“Only because you never considered the possibility that if you no longer loved your husband, you could fall in love with someone else.” He said the words like even voicing the thought pained him, but it was a real worry for him.
She would never have expected him to entertain such a thought. “I would not allow a relationship to develop to the point that might happen.” And she’d never fallen out of love with him, so it was a moot point anyway.
She was terminally afflicted.
“I believe you would not knowingly do so.”
“But you think it could happen?” she asked, still surprised he harbored such a worry.
“I think I will never take that risk.”
“Staying married is really important to you.” Had it always been? Polly didn’t know.
Wasn’t sure it mattered. It was true now and that was what was important.
Pain flared in his espresso gaze. “It is, and I am sorry you came to believe otherwise.”
“I’m not sure how much I believed and how much I feared. And once I got pregnant, well, I never even considered you’d end things between us.”
“That is something at least.”
“Family is important to both of us.”
“Yes, but perhaps I put too much emphasis on my family of birth and not enough on the one I was making with you.” It was a huge admission for a loyal Greek son and brother to make.
“If you want to visit your mom, you can. I should never have made that a condition of—” Polly paused, trying to think how to put it “—whatever this is between us.”
“You are very tenderhearted.”
“I just know how much it would hurt me not to talk to my mom or siblings for the next few months. And you have always adored your family. It isn’t fair of me to make you choose between me and them.” Even temporarily.
“Like they tried so very hard to do?”
He was admitting it? “I thought you’d convinced yourself your mom’s machinations were unintentional?”
“I realize now my mother was utterly convinced our marriage could not work and that ultimately I would not be happy in it, but I do believe some of the hurt she dealt you was not on purpose. Only the result of her natural arrogance.”
“Like mother like son,” Polly teased.
“No doubt. You should have met my father, but I think if he had lived you would have had a very different welcome from my family.”
“You think he would have liked me?” Petros liked her. He always had. Maybe their father would have too.
“He would have loved you and the way I became a better person with you in my life.”
“What an incredible thing to say. You believe that?”
“I know it,” Alexandros said with full sincerity. “Thousands of employees have kept their jobs over the years of our marriage because when I took over their companies, you were my conscience.”
“Really?” He thought about her at work? That in itself was a revelation.
“Absolutely. Ask Petros if you do not believe me. My policy for dealing with mergers and takeovers took a sharp turn after our marriage.”
“Why?”
“You don’t remember your lectures on the importance of the individual?”
How could she forget? She’d found his willingness to listen to her take on philosophy and human interaction as heady as their sexual combustibility. “I thought you were indulging me. I didn’t think you were listening!”