‘What if we can’t make this work, Dimitrios?’
His eyes narrowed a little. ‘We will.’
It was so blithely self-assured, coming from a man who had always achieved anything he set out to, that Annie’s lips curled upwards in a small smile. ‘Marriage is difficult and Max is young—only six. Presuming you intend for our marriage to last until he’s eighteen, that’s twelve years of living together, pretending we’re something we’re not. I don’t know about you, but the strain of that feels unbearable.’
‘You’re wrong on several counts, Annabelle.” He leaned forward, the noise of his movement drawing her attention, the proximity of his body making her pulse spark to life with renewed fervour. “I intend for our marriage to be real in every way—meaning for as long as we both shall live. As for pretending we’re something we’re not, we don’t need to do that.’
Her heart had started to beat faster. Her breath was thin. “What exactly does a ‘real’ marriage mean?”
‘That we become a family. We live together. we share a bedroom, a bed, we raise our son as parents. It means you have my full support in every way.’
It was too much. Too much kindness and too much expectation. She’d thought he would be angry with her when he learned the truth, and that she could have handled. If he’d wanted to fight, she could have fought, but this was impossible to combat. The idea of sharing his bed…
‘Sharing a home is one thing, but as for the rest—
‘You object to being a family?’
He was being deliberately obtuse.
She forced herself to be brave and say what was on her mind. ‘You think I’m going to fall back into bed with you after this many years, just because we have a son together?’
His smile was mocking, his eyes teasing. ‘No, Annabelle. I think you’re going to fall back into bed with me because
you still want me as much as you did then. You don’t need to pretend sleeping with me will be a hardship.’
Her jaw dropped and she sucked in a harsh gulp of air. ‘You are so arrogant.’
His laugh was soft, his shoulders lifting in a broad shrug. ‘Yes.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘But am I wrong?’