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Aristide frowned, as if her tone bothered him. "Where is he?"
"At your brother's. It was already arranged and I didn't want to disappoint Rachel's children."
He nodded as if he understood that. "The staff are all gone too."
"They had the night off."
"Because of our dinner plans?"
"Yes."
His blue eyes filled with sensual speculation. "Presumably orchestrated so we would have privacy upon our return."
She just stared at him.
"Is that why you were crying? Because I had rescheduled our dinner?" he asked, sounding like he couldn't believe such a trivial matter could elicit her grief-stricken response.
"It doesn't matter."
It was his turn to simply look at her, his gentian blue gaze locked with hers for an eternity of seconds. "It will be all right, Eden."
She shook her head, the tears starting again, no matter how much she wanted to hold them back. "It won't be all right, not ever again. How can it be?"
He had married her for the sake of their unborn child—now, would she stay married to him for the sake of both Theo and the unborn child he had forgotten even existed? No joy there. No hope of a future happiness, just years stretching ahead loving a man who didn't even remember making her his wife.
"You have to trust me."
"Trust you?" she asked, the concept unbelievable in her current circumstances. "You're just like my dad. I didn't see it at first, but that's because I was blinded by my own love for you." She gave a brittle laugh. "Like mother, like daughter."
"What do you mean?"
"Dad hurt my mom because he didn't really care about her either. Oh, he took care of her when she had cancer…much like you make sure I have everything I need, I suppose. And he acted grief-stricken when she died, but if he had really loved her, he couldn't have continued having affairs like he did."
"I am not having an affair," Aristide ground out.
"But you will keep hurting me until there isn't anything left."
"You have drawn this conclusion because I rescheduled one dinner date?" he asked with disbelief,
"I came to this conclusion because it is our reality!" She hated that he couldn't remember, that he looked at her now with incredulity. "I made a really big mistake getting involved with you to begin with, but I compounded it by marrying you."
And there was no way out… but how could she stay married to a man programmed to hurt her because he could not love her?
She started crying again, collapsing against his chest from a pain too intense to be borne. He did not try to calm her down this time, but silently held her, as if he understood this awful pain inside of her and her need to get it out. He couldn't possibly, but knowing that didn't seem to matter. His arms were a strong haven in a world she had stopped being able to tolerate and she desperately needed him to hold her.
She wept until there were no tears left and her throat was raw from her hoarse sobs. Even after she quieted, he held her. His silence helped her calm down better than any empty words could have done. She didn't know how long her crying jag had lasted, but she felt utterly drained of emotion.
Eventually, she stirred. "I've soaked your shirt." She spoke against his chest, unwilling to look into his face.
"As I said, I planned to change." He sounded curiously subdued.
Perhaps having a hysterical wife that he couldn't remember crying all over him was too much for even Aristide's strong constitution.
Feeling uncomfortable in his embrace now that she had calmed down, she went to move off of his lap. "I guess you'd better get to it then."
"Not yet." His arms tightened around her so she could not move. "Tell me why you were crying."
She couldn't believe he couldn't understand. "Is it just you, or are all tycoons this dense when it comes to emotions?"
"I am not dense."
"As a London fog…oh, yes, you are."
"Why do you say that?"
"You asked me why I was crying." She sighed and let herself rest against him, too spent to fight or hide her peace at the contact.
He would push her away all too soon and she could go back to being a pregnant island in the hurricane of her life.
"And for this you believe I am stupid?"
"Yes."
He laughed harshly, the sound reverberating through her pliant body. "Were you always this unimpressed with me?"
"That's why I was crying."
"Because you think I am stupid and you are worried about the impact that will have on our son?" he teased, though his body was too tense for the words to come off as lighthearted as he obviously intended.
"Because you don't know how I felt before…because you forgot me. It was the final straw in a marriage that should never have happened to begin with."
The words hung between them for several seconds in utter silence. She could hear her heart beating, or was that his?
CHAPTER NINE
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"I am sorry."
"Why? You're convinced I deserved it."
"No, I am not."
She wasn't buying it. He just didn't want her to start crying again. "Look, you'd better let me up. You've got things to do and so do I."
"What do you have to do?"
"Go dry off."
He laughed again; this time the sound was a little more natural. "I think we could both use a towel."
"Like you said, it's a good thing you planned on changing anyway. And speaking of…" she said, reminding him of his dinner engagement.
"You are making a habit of trying to send me away," he teased, making obvious reference to that morning as well.
Incapable of sharing his humor, she said sadly, "Usually, you are content to go."
He sighed as if acknowledging her mood. "Why did you not join Sebastian and Rachel this evening?"
"You're so sure they invited me?"
"Yes."
"That's quite an admission."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, that would imply that they like me a whole lot more than you do…which might mean you were wrong in your assessment of my character, wouldn't you say?"
"I have not said I do not like you…merely that I do not know you and am wary of our reasons for marrying."
He was slick at wiggling out of a tight spot, but she just shrugged. "If you say so."
"You did not answer my initial question."
And he wasn't going to let up until she did. "I didn't go with Theo to their house because I didn't feel like being around company tonight, all right?"
"You preferred to stay home and cry a river?"
"Something like that." She hadn't planned on the tears, but after all she'd been through recently, they were pretty much inevitable.
"I do not like seeing you cry." He sounded disgruntled by the admission.
"Don't let it worry you. It doesn't mean I'm anything special to you. You don't like seeing any woman cry."
"You are my wife. That is pretty special."
"You married me because I was pregnant with your son. That doesn't make me special, it only means I'm fertile."
"How can you make me laugh when my brain is telling me tragedy surrounds you like a shield?"
She shrugged. "Call it a gift."
He rubbed the top of her head with his chin, his arms wrapped tightly around her as if he could protect her from her pain. "I can't leave you like this."
"Sure you can."
"Do not tell me I have done so before."
"I'm not much of a cry baby."
"Which neatly sidesteps ray question."
"I wasn't aware you asked a question. You made a statement. I didn't rebut it. You should be feeling vindicated in making it."
"Then why do I not?"
"I don't know."
"My family raked me over the coals at lunch today."
"Why?"
'Taking you for granted."
"They don't understand our marriage." And why she was making excuses for him when she agreed with his family, she didn't know.
He just sounded so bewildered by his family's censure. He wasn't used to it, that was for sure. She was pretty surprised herself. She'd never witnessed Sebastian, much less Phillippa, taking Aristide to task for anything.
"What is different about our marriage and that of my brother and his wife?"
"They love each other."
"And we do not?"
