by Tina Folsom
Ari’s father gave his wife a sad look. “We know why she didn’t want to tell us.” He reached for his wife’s hand and patted it.
A sniffle escaped her. “She hasn’t forgiven us, has she?”
George put his arm around his wife’s shoulder and pulled her head against his chest, comforting her. Dio could only look on stunned, not understanding what was going on. When George lifted his head to look back at him, Dio noticed that his eyes were watering too.
“She still thinks we blame her, doesn’t she?”
Finally Dio found his voice. “Blame you? For what?”
Marianne’s head reared up. “She hasn’t told you?”
“Told me what?” Dio felt nervousness creep up his spine like slow-growing ivy. What was Ari hiding from him? He nudged forward to the edge of the sofa. “Please.”
“About Jeff,” Ari’s father answered.
He had a rival? Dio jumped up. “Who in Hades is Jeff?”
“The jerk that left her standing at the altar!” Marianne snapped.
“Ari was engaged before?” Why had she never told him? How could she have left such an important detail out? Dio dropped back onto the couch. Then it hit him once more: she’d been hurt by somebody just like him. No wonder she’d reacted the way she had. All she’d wanted was to protect her heart from being hurt again. “What happened? Please tell me.”
George gave him a sad smile. “I’m not surprised she didn’t tell you. She was devastated, you know. Everything was planned: the wedding was going to be a huge affair here in town. Everybody we know was invited. She was beautiful, our baby, wasn’t she?” He smiled at his wife, who nodded.
“Yes, she was. All in white, so pure, so lovely. She loved him, she really did.” Then the smile vanished from her face. “But Jeff, he’d tricked her. She’d saved up for this wedding. It was her dream. And we gave her money too. She gave it to Jeff to pay for the flowers, the caterer, the cake, for everything. Only, he never paid them. He never had any intention of paying them.”
Dio’s heart clenched. His sweet Ari had been betrayed by a cheat, a liar, a thief.
“He never wanted to marry her.” Tears streamed down Marianne’s face. “We were so disappointed. And in the heat of it, we said things we didn’t mean. It wasn’t her fault, but I accused her of being naïve. She knew it was embarrassing for all of us, right here in our town … everybody knew. We didn’t blame her, but she took it the wrong way. We were just so unhappy for her, but she thought we blamed her. We didn’t. She’s our baby, we would never blame her.”
“I’m so sorry,” Dio whispered as he wrung his hands. He would make it up to her. This would never happen to her again. This time, she’d have a real wedding, a big one, a beautiful one. And he’d be there, waiting for her.
Dio looked at her parents, his gaze serious. “I promise you one thing, no, two things: your daughter will have the most beautiful wedding she could have ever imagined, and two, I’ll make her the happiest woman this world has ever seen.” Or he would die trying.
Marianne clutched her hands to her chest, a new wave of tears streaming down her face. “You really love her?”
Dio nodded. “She’s everything to me. She’s my goddess, and I’ll give her heaven on earth.”
“Now, young man,” Ari’s father said, “There’s no need to go overboard. All we want is for her to be happy. Just treat her well.”
Hermes slapped Dio on his shoulder. “He can do that. I’ll vouch for him. And believe me when I tell you this: I’ve never seen my friend this besotted with any woman before.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Oh my god! It’s beautiful!” Natalie fawned over the diamond ring, unable to tear her eyes away from it. She pulled Ari’s hand all the way across the counter to bring the brilliant stone closer to her eyes.
Luckily, it was near closing time and there were no customers in the shop, because Ari didn’t want to draw any attention to the massive diamond on her finger. It was Lisa’s afternoon off, so thank God her assistant hadn’t seen the ring yet. Knowing her, she would have wanted to hear every single detail connected to it.
