‘I want more time.’
‘You’re my wife. What is there to think about?’
Millie adjusted the blanket. ‘Whether or not it can work.’
‘If you come back to this marriage expecting us to fall at the first fence, we’ll fall.’
Millie thought about what he didn’t know. ‘Things have changed, Leandro.’
‘Good. They needed to change.’ He studied her thoughtfully, his gaze sharp. ‘Did you find me scary in bed?’
‘Sorry?’ Her face burned but he refused to let her look away. ‘You said you found me scary,’ he said quietly, ‘and I’m asking you if I scared you in bed. You weren’t experienced, were you? And things grew pretty intense between us, pretty quickly. Was that part of the problem?’
Embarrassed by the images his words created, Millie looked down at the baby. ‘We shouldn’t be talking about this in front of him!’
‘He’s three months old,’ Leandro said dryly. ‘I don’t feel the need to censor my conversation just yet. Answer my question. Did I scare you?’
‘No.’ What was it about him that made her body react like this? Her nipples were hard, pressing against her lace bra as if inviting his attention. ‘You didn’t scare me.’
‘But you were shocked.’
Millie wished there was a drink nearby. Her mouth was suddenly as dry as the desert in a drought. ‘I was a bit self-conscious.’
‘Why?’
Because she hadn’t been able to throw off the feeling that he must be comparing her to the beautiful women he usually dated. ‘I don’t know—you were just very bold and confident, I suppose. You didn’t care if it was the middle of the day. And there was that time in your office—’
‘Sex isn’t restricted to the bedroom at night time.’
‘I know—but in the dark I could have been anyone.’
‘Which is why I like daylight.’ Leandro let out a long breath, his exasperation obvious. ‘This isn’t good enough for me, Millie. You’re saying that you’ll think about it, but you obviously don’t believe it’s going to last. That doesn’t work for me. I want your total commitment to making our marriage work.’ His eyes were hard and she gave a sigh.
‘All right, you told me to tell you when you were doing it and you’re doing it now,’ she croaked. ‘You’re being scary.’
He muttered something in Greek under his breath. ‘Are you sure “scary” isn’t just a word you apply to a situation that isn’t to your liking?’
‘No. It’s a word I apply to you. It’s what you are when something doesn’t meet with your approval. You’re so used to getting your own way, you don’t know how to compromise.’
Leandro looked startled. ‘I am perfectly able to compromise.’
‘What if you’re the one who wants a divorce?’
‘We weren’t talking about divorce,’ Leandro said silkily, ‘we were talking about marriage.’
Millie stared down at the baby, finding the thought of marriage to Leandro quite impossibly daunting. Marriage meant bed and bed meant he’d find out…
How would he handle it? Would he turn away with revulsion? Or would he feel sorry for her and try and pretend he didn’t care? Could men pretend? No, it was a physical thing—there would be no pretending.
‘There will be no divorce,’ he said firmly. ‘Neither will there be any more turning your back on me. Or piling up resentment in your head and not telling me why you’re glaring at me. This time, if something isn’t working for you, I want to know why.’ He was hard and uncompromising and she felt her heart lurch because she knew that he was going to be the one who stumbled this time.
And perhaps she wasn’t being fair to him, not telling him the truth about what had happened since they’d last met.
But she just couldn’t. Not yet.
He’d find out soon enough. And his reaction would decide the future of their marriage. And Costas’s future.
Millie stared down at the baby, wishing she was young enough to have someone make her decisions for her. ‘I’ll think about it today.’