by Lucy Monroe
“When I left, that must have made it look like I’d never had any intention of fulfilling the contract.”
“Yes.”
She swallowed, accepting her responsibility for that. “You wanted to stay married?”
“As I said, we were compatible.”
“But you were very angry I’d circumvented the contract, weren’t you?”
“Beyond angry. I went to Hong Kong to establish some distance.”
“I had no idea.”
“That was intentional.”
“But why? If you were going to talk to me, why not do it right away?”
“I was too furious. You did not merely betray me, you betrayed my grandfather as well.”
“I didn’t intend to betray either of you.”
He made a noncommittal sound.
“Why me … I mean, this time around? There are lots of women who would be glad to give you a child.”
He shrugged as if all those other women didn’t matter. “You have something I want and I have something you need.”
“My family’s company needs, you mean.” She laughed, the sound nothing like humorous. “If all you want is a womb, more than half the planet’s population has one.”
“Pappous.”
His grandfather? What did Takis Spiridakou have to do with anything?
“You cannot tell me Takis will be happy for you to marry the mother of your child after its birth.” The old man was a traditional Greek in the best sense of the words.
“My grandfather does not recognize the American divorce decree, despite the fact we were legally married here in New York.”
Ah. So, it had to be her. Because Takis Spiridakou was not a man who considered the laws of a nation supreme to those of his church.
“We married in the Orthodox church.” They’d had a second, far more elaborate ceremony in Greece. Both their families had been in attendance for it, unlike their civil ceremony in New York for legalities’ sake.
And in the eyes of the Spiridakou family patriarch, that made her and Ariston’s marriage sacred and permanent.
The old man’s stubbornness almost brought a real smile to her lips. She loved the old Greek as much as if he’d been her own grandfather.
“He considers our vows sacred.” Ariston said, echoing her thoughts. “According to Pappous, you are still my wife.”
“What does he think of the bed partners you’ve had since I left Greece?” she wondered aloud.
Takis would not have approved of infidelity.
Ariston’s lips quirked with amusement. “I assure you, I do not discuss my sex life with my grandfather.”
Which was not an answer to what she was really asking, but then that was fair, she told herself. After all, Ariston had never claimed that he believed them still married despite the divorce decree.
“Has it been a very active one since I left?” she heard herself asking without having given her mouth permission to speak.
“To quote a woman I know, none of your business.”
“Bastard.” Her hand flew to cover her mouth.
She never used language like that, and honestly, she hadn’t even called him that in her own mind. But having him throw her own words back at her right now sent her irritation levels right through the roof of the limo.
Ariston didn’t take offense. In fact, he laughed. “You wouldn’t be the first to think so.”
Her ex-husband in business mode was dangerous enough, but when he reverted to charming and approachable? Perfectly fatal to her heart.
“Let me get this straight,” she said, needing to get the topic of the conversation back on track. “You’ll refrain from selling your shares in Dioletis Industries and provide the infusion of capital necessary as well as the savvy business direction to keep it solvent if I play the part of your mistress for an indefinite period of time until I fall pregnant?”
Saying it aloud made it sound a lot more worrisome than the concept had in her mind. Not to mention, unbelievable.
Even considering his grandfather’s stubborn attitude about their dissolved marriage, Ariston didn’t need to negotiate to have her in his bed. He’d already proven that this afternoon.
Yes, there was the child issue, she supposed. For him, that was clearly the bigger one.
“Mistress is an old-fashioned term that implies I have other conjugal responsibilities. I do not. You would be my lover, and should you get pregnant—”
“And carry the baby to term.” They couldn’t forget that little gem of a caveat.
“Ne. Yes, and give birth to my child …”
“I would then be expected to marry you,” she finished for him.
He nodded. “And should you be tempted to renegotiate terms at that time, we will have the aforementioned ironclad contract, witnessed in both New York and Athens, in place.”
“And presumably, I will sign this contract for the sake of the hundreds of employees of Dioletis Industries and their families that would be adversely affected if you don’t do your business voodoo with Dioletis Industries.”
“And your sister. You’ve said you would do anything to help her save her marriage and maintain her own happiness. This is your opportunity to prove the veracity of your words.”
Wow. So, yeah … they’d never really been in the same place. She was convinced that since reaching adulthood, and probably a good time before that, this man had never been as vulnerable to someone else’s whims as Chloe had at twenty.
“Doesn’t it bother you to take advantage of someone else like this?” And how different from her father was Ariston really if he could do it so easily?
There was no mistaking the look of offense sliding over his features. “You’ll become the wife of a billionaire. I do not see where that is taking advantage.”
The man really was too arrogant for words.
“Right. What’s yet another relationship between us without love?”
“Again with the love thing? Understand this—I do not believe in it.”
“Why not?” She had her own ideas about it, but wanted to hear his own words on the subject.
