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“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 thought 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.
