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“I did.”
“Name them.”
“Your health.”
“What about my health?” Sheesh … he acted as if she was just out of hospital or something.
“It could take months for you to gain back the weight you’ve lost since the divorce.”
“So?”
“So, you will not be getting pregnant until that happens.”
“Again, so?”
“It occurred to me that putting off the marriage was unnecessary unless I believed you were going to once again cheat me.”
“I didn’t cheat you—” she began to hotly deny, but he interrupted her.
“So you maintain, but we must agree to disagree on our perception of your actions.”
“How magnanimous of you.” She wasn’t being sarcastic.
For a man of his temperament to agree to disagree was no small concession. The man liked being right almost as much as he liked making money.
“Yes, well … it also occurred to me that you might feel more settled in your return to your normal life with the assurance of a legal bond between us.”
“Wasn’t the contract going to be the legal bond?” she asked with some confusion, while reeling at the reality he considered their marriage her normal life.
What had the last two years been? Some kind of temporary aberration?
“If there is one thing I have come to understand about you in the past weeks, it is that you and I do not place the same importance on a signed contract.”
There was no arguing that point. “So, you’ve decided we should get married now?”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t think that maybe you should have asked me if that’s what I wanted?”
The slight flare in his azure eyes said better than words that clearly he had not. “You had already agreed to the terms.”
“Yes, but I didn’t expect to become Mrs. Spiridakou in two days’ time at the courthouse.”
“You never ceased to be Mrs. Spiridakou. You retained my name.”
“Yes, but I dropped the Mrs. and you know it.”
He frowned in acknowledgment of that truth. “Now or later, it should not matter.”
“But according to you, it does matter to me.” He wanted her to feel secure in her life—he’d said so.
It was actually really rather sweet and very thoughtful, further proof that Ariston wasn’t exactly like her father used to be. They both might be business sharks, but Ariston had a heart.
Even if he wouldn’t admit it. And maybe she wasn’t the only one he was thinking needed the bonds of marriage between them.
“Are you refusing to marry me?”
“Are you asking?” she pressed, no longer against the idea, but not ready to give in yet either.
“Are you saying I have to?” His business-shark mask fell away to be replaced by an out-and-out glare.
“Yes.”
She didn’t care if what they had was a business arrangement, they were getting married again. And for her, that was personal. Deeply so.
Giving no clue to what he was about to do, Ariston silently got up from the couch and walked over to his desk. He opened the top drawer and pulled something out before coming back to her.
He stopped at the end of the sofa closest to where she sat. “I am not a romantic man.”
“This isn’t a matter of romance.” For him at least. What her heart got out of it wasn’t any of his business, since he’d made it plain that he had no interest in that organ. “It is a matter of respect.”
Understanding tinged with relief crossed his masculine features. “In that case …”
He dropped to one knee. Right there, in the middle of his office, on the hand-stitched Turkish carpet.
He lifted the object in his hand toward her and she recognized the jeweler’s exclusive and distinctive packaging on what turned out to be a ring box. It wasn’t the same jeweler her original engagement and wedding ring had come from. It was the one whose catalog Ariston had found her thumbing through six months after they were married.
She’d told him how much she liked their exclusive line of chocolate diamonds.
He flipped the box open. “Marry me, Chloe.”
She reached out to touch the ring. It was a large square-cut chocolate diamond set in yellow gold. Another preference she’d shared with him despite the popularity of platinum amongst their set. On either side of the center stone was a cluster of white diamonds.
“It’s beautiful,” she whispered in awe.
“Beautiful enough to wear for the rest of your life?” he asked carefully.
That really was the question, wasn’t it? Did she want to spend a lifetime with this man? She’d walked away before, believing her love deserved to be returned. She still hoped that one day it would be, but she’d realized something about love in their two years apart.