“I have seen too much evidence that love makes the worst basis possible for marriage. My father has claimed to love every one of his six wives, and my mother loves every man she takes to her bed. Love is at best an excuse to follow one’s libido. A contract, when each side cannot mistake the terms, is a much better basis for marriage.”
“Wow.” Cynical much? Though she really couldn’t blame him. “Not everyone loves like your parents.” And the contract thing sure hadn’t worked for them the first time around.
Though if she were to say that, she had no doubt he’d blame her for subverting the terms.
“Shannon claimed to love me and I was certain that I loved her, but when I discovered her perfidy, I was far more angry than hurt.”
Chloe had no doubt Ariston had loved the schemer, because the relationship had had way too big an impact on him for anything but real emotion. She didn’t contradict him, though.
She found the idea of trying to convince Ariston he had in fact loved another woman nausea-producing.
Regardless, considering his views on the subject, she didn’t think bringing up her love for him would help their current situation, or dialogue.
She knew Ariston loved his grandfather. Maybe the old Greek was the only person Ariston was capable of feeling such a tender emotion toward nowadays.
He had no affectionate feelings for his parents that she’d ever been able to discern. Not that they had done anything to engender even a mild liking. Balios and Evia Spiridakou were sociopathically selfish and always had been from everything she’d heard. They were certainly worse than neglectful parents to Ariston.
The American socialite and the Greek playboy had divorced when Ariston was young, splitting custody equally between them. He’d grown up living half the year in New York and half the year in Athens. The latter half was better, according to Ariston, because he’d spent thos
e months living in his grandfather’s home with his father popping in and out like a self-centered genie.
Ariston had never shared what he’d suffered because of them, but he’d told Chloe once that the only place he felt safe as a child was with his grandfather.
They arrived at their destination and she realized it was her hotel. Despite their family’s dwindling coffers, her sister had booked Chloe in at a five-star hotel. Rhea was insistent that appearances had to be maintained for the sake of the business.
Ariston moved as if to exit the car with her. “I’ll see you inside. We still have much to discuss.”
If he came up to her room, they might well talk, but she wasn’t naive enough to believe that was all that would happen. “Right. First payments on the contract,” she offered flippantly before stepping out of the car.
He took her arm and led her into the Park Avenue entrance. “Wouldn’t that have been this afternoon?”
“I didn’t know about your proposition then, so how could it?” she asked as her heels clicked an angry tattoo across the marble floor of the lobby.
Not that this evening could be either, since she hadn’t actually agreed to what he was proposing.
She wasn’t entirely sure she was going to allow things to end up in bed, but she wasn’t sure she wouldn’t either. She felt like an accident victim … shocky and in need of physical connection. He was here, and if she could choose to be held by anyone, no matter how odd it might seem, Ariston was at the top of her list at present.
He wouldn’t have been, even a day ago.
How had things changed so quickly? Or had they not changed at all, only her willingness to admit to them—if only to herself?
“No, you did not,” he said as he guided her into the elevator. “Why did you have sex with me? Maybe it was your version of falling at my feet on behalf of the Dioletis Industries employees. Considering how explosive we always were in bed, it wasn’t a bad strategy.”
She spun to face him. “I wasn’t the one who started it!”
“No, but you made no objections once I did. I have to wonder why.”
“Are you really that insecure? Because you are the dead-sexiest man I’ve ever met. Is that plain-speaking enough for you?” She turned away.
Idiot. He was such a corporate shark, he couldn’t think of any reason for sex other than a business ploy. He probably had made the move on her in order to influence her response to his proposition. She could hardly deny now that she still wanted him, but she wouldn’t have anyway.
“I’m glad to hear it.”
“I’m sure you are.”
When they reached her room, she silently let him inside.
Ariston sighed. “I had no ulterior motives for what happened earlier in my office either. I have never made a secret of how much I enjoy your body.”
Some of the tension drained from Chloe. At least he hadn’t been trying to manipulate her with sex. That would have just felt so darn tawdry—and frankly, his proposal was bad enough.
She put her purse away in the armoire and slipped out of heels she hadn’t worn in two years before today. She’d changed from her suit earlier to a simple black dress that had once been her favorite for dinner.
Now all she wanted was out of it and into comfy clothes for this discussion, but that wasn’t going to happen. “Takis is a very stubborn man. He hasn’t even seen me in two years.”
“Not by his choice.”
She jerked around to face Ariston, who stood in the middle of the simple guest room, watching her intently.
“He wanted to see me?” she demanded.
The old man had called a few times, but Chloe had found their conversations painful and ducked his calls for the most part. He’d never mentioned wanting to come visit in any of their brief phone calls. He’d also never said anything about the fact he still considered her and Ariston married, though he had mentioned she was still his granddaughter. Perhaps the old man felt the former went without saying.
“He did.”
As far as she knew, the older man had never stepped off his native Greek soil. “He wanted to come to the States, to see me?”
