Page 6 of The Reason for His Wife's Return

The unusual break in her usually infuriatingly even temper goaded his own. Gritting his jaw, he carefully measured his words. “Fifteen years ago, you broke your promise. But we were young and foolish and it’s...long over. As to your second question—”

“Wait, so you actually noticed that I broke our engagement back then?”

CHAPTER TWO

DARKGRAYEYESwatched Mira carefully, searching, seeking, delving. A predator who wouldn’t stop until he had the prey, squirming in place, giving him everything he demanded.

God, why was she digging into things better left alone?

And how was it that Aristos became calmer and quieter the angrier he grew—for all his usual high spirits—while she lost her temper and started yelling like a fishwife at the market?

Mira pressed her face into her hands, calling herself all kinds of names. Even the gesture was betraying of her state of mind and she immediately corrected it.

He was still watching her, those thick brows tied into a frown. Examining her from all the angles. Turning her inside out.

Say something to distract him, Mira. Do something.

She could hear it in Yana’s voice. Yana, who thought herself an expert on men and was forever giving her and Nush advice on how to deal with them.

But nothing came to Mira. Not when her rational mind was lost in devouring the stunningly gorgeous man in front of her who was by all rights her husband. Not when she didn’t understand anything but the desire thrumming through her.

Thick jet-black hair and a wide, almost cruel mouth and a jawline that she could write sonnets about... If it had been just that, Mira could have resisted his appeal. She’d dated ballplayers, actors, all kinds of handsome men. Nothing special there either.

But Aristos’s eyes—dark gray and stormy, full of mirth as he seemed to be forever laughing at the world—had always drawn her in. Drawn her in and held her captive. Invited her to drown deep and give in.

For all that he lived a reckless lifestyle, for all that he courted media attention for his high-profile cases, for all that he was a man full of contrasts with donating millions to charity...there had always been something fathomless about him that had called to her. She’d never been able to pin down Aristos and yet felt the most overwhelming urge to conquer him, tie him down to her, make him...hers in a way he belonged to no one.

Sensible, strong, self-sufficient Mira, even as a teenager...had found a tempting abyss in Aristos’s eyes. A spine-tingling challenge. And had never quite recovered.

“Would you like me to answer the question, Mira?” Aristos prompted in a soft, yet implacable voice that had her gaze jerking to his. “I would answer,agapi mou, but then there’s a price to pay, as you so cleverly put it. You’re racking up quite the debt with me.”

“No,” Mira said, straightening her shoulders. “I... I misspoke.” Coward.

She could see it in his eyes too. He nodded, as if convincing himself to move along. “Shall we try the present again?”

She frowned.

“At the risk of sounding like a needy, petulant husband,” he said smoothly, sounding anything but, “when are you coming home,honey?”

“I need time.”

“No.”

At least she could always trust Aristos to bring her back up, despite grief and loss and whatever brought her down. “I didn’t come here to fight.”

“Why do you need time? I didn’t force you to marry me.”

No, he’d somehow discovered her deepest wish and dangled it in front of her.Donkey, meet carrot.

“You didn’t contact me for eight months. I thought our marriage was null and void,” she said, sounding prim and tightly wound even to her own ears.

“And why didn’tyoucontact me, Mira? An even better question—why did you stay away for so long?”

So many excuses—real and fake—rose to her lips but Mira discarded them. There was something about seeing him here in her childhood home, sounding so gruff and concerned about her, something about the look in his eyes that made her question the truth of her own assumptions.

“Space and time to be with your family. To let you care and mourn for your grandparents without intruding on you.”

His words came back to her in sharp relief.

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