"I do not find this funny. You will marry me, Ash."
At least he got the name right. She stifled her laughter and cupped his cheek. "Making love with you was incredible, but I still need time to think."
"After what we have just experienced together, how can you need time to think?"
"Because we won't spend our entire life in bed, Nikos."
"It is worth considering."
She shook her head. "You're such a man."
"I am that." He carefully rolled off of her and padded naked to the bathroom. "I would be little use to you in this situation if I wasn't," he called back over his shoulder.
She couldn't argue that logic and did not even try.
He stayed the night and made love to her again in the wee hours of the morning and then again when they awoke to her alarm. Both times left her a boneless, quivering mass of satisfaction. But he did not push again for a definitive answer from her. It was as if he was so sure of her, he was simply biding his time.
She didn't really care why he refrained from pressing her, but was merely glad that he did. He left her house after a brief shower to go home and change for work, while she rushed through her morning routine in order not to be late herself.
There was no time to think or try to decide what the night before had meant.
He called her later that morning, but she was with a client and didn't get a chance to call him back until midway through what should have been her lunch hour.
"I had hoped we could share lunch,pethi mou , but I see that idea is a washout."
She looked at the case files dumped on her desk that morning by another counselor before going home ill and sighed. "Unfortunately, yes it is."
"Dinner tonight? Mama hopes to see you."
If he hadn't phrased it like that, she might have said no. She needed some time to get her head together and it wasn't going to happen during work hours filled with the overbooked caseloads of both herself and her absent coworker. But she liked Zoe Petronides. A lot.
And Ash had no intention of hurting the very sweet older woman's feelings. "I'd love to. What time would you like me to arrive?"
"I will pick you up at six."
"I'd rather drive myself."
"I prefer to see to your comfort."
"You know I'm followed by a security team. I'll be perfectly safe driving myself to your house and home again."
"Nevertheless, I would rather drive you. It is the male prerogative."
"In a former decade maybe."
"Some traditions are best not left behind. Besides, it has not escaped my notice that you do not like to drive."
He was speaking the truth. She didn't. She hated negotiating city traffic and would prefer to ride public transport to work, but with her "secret" security detail following her every move, that wasn't an option. She could accept her mom's offer of a car and chauffer, but something seemed wrong about showing up for a public service job that way. And she wasn't a wimp.
She could drive, she just didn't like to. And Nikos had noticed.
"You're going to be stubborn about this, aren't you?" she asked, but there was no ire in her voice.
She was too busy feeling cherished. She should probably tell him thank you, but she didn't want to feed his already overly certain belief that he always knew what was best.
"Can you doubt it?"
She laughed softly. "Not when stubborn is the thing you do best."
"I would say after last night that you would consider I had at least one or two other attributes."
Despite the fact that no one else could hear his words, she blushed a hot crimson. "Nikos!"
He laughed, the sound low and sexy, affecting her in ways she tried to ignore. The fiend.
She waited for him to stop laughing and then said by way of dismissal, "I'll see you at six."
"I shall look forward to it."
She hung up the phone feeling just slightly outmaneuvered, but she didn't really mind. One of the problems she'd had dating was that after growing up around her mother and having to push so hard against him for any sort of independence, most men seemed a little too easily led in comparison. At first, she'd thought that was what she wanted.