Chapter 15 #2
It did however help abruptly extinguish the mad tingle of her nipples.
‘Well, he… brought her up and I thought it would demonstrate how well we knew each other. That you’d confided in me about it.
I thought it would seem authentic that I knew something deeply personal about you.
I’m sorry, should I… not have?’ Was he angry that she had? ‘I think it went down well?’
Nodding, he glanced at her over his shoulder briefly before he turned back to choosing a pillow. ‘It did,’ he agreed. ‘Thanks. I think the old curmudgeon is finally ready to move on.’
It was said with affection – almost – as Theo plumped a pillow before tossing it on the couch. Sitting, he swung his legs onto the cushions and wriggled down, raising his knees to fit his long frame into the much shorter space.
Reaching behind him, he flicked out the lamp and the room was dark once again. But she could hear him wriggling as her eyes adjusted to the night and she almost opened her mouth to invite him to share the bed. It was his bed after all, and they had shared one before.
There just hadn’t been a lot of sleeping going on.
Which was precisely her concern if a mostly naked Theo was within easy reach.
Sure, he had the dare to keep him in check, but there was nothing to say she couldn’t use his body to get off…
And there went her nipples again.
Now her eyes had adjusted, Tiffany kept her gaze fixed on the ceiling, excruciatingly aware of Theo’s mostly naked form dominating the couch in her peripheral vision. All she had to do was turn her head to get the full frontal.
‘Thank you for tonight. It really did go well.’ His voice was quiet, but she felt every word like he’d puffed them across her aching nipples.
‘They’re nice people,’ she murmured. Maybe Dimitri had been a bit of a hardass to Theo, but he didn’t come across as a tyrant. ‘I felt sorry for them. About not being able to have kids. They both still seem so sad about it all these years later.’
‘Yeah.’
‘I hope you don’t mind I lumbered you with three future children.’
He chuckled and this time it was a low whorl of air that kissed her nipples, following through with a swipe of a hot, wet tongue. Tiffany squeezed her legs together to stop the tingle from taking hold between her thighs.
‘As long as you don’t mind that I had a vasectomy when I was twenty-two and can’t possibly provide them for you.’
Tiffany blinked at the startling admission.
What. The. Hell? Her brain scrambled as she tried to compute the information.
She’d never been overly maternal herself and didn’t really know how she felt about having babies, but she’d have never done anything to make sure it wouldn’t happen.
To take such a consequential decision at such an early age rendered her speechless.
What if she met the one and changed her mind?
If she hadn’t known it before, it was patently obvious now – Theo was deadly serious about never having anything more than a one-night thing. She’d assumed that, despite his convictions, Theo would one day find his one and change his ways. Now she wasn’t so sure.
‘Did I shock you?’ he asked into the growing silence. ‘This is why I don’t tell people. In fact, you’re the first person I’ve ever told. But as we were talking about fake future babies, it seemed appropriate.’
Maybe she was supposed to feel privileged or special or something that he’d confided in her, but Tiffany just felt conflicted.
It was none of her business but that didn’t stop the squall of emotion in the pit of her stomach or the sudden urge to march across the space between the bed and the couch and hit him across the head with a pillow.
‘No, you didn’t. I mean, I’m… surprised for sure, but it’s not my business.’
‘It’s just… I didn’t ever want to be caught out, if other contraception failed,’ he said as if, her business or not, he wanted her to understand such a final decision.
‘You don’t have to explain to me.’
He really didn’t. But it did explain why, despite spreading his seed every-freaking-where, there weren’t any little oopsy-daisy Theos out there in the world. Because, had there been, Tiffany had no doubt the tabloids would have sniffed them out.
There was a long pause before he spoke again. ‘Do you want kids?’
It was bizarre to be talking about the topic of future children with her fake fiancé – a Greek billionaire – in his luxurious master suite on his multi-million-dollar superyacht. But this whole day had been bizarre so, why not?
‘I… don’t know how I feel. I can’t see it happening any time soon but I’m not against the idea either. I certainly want to keep my options open.’
‘That’s fair.’ His voice was evenly modulated and reasonable. ‘But I do know how I feel.’
‘How you feel now ,’ she murmured.
‘I’m pretty sure it’s how I’m always going to feel.’
‘And you’ve never in your life changed your mind about something?’
‘Rarely.’
His voice was laced with a grim kind of determination, and it was a visceral reminder that Theo Callisthenes was a man who knew his own mind. ‘It’s just so… final,’ she said. ‘Did you not grapple with that?’
‘No. Never.’
‘And what about if the unimaginable happens and you fall for someone?’
Tiffany’s breath caught at the thought. What would it be like to have this man’s intense, singular focus? Because something told her that if Theo ever did fall, he’d fall hard. After all, she’d had his focus for one night and hadn’t been able to get it out of her head.
An even longer pause followed, and Tiffany wished she was looking at him so she could read his eyes.
‘It hasn’t so far.’
His soft denial was like a small jolt of electricity searing a pathway through her chest, leaving the tight ache of a burn in its wake. ‘Humour me,’ she said, her voice threaded with irritation at his certainty and her confusion as to why in hell this mattered to her at all.
‘I suppose in that… unlikely event, if we decided we wanted to have a baby together, then I would go for a reversal.’
His confidence in such a procedure that had variable success rates bordered on arrogant. But then, that was Theo Callisthenes to the core. Expecting everything to just bend to his will. Even the re-joining of his scarred vas deferens!
‘I just can’t see it ever coming to that.’
Tiffany gritted her teeth. She’d officially moved from irritated to pissed. ‘Are you never unsure of yourself?’
‘Nope.’
Damn arrogant man. Tiffany had been leading her own life for a long time and making decisions and taking risks, but she’d never been absolutely sure they were the right ones. ‘You know that’s exceptionally annoying, right?’
He chuckled, and she shivered from her toes to the slick heat between her legs to her aching nipples, reminding her of how sure he’d been with her. How masterfully he’d played her body.
‘I have been told, yes.’
Of course he had. ‘I’m going to sleep now,’ she announced grumpily, turning on her side so her back was to the couch.
Another chuckle slid into a silky, ‘ Kalinyhta , Tiffany.’
‘ Kalinyhta , Theo.’
Not that Tiffany thought for a moment she was going to sleep.