by Lucy Monroe
"If you would prefer to stay home and get some rest, no one will blame you."
Eden wished she could, but she now did as much work at parties like this, as regular socializing. "I'll change after dinner."
"If that is your wish." Aristide didn't try to dissuade her as he once might have done.
And Eden realized she missed her husband's arrogance in thinking he knew what was best all the time and the way that arrogance came out to play when he was protecting her.
He said he didn't want her so exhausted, but he wasn't laying down the law about her getting rest and she realized it had been a long time since he'd done anything like that. Was the problem not only that he doubted her love, but his own was starting to wane after two years of what he considered neglect?
Two years.
It didn't feel like that long since she'd started the foundation. In the beginning, Eden had justified the hours she put in because it was all new. She'd believed that once things settled down, she could go back to being part-time like she'd worked when her only job had been oversight of the Kouros Enterprises' charitable endeavors.
That had never happened. Eden now worked longer hours than ever, with no end in sight. Not unless she made some significant changes to how she'd been doing things.
She'd missed Theo's last soccer game. European football, but she'd never gotten used to the term, thinking of pigskins and helmets whenever the word football was used. Angel had invited Eden to come to her school for her class's Christmas party, but Eden had to say no. Despite his demanding schedule as Director of International Development for Kouros Enterprise, Aristide had made the time to attend both though.
What did that say about how Eden prioritized her time? She could miss an event here and there, that's what she'd always told herself. And frankly still believed. But she hadn't been simply missing one or two important things in her children's lives. She'd actually only made one game for her son's team this whole season. And she'd missed more parent-child opportunities at school with Angel than Eden had made.
She wasn't a single parent, fighting to eke out a living for herself and her children, or a parent in a necessary two-income household that had to put in long hours to put food on the table, with little to no choice about these things. She was a singularly blessed wife and mother who was finally realizing that maybe her choices over the past two years had been a little messed up.
They reached the dining room and the whole family was there. The Kouros clan ate early, with their children and that was something Eden had always liked.
Angel came rushing over for a hug. "Did you see Chara's new dress? Isn't it pretty. I want one like it."
"You are far too young to wear a dress like that, though your fifteen-year-old cousin looks quite lovely in it." Aristide smile at their oldest niece.
She smiled back, blushing at the compliment to her pretty green holiday dress.
"Are you going to the Kiriakis Christmas party with us?" Eden asked her, noting that the other adults in the room were also dressed for a party later.
"Papa said I was old enough to go this year." Chara hugged Sebastian, looking delighted to be included in the adult entertainment for the evening. "Bea and Leo are going to be there and they're the same age as me."
She'd named Savannah and Leiandros' younger children, twins like Achilles and Leto, and the same age as Chara.
"I don't know why she wants to go to a boring adult party," Leto, Chara's younger sister, said with a frown. "They aren't going to have any video games, or even board games. What's the point?"
"Yeah, you won't catch me going to stuff like that until I don't have a choice," Leto's twin brother, Achilles said with all the assurance and certainty in his own opinions of a twelve-year-old boy.
"Chara is going to have fun with her friends, even if it is at a stuffy old grown-up party," their mom, Rachel teased. "I'm sure Savannah will have arranged for other teens their age to be there as well."
"She did," Chara agreed. "Mrs. Kiriakis let Bea and Leo each invite three guests. I was one of them."
"Which one invited you?" Achilles asked with a teasing grin. "Bea or Leo?"
Chara's blush went peony pink. "Leo did, if you must know, but I'm friends with both of them."
"Are you going to grow up and marry Leo?" Angel asked, her sweet innocence so on display that Eden just wanted to hug the stuffing out of her daughter.
"I don't know who I'll marry. Papa said I had to get through university before even thinking about stuff like that."
"And you're listening?" Aristide asked with a warm smile. "Well done, Chara." Then Aristide turned to his brother. "I'll need pointers on how to convince Angel of the same thing. She's obsessively fascinated by romance and becoming a mother."
"Papa!" Angel protested, but privately Eden had to agree with her husband.
What other nine-year-old child did she know who wanted to watch documentaries on childbirth and parenting customs in different cultures? Angel made up stories about the people around them when they were out, and those stories were inevitably about love found, lost or hoped for.
Eleven-year-old Theo was not similarly inclined, far too interested in his science experiments and technology to even see girls yet. And frankly, Eden was perfectly content for her son to be that way. Crushes and crushing romantic disappointment would come soon enough.
Dinner was pleasant, everyone chatting about what they wanted to do on the island for the holidays. Eden apologized to Phillipa and Vincent for missing lunch with them.
"We missed you, of course, but Aristide told us something important and unavoidable had come up for the foundation." Phillipa smiled at Eden with obvious affection. "And we are seeing you now."
Important and unavoidable. Had her discussion with the potential donor been those things? If Eden were honest with herself, she'd have to say no. She'd simply got so used to putting the foundation first, she'd forgotten how to assess and prioritize the way she should.
Aristide was right. Eden did know how to keep a schedule, but she'd spent two years sacrificing everything on hers for the sake of Kouros for Children and the good it could do.
