by Lucy Monroe
That first meeting had been electric, and she hadn’t even hesitated when he’d asked her to dine with him the following evening. She’d fallen for him hook, line and sinker. And she’d thought the tsunami of emotions had been two-sided.
Six weeks later, they were engaged and he was headed to Asia for more business talks. They saw almost nothing of each other in the three months leading up to the wedding, but she’d thought their phone calls, texts and emails had built a foundation she could rely on.
She met her mother-in-law at the wedding rehearsal.
Athena had been reserved, but not overtly hostile. She’d worn black, claiming she was still in mourning for her deceased husband. Since he had died only a little over a year previous, Polly had believed.
Since then, she’d had cause to wonder that color choice for the mother of the groom.
Their month-long honeymoon had been bliss, but then her real life as the wife of an old-money Greek billionaire began. And it had not been anything like a fairy tale.
Polly stood there, staring at the spines of the books she hadn’t had time to read and wondered where they went from here?
Alexandros clearly wanted to improve their marriage.
She didn’t know if she could trust him enough to open herself to trying.
“If you had it to do again, would you have married me?” he asked her, having come up behind her without her realizing.
He laid his hands on her shoulders, turning her around so their gazes met. His was filled with a nameless emotion. Hers, she knew, would be wary.
Because she felt wary.
She stifled a sigh. “That’s a pointless question. We did get married. We did have a daughter. We do have a son on the way.”
“I wasn’t there to learn the sex of either of my children.” It sounded like he really regretted that.
“I told you.”
“Ne. You told me. The first time with a sweet little pink cupcake that tasted like ambrosia and stopped my heart with the knowledge you were carrying my daughter.”
But for their son, she’d texted. We’re having a boy. The joy-filled phone call had gone to her mother and the special cupcake? She’d made for Helena.
Her daughter had squealed and insisted on sitting down right then to draw a picture to put on her baby brother’s nursery wall.
“I bought champagne for the entire office staff to celebrate that text,” he said, proving their thoughts were running on similar tracks.
“And a pair of sapphire earrings for me,” she said.
“No alcohol while you are pregnant.”
“They’re lovely earrings.”
“But you would have been more touched if I’d bought a stuffie.”
She shrugged. “Maybe, but I knew you wanted me to know you were happy about the baby. And that’s what matters.”
“I am happy about the baby. I adore Helena and cannot wait to welcome her little brother into the world.”
“I’ll be giving birth soon enough.” In about fourteen weeks if all went to plan.
“I plan to be there for the entire labor and delivery this time,” he told her.
“If you can’t, I’ll manage. Mom and Dad already have plans to be here a week before the due date, and they’re both staying a full month this time.”
“Nevertheless, I will be there.”
Polly didn’t reply. She didn’t want to call him a liar, but she doubted even the certainty he would be in the country when she gave birth.
He sighed. “I think I’ve broken too many promises to you without ever meaning to.”
“I think if it had been intentional I wouldn’t have stayed, but even I could tell that we just didn’t see the world the same way.”
“There is no reason that Beryl cannot continue on as she is now, even after the baby is born.”
Polly pushed back her knee-jerk reaction of denial and considered what she really wanted, and what would be best for her and the two children she would have. “I would like that.”
“Then, that’s the way it will be.” He stepped back, and she contrarily missed his warmth.
She moved away from the bookcase, tidying up the few things that were not in their proper place. Hope was a terrifying ember burning in her heart. Polly could not snuff it out, but the fear that it would lead to more pain down the road wouldn’t go away either.
He looked around her sanctuary again, a small smile playing on his lips. “I should have begged Zephyr Nikos to convince his wife to do the decor here in the villa. Despite you comparing this place to one of their hospitality properties, you and she share a similar design aesthetic.”
Polly smiled. The thought of having Piper redecorate the villa was a pipe dream, but something she would have loved.
“Would you like to move back to Athens?” Alexandros asked with every evidence of being serious.
But could he really mean it?
Most of the friends she’d made in Greece still lived in Athens, or visited there. Corrina and Petros were there, and they were her very best friends. Helena adored them and would love to see her uncle and new aunt more often.
But Polly forced herself to think beyond what would make her happy. “I’m not sure it would be fair to Helena. She’s never known any other home than this one. And she has friends in her playgroup.”
“The constant in her life is you, Polly. Not this house.” Alexandros gave her the slashing smile that had first caught her eye. “You are an amazing mama. She will make other friends. And if I know you, you’ll make sure she still gets to visit her current playmates. After all, you are the woman who makes sure our daughter sees her yia-yia once a month despite how my mother has treated you.”
“You are a constant for her too,” Polly offered, because it was true. And because maybe it needed to be said. “You are a good father.”
