married.” He wasn’t asking, she noted. In his usual autocratic manner, he was demanding his right to be her husband again.
She slowly opened her hand, offering the rings up, making the only decision she could make—at least until she understood what his motivation was behind his driving need for a reconciliation. “No, the woman you married is gone, Nick. I want more, I want something different.”
A determined light gleamed in his eyes. “I won’t let you go.”
“I don’t want you to let me go. I’ll put them back on when we solve the issues in our marriage.”
His face clenched in sharp rejection of her words. With hard fingers, he folded her hand over the rings.
“I won’t take them back.”
“And I won’t put them back on.”
He exhaled in a harsh burst of frustration and more than a little agitation. When he looked into her eyes, she glimpsed a raw vulnerability in his that made her heart lurch.
“Whatever you do, don’t walk way from me again, Tinkerbelle.”
“I promise, I won’t walk away. Not unless you give me a very good reason to,” she replied. “We need more time to sort things out.”
He looked down at the rings for a long moment. Then he stood and tugged her to the wall opposite his desk.
Stopping in front of a large seascape painting, he pressed a secret lever behind the bottom left corner. It sprang back to reveal a hidden safe tucked behind it. He entered a combination, opened it, and pulled out a long, thin box. Letting go of her arm, he flicked the small catch to reveal a thin platinum chain. He picked it up and held out to her.
“Put the rings on here. Wear them next to your heart until you’re ready to put them on your finger, where they belong. Will you do that? For me?”
The emotive words caught her on the raw, and even with the pressure he was piling on her by placing the ball firmly back in her court, her heart soared. She managed a nod, and held her breath as he threaded the rings onto the chain, turned her around, and fastened it around her neck. When he placed a kiss on the spot where the clasp lay, she sighed, and leaned back into his warm body. He emitted a faint groan and pulled away, coming round to face her.
“Let’s go eat before my good intentions desert me, and I ravish you on my desk.”
She looked up in surprise. “You still have energy after last night?”
“Glikia mou, I may be going against my better judgment about not pressing you for an immediate answer regarding our marriage, but I have six months of celibacy to make up for. I’m only giving you a brief reprieve because of our… exertions last night. But I fully intend to resume bedroom activity come tonight. And trust me, I also foresee desk sex in our very near future. Unless you have any objections?”
Blood surged into her cheeks. “No, I have no objections.”
Arousal flared in his eyes, and his gaze dropped to devour her mouth before coming back up.
“Good,” he murmured huskily. “Now, lunch, before I change my mind.”
…
An hour later, Nick repositioned the umbrella as they lounged by the pool, fully sated from food and enjoying the shaded heat of the early afternoon sun.