by Lucy Monroe
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.
It wasn’t a stingy emotion and it didn’t die just because she’d been separated from her beloved.
Ariston had said on her first trip to New York that this was their second chance and she realized she wanted to take it, all the way.
“Yes.”
He pulled her into a mind-blowing kiss, which was awfully romantic, no matter what he claimed to the contrary.
When they came up for air, she said, “No wonder you didn’t take me to that gorgeous apartment you set up for me.”
“I thought you would sleep better in our bed. You never seemed to have any trouble before.”
They’d spent the night in his Manhattan townhouse, their home while they’d been married. Sleeping in the master bed with him had felt strange, but in retrospect she could see that once his mind had been made up, she’d become his wife again without her even knowing it.
She wasn’t about to tell him that it wasn’t the comfort or lack thereof of her bed in Oregon that had kept her awake. It didn’t matter now. “Having sex had more to do with my long and restful sleep than the comfort of the mattress, Ariston. You tired me out.”
He looked quite pleased with that pronouncement.
She ignored his satisfaction and asked. “Are all of my things in the house, then?”
“Your art supplies and personal items, yes. Your furniture is in storage until you decide what you want to do with it.”
He really had never intended for her to live in the gorgeous apartment. At least not once his plans for them getting remarried had come into play. She wondered at what point he’d changed his mind on that, and decided to ask.
“After the third phone call in which you put off leaving for New York another day,” he replied to her question with more candor than she’d expected.
Maybe more honesty than he’d intended, too, by the look on his handsome face.
He’d been uncertain of her and decided to take measures not to feel that way again. She’d been right. The wedding wasn’t just about making her feel secure—it was about making him feel it, too.
CHAPTER TEN
CHLOE felt truly lovely for the first time in forever as she stared at her image in the full-length mirror in their bedroom.
She’d donned the champagne cocktail dress Ariston had had altered to fit her perfectly for their courthouse nuptials and brushed her wavy hair until it shone.
The small amount of makeup she’d applied made her green eyes stand out and her bow-shaped lips look kissable.
She was looking forward to Ariston’s reaction to that.
Opening the door into the upstairs hall, she heard her husband-to-be’s voice mixed with tones she recognized but would never have expected to hear in this venue. Not ever.
Takis Spiridakou had flown over from Greece to see them wed. She knew it.
Flying down the stairs, she yelled his name. “Takis!”
He spun to face her and put his arms out. “Pappous, child. How many times must I tell you? I am your pappous.”
She threw herself against him, though still mindful of what she knew about his health.
He hugged her tightly and she hugged him back, moisture gathering in her eyes. “It is so good to see you. Ariston didn’t tell me you were coming.”
“It was my surprise to both of you.” Takis kissed both her cheeks in greeting before grinning at her, his face lined but still handsome like his grandson. “I am determined to witness this civil ceremony. I did not the last time and look what happened.”
Chloe choked on her laughter, but she didn’t tell him his being at the other wedding wouldn’t have mattered. Takis would not only be offended, but he absolutely wouldn’t believe her.
Ariston had come by his arrogance honestly.
The doorbell rang before any more could be said. Seconds later, the sounds of Rhea’s, Samuel’s and Chloe’s father’s voices could be heard.
“Takis! I did not know you would be here,” Eber Dioletis said with an expansive smile.
The elder Spiridakou did not return it. “You think I am a deaf fool living my life in our home country, Eber? Heh?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Chloe’s father replied cautiously, looking much older than when she’d last seen him.
“You don’t, heh? So, it was some other blind fool who tried to marry my grandson’s wife off to another man?”
“Now, Takis—” Eber started.
But Takis was having none of it. He pointed a slightly trembling finger at the other retired businessman. “You listen to me, that girl is my family. You try to undermine that again, it will be more than a few contracts you lose.”
Takis might suffer a fine tremor in his limbs, but he wasn’t the least bit stooped with age and made a hugely imposing figure.
Everyone wore identical expressions of amazement at the threat and all that his words implied. Everyone but Chloe.
She wasn’t surprised at all. Underneath the warmth of family love that Takis Spiridakou wore with such ease was a man who could both run Spiridakou & Sons Enterprises and teach Ariston to be the business shark that he was.
Her beloved old man had a titanium spine and her father would do well to remember it.
Warmth spread through Chloe at the realization that she’d never been as alone as she’d felt. She turned to meet her father’s still gaping countenance.
From her position of security with both these amazing Spiridakou men at her back, she extended her hand in welcome. “Father.”