Maybe he wasn’t around as much as her father had been for Polly, but Alexandros loved his daughter very much and it showed.
“I am glad you think so. Very glad, but the truth is, both of you see less of me than you should because of the daily helicopter commute.”
“We would see more of you if we lived in Athens,” she acknowledged.
Not only was there the daily commute to consider, but he spent at least one night a week in Athens, which cut their family time down even more.
“We’ll take as many of our staff with us as are willing to move.” He was talking like it was a done deal.
Even so, as much as she might like that, she didn’t see their staff traveling to Athens with them. “A lot of them have family in the area.”
“I’ll offer a significant moving bonus and the two-hour drive is not so onerous they can’t make it to visit family.”
“You would do that, so that she has continuity of homelife?” Polly asked, a little shocked at the idea they could take the staff, many of whom had become friends, with them.
“I would do that so that you don’t have to get used to new people either.”
It was true that getting used to new staff when she’d moved in here after only just adjusting to the staff at the Kristalakis family home had been very hard for a woman who had grown up doing everything for herself. Her family came to visit more often now they’d gotten used to the staff too; she didn’t want them to cut down their visits again either.
“Would we find the house together?” she asked, unwilling to make another major move without input in where they ended up.
“That is important to you, doing it together?”
“I don’t want to live in another hotel.”
“You could pick it out.”
Disappointment filled her. “You’re probably too busy to take time off to house hunt with me.”
She went to turn away, but he grabbed her and gently pulled her into his body again. He’d always been a
physical lover, but he was so much more touchy-feely right now.
And she kind of loved it.
Not that she was admitting that one out loud. It would make her sound needy.
“Not at all,” he assured her.
She didn’t know what he saw on her face, but he cursed in Russian. A habit he’d developed after Helena’s birth so he didn’t accidentally say a word she might repeat in Greek or English.
Alexandros pressed their bodies close and groaned. “Our daughter is going to wake up any minute and Hero will not be on duty for hours yet.”
Polly hid her grin at his impatience. “You’ll survive.”
“If you were living in my skin, you would not be so sure.” Then he went all serious again. “I want you to be happy in our next home.”
“So, give me the final right of choice,” she challenged.
“Done.”
She let the grin take over her face. “Watch out, you’ll end up in a farmhouse.”
“In Athens? I am not worried, yineka mou.”
“So, we are really moving?” she asked, disbelief more prevalent than acceptance.
“Our primary residence, yes.”
“You mean we’re keeping the villa?” Relief she would not have expected washed over her, but this was the house she’d brought her baby home to.
The first house that had been only hers and Alexandros’s.
“That is entirely up to you, Polly. This house is in your name.” He kissed her lightly. “But if I get a vote, I would like to consider keeping it. I would still like to get out of the city on occasion and think it would be good for our children as well.”
She could only nod. The house was hers? But according to the prenuptial agreement, anything he bought for her she got to keep in the eventuality of a divorce. She’d never considered he might buy her a house that had cost several million euros.
“I think your brother and Corrina will be glad of that, too,” she said for lack of anything better to say. Her mind was still melting under that knowledge that Polly owned the villa.
Alexandros’s smile was warm. “You are very close to them.”
“I am.”
“I am glad.”
Even after that closeness led to his being challenged in his perception as a husband? That was a pretty nice sentiment actually. Especially for a man as proud as her husband.
“I’m six months pregnant.” It just popped out. She hadn’t been thinking of her pregnancy as a stumbling block to moving, but the truth was this pregnancy had been really hard on Polly and she wasn’t sure she was up to it.
“You think this is a bad time to make the move?” he asked, like that mattered more than anything else. “You know I won’t allow you to do too much. We’ll have movers and professional packers. You’ll only have to supervise.”
She didn’t mention that supervision could be very taxing, simply looked at him and asked. “Will you help?”
“In every way that I can. I promise.”
She nodded. Beryl would as well, even if they had to hire her a second assistant.
Polly discovered that house hunting with her billionaire husband was nothing like she might have expected.
He hired the preeminent estate agents in Athens who then provided virtual walk throughs on potential properties.
She’d pictured going to look at houses together, but so far, they had both watched the videos separately and then discussed them. Usually after tucking their daughter in for the night.
They were spending more time together however because her workaholic husband had come home early again this week, twice. And he had arranged to work from home once, without a single overnight at the Athens apartment.
Helena was blossoming under the extra attention from her beloved papa. Polly was blooming too, but fear of going back to the way things had been cast a shadow over her enjoyment of her husband’s increased presence.
Polly was leaning back against Alexandros’s chest as they looked at potential property together on his phone. It was one she’d gotten very excited about.
