Page 26 of The Reason for His Wife's Return

But he knew the answer and he loathed it with every fiber of his being. He’d been caught in his own trap and if that wasn’t irony, he didn’t know what was.

Self-sufficiency and composure was armor for the woman she’d become. But the girl he’d fallen in love with, the girl who’d laughed at his feral antics and told him he could conquer the world if he wanted to with such conviction... That girl had been without this armor.

And he kept waiting to see flashes of that Mira.

Here was that Mira...but there for all the wrong reasons.

Christos, between poisonous doubts about what had made Mira flee the first time and the damned contract between them and his own doubts about being a father, his head felt like it was full of vague, intangible fears that he couldn’t take action on. Add his own vow to himself that he wouldn’t let the attraction between them, her need and his, to further entangle his head... Now it seemed like the most ridiculous punishment.

He couldn’t forget, for one moment, that even her words were coming from a place provoked by hormones, the changes in her body and mind, the changes she’d embraced with that devotion he knew she was capable of.

All of it wouldn’t have been possible if they hadn’t conceived so fast. If the rug hadn’t been pulled from under them with the news of twins.

He had everything he’d ever wanted. Mira in his bed. Mira looking at him with hope and something else fluttering in her words, in her eyes, in her actions. She was fully committed to this, as only she could be. And yet, it was nothing but a false victory. A hollow one.

“I’ve never been claimed with such possessive fierceness before,” he said, letting the ever-present thrum of desire wash away his bitterness for the moment.

“If you still didn’t get it, that’s the way things are going to be now,” she said, lifting her chin with that stubbornness he’d once adored.

He laughed, the sound bursting through him. “Thank you for the warning.”

Her own shock was written across her face. “You haven’t laughed like that in a while.” Her words were tremulous, her desire written across every inch of her. “In fact, you haven’t looked at me like that in a while. Not since the night we...conceived.”

“That’s not true.”

Her shoulders slumped. “I’m not going to argue about something I know to be true. But...” She licked her lips and his blood fled south. “I miss it, Aristos. I miss you teasing me and needling me and pricking at my composure, and I miss you looking at me as if you want to devour me whole.”

Evening light diffused through the high windows in the study, limning her with a golden glow. He took her in—the way the sundress hugged her voluptuous curves, the ever-growing bump of her belly and the damp tendrils of her hair framing her achingly beautiful face.

Everywhere the rays of the sun touched her—the silky flesh bared by the square neckline, the globes of her breasts, which were already bigger, the lush pink of her lips, even the toned length of her arms—he wanted to touch and kiss and caress. Despite her intermittent nausea, she was glowing and yet Aristos knew it wasn’t all just the pregnancy.

He’d seen a determination, even a new kind of courage, in her eyes and it was changing her from the inside out. Suddenly, he wanted his hands all over her, lust and something else underscoring itself through him.Christos, he was a fool to think he could resist her. And even if he did, why should he deny her what she needed? Every night in bed, she draped herself all over him—sometimes in sleep, sometimes seeking relief for the ache in her lower back and sometimes awake and alert and begging him with her eyes to kiss her. He’d indulged her, taken it as far as he could before he’d slipped out of bed, claiming work called.

“Come here,yineka mou.”

She shook her head. He wanted to believe that she was refusing him just to be contrary. But he wasn’t sure anymore. Had he ruined their truce already?

“It would be to your advantage,thee mou.”

“There, that’s another thing,” she said, her voice rising, agitation written all over her. “You haven’t called me that in weeks. In fact, I have a feeling you took those words away from me on purpose.”

“You’re imagining things, Mira,” he said, keeping his voice light, hiding his surprise at how unerringly she’d pinpointed his intentions.

Her throat moved in a swallow, her big eyes wide as pools. “Are you still punishing me, Aristos?”

“Of course not,” he said, feeling a surge of protective tenderness that had been his companion for as long as he’d known her. That had always been the crux of his conflict. He wanted to protect Mira from himself, from the dark, hungry thing inside him that demanded so much but not enough that he’d ever consider giving her up. And yet, if she were unhappy because of him... No, he refused to accept that scenario.

“You have no idea how desperately I want to believe you.”

“Come, Mira,” he repeated, letting her hear the thrum of desire pulsing through him like an ever-present beat. “I know what would make you feel good,agapi, and I promise to give it to you. Now.”

The pulse at her neck fluttered, her incredibly soft mouth falling open in a whispered gasp. Eyes wide, she looked around the vast study, half covered in darkness and half in fading light. The city was coming alive around them, beneath them, for the night. He saw her glance out the French doors into the balcony that overlooked the business district, saw her swallow at other skyscrapers that tried and failed to win against the Carides Towers.

“No one will dare disturb us here, Mira,” he said, pushing away from the desk he’d been leaning against. “This penthouse is mine.Ours,” he amended.

“Someone could see us.” And yet there was a whisper of excitement in her tone that made his cock stiffen impossibly hard.

“Just as shadows writhing against the wall. Would that bother you?”

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