Ari couldn’t believe what had happened. Looking at the ring every five seconds brought reality home though. Dio had really asked her to marry him. And he’d told her that he loved her, and it had felt so right. For a few moments, everything in her life had felt perfect. But Dio still couldn’t remember anything from his earlier life. She couldn’t trick him like that. Accepting his proposal had been a pure gut reaction, but now that she thought the entire situation through, she recognized that there was no way she could actually continue down this road. It had to stop.
“I can’t believe he’s turned into such a romantic.” Natalie was beside herself. Her friend rounded the sales counter and pulled her into an exuberant hug. “I’m so happy for you.”
Ari squeezed Natalie tightly before she released her. “I can’t keep the ring.”
“What?! Why?”
“I can’t marry him, not under these circumstances. This has gone too far. He deserves to know the truth.” Even though she feared the consequences, it was the only solution to the situation she’d landed them in. She would lose him, but she could no longer live a lie.
“Are you crazy? You’ve finally got him where you want him and now you’re gonna throw it all in?” Natalie put her hands akimbo. “I won’t let you do it.”
As if it was that easy. “You don’t get a say in this. I have to do what my conscience tells me.” Yet at the same time she was scared. Dio would be furious with her. And then she’d be alone again. There would be no man cooking a romantic dinner for her or take her on a leisurely picnic. Nobody would call her twice a day just to say hi and see how her day was going. And nobody would shower her with those scorching kisses and touch her with his sinful hands. She sighed heavily.
“He’s fallen in love with you since he lost his memory. Let’s say his amnesia is permanent. Do you have it in you to break his heart by leaving him now?”
She contemplated Natalie’s words. Would she hurt Dio if she told him the truth now? The last thing she wanted was to hurt or leave him. Over the last week, she’d seen such a change in him. She’d seen a man emerge who cared about her and about others, a man she could depend upon. Telling him the truth about his past would destroy the progress they’d made in their relationship. Hell, all they had was a temporary relationship entirely built on lies. Could something like that even be called a relationship?
“I don’t want to, but he has to know the truth. It’s his choice what he’ll do then. But at least he can make a proper choice.” She shuddered at the thought of what he would choose: to leave her.
Natalie shook her head in disbelief. “You’re really going to do this, aren’t you?”
Ari felt her voice thicken with unshed tears. What she had to do hurt. “He’s changed. If he was still the cold, heartless cad he was before, I wouldn’t think twice about lying to him, but the person he is now … I can’t continue lying to that person.” She couldn’t live with herself if she did. The new Dio didn’t deserve to be punished like that. He deserved the truth.
“You’re prepared to lose him?”
The words sliced her heart in half. And her next realization tossed the two halves into a blender and flipped the switch. “He was never mine to begin with.” She’d simply borrowed the last few days from a life that wasn’t hers. It was time to return to her own reality, to a life without Dio. “Some things are just not meant to be.” Ari tugged at the ring to pull it off her finger, but Natalie stopped her.
“Maybe there’s another way.”
A look at Natalie told her that her friend’s suggestion didn’t involve playing by the rules. Ari narrowed her eyes. “I’m not going to stop one deception just to start a new one.”
“It’s not a deception. More like a seduction.” Natalie offered the idea with the kind of smile Ari imagined Eve having given Adam when enticing him to taste the apple.
“Into his bed for starters.”
Ari blew out a breath. “Been there, done that. It won’t change anything.” It would only make her heart ache even more. Having one more night with him would only delay the inevitable.
“I disagree. It’s different this time.”
“How can it be different?” Sometimes she had a hard time following her friend’s thought pattern.
“This time he’s in love with you. Just seduce him, and right when he’s about ten seconds away from getting into your pants, you tell him the truth!” Natalie underscored her plan with a flowery movement of her arms as if unveiling a statue instead of leading her further onto a path Ari wanted to leave so desperately.
“You can’t be serious!”
“It’s all about timing. While he can’t think straight because he’s a moment away from fucking you, you pounce and tell him that you lied to him.”