“If you are that keen on this house, you could go see it with the agent tomorrow,” he told her.
She felt her body tense. “I thought we were visiting the properties together.”
“I cannot do it tomorrow.”
“What happened to no more uncomfortable helicopter rides into Athens for me?”
“I thought you and Helena could come to the apartment for the rest of the week, perhaps longer.”
They would be right across the hall from Corrina and Petros. And Alexandros’s office would be an elevator ride away. Excitement coursed through Polly. “You’ve never invited us to the penthouse.”
He used one when he stayed over, while Corrina and Petros lived in the other full-time. One floor below were a set of four apartments used by the company for business related needs, but the penthouses were gorgeous from the pictures Corrina had sent Polly on her phone after moving in.
“I’ve had the penthouse childproofed and a plexiglass guard added to the balcony railing, which I’ve had raised another two feet. Not that you’ll allow Helena out there without supervision, but it’s an extra measure of security for her.” Tossing away his phone, he tugged her into his lap, so their gazes met. “And I never realized you needed an invitation to join me in Athens.”
“I didn’t?” she asked, stunned by the concept that he would have welcomed her presence and that of their daughter at any time.
“No. I realize now that I had made it seem like to you that I saw you as separate from my business life, but I don’t. Everything is for and about you and Helena and our unborn son now.”
“But…”
“If you want the truth, it hurt that you never came to stay, especially those times I had to spend more than a night in the city.” He frowned, swallowed, looked away and then back at her, like he was making himself man up. “I thought it was just too much trouble to you to come.”
“But I didn’t know you wanted me there.”
“When I first bought the villa, I had visions of us sharing our time between there and the apartment.”
“But then I came up pregnant and was way too nauseated to travel into the city.”
“When you started to feel better physically, you never brought the possibility up.”
“Neither did you.”
“You’d stopped being as affectionate. I thought you were going through pregnancy stuff and I didn’t want to push.”
“But after I had the baby?”
“That first year, she was so fragile and tiny.”
“And you didn’t like to think of her in the helicopter.”
“You either.”
“But you used it every day to commute.”
“Fear can be irrational.” He sighed. “When I was with you in the helicopter, I was not afraid for your safety.”
She nodded, fascinated by this insight into how her husband had thought. “Then it became habit, for us not to come to Athens.” And that explained why when she flew into Athens with him, she was always taken back to their villa via car.
“A bad one.”
“Yes, a very bad one.” She had to agree. “Thank you for telling me you wanted us there. It means a lot.”
“I honestly did not know it had to be said.” And he was clearly uncomfortable giving voice to what he might consider needs that showed him up as weak in some way.
She wanted to reward him, so she kissed him and was totally unprepared for the tsunami of passion that would unleash.
Lying naked, sweaty and so satisfied with pleasure her body was still buzzing with it, Polly snuggled into her husband’s side. “That was unexpected.”
He mumbled something.
With great effort, she lifted her head and looked up at him. “What did you
say?”
“You kissed me.” Color burnished his taut cheekbones.
“We kiss all the time.” In bed. And lately, out of it as well.
“I kiss you and you respond.”
But she didn’t kiss him. Emotion swamped over Polly in hot and cold waves and not all of it was good. She’d withheld her naturally affectionate nature because she had no longer been sure of him.
She’d thought he hadn’t even noticed. She’d been wrong.
He’d made a lot of changes and effort in the past week; maybe it was time she did too. She could kiss him, if it meant that much to him.
Smiling she snuggled back into his side, running her hand over his chest, and reveling like she used to do in the knowledge that she was the only person with free rein to touch this incredibly powerful man like this. “I still want you to go on the walk through with me.”
He made a sound that could have been arousal, or it could have been contentment, but he answered. “Surely one of your parents took responsibility for most of the house hunting.”
“My parents still live in the first house they bought before I was born.” She sat up, but kept her hand on him. She didn’t know why, just that she needed to. “I have no idea what the process of finding a home was like for them, but my sisters and brothers tromped from house to house together.”
His expression turned pained, but his hand trapped hers against his skin. “And you want to do this?”
She couldn’t imagine her husband having the time for something like that. “No, as long as we go together to view our top three, I’ll be happy.”
His smile was both relieved and oh, so sexy. “That I can do.”
Thinking about how much time it took to find and buy a house and how hard he had to work to make that time, she looked back on his purchase of the country villa with different eyes.
“You really were trying to do something special for me when you bought this villa.”
“I was, but I see now that without your input how could this house have ever become our home?”
“That’s a nice thing to say.”
“I’m feeling anything but nice.” He moved her hand down to the evidence of his renewed desire.