Not Just the Greek's Wife

chapter FIVE


FEELING as if she was starring in her own one-act tragedy, Chloe headed out of the restaurant.

How could he expect her to give up their child? Not only a part of her, but a part of him?

Her eyes burned, her throat going tight. She hadn’t hurt this much since the day she’d left Greece.

Even the day their divorce had become final, her grief had been muted by the knowledge she’d had no choice but to leave and the divorce had been inevitable.

His having the papers drawn up had been irrefutable proof to her that no matter how hot the sex between them, no matter how tenderly he sometimes treated her, the reality was that Ariston had seen her as nothing but a business deal. When she’d finally really accepted that, she’d known she had to walk away before she lost herself as her mother had done.

Only she’d now learned that her own actions had precipitated one of the most painful moments of her life—reading those coldly precise divorce papers.

She’d thought she was protecting herself, but in reality she’d undermined her own chances with the man she loved.

She knew how his brain worked. He would have decided she was a cheat, an operator out for what she could get without giving what she promised.

She knew she had every intention of giving the Spiridakous the heir they were so keen on—just not until he admitted he wanted her for more than three years. But he wouldn’t have assumed any such thing.

He did not have a trusting nature.

Realizing Ariston had discovered her use of birth control gave their entire marriage and the end of it a different interpretation. She’d said it didn’t matter when he’d found out, but realized that it did.

Very much.

Had he known from day one? Nausea rolled through her at the prospect.

He hadn’t said so, but she knew Ariston had to have been beyond furious once he’d learned of the birth control. And yet, she’d never even guessed he knew.

Either Ariston was an amazing prevaricator … or she’d meant so little to him that even what he would have seen as betrayal didn’t impact how he treated her.

Not that that would be a surprise. Not anymore.

However, the knowledge that he’d had sex with her—repeatedly—while thinking she was a cheat and a liar made her body clammy with sweat as the nausea made her stomach cramp.

His emotions had never been engaged with her. Not even a little. Not even when she’d been so sure they were.

She remembered a party they’d attended together toward the end of their marriage. They’d gone because Ariston wanted to make a business contact. He’d even said so.

But when she’d come down from their bedroom dressed in a teal sheath that dipped with a sexy cowl in the back and hugged her curves in all the right places, Ariston’s eyes had heated with something she’d been sure at the time was more than lust.

“You look beautiful tonight.”

Chloe smiled up at her husband, her heart rate jumping at the look in his gorgeous cerulean eyes. “Thank you. You clean up pretty nicely yourself.”

He looked amazing in his tailored tuxedo.

“I wish we didn’t have this party to go to tonight.”

His words shocked and thrilled her and Chloe beamed. “Maybe we won’t stay too late?”

“Maybe they’ll be lucky if we remain through the appetizers,” he growled as he kissed her with a tender passion he’d been showing more and more lately.

“Your grandfather called and wants us at his house in Piraeus this weekend,” she said after reapplying her lipstick and straightening his black silk bowtie.

“He adores you and it is easy to understand why. You are good to him.”

“I’m good to you, too,” she teased.

Ariston grinned, the smile reaching his eyes as it didn’t with most people. “Yes, yineka mou, you are.”

On the way to the party, he surprised her with a very special gift. “I’ve arranged for you to take drawing lessons from …” He named an eminent artist Chloe would have been in awe over meeting, much less taking any sort of lesson from.

“I didn’t know he went in for private tutoring.”

“He does not.”

“But he made an exception for you,” she guessed. “He made the exception for you, my very precious wife.”

They didn’t even stay at the party long enough for the main course to be set out on the buffet. Ariston missed the opportunity to talk to the businessman he’d intended to meet, but had dismissed Chloe’s concerns with a wave of his hand as he ushered her out of the crowded mansion. “Some things are more important than business.”

In that moment Chloe had believed she was one of them.

When she’d learned the contrary, the emotional devastation had left her existing in a wasteland that nearly cost her health.

Coming back into the present, Chloe felt her knees buckle and she stumbled, bumping into a man on the sidewalk. He said something to her, but she didn’t hear him. She was too focused inward.

He grabbed her arm and shouted something about snotty rich bitches thinking they owned the sidewalks. She raised her head, thinking she needed to apologize, but she didn’t get the chance.

Ariston was there, yanking the man away, his bodyguards closing in to put a protective barrier between Chloe and everyone else.

Warm hands cupped her face. “You’re freezing.” He cursed in Greek and English. “You’re in shock.”

She didn’t say anything, just stared at him while too many thoughts vied for her attention. She had no hope of grasping hold of any single one of them.

“So, the prospect of having a child does this to you. Even now? Or is it the thought of having my child?”

“It’s not that,” she denied, her voice made weak by her distress, but the emotion behind her words vehement enough to make her brain work again. “I can’t believe you found …” She shook her head. “You would have been so angry.”

“I was livid,” he admitted, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “No man likes to be played the fool.”

Especially not a business shark like him. “No. You wouldn’t. But I never knew.”

“I guess we both were good at hiding things.”

“How good was I?” She needed to know. She didn’t care if he thought it mattered. It did to her.

“What do you mean?”

“When did you find out?” she asked, only now realizing he’d been moving her toward a limousine with its back door open the whole time they’d been talking.

He tried to usher her inside, but she balked. “Tell me.”

“A month before we left New York.”

“No …” It was almost funny in a macabre kind of way.

Because by then, she’d decided even if it was a baby holding them together it was worth keeping her marriage to the man she loved with her whole heart. She’d stopped taking her pills almost a month before that, but hadn’t gotten pregnant.

