While she no longer believed he loved her, the joining of their bodies was still making love because of her feelings for him. And she did believe he felt affection for her.
It wasn’t all the amazing sexual compatibility they’d shared since the first time they touched.
“You do it for me,” she said cheekily but with a heated look she knew he wouldn’t misinterpret.
“Tease me at your own peril,” he warned.
But she wasn’t worried. Polly reached down to tug at her dress, as if she was going to pull it off.
He leaped. Like literally leaped and took hold of her wrists. “No. That’s mine.”
“What is yours?” she taunted.
“Undressing you.”
“I undress myself all the time.”
“Not when I’m there to do it for you.”
And that was true. Even when sex wasn’t in the offing, her husband considered it his privilege to take her clothes off if he was around to do it. Whether it was to get ready for bed or to change for dinner didn’t matter. He got a big charge out of it.
This time though, sex was definitely in the offing. It spiced the air around them, making it heavy with the mutual desire that had not dimmed in five years of marriage.
His sex rigid with need, he crossed the carpet to their bed. When he reached Polly, her husband tugged her to her feet and turned her around so he could slide the zip down on her dress, revealing curves that were exaggerated by pregnancy. He took his time peeling her dress down her arms and sliding it ever so slowly down her body.
“Now, who is teasing, Alexandros?” she asked, her tone breathy with desire.
“Your husband.”
“You are that.” She’d never denied it, for good or ill.
“And I always will be,” he said with more force than finesse before cupping her breasts. “No one else will ever touch you like this.”
“You’re feeling possessive.”
“Because you are mine.”
“And you are mine,” she reminded him. “We have matching wedding bands.”
His hot mouth landed against the side of her throat, sending her thoughts splintering. Alexandros knew all her hot spots and seemed intent on visiting each one.
Somehow, she found herself naked on the bed, his head between her legs, his mouth driving her pleasure higher and higher. Two fingers pressed inside of her, rubbing against that inner bundle of nerves that made her scream with need.
She wanted him inside her. “Alexandros! Now!”
But instead of moving up her body, he suckled at her clitoris, and she came with a long scream she couldn’t have held back with the best will in the world. He nursed her through aftershocks of pleasure until she was nearly sobbing with the pleasure that was not abating.
Only then did he shift up her body and press his hardness into the wet, slick, swollen opening of her body.
He pressed inside her, stretching her, filling her, giving her more and more pleasure. His initial thrusts were long and slow, and she could feel a second climax build impossibly fast.
This time when she came, he was with her, his own hoarse shout blending with her cries.
Afterward, he pulled her close, his body wrapped around hers completely.
She rubbed her head against his chest and kissed his hard muscle. “This is nice.”
“Better than nice.”
“Mind blowing.”
“Better.”
She yawned. “Mmm. I shouldn’t be tired. I slept in this morning.”
“But you are pregnant. You need your rest.”
“If you say so.”
“I do.”
She didn’t know how long he cuddled her, but she was dozing when he slid from the bed. “I need to shower and get back to Athens.”
“Work waits for no man,” she mumbled.
He laughed. “Perhaps not, but it waited this afternoon for my woman.”
She smiled at him, reveling in the truth of that statement.
Polly fell asleep to the sound of him showering in the en suite, waking hours later to discover he’d given strict instructions for her not to be disturbed. Beryl had fielded calls, and Dora had agreed to remain overseeing Helena until Hero showed up. All organized by Polly’s billionaire tycoon before he flew back to Athens.
Polly barely had time to make it to share dinner with their daughter, unsurprised when she got the message from the housekeeper that Alexandros had been held up in Athens and wouldn’t be joining them. Helena asked, but wasn’t upset when told her papa would see her to tuck her in later.
And he made it back in time to do so, so neither was Polly.
The next morning, Polly stopped in stunned silence when she realized her husband was sitting at the breakfast table with Beryl and Helena.
“I stayed to go to your obstetrician appointment with you.” He sounded like he expected a medal for that.
“You said you didn’t have time.”
“When did I say that?”
“When I was pregnant with Helena.”
“Things were different then.”
“The takeover thing?” she asked.
He nodded, color scoring the masculine angles of his face. He didn’t like thinking about that time any more than she did, if for very different reasons.
“Should I point out that I’m six months pregnant?”
“Things change.”
Or he realized his brother would have been attending these appointments with Corrina from the beginning. Once again, he was competing in the husband stakes.
But since she’d always craved having him by her side for the doctor appointments, she simply said, “Okay.”
He gave her a look she couldn’t read, not that she tried very hard to do so. She was too busy getting her own suddenly chaotic thoughts into some kind of order.
She and Beryl went over her schedule for the day, and Polly realized Alexandros had meant business when he said he thought she was doing too much. He’d given Beryl instructions already to cancel things or go in Polly’s place.
Polly didn’t argue because, honestly? She was so tired today, she’d found it hard to get out of bed.
That wasn’t unusual with this pregnancy, but she fought on, trying for normal.
Her OB’s eyes widened and then narrowed when she realized that Polly’s husband was with her.