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"I didn't have a choice," she admitted. "You were in Greece and it wasn't something I was going to tell you over the phone."
"I spend more than half of my life in New York. You expected my imminent return," he correctly guessed. "We met there?"
"Yes. I was in town visiting my dad. We met outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I was planning to take in an exhibit while Dad was in a meeting and you were headed to lunch with someone else. You cancelled and spent the afternoon with me instead."
It had shocked and delighted her that he had acted as affected by her as she had been by him. It had taken her a while to realize her effect on him was mainly sexual while he had come to dominate her heart, her body and her thoughts.
"You said you were visiting your father? You did not live in New York?"
She shook her head. "I lived in a small town upstate. That's where we were headed when we were hit by the truck."
"You feel badly about this?"
He knew her better than he should, considering she was nothing but a stranger to him. "Yes. If we had stayed in the city, the accident would not have happened."
"These things happen. It was not your fault."
He was wrong. Her bombshell had been just that, even though she'd convinced herself that her asking for a divorce would hardly impact him. If he, or their baby, had died because of her poor timing, she would never have forgiven herself.
His vibrant blue eyes narrowed. "We live in Greece."
She knew what he was asking without him saying the words. Why not New York when he spent so much time there? "You wanted your children raised in your home country," she said.
His brow creased. "I've decreased my trips to New York in the last year or so."
Not enough, but, "Yes."
"I am not having an affair with Kassandra."
"But you have had." She'd always suspected, but he'd refused to discuss it.
Never once had he denied that the two had slept together, but he'd been unwilling to talk about it if they had. And because she hadn't been sure that Kassandra was even sexually active, she hadn't pressed. Now she realized how silly she'd ever been to think the reason he had held himself back from the woman was because of her innocence.
Kassandra was as innocent as a viper.
"My relationships before I met you are not up for discussion."
"So you've said before, but are you so sure your relationship with her ended before we met?"
"When did we meet?"
"Almost three years ago."
The look of confused uncertainty on his face was like taking a rapier thrust to the heart.
"You were lovers, weren't you? And you can't be sure it ended before we met because the timing was that close, wasn't it?"
He let her go with the speed of a snake retreating and stepped back. "This conversation is pointless, you know I can't remember."
"How convenient."
"Do you think I do not want to answer you?"
"You said earlier that you know yourself well and that you would not sleep with a woman besides your wife, but your uncertainty now undermines that assertion, don't you think?"
He rubbed his forehead with his thumb and forefinger. "No, damn it. I know I would never respect myself if I had an affair when I was married."
"Which does not preclude you having her as your lover at the same time you were seeing me. After all, our relationship was hardly a committed one, no matter what daydreams I wove around you at the time."
"What do you mean?" he asked, his tension palpable.
"We were together well over a year before I got pregnant and you never once asked me to Greece to meet your family. Heck, you didn't even invite me to have dinner with you and your brother when he was in town. There were times I felt like your dirty secret and the funny thing is, before I met you, I would have said I would give a guy a verbal kick in the teeth for treating me that way."
He'd certainly changed after their marriage, insisting she meet everyone from the receptionist at Kouros Industries' headquarters to his second cousin who lived in Turkey. But privately she'd always wondered if that had been for the sake of their baby, or for her. He had been so proud about his first foray into fatherhood.
"Your other lovers all took you home to meet their parents?" he asked cynically.
"There were no other lovers. Sex was never a casual thing for me. I planned to wait until I got married."
"Are you implying I seduced you?"
"Is it seduction when a woman has no thought of saying no?" She sighed. "This is getting us nowhere."
She turned and headed for the door. "I'll see you at dinner."
"Eden."
She stopped with her hand on the doorframe. "What?"
"You are my wife now."
"So the certificate in your study says."
"It is more than a piece of paper…I am your husband."
She looked back over her shoulder, taking in his ferocious tension.
She indicated the room with a sweep of her hand. "As you said to me in the hospital…the evidence is not in your favor."
CHAPTER SEVEN
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"I am surprised you let Eden stray so far from your side." The deep male voice belonged to Aristide's business associate and friend, Leiandros Kiriakis.
Aristide gritted his teeth against making an irritated retort and forced himself to face the other man with an expression of equanimity. "Leiandros, it is good to see you."
"You have recently returned from New York, have you not?"
"A week ago."
"Then I am doubly surprised Eden is more than six inches from your side. That is unlike you."
Was the other man implying that Aristide usually hung around his wife like a lost puppy? The image did not sit well and he frowned.
He had made the choice not to share his amnesia with anyone but family, so he could not expect a tactful handling of anomalies in his demeanor toward Eden. And, being honest with himself, he had to admit his annoyance did not stem from Leiandros noting the strange behavior anyway. It resulted from the fact that Eden had been straying from Aristide's side since the night she'd moved him out of their bedroom.
She had closed herself off from him, maintaining a definite emotional distance and going so far as to create a physical one when possible as well. She avoided sharing any meal but dinner with him and then she barely spoke to him. And she only tolerated his nightly presence during Theo's bath time because she wanted their son to maintain his sense of security. She had as much as told Aristide so.
He hadn't realized how much of herself she had left open to him until her manner had altered so significantly. Even having only the short time in New York and the drive from the airport to compare it to, her change toward him was so marked, he could not mistake it.
And while she was busy ignoring him, he was fully occupied trying to interpret the reaction of his family and others toward Eden. Their staff adored his rather quiet wife and, regardless of what she had implied about their marriage in New York, his mother treated Eden with a great deal of affection. It was nothing like the way she had reacted to Andrea Demakis. And Rachel was just as accepting of her sister-in-law.
Vincent and Sebastian's attitude toward Aristide's wife was one of warm indulgence. He would not have said either man was easily fooled, but Eden might be the consummate actress.
Not only that, but his own pride could well have spurred him to act like he was happy in his marriage no matter what had brought it about. Three irrefutable facts kept him wary toward his tempting little wife. One, even Eden admitted he had married her because she was pregnant. She claimed it had not been a trap, but she would hardly say anything else.
Two, he had forgotten her and all the research he had done on his condition pointed to the probability he had forgotten her because he subconsciously wanted or needed to. And three, she wielded power over his libido and emotions that no other woman ever had. That made her dangerous. Strong evidence of that fact was that, no matter how wary he felt toward her, Eden's current attempt to hold him at a distance really bothered him.
"Aristide?" Leiandros looked concerned.
Well he might. Aristide was staring across the room like a man in a trance. His pride balked at the picture he made.
"She is enjoying herself," he said, trying to explain his own apparently unusual behavior and save face.
She stood on the other side of the room, laughing with a group of his friends, yet they were people that knew her infinitely better than he did because of his memory loss. That knowledge brought him an unpleasant sensation of jealousy.
"No doubt, but I would say you are not, my friend." The knowing in Leiandros's eyes was as bad as being with his brother, Sebastian.
