Page 15 of Pregnancy Clause in Their Paper Marriage
‘But it’s important to be prepared, Christos. Deliberate.’
‘I could never accuse you of not being that.’ She smiled faintly, and he smiled back, and in that simple exchange, he felt as if something warm and wonderful were exploding in his chest. ‘We can do this, Lana,’ he told her. He reached for her hands, clasping them in his own. ‘Let’s not get bogged down in all the what-ifs. We know where we are. We like and respect each other. Neither of us is going to throw a fit or walk away. Why not just...go for it?’ And stop thinking so much, because it made him remember, and that made him nervous.
‘Even though twenty-four hours ago the prospect of having a baby had never crossed your mind?’ she asked wryly.
He couldn’t keep from smiling wolfishly back. ‘Well, it had crossed my mind. At least, thehowof it. I can be honest about that.’
For a second her hands tensed in his, and he watched her carefully, wondering how she would react. Even when she’d been talking about him needing to be faithful, they’d somehow skirted around the actual sex part. ‘Yes, about the how,’ she said, glancing down at their hands.
‘Always glad to talk about the how,’ he replied lightly, and she looked up.
‘According to my doctor, I should be ovulating next week.’
Okay, maybe notthatkind of how, but fine. He could deal with a conversation about ovulating, no problem. Christos nodded, businesslike. ‘So, we’d best get busy?’
‘I’ll arrange a hotel,’ Lana stated firmly, almost as if she’d already made the reservation. ‘I think it’s best if this—encounter—takes place on neutral territory.’
Neutral territory?‘It’s making love, not war,’ he quipped, and for a second she looked annoyed, almost angry.
‘Don’tcall it that.’
Jeez, she really had a thing about love, but then so did he, so it was fine. ‘It’s just a phrase, Lana,’ he replied mildly. ‘All I meant was you sound like you’re planning a military manoeuvre.’
‘Well,’ she said after a second’s pause, ‘when it comes to this...it feels as if I am.’ She glanced at him from under her lashes, clearly gauging his reaction, and the truth was, he wasn’t sure how to react. Was she talking about the whole ovulation thing, getting the timings right, or something bigger? Something more fundamental to who she was, what she’d experienced?
Something he couldn’t deal with.
‘Well, military manoeuvres can be fun,’ he told her with another wolfish smile, and after another second’s pause, she smiled back, but there was something almost sorrowful in the curve of her lips, the little nod she gave, and he didn’t know if she was disappointed in what had amounted to a brush-off, or relieved.
He didn’t want to know.
‘Well,’ she said after a moment, ‘I’m sure you have plenty of experience of suchmanoeuvres.’
He tamped down on the flash of irritation he felt at this. Lana had made several of those remarks recently, and he was starting to feel as though she thought he was something of a man whore, when nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, he’d had his fair share of brief liaisons—he’d made no secret of it when they’d first worked out the details of their marriage—but with every woman he’d always made his expectations clear and, in any case, since they’d been married...
Well, he wasn’t going into all that just now.
‘So, when will this military manoeuvre happen, exactly?’ he asked, and, somewhat to his bemusement, she swiped her phone to check her calendar.
‘Next week...the fourth or the fifth of June would be best.’ Lana kept her lowered gaze on her phone, and he saw her swallow. Gulp, even. ‘A week from tomorrow.’ She swallowed again, and then, stiffening her spine, put her phone down and looked up. ‘Does that suit you?’
‘I don’t think I have anything on my calendar.’ He’d make sure he didn’t. ‘Does it suityou?’ he asked, because she did seem to be taking the idea of them having sex quite seriously, and with more than a little trepidation. He thought of her guarded remarks about men over the years, how they’d taken advantage of her.
Never mind whether he’d been discreet about his alleged affairs during their marriage...had she? Had she had them at all? What did she really think—and feel—about sex?
‘Yes, it suits me,’ she stated firmly. ‘That’s when I’m ovulating, after all.’
So romantic, but, he supposed, necessary. ‘Are you nervous?’ he asked, and immediately she looked wary, tucking that strand of hair that had been brushing her cheek behind her ear in a gesture that seemed nervous, no matter how she chose to answer the question.
‘No, of course not.’Of course not?‘I mean, it’s a...development. And it is bound to change things, at least a little.’ She managed a smile, humour lighting her eyes briefly. ‘You’ve never seen me naked, for example.’
No, but he was certainly looking forward to that...along with a lot of other things. ‘And you’ve never seen me naked,’ he countered. She blushed, which he liked. ‘But that, of course, is just the beginning.’ The words seemed to hover in the air between them, along with the images they created, at least in his mind, and, he was pretty sure, in her own. Naked bodies, golden and gleaming under candlelight, twisting and writhing with pleasure...
‘Right.’ The word came out in the manner of a bullet as Lana slapped both hands on the table, bemusing him, as she started to rise. ‘I need to get back to work.’
‘Fine.’ He stood up, reaching for the suit jacket he’d slung over his chair. ‘So, have we covered your three points regarding the new status of our marriage? Any further points you wanted to cover?’
‘No,’ she said after a moment. ‘I think that’s it.’