Ariston inclined his head in agreement.
“But you prevented him.”
At that he laughed, just as he’d done when they were married … when she’d thought they were happy. “No one tells Pappous what to do. His health prevented him.”
“Or what to think, apparently. So he really still considers me your wife?” she asked with a slight smile, tickled by the old man’s intransigence.
“He considers our divorce a youthful indiscretion on my part.”
“I was the one who walked out.” She didn’t feel like smiling anymore. “And you were thirty, hardly a youth.”
Despite what his grandfather claimed, Ariston had been fully cognizant of what he was doing.
“It is my grandfather’s perspective,” Ariston said with a shrug. “To bring him joy in his final years, I would do much.”
“Final years?”
“He is not a young man.”
“You said he had problems with his health. What kind?” she asked, unable to keep the question back now her worry for the old man was growing.
“He’s been diagnosed with Parkinson’s. He’s responding to treatment, but his age complicates things.” Both regret and determination laced Ariston’s tone.
Chloe reached out and laid her hand over his heart. “I’m sorry. He’s a very special person. I’ve missed him.”
It wasn’t hard to admit. Chloe and Takis had been close.
“As am I.” Ariston covered her hand with his own, his eyes for once revealing his thoughts with almost pure transparency.
Ariston was hurting and he felt helpless. He wanted to give his grandfather the one thing he’d ever asked Ariston for, an heir to their empire. Another grandchild to love as he had loved Ariston.
Realizing that he might well be feeling the same need for physical closeness she was, if for wholly different reasons, she reached up to kiss him.
He drew her close, taking over the kiss and showing her just how close he wanted to get physically.
CHAPTER SIX
CHLOE woke the next morning to the sound of rustling movement. Her eyes fluttered open and she saw Ariston leaning over his briefcase he’d propped on the room’s desk.
She blinked at the alarm clock on the bedside table and groaned. “You always were an early riser.”
He looked over his shoulder. “You are awake.”
“And you’ve already showered.” She tugged the sheet to her chest and sat up in the bed. “Are you leaving?”
“We still have a few things to discuss.” He turned to face her completely and she noticed he held a thick, bound document.
The cover was red with Spiridakous & Sons Enterprises logo in the center.
“What is that?” she asked.
He handed it to Chloe. “Tell your sister she has forty-eight hours to accept or decline the terms outlined here.”
“Aren’t you taking a lot for granted?” She hadn’t agreed to his proposition.
“Am I?” He looked pointedly at the rumpled bed sheets. “You didn’t balk at the terms of my deal last night.”
“Last night wasn’t about the deal.”
“Wasn’t it?”
She glared up at him. “No.”
“Are you turning me down?”
“Is that what last night was? You trying to convince me?”
“I’ve made no secret of the fact that I want you back in my bed.”
“And a baby for your grandfather’s old age.”
Ariston shrugged, the prospectus in his hand a red beacon forcing her to face the reality of what he was both offering and asking.
Was Chloe going to do it? Was she going to agree to his terms, return to his bed … to the agreement they made five years ago? Give him the child she’d intended to the first time around?
She’d walked out on him because she’d th
ought he didn’t value their marriage, never mind not return her love. She’d been wrong, though. He had valued their marriage. Even though he’d believed her guilty of circumventing the contract, Ariston had intended to talk to her before divorcing her.
Would he have followed through with the divorce after she admitted why she’d put off getting pregnant? With his attitude toward love, her confession might actually have tipped him toward filing the papers rather than having them shredded.
They would never know what would have happened two years ago if they’d talked out his anger and her worries, but they had a chance at a new future now.
Did she want to take it? Did she have a choice? If she turned him down, Rhea and the employees of Dioletis Industries would all pay the price.
“Chloe?” Ariston prompted.
“Just thinking.”
“About my offer?” he asked.
“Yes. And the past.”
“The past has little bearing on the present.”
“I think you’re wrong.” She’d walked away from him and with her best efforts, admitted—if only to herself—that the life she’d been living the past two years had been muted.
Dulled by grief at losing her best chance at love, drained of the sparkle being around a man as dynamic as Ariston had given to her days.
“I made a life for myself,” she said softly. “It’s not empty.” It really wasn’t. Not as exciting as her life with him, but absolutely not without its own benefits. “I have friends, an occupation I find both interesting and challenging, a position within my community.”
“But you do not have me.”
“You talk like you think I love you.”
The familiar look of derision at the mention of that word came over his features, but then it morphed into a smile. “You enjoyed our life together. You enjoyed being my wife.”
“And yet I walked away from it.”
“Why?” he asked, sitting on the side of the bed, his intense focus wholly on her in a way it rarely had ever been except when making love. “You said we wanted different things. You thought I wanted a divorce.”
“I wanted love,” she admitted, thinking this might well be the moment he tossed that red folio back into his briefcase and walked out of the hotel room.