“Ariston thought you would want me here,” he said almost diffidently, grasping her hand and holding on rather than shaking it.
“He was right.” She smiled up at her soon-to-be-again husband while extricating her hand from her father’s hold. “Thank you.”
“When you told me of the healing nature of your last phone call, I thought you would want a chance to see him in person.”
“You were right.”
Ariston preened under the pronouncement and she found herself smiling even as her father hugged her and whispered the second “I’m sorry” of his life toward her along with an emotional declaration of fatherly love.
Perhaps even old business sharks really could change.
She hugged him back and told him she loved him too, but then grinned. “That doesn’t make me any less happy to hear Pappous made sure the company paid for you thinking I was just one of its assets, though.”
Her father gasped, but Rhea just laughed. “You all forget that while Chloe’s a lot more like Mom than I am, she still carries our dad’s genetics.”
At that, her father looked proud if still a little shocked. Ariston didn’t look surprised though and Chlo
e hadn’t expected him to. He’d already commented on the fact that she had a ruthless streak even she hadn’t been aware of.
He said now, “It is something I have come to appreciate as true.”
“Oh, really?” she asked.
“Yes. You knew what you wanted and you went after it.”
She wasn’t sure how he came by that conclusion, unless he was talking about how determined she’d been to save Rhea’s marriage. She didn’t deny it though, because she, at least, knew it was true.
“That sounds more like you than my father,” she teased.
“He and I are not so unalike.”
Chloe had to look away at that reminder. She believed that their differences were enough that she wasn’t setting herself up for a lifetime of hurts like her mother had endured. If she was wrong, neither of them were going to come out unscathed.
The prenup had pretty much guaranteed that for Ariston.
“Enough talk. Let us have a glass of ouzo to celebrate this day and then get this wedding on the road.” Takis brandished a bottle he’d no doubt brought all the way from the home country.
Like the first time five years ago for their courthouse wedding, the court came to them.
The same Supreme Court judge, who was an old friend of her father’s, arrived to preside over the civil ceremony. Minutes later, the two lawyers who had witnessed the signing of the prenuptial agreement joined them.
As Chloe looked around the room, she realized the players were all the same as five years ago.
Takis was the only person who had not been in this very room before to witness an identical ceremony.
It was all the same. Soft strains of classical music played in the background, just like before. Another buffet luncheon was laid out on the sideboard of the dining room for after the ceremony. Not so much as a lamp had changed in the decor of this room either.
As her sense of déjà vu grew, the hope and security that had buoyed Chloe up bled from her in a steady, inexorable stream. Why did she think this was going to work any better than it had the first time around?
Because she was more aware? Less naively hopeful that Ariston would fall in love with her?
Her gaze slid to Takis Spiridakou. The reason for this event. Had he not stubbornly refused to acknowledge the divorce between her and Ariston, her ex-husband would have gone looking elsewhere for a mother to his children.
Chloe was honest enough with herself to admit that reading in the society pages about Ariston marrying another woman and giving her children would have killed her. It was time for a little more honesty as well.
She wasn’t marrying him for Rhea’s sake or that of the employees at Dioletis Industries.
No, agreeing to this marriage was all down to her.
And ultimately, no matter what came of it, she’d agreed for one reason and one reason only—her abiding love for the Greek billionaire.
In that moment, Chloe realized one player in this drama was very much changed.
Her.
She knew what she was agreeing to. Period. And this time around she wasn’t doing it for her family, nor even for her own naive belief that somehow, some way her billionaire husband was going to fall in love with her.
She was doing it because she loved him and even if he wanted to believe otherwise, Ariston had a heart and if anyone was getting a crack at it, that person was going to be her.
She might not get everything she wanted from this marriage, but she would get more than a lifetime of loneliness in love with a man forever lost to her. Another woman might see that as a deal breaker, but then what another woman might do wasn’t important to Chloe.
She knew what she was willing to do to pursue her own happiness and she wasn’t a coward to shy away from the risks involved. That was something her mother had taught her.
Her parents hadn’t had an ideal marriage, but her mom had never expressed a desire to be anywhere than where she was. Chloe hadn’t understood that. She’d thought her father should have been a better husband, and even he acknowledged that now, but ultimately her mother had been strong enough to go after what she wanted.
Ariston was right about one thing—Chloe was, too.
Today might not be the joyous occasion of two people deeply in love pledging their lives together, but it wasn’t a funeral either.
It was a chance at the future—a chance Ariston had invited her to take and one she knew was necessary.