She wasn’t sure at first, though—those first two weeks after returning to the States she’d lived in a state of dread. The idea of staying married to him under the circumstances had been untenable. Not only that, but the contract hadn’t specified what happened if she had a baby after the marriage ended.

All custody parameters might have been negated by her timing.

She climbed into the limo without further protest, her movements clumsy and awkward.

They’d driven in silence for several minutes when he made a sound of exasperation. “I did not say you would have to give up our child. You are the one who suggested it.”

He still believed that’s what she was upset about? She was. Really upset. The very idea horrified her. But even such a despicable plan paled in comparison to the knowledge that her effort to protect herself had been the reason she lost her marriage and the love of her life.

She tried to tell herself it had been for the best. What kind of life would they have had together with him caring so little for her?

More memories of the life they had shared flashed through her mind, taunting her with how happy she’d been. Yes, there had been moments of pain, days she’d despaired in her unrequited love, but there’d been so many more when she’d simply been blissfully happy.

It was no use trying to deny it. She would have taken that life and with gratitude.

Two years on, she was no longer convinced love on one side wasn’t enough. Not when the other side respected their marriage vows and provided the kind of passion in intimacy that most women only dreamed about.

Okay, so he hadn’t adored her, or anything like that, but he’d been kind to her—when he remembered she existed. No question his position with SSE had come first, but she’d never expected anything different.

Yes, it hurt to love unrequited, but Chloe now knew how much more it hurt to walk away from that love. Especially when his lack of emotional commitment to her had not shown itself until she’d read those divorce papers.

Ariston had done marriage really well.

She couldn’t change the past, though. No matter how much she might want to. She couldn’t say, “Oops, maybe I should have waited to walk out.”

Even now, knowing everything, she was still fairly certain she’d done the right thing.

She dashed at eyes now spilling. She had to get herself together. And get out of this limousine.

He made an exasperated sound and she looked up at him.

“Stop looking so damn tragic. If you become pregnant and carry my child to term successfully, I will marry you.”

“What?” Nothing was making sense here. He had not just offered her the world on a platter. Him and a baby, too. “You said not marriage.”

“I told you, a modification of our original agreement.”

“That agreement was never between you and me.” And hadn’t that been part of the problem? “We were our family’s pawns.”

“I do not play chess, Chloe. You know this. I will never play the pawn.” He reclined against the opposite seat, his body’s relaxed pose belied by the tension in his blue eyes.

“But you only married me because your grandfather wanted great-grandchildren.”

“Considering all that he has done for me, is it so strange I should seek to give him what he wants? Even now?”

So, it was still about his grandfather. She could not be surprised. The fact that Ariston wanted Chloe to be the mother of the grandchild he was determined to provide the old man was, however.

“You are so sure I would be willing to marry you in that case?” Even she didn’t know what she’d do in that case.

“You will sign an ironclad contract to that effect, one that will guarantee you lose primary custody of our child should you refuse to do so,” he said with the air of a man who had recently discovered his biggest bargaining chip and had no hesitations about using it.

“I—”

“Come, you know you were content enough to be my wife before. In certain cases, even passionately so.” The look he gave her said he referred to their incredible compatibility in the bedroom. “Do not deny it. You walked out because you thought I planned to divorce you. This is our chance at a do-over.”

“You did plan to divorce me, and I walked out because our marriage was a business sham.”

“Our marriage was more compatible than any I’ve seen based on so-called love.”

“Rhea and Samuel—”

“Are on the brink of divorce.”

She couldn’t deny it. “But there are loads of people who are happily married and love each other.”

“Not in our world.”

“Even in our world. What about Leiandros Kiriakis and his wife, Savannah? They’ve been married for nearly a decade and are still very much in love.”

“You barely know them. You only see the surface of their relationship.”

“It’s real. The love between them is real.” Even knowing them as little as she did, she couldn’t doubt it. “Besides, they aren’t the only ones. There’s Demitri and Alexandra Petronides. You remember the scandal around their marriage, but they weathered the storm and are still very much in love.”

Ariston frowned. “We aren’t talking about our acquaintances right now, Chloe. We have things far more personal to discuss.”

“What is more personal than love?”

“For us? A great deal.”

She stared at him, trying to understand why he was so against the concept of marital love. His parents had a lot to answer for, she knew, but after what he’d shared in the restaurant, she wondered if Shannon might have even more to do with it.

But if he wanted to focus on them, that’s what she’d do. “If I had been content, I never would have left Athens without you.”

“Your father instigated that, and now I have to wonder if he didn’t do it on purpose.”

A shard of pain went through her heart as Chloe realized how very real that possibility was. Her father had made his plans and her marriage wasn’t going to stand in the way. “It doesn’t matter. He didn’t make up the divorce papers. You had them drawn up.”

“Surely you expected nothing else. You prevented any hope of our marriage lasting beyond the three years by preventing the conception of my child.”

She’d come to that conclusion herself and found it no less palatable having him say it aloud. “I did not think you would stick to the letter of the contract.”

“Why should I do anything else?”

No reason. Certainly not because he loved her and needed her in his life, or anything. She swallowed back any reply she might want to make and turned her face toward the window.

He sighed from the other side of the car. “I had the papers drawn in a fit of rage, but I would not have served you with them without clarifying matters between us first.”

That got her attention back on him. “What?”

“Unlike you, I had no intention of throwing away our marriage without first finding out why you’d been using the birth control.”

“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 those 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.