“I pounce?” Sounded like a tigress on the hunt and definitely not like something she would even remotely be able to do—not even if she wanted to.
Natalie nodded eagerly. “He’ll be so eager to get on with things that he’ll be ‘hey, whatever, baby’.”
“You’re certifiable. Absolutely one hundred percent certifiable.”
Natalie shrugged. “So, you’re gonna do it?”
Chapter Thirty
Ariadne pulled on the straps of her dress, straightening them. The red material wrapped tightly around her chest, accentuating her breasts and giving her a waistline she hadn’t had since tenth grade. She took a deep breath and rang the doorbell to Dio’s apartment. Taking one step back, she composed herself. As she looked up at the windows, she noticed only a faint light coming from the kitchen area, yet nothing moved inside. She sighed. Maybe she should have called him first.
Disappointed, she swiveled on her red fuck-me heels and bumped into a solid form.
“Did I miss a date we had?” Dio’s gravelly voice made her shiver despite the warm evening air as his arms came around her, capturing her against his hard muscles.
“Hi,” was all she could make her vocal cords produce.
“I saw your silhouette in the light of the street lamp and was about to flog myself for having lusty feelings for another woman a few days before my wedding when I realized that I was lusting after my wife-to-be. Tell me, my love, why have you been hiding this body from me?” He kissed the heated skin along her neck. “I don’t think I’ve seen you wear this dress before.”
“Oh, this old thing?”
He slipped a finger under one strap and pushed it off her shoulder, chuckling. “Yes, this old thing.” Then he lifted his eyes to meet hers. “You look like sexy red riding hood, and that makes me feel like the big, bad wolf.”
Ari noticed the predatory glint in his eyes and felt her courage increase. He wanted her. Deliberately slowly, she pressed her hips into his. “Can we talk?”
Dio groaned, his palm sliding to her backside. “We can do more than that.” He ground his hard length into her, his hands on her backside lifting her into position, so her sex aligned with his erection.
Ari choked out a breath. “Oh.”
“Yes, oh.” Then he set her back on her feet and pulled back by half a foot. “Maybe it would be safer if I walked you home now before I go back on my promise to wait until our wedding night.”
“Uh … about that.” She swallowed. “There’s something I have to tell you.”
He stroked his finger against her cheek, contemplating his decision for a long while. “Okay then, let’s go in.”
Ari used the time it took to get inside to calm her pounding heart and wipe her clammy hands on her dress. Only the small light strip underneath the kitchen cabinets illuminated his place as they entered. When he reached for the light switch, she put her hand over his. It would be easier to do what she had to in semi-darkness.
He turned toward her, his eyebrows arched in question. “Something wrong?”
She nodded slowly, trying to work up the courage to speak. She couldn’t stall forever. “We’re not engaged.” The words burst from her lips like oil from a newly dug well.
Dio’s body stiffened instantly. “Ari—”
“No, please let me tell you the truth. Please.”
He nodded once.
“Before you lost your memory, you broke up with me. We were never engaged. We’d only been dating for two weeks. You didn’t want me—”
“Ari, please, I—”
She put her hand against his chest, stopping him from saying anything further. “I was angry, and when I realized that you had amnesia, I wanted to get back at you for hurting me. I wanted to make you suffer. But it didn’t … it wasn’t right. I should have never done it.” She dropped her head, waiting for his outburst.
“Does that mean you don’t love me?” His question seemed strangely out of place.
“Dio, you don’t seem to understand what I just told you. I’m not your fiancée. I’m not even your girlfriend.”
He snatched her arm. “I got that. But you haven’t answered my question. Do you love me?”
Ari tried to turn away from his scrutinizing look, but he didn’t allow it. “It’s not important anymore.” Why wasn’t he angry? Or was it his plan to humiliate her first and make her confess her love for him before he unleashed his anger?
“You’re wrong. That’s the only thing that’s important.” Then he pulled her against him. “Do you love me?” His voice was hard and unyielding.
