Life had gotten very strange in past weeks.
“In case you have not noticed, I have learned my lesson in that regard.”
“I, yes, I’m sure. Lesson? Why are we talking about your family?” Only she knew why. She’d brought them up.
Would Polly ever learn her lesson in this regard?
Alexandros set his computer aside and shifted Polly from her comfy spot beside him to his lap. Feelings that had nothing to do with house hunting sparked through her.
“You are babbling, yineka mou. Why is that, I wonder?”
She shrugged, much more interested in the feel of his hard thighs under her bottom than their current discussion.
He laughed. “Hold that thought and answer my question.”
“What question?” she asked, her thought train derailing on a tide of lust.
He cursed. “You are too delectable, but we are not ignoring our relationship for sex this time.”
“Isn’t sex part of our relationship?” she asked as she shifted and sighed with the decadent pleasure of his nearness.
He kissed her like he couldn’t help himself, the passion between them building fast. She was working on the buttons of his shirt, wanting skin, when his hand stilled hers.
“Stop,” he ordered gutturally. “I mean it, Polly.”
She smiled at his use of her name and not the despised Anna. “I don’t want to stop.”
“We’ll make love.”
“Of course we will.” It was the one part of their marriage they got right.
She didn’t realize she’d said those words aloud until he lifted her from his lap and placed her back on the sofa. “And maybe that is part of the problem, agape mou.”
She frowned, still not always comfortable with his use of that particular endearment and more than a little unhappy about the physical distance between them he had created. She would feel rejected, but the bulge in his slacks proved he was as turned on as she was.
Only he wanted to talk.
And Polly? Really didn’t. Talking wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
But the stubborn expression on his face said Alexandros wasn’t letting this go.
Feeling vulnerable in a way she hadn’t in a very long time with him, Polly crossed her arms over her chest and settled back against the sofa, doing her very best to give the impression of a woman who could take or leave lovemaking. “I would say it’s a very good thing.”
After all, if they weren’t so good at the intimacy part of their marriage, she wasn’t entirely sure their marriage would have survived the first year. That didn’t make her feel proud, but it was a truth she could not ignore.
“It is a wonderful thing,” he assured her.
“And yet you are over there.” She indicated the other end of the sofa with a wave of her hand. “And I am here.”
“Do not pout. This is important, I think.”
“I am not pouting.” Maybe.
His smile was indulgent, but the expression in his espresso gaze was serious. “Our marriage has been broken for a very long time, and I did not realize it because I am blessed with a wife who is generous and beautifully passionate in bed.”
“What are you saying?”
“Why haven’t you asked me to look at any of the house options here in Athens?” he asked, showing he had that trick down too.