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“I thought we don’t lie to each other.” Her voice wavered between facetious and challenging.
“My leg is killing me,” he admitted. “I’m tired and frustrated that I tire so easily. I’m furious that Gio is dragging his feet. It puts me in a bind.”
“I keep thinking I should call her.” Tension returned to her foot. “The surrogate. Molly, was it?”
“And tell her that you’ve forgotten she’s carrying our baby?” He carefully worked his thumb against the stiffness in her arch. “I’m concerned about how close she’s become to Gio.”
Last he’d checked, they’d been in London, but Gio was due to come to Athens this weekend. Rafael had deliberately not spoken to him, letting their teams reschedule everything as though the crash had been a minor inconvenience and there was nothing to worry about.
“What would you say to her?” he asked. “How do you feel about becoming a mother?”
She seemed to go very still. He had the strange impression that her foot went cold in his hands.
“How do you feel about becoming a father?” she asked in a strained voice.
“We both want this baby very much,” he assured her.
“You’re very good at avoiding direct answers.”
He would bet her brow was wrinkled in consternation behind that mask.
He sighed.
“I don’t like revealing what I want,” he admitted. “It allows people to use it against me. It gives them the opportunity to take my toy or hold my company hostage or threaten my parents.”
“Did people do that to you?”
“Yes.”
“Is that why you’re so...”
“What?” he prompted.
“Hard.”
“I didn’t think you’d noticed.”
She stole her foot from his grip and nudged his thigh, tsking.
He smirked and took up the other foot.
“Is it, though?” she asked. “Why you’re so closed off and difficult to read?”
“Life is poker. It’s gambles and risks and bluffs, trying to win the pot. Never let anyone know what cards you hold.”
“Does that make the baby a chip? Or...?” The anxiety in her voice had his heart swinging out and snapping back into his chest with a sting.
“No,” he said firmly. “I’ll admit that I had always looked on children the way my parents did. I have a business that needs an heir. Why go to the trouble of building a dynasty if it will die when I do? That’s why I pressured you into starting a family.”
“Did you?” Her foot twitched in his grip, but he held on to it, seizing the chance to say things he hadn’t been able to say before because she’d been too defensive.
“I did.” He saw that now and regretted how blithe he’d been when he brought up having a baby. He’d presumed it was simple. One more thing to tick off the list. “You seemed ready, but I think you were ambivalent, maybe doing it more for me than yourself.”
I’ve changed. I’ve fallen in love with you.
He’d been thrown by that confession, but he mourned losing that woman and wished he’d reacted differently when she’d said it.
“When it didn’t work out right away, you were distressed,” he continued. “We couldn’t have known it would be like that, but things grew difficult between us.”
