They did have incredible chemistry, though. If they hadn’t had guests to get back to, they very well might have risked a pregnancy while they’d been aboard the yacht. That encounter had been erotic and exciting and Leander had suddenly seen their three-year stretch of marriage as something that would be the furthest thing from celibate.
He wasn’t taking anything for granted, but if they had sex, a baby became possible. For that reason, they had to discuss how they would handle pregnancy and children.
Over the next two days, he tried to reach Ilona to hash it out, but she put him off, canceling a dinner date and claiming she had too many things going on at work.
Annoyed, he instructed his lawyer to add baby bonuses and other settlements to their agreement.
Ilona’s response came through her own lawyer. She accepted his terms as a contingency, but she expected him to abide by their “gentleman’s agreement” regarding separate bedrooms. Also, she had a dress fitting and couldn’t make lunch.
So childish.
Her silent treatment continued as he was called to Rome. Midas was being a nuisance, interfering with a project there, but Leander quickly got it back on track.
He returned two days later to a text that Ilona didn’t need to view the property his agent had found. If he liked it, he could proceed with the purchase.
Was this what their marriage would be like? Hot and cold? He could have accepted that more easily if he wasn’t still tantalized by the knowledge that when it was hot, it was very hot.
He would have to be the adult and reach out yet again, he supposed, but he had just arrived home and wanted to work off his tension. He changed into his gym clothes and started on the treadmill, watching financial headlines while he ran.
He was so deep in thought, he nearly missed a call that jammed his otherwise healthy heart.
Ilona knew Leander was back in Athens, but he didn’t call or text.
That shouldn’t bother her. They weren’t teenagers where every text or lack thereof held a dozen hidden meanings.
She hadn’t meant for their discussion on children to turn into such a bone of contention, but the way Mira had brought it up on the heels of their intimacy had made Ilona very defensive.
For the first time in her life, the idea of having sex was very enticing, but she wanted Leander to want her, not an incubator for another figurine on his chessboard. When the email had come through from the lawyers, listing all the benefits—bribes?—he’d offered if she became pregnant, she’d felt pressured and struck back with firm boundaries.
Even though she wanted sex with him. She couldn’t lie to herself about that.
As for having a baby, well, it was a huge step, but she and Leander were both very wealthy, not counting pennies the way her mother had been. Pregnancy and child-rearing wouldn’t be a hardship, not the way it was for some who had much less.
As for the danger of Midas and Odessa coming after her child, Leander would do everything in his power to protect what was his. She believed that.
No, now that she’d had time to think calmly about it, she wasn’t as adamant against the idea of children, but she still saw issues in having a baby with a man who, at best, felt ambivalent about her. Eventually that lack of a bond between them would either force them to stay in a loveless arrangement for the sake of their child, or part and bring stepparents into the equation.
Neither of those outcomes appealed to her.
Amid her ruminations, her door buzzed.
Probably her neighbor Rasmus. His cat was forever leaping from his fire escape onto the outside ledge, then walking around to cry at the windows of the other units on this floor. Rasmus left his door unlocked so residents could return Snuggles, but Ilona often kept him if she was having a night in.
She’d been about to step into the bath, but she tightened the belt on her robe and hurried to tell him Snuggles wasn’t here. She glanced through the peephole and saw flowers.
Leander? Her heart softened like butter in the sun.
She swung the door open, a smile dawning on her face because there was no reason to suspect it would be Midas.