The question was: why?
What had made her feel like she could never say no to anything to do with the foundation? And more importantly, was this the way she wanted to keep living?
She knew the answer to the latter, if not the former. And it was a resounding no.
Smothering a yawn, she looked around guiltily to see if anyone else noticed.
Rachel was looking at Eden with an expression of sympathy mixed with worry.
And suddenly Eden realized Aristide wasn't the only one who saw the change in her and was concerned by it. For different reasons, no doubt, but still concerned.
He'd never wavered in his commitment to her since regaining his memory, but Eden could not say the same. She hadn't meant to deprioritize her family, but that is exactly what she'd done and she'd put the deep, abiding love she shared with her tycoon husband at risk because of it.
Two tears leaked out past her eyelids, no matter how hard she'd tried to blink them away. She swiped at her cheeks unobtrusively, hoping again that no one else had noticed.
"That's it!" Aristide exploded up from the table and pulled Eden's chair out. "You are going to bed. No party tonight, no talking to the guests about your eminently worthy charity. You are so exhausted, your emotions are a mess."
"Is Uncle Aristide mad? Why is Aunt Eden crying?" the four-year-old Phyllida asked, her own expression looking like it was going to crumble any second.
Her father, Sebastian, pulled the toddler from her chair and into his lap. "Your aunt and uncle are fine. Aunt Eden is just overtired, and you know how I get when your mama neglects herself."
Eden wanted to comfort the little girl, but she was afraid if she opened her mouth, she'd start sobbing. And that would scare all the children.
"I'll give your regrets to Leiandros and Savannah," Sebastian offered.
"Thank you," Aristide said as he swung Eden up in his arms.
"You're not going either?" she asked, hopeful and teary at the same time.
His jaw looked hewn from granite, his expression saying she shouldn't even have to ask, but her husband answered with a quick negative jerk of his head. Then he turned to their children. "Theo, Angel, your mama is fine. Just tired. I'm taking her to bed, then I will be down to see you both tucked in."
"I don't need tucking in, dad," Theo argued, using the more grown-up, Americanized address he'd adopted in the past year.
"Nevertheless, I will be back to tell you goodnight and make sure your sister is tucked in."
Angel didn't make any demurs, her little girl gaze fixed on Eden with relief that implied an understanding beyond her years that her mother needed this. Eden gave both her children a wobbly smile and blew them kisses.
Angel caught hers and hugged it to her chest and her son, who was not as affectionate as he'd been when he was little actually returned the gesture.
Eden felt the tears more imminent and let her head fall against Aristide, turning her face to hide it in his neck. She didn't even think of making a protest as her husband carried her from the dining room and up the stairs to the bedroom they always shared when they were staying at Sebastian's island villa that he'd inherited from their uncle.
#
Aristide laid his wife on the bed, the expression in her rainwater grey eyes so tragic it was all he could do not to growl. He removed her clothes with little help as she seemed so drained, she was incapable of doing it for herself.
When he went to put a nightgown over her head, she looked up at him with a grief that broke his heart. "I miss you, Aristide. I miss us. And I'm sorry I let it get this bad."
"Then stop."
"Stop?"
Tucking her arms through the holes of her sleeveless white gown with embroidered neck and hem, Aristide just looked at her. Eden loved the innocent looking cotton gowns and Aristide had to admit he found them even more sexy than the titillating lingerie she donned occasionally.
Understanding reflected in her grey gaze and the tension seemed to drain out of her. "I'll stop."
He nodded, believing her. Believing that she'd finally awoken to what her actions and priorities were doing to their marriage and family.
He did not need to beat a dead horse rehashing it all.
"Will you come to bed with me?" she asked.
"Yes, after I see to the children." He leaned down and kissed her chastely, but with purpose, reminding her that he loved her, that she was his woman. "I may even make love to you after you've gotten some rest."
Her smile was pure, provocative woman. "I may even let you."
She slept for eleven hours straight, Aristide never leaving her side, once he'd put their children to bed and once again allayed their concerns about their precious mama. Though he did bring his laptop to bed, working for a while before watching some news reports and then a late-night comedy talk show that helped him to wind down and sleep himself.
He felt Eden stirring in the early hours of the morning and came out of slumber with one thought on his mind.
Making love to his wife.
She turned toward him, her hands exploring his body, her kiss so hungry he couldn't doubt she wanted this as much as he did. Finally.
They made love in the hushed light of early dawn, their bedroom a sanctuary for intimacy they'd both been missing for too long. Aristide caressed his wife's silky-smooth skin, mapping the changes in her body over the past months. She'd lost weight she could ill afford to on her slight frame, but he craved her on a cellular level that saw nothing but beauty and perfection when he looked at her, that felt nothing but the same when he touched her.
She was eager, but he wanted this to last. He'd gone too long without his hands on her and he wasn't about to rush things now.
"Darn it, Aristide, make love to me!" she demanded, her body bowing toward him.
"What do you think it is I have been doing?"
"That's not what I meant. I want you inside me, part of me. I need it, husband!"
