Page 42 of His Forgotten Wife
Ares gave her a nod and a hand as she pulled herself out of the pool. Water sloshed down her body in rivulets, wetting his sweatpants. When he held the towel aloft and stretched his arms, she walked into them. He wrapped it tight around her, noticing that she was shivering and trying to hide it.
He enfolded her in his arms, expecting her to pull away. That she tucked her wet forehead against his shoulder without resisting his protective gesture only set his already boiling temper ablaze.
It was clean and clear, the surge of anger that filled his limbs and fired his blood. He had ordered her here, against her ownwishes. While she had repeatedly reassured him that she could handle Mama’s microaggressions, her having to put up with his half brothers’ cheap comments was too much.
“Are you okay?” he said, pressing his mouth to her wet temple. The scent of her sank into his pores and centered him.
“I’m absolutely fine.” She looked into his eyes and swallowed. “They didn’t scare me. And honestly, it wasn’t even about me.”
“Then why do you look like you’ve swallowed something bitter?”
“Doesn’t matter. I handled it. This is why you brought me here, remember?”
Something about the way she said it pricked his chest. “To help me find common ground with them. Not to absorb all the crap they level at you because you are with me.”
“It’s nothing like you’re imagining, Ares,” she said, clasping his cheeks. “The big macho man that you are, you’re still their target. Not me.”
He frowned. It was the last thing he’d expected her to say. “What do you mean?”
She shrugged.
“Tell me, Dahlia. Or we will be here all evening. My hip is on fire if that makes the decision for you.”
“I don’t want you to be affected by their nasty words.”
A strange tightness coiled in his chest. But the feeling wasn’t quite what he would call discomfort exactly. He chuckled, even though the last thing he felt like was laughing. “They took everything they possibly could from me when I was a vulnerable boy.” He didn’t bother to keep his voice quiet. He wanted his father to hear it, understand it. He wanted regret—if he could muster up any at this stage—to haunt his father as his brothers’ taunts and bullying had haunted him as a boy. “There is nothing more they could do to me now. Except hurt you.”
“They didn’t hurt me,” Dahlia said, eyes shining. “But, Ares,” the very universe itself seemed to dwell in how she said his name, “how many times have you or Christina or my grandpa told me that I shouldn’t let my aunt or her cruel words get to me? That there’s no rhyme or reason to how she speaks to me, despite everything I have done all these years to please her? To get one measly word of approval?”
He clasped her cheek and let his thumb rub up and down her cheekbone. “What are you saying,agapi?”
“That their words can still have the power to hurt you and it’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
“I have, hopefully, left shame behind, Dahlia. Also, are you worried that they might beat me up in a physical confrontation? I’m not a vulnerable runt anymore.”
Her palms shifted over his shoulders, squeezing, and then landed on his chest. “No, you’re not. I just…”
“What did they say to you, Dahlia? I need to understand if anything I have said to them about backing out has sunk in. Unless you want to spend the next few months here, stuck with me. Mama will surely have us married by Christmas, then.”
“Now who’s using scare tactics?”
“Is it such a scary prospect, then? To live in the lap of luxury as my wife?”
“Is this some kind of damned test?” she said, panic filling her eyes.
“That was the original agreement between us, right? That we would fake an engagement to scare my brothers off. They’d know that, once you are my wife, I could transfer all my property and stock to you if it came to a real, dirty court battle between me and them? So you must have at least imagined what being my wife for real would entail?”
She jerked, as if he had scalded her. Her lips trembled. “You really can’t think all this wealth and luxury would sway me?”
“No, of course. You want fairy tales and true love. Even though we both know it probably doesn’t exist,” he said drily. “Come, Dahlia. You’re wet and shivering. Out with it. What did they say to you?”
She sighed, bit her lip, then nodded. “For two meatheads, they seem to be pretty shrewd when it comes to us. They wanted to know what you were paying me to…”
“To what?”
“Sergio asked how much I was charging you to be your whore. Then he did his cringey villain laugh and said there was no way any woman would devote herself to you, except for your millions. I had the pleasure of correcting him to billions.” Her little satisfied smile reminded Ares to breathe. Neither did he miss the fact that she was trying to manage him. “Stefano, for all he follows Sergio like a blind dog, apparently has a little more class and substance than I gave him credit for. He asked me if my loyalty was up for sale. Promised me they would double whatever you’re paying me if I walked away from you and the whole wedding. Even better if I make our breakup into a huge scandal, say you abused your position of power to lure me into an affair and engagement. But of course, the villain that you are, you ditched me when you didn’t have use for me. All that will obviously add more dirt and weight to their lawsuit against you.”
She was right and he, Ares discovered, was disappointingly wrong.
