Sergios groaned like a man in torment. ‘Obviously because I had you and didn’t need her any longer.’
‘Oh…’ was all Bee could think to say to that. Was it really that simple for him? Instead of sex with Melita he had discovered sex with his wife and found it a perfectly adequate substitute? Seemingly it was that simple on his terms. It was a huge relief to appreciate that he had not betrayed her with Melita. Her head was swimming a little and she thought that perhaps she had had a little too much brandy.
‘You’re fantastic in bed, yineka mou.’
‘Am I?’ Bee settled big green eyes on him, wide with wonderment at that assurance.
‘I haven’t even looked at another woman since I married you,’ Sergios spelt out forcefully. ‘Nor will I in the future. That’s a promise. Will you come home with me now?’
A huge smile was tugging the last of the stress from round her ripe mouth. ‘You still haven’t explained how you knew where I was this afternoon.’
‘Your security team know not to listen to you if you try to go anywhere without them in tow. They followed you. What did Townsend want?’
‘Me apparently, but after all this time I’m really not interested. I told him that I…er…’ Bee hesitated at what she had almost revealed. ‘I told Jon that I had become quite attached to you.’
‘Attached? Is that a fact?’ Sergios prompted softly, sitting down on the bed beside her and tucking her hair back behind one small ear with a gentle hand. ‘I’m quite attached to you as well.’
‘Sexually speaking,’ Bee qualified, a glutton for accuracy.
‘Well, I have to admit that you have the most fabulous breasts and I’m ashamed to admit that they are the first thing I noticed about you the night we met,’ Sergios confessed with the beginnings of a wicked grin. ‘But you’ve contrived to build whole layers on that initial impression. You’re a great listener, marvellous company, very loyal, intelligent and affectionate. When I’m angry or stressed you make me feel calm. When I’m unkind you make me see another viewpoint. I’m not even mentioning how wonderful you are with the children because that’s not what you and I are about any more—’
Bee went from hanging on his every flattering word to cutting in with a quick question. ‘It’s…not?’
‘Of course, it’s not. We started out with a practical marriage.’
‘You told Melita that too, didn’t you?’ Bee recalled unhappily, her brow indenting with a remembered sense of humiliation.
His forefinger smoothed away the tension that had tightened her mouth. ‘I’m afraid it slipped out but I really did believe we were going to have a marriage that was like a business deal.’
‘And how do you feel now?’ she whispered.
‘Like I made the killing of a lifetime when I got you to the altar,’ Sergios declared, his eyes warmer than she had ever seen them as he studied her intently. ‘You’ve got to know how crazy I am about you. You taught me to love again. You taught me how to trust and you transformed my life.’
Bee stared at him wide-eyed. ‘You’re crazy about me?’
‘I’m hopelessly in love with you.’
Bee wrapped both arms round him as though he were a very large teddy bear and dragged him down to her. ‘I was trying to save face when I said I was attached to you.’
‘I rather hoped that that was what you were doing, agape mou.’
‘I love you too but I still don’t know why.’
‘Don’t question it too closely in case you change your mind,’ Sergios warned.
‘It’s just you weren’t the most loveable guy around when we got married.’
‘But I’m really working at it now,’ he pointed out. ‘And I won’t stop.’
Bee studied him with bemused green eyes. ‘You promise?’
‘I promise. I love you. All I want is to make you happy.’
The sincerity in his liquid dark gaze went straight to her impressionable heart and tears stung the backs of her eyes. Finally, she believed him. Their marriage was safe. Even better, he was hers in exactly the way she had dreamed. He loved her and love was, she sensed, the only chain that would hold him.
‘I should’ve known I was in trouble when I bought that wedding dress,’ Sergios confided with a rueful laugh.
‘What were you doing at a fashion show?’ As he winced she guessed the answer. ‘You were there because of Melita and yet you picked a dress for me?’ she prompted in amazement.