“Yes,” she snapped. “Damn it, yes, I love you. Are you happy now?” Her voice faltered. It hurt more than the first time he’d left her.
“Yes, I’m happy now.” Dio’s voice was husky, and his harsh grip softened.
Surprised, she looked up at his face. But she didn’t get a chance to say anything else, because his mouth was on her an instant later, branding her with the most demanding kiss she’d ever shared with him. When he released her lips moments later, she breathed as hard as he did.
“Dio, what—”
“I gained my memory back a few days ago.”
Shock careened through her. “Oh, no! Oh, God, you knew …” She tried to pull from his embrace, but he held her too tightly. “You played with me …”
He shook his head. “No, Ari. I was going to tell you.”
“When?” For days now he’d kept her in the belief that he knew nothing when all along he’d been aware of her deception. Hell, he’d even planned a wedding.
“On our honeymoon. I was gonna tell you then.”
“Honeymoon?” How cruel was he to taunt her like this? “Why would you even say that when you have no intention of marrying me?” She struggled against him.
“I’ll never let you go, Ari. I love you.”
Her jaw dropped and her arms slackened. “But … you … you dumped me.”
He nodded, a sober look on his face now. “I’m sorry for what I did back then. I was scared about what you made me feel. I couldn’t handle it. I didn’t know whether I’d be capable of loving you the way you deserved. I thought you would be better off without me. So I left you.”
She listened to his words, still unable to process the turn of events. “But why now?”
Dio took her hand and pressed it against his heart. “You helped me be a better person. You helped me change so that I could finally admit that my heart belongs to you. It doesn’t matter what happened.”
“But I deceived you. I pretended to be somebody I wasn’t.”
“I deserved it. You did what you had to do. I’m not mad. Hey, I don’t even care that you made me work as a waiter to teach me some humility.”
Ari cringed. “Ouch. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I understand now what you went through.”
She blinked away the tears. “Dio?”
“Yes, my love?”
“Does thi
s mean you really want to marry me?”
“You’ll make me the happiest man in this world if you become my wife. So, say yes.” Then he winked. “That’s the least you can do after putting me through the wringer like this.”
***
Dio held his breath as he waited for Ari’s answer. She’d finally shaken off Hera’s influence and done what her true self told her and confessed the truth. He was proud of her.
“Yes.”
Dio’s heart made a somersault. She was his.
With a growl, he yanked her against his body and captured her mouth with his. There was no resistance. The soft lips of a pliable woman greeted him and offered surrender. The first stroke of his tongue against hers sent all remaining blood into his cock; the second robbed him of his heart beat; and the third stole his breath.
He ripped his lips from hers, and even in the dim light of his apartment, he saw her eyes sparkle and shine with passion. “I’ll never let you go. You’re mine now.”
“And you’re mine,” Ariadne challenged as her hands went to the waistband of his pants. Effortlessly, she opened the top button and lowered the zipper. In one swift move, she shoved his pants and boxer briefs down mid-thigh, freeing his cock.
Speechless, he watched her as she dropped down, bringing her mouth level with his throbbing erection. “Fuck!” Well, not so speechless after all.
She took him in her hand and guided him to her lips.
“Ari, you don’t have to do that.” For Hades’ sake, what was he saying? He wanted this; he wanted to be at the mercy of her divine mouth.
“Shh.” It was all she said before her tongue lapped over his tip.
He instinctively gripped the kitchen counter for balance, his vision swimming at the intense pleasure, his orientation not worth shit. When she licked him again, he forgot his mother tongue except for one word.
“Sagapo.”
I love you.
But if he’d thought her tongue licking over the tip of his cock and then down along the sensitive underside of it was only robbing him of his sanity, the moment she took him inside her mouth changed all that. She was stealing his control and robbing him of his sanity, but in exchange she gave him everything he needed: her trust and her love.