Page 20 of The Reason for His Wife's Return

She shook her head, not even surprised anymore that he’d remember. “I tried to, just for the duration of pregnancy. It made me gag.”

He nodded. “You need protein.”

“I like yogurt cups.”

He picked up his phone and sent off directions for a metric ton of yogurt to be delivered, she was sure.

Ignoring the temptation to reach for a third slice of pizza, she reached for a bowl of fresh fruit. Like a rubber band being stretched, the awkward silence and tension filled the space between them. Once she finished the fruit bowl, she resumed her walk around the sit-out area, wondering what she could do to keep him near.

“Why do you keep doing that?”

She turned around to find him standing not a foot from her. Now that one appetite had been seen to, her other one came roaring back. He smelled like the ocean and all Mira wanted to do was take a dip. To just rub herself all over him until she smelled of him. “Do what?”

“You keep rubbing your lower back. You did that at work too. You’re doing it again now.”

“Oh.” She should’ve known he wouldn’t miss that. “I’ve always had a weak back. Thanks to the—”

“You fell as a nine-year-old from a horse and landed on your back. You told me that once.”

Warmth drizzled through Mira at the small fact that he’d remembered. God, she was a goner if Aristos’s brilliant brain remembering small tidbits about her was enough to melt her from inside out. “Yeah, that. It’s come back since... It makes itself known more. Especially when I’ve had long days.”

“Then why not get into bed, give your aching back a break and rest,yineka mou? Are you refusing it just to spite me?”

Mira pressed a hand to his chest and he stepped back as if she’d burned him. “Of course I want to lie down. But I... I had quite a sedentary day and it would be good to get steps in,” she said, pointing to her smartwatch.

“Why?”

She sighed, knowing he wasn’t going to let it go. And was going to get angry all over again. But suddenly, her own actions seemed peevish. “Because the damned flight was long and I was stuck between these two old men who grumbled and whined every time I asked to get up. I spent too long sitting down.”

He pressed a hand to his eyes, tension pouring from him as if he were a radiator. Damn it, why did she keep doing and saying things she knew would piss him off? “You flew commercial.”

“Yes.”

“Not even first class.”

“No.”

His curse was long, and loud and downright filthy, which she knew thanks to Stella trying to teach her Greek the last time she’d been here. “Your grandfather owned a billion-dollar IT company. Don’t tell me Caio gave you nothing out of it.”

“You know better than to insinuate that Caio would cheat any of us out of anything. The inheritance from my grandparents...” She hesitated, knowing this would also make him angry, but she didn’t want any more lies and half-truths between them and maybe the only way to build trust was by baring her innermost self. “I’ve locked it up to be used in the future.” She licked her lips, second-guessing all her decisions now. What she’d thought strength only felt like a brittle veneer of self-sufficiency. Because when it really mattered, she needed Aristos. And it was getting easier to accept it, every moment, every day. “A first-class ticket felt like unnecessary expenditure when I still have outstanding student loans.”

“So let me get this straight. When I asked you over and over if you needed money, before and after our wedding, and you kept saying you didn’t need anything, you were lying?”

“Yes. No,” she said, pressing a hand to her forehead.

“You didn’t use the inheritance from your grandparents on anything for yourself?”

“No.”

“Why the hell not?”

“It’s...complicated to explain.”

“Try me, Mira.”

“I wanted to save it. For the future. Especially now that there will be two babies. That’s a lot of...expenses that will snowball me soon.” The throbbing vein in his temple made it explicitly clear that she was once again in the danger zone with him. “Us soon.”

“Ah... So you decided that your husband might be unwilling or unable to pay for these expenses? For his own children? You have zero trust in me in every matter,ne?”

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