Page 7 of The Reason for His Wife's Return

“My grandparents, my sisters... They’re everything to me, Aristos. Family’s sacred to me.”

She’d said that to him almost fifteen years ago and he’d remembered. No, he had not only remembered but acted on them. He had given her space when he could have acted like he usually did—all business-minded and transactional.

“I did want to look after Thaata and Nanamma,” she finally said, meeting his eyes. “But it was also just a very convenient excuse.”

His chest rose and fell as if he’d surpassed an insurmountable obstacle. “For what?”

“I was having second thoughts about our...arrangement.”

He pushed a hand roughly though his hair, his mouth twisted into a sneer. “Because you enjoyed our kiss?Theos, I never thought you a coward of all things, Mira.”

“No. It wasn’t just that.” It wasn’t the passion of their kiss that had scared her. It was how much more she wanted along with it that had. But she wasn’t going to talk about it. Now or ever. “It... Truth or dare, Aristos,” she said, chickening out when she should simply demand the truth.

Aristos was notorious for his dares. He would never pick truth, especially with her, right?

Wrong.

“Truth.”

She stared at him—the glint of challenge in his eyes, the satisfaction thrumming from every gorgeous naked inch of him. He’d beaten her at her own game. She could simply cheat and ask him something else but every inch of her revolted at the very thought.

Because this was sacred between them. Suddenly, with a sharp clarity brought on by grief and loss like nothing else could, Mira knew Aristos would always give her the truth. Only she’d never actively sought it before.

But she wanted it now—a little morsel of truth and a little piece of something real between them. Even if their contract marriage had entered a gray area thanks to her abandoning it.

Even if all he would give her was one night of pleasure and escape. Even if he’d fractured her heart fifteen years ago and it had never recovered since.

“In the two months that we were married, did you...” Her heart thundered in her ears. “...were you faithful... I mean, did you do stuff with other women?”

Everything about him stiffened. The mirth and playfulness immediately erased by something dark and the laugh that escaped was entirely too empty. “Would you believe me if I answered you?”

“Yes, I would. I will. Please, Aristos...just this once. Tell me.”

“Then I would use that word you discarded so easily, Mira. I was faithful to you. I haven’t...done stuff—” his mouth twisted in a sneer “—with anyone since I...hunted you down to Vegas.”

“But that was eighteen months ago,” she said frowning. “Before we even...decided on this.”

He simply inclined his head again in that mocking bow of his.

Mira’s stomach flopped, falling...falling, her entire world turning upside down. Because she believed him. She believed everything he said and everything he didn’t.

Even though she’d seen him with his PA—the ever-present shadow of his—that dark evening at Carides Towers. Elena was possessive of him, protective of him, and Mira was pretty sure it was Elena who’d leaked the details of their contract to the media.

Aristos was oblivious to it all. Because Elena was loyal and hardworking and had been one of the tutors Leo had engaged for him.

On a rare impulsive visit to his office, buoyed up by their passionate kiss and her own pent-up longing, Mira had seen Elena sliding her arms around his waist, seen her push herself up against him. Seen her sink her fingers into his hair and pull his face down.

It had lasted only a handful of breaths. It had felt like a hundred eternities.

Like someone had hollowed her out and Mira had run from the premises as if her life had depended on getting away. It felt like she’d fallen down a time hole into the past again.

Aristos with another woman...

She wanted to mention Elena now, demand he explain what happened that evening, but discarded the idea. That woman was not allowed in this space between her and Aristos. Not tonight. Not when Mira was finally claiming a small slice of it for herself.

“So that’s why you ran,” Aristos said, breaking her out of the replay of the ghastly scene.

The sudden absence of his body heat enveloping her, the empty space he seemed to leave around her, told her he’d stepped back.

---