He looked down at her flushed face, beautiful grey eyes liquid with lust, her mouth parted, inviting his kiss. "You need me? Are you sure?"
"Of course I do. I love you!"
Once he would have accepted those words fully and at face value, but after the past two years, doubt tinged the joy he felt at hearing them. "I love you, yineka mou. With every beat of my heart."
And not when it was just convenient. Not that he thought she loved him that way. But part of him, a small part barely worth noting, was unsure.
He didn't like the feelings of insecurity, so he ignored them, focusing on the passion building between them. He wanted to be inside her as well. Wanted to feel the ecstasy of swollen, silken tissues stretching around his sex, accepting him and pleasuring him. Two becoming one in a way that was both mystical and profoundly prosaic.
"I am your wife. I am your woman." Eden's tone was fierce, but her gaze was fiercer. "I do love you, my husband. Things will get better. I promise."
She'd promised other things over the past two years, promised trips that got cancelled, dinners and lunches that she didn't show up for. Could he trust his beautiful and oh so precious wife now to keep this promise?
Did he have a choice?
Aristide loved Eden so deeply he did not know where he ended and she began. She was the center of his life, her and their two children.
Pushing his doubts, his thoughts, his worries aside, Aristide aligned his sex with the entrance to Eden's body and then pressed forward.
She gasped and then told him how wonderful it felt. He gritted his teeth, holding back a shout of pleasure that would have woken the children down the hall. Even with the sound dampening walls of the villa.
"This, between us. It is a gift neither of us should ever take for granted."
"No, never," she agreed, her face contorted in pleasure, her body straining toward his.
They made love then, only words of love and pleasure whispered between them until he felt the imminence of her orgasm. He twisted his hips on each downward thrust, lifting her legs and spreading her thighs wider so he could get that last couple of centimeters of penetration.
His own body wanted to explode, but Aristide would not allow the climax to come. Not until she'd come apart in his arms.
Eden's scream was loud and long, her body's convulsions testimony to how powerful this pinnacle of pleasure was for her. He kept thrusting through her pleasure, drawing more from her body until she whimpered and went lax under him. Only then did he give in and thrust more powerfully once, twice, and three times, exploding in ecstatic pleasure, his own shout also loud.
When the last vestige of climax had ebbed from his body, he withdrew from her body, taking his place beside her on the mattress, his arms staying locked around her in a hold he couldn't even think of breaking. He needed this closeness.
She laid her head on his chest, her hand over his heart and just breathed for long moments, her body as close to his as she could get it. Then she spoke. "I don’t know why I've felt I couldn't say no to anything to do with the foundation, how I could let my priorities get so messed up."
"It is a worthy cause that you feel deeply about." That much he understood. The fact that the cause had taken her from him so completely, not so much.
"It always feels like there's more that I can do, more that I should do."
"Perhaps you need more help to do it?"
"I don't really want to be the director anymore," she said, like she was admitting something shameful.
"You can still be involved without taking on the most demanding position in the hierarchy."
"But if I gave it up, wouldn't I be quitting?" she asked with clear pain.
He shook his head. "No, sýzygos," he said, calling her beloved because she was. "You began a foundation that does a lot of good for children that would have no hope otherwise. It will continue to do that g
ood with you as the guiding light. You're not giving up your position of President on the board of directors, right?"
"No. No, of course not. That role takes a lot less time." She sounded like she was admitting a terrible secret. Again.
"This guilt is misplaced, Eden. You can still impact Kouros Children's Fund in all the ways that matter, just not as the manager of day-to-day operations. Our lifestyle, it is not like other people's. I travel. I prefer to have my family with me as you once did too."
"I still do!"
"That is good to hear. Eden, sýzygos mou, We have commitments that come with great wealth and responsibility. The foundation is only part of that."
"I know. Really. I do. I just…I didn't want to be a quitter."
"Delegating is not quitting. How do you think I cut back so drastically on my travel when I regained my memory?"
"You delegated?" she asked, not sounding too sure. "Only I can't imagine you letting someone else make decisions you'd always made."
"And yet that is exactly what I did. You know your father has worked for me in a part-time capacity since a month after coming to live with us."
"I thought that was to make him feel like he was still useful."
"And to give me someone I knew I could trust to cover important meetings and the like, so I could spend more time with you and the children."
"Wow. That…that makes sense. You really did delegate, and not just when Dad came to live with us."
Hadn't he just said so? "Ne."
"For me."
"And our children, and the life we wanted to have together. Yes."
"I can delegate." She sounded so relieved, so happy at the idea.
He had to shift her up his body so he could kiss her again. He didn't stop at her mouth, but covered her face in the baby kisses she loved so much. "I want my wife back."
"I didn't mean to go anywhere."
"I wondered," he admitted.
"What? What did you wonder?" She propped herself on her arms on his chest so their eyes could meet.
"If this was payback?"
"Payback?" she asked, sounding truly horrified. "For what?"
"For the way I treated you in the beginning, for how I didn't commit to our family until after you were pregnant with Angel. For my stupidity in believing Kassandra was my friend and yours."