Necessary for Ariston to please the one person on this earth he held any true love for. For Takis to find contentment in his waning years, knowing his family would go into the next generation. A requirement for the survival of Dioletis Industries. Necessary for the renewal of her sister’s love-based marriage.
But definitely, and most important to her decision to go through with it, this marriage was necessary for Chloe’s best hope at a future.
Her mother had once told her that just as only some were born to greatness, not all were meant to have common domestic bliss. She’d been talking about her own marriage, Chloe had realized as she’d gotten older.
Her mother had accepted that she would never have a husband who put her first, but she had not railed against her fate. She’d accepted it with a grace Chloe was determined to emulate. Because she finally realized that in her own way, her mother had also been quite happy.
Yes, marriage to a man like Eber couldn’t have been easy, but Chloe now knew that her mother had been a strong woman. And if that marriage wasn’t what she wanted, she would have walked away from it.
“Chloe.” A hand landed on her shoulder, her sister’s concerned gaze fixed on Chloe. “Are you all right? Ariston’s been trying to get your attention.”
She looked past Rhea to Ariston. “I’m sorry, did you say something? I was thinking.”
“His Honor is ready to begin,” Ariston said, his tone questioning, his expression almost grim.
Chloe ignored both and nodded her understanding.
The judge indicated where they should stand and Chloe went to take her place beside Ariston. With hands like ice, Chloe spoke her vows with conviction if not a surplus of emotion.
Ariston wasn’t interested in her love, and right now she wasn’t offering it to him on a plate either.
As Ariston had said, this was no great romantic moment. But it was a necessary moment.
Her beautiful Chanel dress was a prop, not a tender gift from an eager groom. Still, it would look good in the photos that would no doubt be released later to specific newspapers and glossy magazines.
She’d learned the smile she would wear in them, for the world to see, in her early childhood when her father had paraded his family for the sake of his public image and that of his business.
She chatted adroitly with their guests over lunch and managed in every way not to let herself down over the next hours.
Later, when everyone but Takis had left, Chloe allowed herself a modicum of relaxing in her guard.
The old man looked over-the-top pleased with the outcome of the day.
Ariston had disappeared into his office to make some calls, once again wearing his enigmatic tycoon mask. Not that Chloe had expected anything different. Today was about a business deal for him.
She turned to the old man. “It looks like it’s just you and me. Would you like to play a game of checkers?”
She’d found a fellow lover of the simple game soon after meeting Takis five years ago. They had whiled away many an hour in his home in Greece similarly occupied.
“Now, that is a pleasure I have not had in two years.”
“Only maybe I should change out of my wedding finery,” she said with an ironic twist of her lips.
“Nonsense. What man could resist playing checkers with a woman dressed to the nines, heh?”
She laughed softly, but took her place at the small square game table in the corner of the living room.
“Does my grandson play with you?”
“He used to, before.”
&nbs
p; “Then he will again. That is a good thing, child.”
She nodded with a slight smile, unsure how much it could really signify.
She and the old man had both played their opening gambits when Takis spoke again. “My Helene, God rest her soul, she and I married at the behest of our parents. Did you know?”
“No.” But that explained his insistence on seeing the most positive side of her marriage to Ariston.
On his pressuring Ariston into an arranged marriage to begin with. By all accounts, Takis and Helene had been very happy together.
“We had forty good years together before the cancer took her.” His face suffused with melancholy for a brief moment as he paused with his hand over the checkerboard. “She was the light in my life for all that time.”
Chloe smiled, having no difficulty believing his claim.
Takis made his move and then looked up, his gaze very serious. “Words of love were never spoken between us.”
“But you were so happy.”
“We were.”
“You must have loved her.” Chloe frowned, unable to imagine a man not loving the woman he considered the light of his life.
“Ne.” Yes. He’d agreed.
“But you never told her.” Why wouldn’t he?
“I did not need to. She knew she was my wife, that our marriage vows were sacred to me.”
“You don’t think she minded, that you never said the words?”
“She never said them either, child.”
“But …”
“My son, Balios, now … he has imagined himself in love many times and married almost all of them. Though he has only managed to give me one grandchild.” Takis shook his head at his son’s failings.
Chloe’s mouth twisted with distaste she found difficult to suppress whenever she thought of the selfish man that was Ariston’s father. “I don’t think what Balios calls love is what most of us would associate with that emotion.”
“Perhaps. What I am sure of, child, is that mutual benefit and compatible backgrounds can be the best basis for marriage.” Because he’d experienced it, he believed it.
“Not everyone is as lucky as you and Helene.”
“You and my grandson will be, now that this nonsense of a divorce is behind you.”