She glared at him. “You didn’t ask a question.”
He smiled, her confusion making her even lovelier. “Do not lick a man’s fingers, sucking them into your mouth and then expect rationality, Leah.”
Cristo, what was he doing with her?
He would, he could stop at a kiss, he had thought when he had come up with this game. Now, he didn’t know anymore.
“Oh...” she licked her swollen mouth, and the innocent gesture sent his blood flowing south. “I will remember that when I’m tempted to lick a man’s fingers next time.”
The molten fury that flashed in his gaze before he willed it away made Leah want to scream in joy.
He didn’t have all the power. They both had it over each other, she slowly realized.
There was something between them that denied rational explanation, that devoured self-control.
“I’ll ask the question now.”
Brows raised, he nodded. “Ask soon, or you will miss the show.”
The simply elegant Helene’s polite face had stayed with her. His friend or lover or whatever the hell she was, the woman hadn’t betrayed surprise or shock or any emotion even by the flicker of a perfectly drawn eyebrow. Had talked to Leah as if it was any other fashion designer trying to break into the industry.
His kiss still stinging her lips, her will pretty much nonexistent, falling into bed with Stavros was like a fate rushing at her like an express train. If he hadn’t stopped any of the times, if he willed it, she couldn’t resist him, she knew.
And she refused to let him make all the rules.
“How do you...how does this work with you kissing me like this and with Helene? Are you guys taking a breather while you sort me out? What happens if you decide you want to...?”
“Yes?”
Her meager grasp on her own emotions slipping bit by bit, she shivered. Damn it, she had been so happy today and she knew it was largely because it featured him. “Don’t make me say it, Stavros.”
“Say it, Leah.”
“Does she not mind if you...if you have sex with me?”
“Do you want to, Leah...have sex with me?”
Her spine tingled at just hearing that. “That’s not the point.”
“Then isn’t the question moot, too?”
Frustration pumping through her, she pushed into his space. “You promised me truth, Stavros. If something happens between us before I leave, if...will you make one set of rules for me and a different set for yourself?”
His hands climbed up over her back, cradling her against him. “You hide from your own truth every day, Leah... Can you handle mine?”
“Yes.”
“I told you that day aboard Dmitri’s yacht that I meant my wedding vows. I have never broken them. I have not touched Helene or another woman since I married you. And I won’t. Not as long as I wear your ring, as long as I’m your husband.”
Her ring, her husband...
Her grip slacking, Leah fell back, and would have hit the ground if he hadn’t caught her. The entire axis of her life shook, shifted and she could do nothing to stop it. “You’re lying, you have to be...”
His silence jarred against her nerves.
Stavros never lied. Stavros always kept his word. Stavros lived by a code of duty and honor that was everything to him.
And she...she didn’t want to lose her will to a man like that. She didn’t want to be measured against him and fall short. Because, her fear would always trump everything else about her.
“It has been five years, Stavros. No man can—”
There was no nuance in his expression. “But I’m not any man, Leah.” He didn’t proclaim it like an achievement, he didn’t dismiss it like it hadn’t cost him anything. He stated it like a foregone fact.
“My word to Giannis means something to me. My vows to you mean something to me. It’s true that I neglected you, did not treat you like a wife, but our marriage, it was a commitment I made intending to keep. So I waited. I waited for you to grow up. I waited for you to change. I thought I had to...”
“Fix me to be worthy of you?” she said, anger coming to her defense.
“No, I thought I should give us both time...” Something gripped his features and Leah knew that he knew it. “But then you didn’t need to be changed, ne?”