Chapter Eight #2
From the minute they got back to Athens, Theo launched himself into work, leaving the house before seven each morning and often not returning until close to midnight.
She knew he worked long hours—he was renowned for it—but she’d become so used to him on their honeymoon.
Even when they were pretending not to notice one another, he’d always been there, in that enormous, open-plan beach house.
She’d been able to glance up and see him, to hear him, to breathe in and taste him in the air if he happened to walk close enough.
Now she had to put up with just seeing little signs of him—like his toothbrush and his coffee cup.
It was pathetic. The whole thing.
She was no wallflower, waiting to be acknowledged by her husband, on his terms. She refused to be that woman.
A week and a half after returning to the city, she gave up on sitting around waiting for things to change, and began to formulate a plan.
He was a workaholic, which made it easy to know where to find him, at least. She dressed with care in a black mini dress, styled her hair in big loose waves, applied a minimum of make-up that included her dark red lipstick, and added a pair of killer heels before stepping out of his mansion and hailing a cab—though she supposed she could have taken her own car, she didn’t want the hassle of parking.
He owned the entire building in which his office was located, and when the cab pulled to a stop at the bottom of it, she took a second to glance up, right to the top, where she knew Theo would be, and took a beat. She could go home again. She didn’t have to do this.
But then what? Eighteen months was a very long time of living with someone whose very presence had the ability to set your nerve endings alight, and who also seemed determined to pretend to ignore you.
The security for the building was tight. She had to give her name, so she knew he’d be expecting her, which wasn’t exactly as she’d planned it, but so what?
She caught the elevator to the top floor, where an elegant woman in a pale-coloured suit was waiting with a polite smile.
‘Mrs Leonidas,’ she greeted deferentially. ‘Mr Leonidas is expecting you.’
Half of Annie’s lip twisted in an amused smile at that. He hadn’t been, until about two minutes ago?
‘Thank you,’ she said, falling into step beside the other woman to a set of double doors that led to the Theo’s office. The assistant knocked once, and Theo was there, drawing the door inwards.
‘Thank you, Helen,’ he murmured, barely glancing at her.
He only had eyes for Annie, and it was a very necessary shot in the arm.
She strode into his office, heels clicking against the large pale tiles. When she was in the middle, she put a hand on her hip and turned to face him. But the way he was looking at her was so smouldering that she completely lost her train of thought.
‘Did you wear that out in public?’
She glanced down at her admittedly very short dress, and shrugged, her eyes daring him to complain. Daring him to pick this fight.
‘Is there something wrong with it?’
A muscle throbbed at the base of his jaw, but he wisely stayed quiet. ‘What can I do for you?’
‘I’d like to discuss the terms of our marriage.’
He crossed his arms over his chest. ‘The terms of our marriage have already been agreed to. I have the contract to prove it.’
‘I’d like to vary them.’
‘That’s not generally how contracts work.’
‘What’s the matter, Theo? Are you scared of what I’m going to suggest?’
‘What do you want?’ he asked, but stayed where he was, so for a second, she thought maybe she was right: that he was scared.
‘Well, definitely not this.’
He arched a single brow. ‘You knew what you were getting into when you agreed to marry me.’
‘No, I don’t think I did.’
‘What precisely is the problem?’
‘You’re ignoring me.’
He frowned. ‘Am I?’
She rolled her eyes. ‘Don’t gaslight me. We both know you’re staying out of the house so you don’t have to see me. What happened to a “public marriage”?’
He moved to his desk then, pressing his fingers into the edge of it, his expression thoughtful. ‘You’d like to go on more dates?’
‘I’d like to not feel like I’m either walking on eggshells or being completely ignored.’
‘You are the one who asked me to turn your father’s company around.’
‘I know that.’
‘Did you think I would just snap my fingers? It takes work, agape. Long, hard work.’
Chastened, she bit into her lip. She’d barely thought about the company since he’d agreed to take it over and help her.
‘I know.’
‘Is this about dinner dates, Annie, or something else?’
Her heart began to race so loudly, it was all she could hear.
‘It’s about spending time together.’
He walked towards her then, his gait predatory, like a cougar, prowling, intent on his catch. ‘I told you, sex wouldn’t change anything.’
‘And I told you, I get that.’ She angled her chin belligerently. ‘Why can’t you take me at my word and accept that I can walk and chew gum at the same time.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘I can sleep with you, talk to you, and be fake married to you, without any part of this changing. In eighteen months, I will be demanding that divorce we’ve discussed, no matter what happens between us now. All I’m saying is: Why can’t we just make the most of this, in the meantime?’
He stared down at her, as though she’d started speaking a totally foreign language.
‘I’d never had sex before that day,’ she said seriously, honestly, staring up at him. ‘And now, you hardly seem to want to touch me. Did I do something wrong?’
Theo didn’t move, so Annie’s heart sank.
‘I mean, I wasn’t sure…’
‘No.’ His voice was rough. ‘You did nothing wrong. It was fine.’
‘Fine?’ she squeaked, mortified.
‘Great, okay? It was great.’
‘Because you didn’t—’
‘No, I didn’t,’ he said. ‘But that was not because you erred in any way.’
‘It’s just—I liked it. And I want—I would like—’
‘More,’ he said, moving a hand to her hip and placing it there, fingers splayed.
She nodded mesmerized. ‘Yes.’ It was a whisper. And an admission. It was also terrifying, because she felt so exposed to him, so raw and vulnerable. ‘Yes, I want more. I want you.’
‘Oh, Annie,’ he groaned, dropping his head forward, like he was trying to blank her out. ‘This has the potential to be very complicated.’
‘Why? What’s changed since that day in Sydney? You were fine with sex, then. What’s different now?’
‘You know what’s changed. I presumed you were—if not exactly like me, at least experienced.’
‘Get over it. My inexperience doesn’t mean anything to me, it shouldn’t to you. It’s just…happenstance.’
He made a grunt, which could have been agreement or disagreement.
‘If you don’t want to sleep with me, okay, but I don’t want to be married to someone who won’t even talk to me.’
A muscle ticked at the base of his jaw as his eyes held hers for a long time. ‘You know why we got married. So far as I remember, talking to one another was not a factor.’
She stared at him, hating how much his words hurt, hating that she couldn’t properly conceal it.
The fact he wasn’t going to compromise was blatantly obvious, so she’d have to work out a way to get what she wanted.
Which was to know her husband. To have him get to know her again, too.
‘Fine. Then I want to stick to the original deal—a public marriage, like you suggested. I want to go for lunch with you.’
His expression was practically a scowl. ‘Lunch?’
‘You’ve heard of the concept, I presume?’
‘Today?’
‘It is lunchtime, isn’t it?’
‘Wearing that?’
‘What’s wrong with this dress? I’ve seen photos of the women you usually date—I know what you like.’
He looked her up and down, shaking his head once. ‘That’s not— Annie—’
‘If you don’t want to eat with me, just say. I’ll go somewhere on my own.’
She could see his cogs turning, and knew enough now about Theo to recognise that jealousy was shifting through him. ‘No,’ he said, sharp and decisive. ‘I’ll take you to lunch. It’s fine.’
It sounded anything but fine, yet Annie didn’t focus on that—she chose to take this for the victory it was.
Theo was going to stop ignoring her, right now.
Because Annie had a feeling there was so much more about him she didn’t understand, so much she didn’t know.
Back then, she hadn’t had a single clue how to scratch beneath the surface.
He’d so easily been able to shut down her lines of enquiry, by just changing the subject or diverting her attention.
Annie was older and wiser now, and she wasn’t going to let him get away with it this time.
Operation Get To Know Her Husband was about to get underway.