A Perfect Wife: International Billionaires V: The Greeks (24 page)

“I know I don’t deserve your time—”

“Fifty thousand dollars can buy a lot of time.” She choked out an ironic chuckle.

“True.” He didn’t flinch from the jibe. “And if that’s what I have to use to get you to talk to me, then I’ll do it. I’m asking for your time because I need to know.”

“Know?”

His expression went from fierce to bewildered. That adorable look she found completely impossible to ignore. “You’re the only one who has the answer.”

Confusion ran alongside her continued shock. “I don’t have any answers.”

A short bark of laughter came from him. “I have a feeling you have all the answers.”

He acknowledged having feelings? He believed she had all the answers after dismissing her from his life? Was this the hard man she’d dealt with when she’d first met him and at the very end? Unwilling concern flashed through her. “Are you okay?”

He stared at her. “No. I’m not.”

“Aetos—”

“And I need your help.” He stopped, his jaw tightening. “Please.”

A second time. In minutes. Her heart turned muddled with incredulity and bafflement. “I don’t understand.”

“I don’t either.” A flush rose in his cheeks making him go from adorable to undeniable. “I need your help.”

Lost once more to him. Whatever he wanted, she’d give him. Just as she had on those moonlit nights in Greece, in their small bed. If he wanted her body, he had it. If he wanted her heart, he had it. If he wanted her love—

No, he didn’t want that. She had to cling to that knowledge to protect herself.

“If not for me, then for the sake of my family.” He held out his hand, his blunt fingers reaching for her. “Give me a few minutes.”

Instant concern flooded inside. “Has something happened? To your grandfather?”

He stared at her. “My grandfather is fine. But something has definitely happened.”

“What?” she gasped. “Your grandmother?”

“No.” His hand didn’t move, still held out to her in supplication instead of demand. “But come with me anyway.”

Her hands knotted on her lap. She shouldn’t let him do this to her. Tug at her heartstrings and pull her back into his need and his family and all the dreams she’d discarded during the last two days. “I don’t think—”

“Please.” The word came again, this time stark and urgent. “I’m begging you.”

She jerked her head up to stare at him with astonishment.

His lips twisted. “
Nai
, I’m begging.”

The flush came across his cheeks once more and her good intentions were swamped by her curiosity and yes, her love. The love she still held inside her heart for this man even though he didn’t want it and didn’t deserve it. “All right.”

Relief washed across his face. “Thank you.”

Thank you? Please? Begging?

Her mind boggled as she slid across the seat, ignoring his outstretched hand because she couldn’t chance touching him. He moved back, dropping his hand in a stiff jerk, his face going blank.

She came to a stand on the sidewalk in the pale light of the January sun. A crowd of students strolled past, giggling and teasing each other. Two businessmen strode by, cell phones at their ear. A young woman pushed a baby carriage in front of her, the pram loaded with two smiling toddlers. Again, Nat was astonished at life placidly rolling along, oblivious to the turmoil blasting through her.

“Come on.” Aetos started a brisk pace down the sidewalk and onto the path leading deeper into the park.

She followed. For the sake of his family, because of the money he’d paid on her behalf, but more than anything, for the sake of the man who needed answers. There weren’t any answers inside her that she could detect, none that he would want, yet she’d agreed so she was stuck.

Following him again, down a path to ultimate destruction just as before, unable to pull herself away from his pleas and needs and draw.

The pain billowed in endless waves in her stomach.

Yet she forced herself to follow him.

He kept the pace at a fast clip, past the rolling hills dipping into patches of forest. Past the fanciful Belvedere Castle with its turrets and flourishes. Past the turtle pond, sunk in deep-winter hibernation and across the path leading right by the sculpture of soaring eagles.

Two eagles.

Shoving her shaking hands deep into her woolen coat, she kept her gaze turned away from the accusing statue. The last thing she wanted to be reminded of was her stupid folly in buying him a present that blared her need to be included in his insular aloneness. To share his perch and his life forever. How could she ever have thought such a fantasy could become a reality?

He walked ahead of her, his shoulders tense, his head bowed. Where was he going? What kind of answers did he want from her?

He jerked to a stop in front of a stone bench. The Whispering Bench, New Yorkers called it. She’d sat here with her brother, long, long ago. Whispering and chortling and enjoying a love that flowed easily between them as siblings. Another love she’d lost forever.

Her breath hitched in her throat.

Aetos swung around at the sound, and his expression turned bleak. His jaw immediately knotted, though, with his familiar determination. “Sit,” he barked.

Wiping a stray tear from her cheek, Natalie sat on the side she’d always taken as a kid. The cold of the stone seeped through her coat, making her shiver, and yet, she felt the warmth of old memories wrapping around her in comfort.

He sat on the other end. Clasping his hands, he leaned on his legs and stared out at the park.

Another endless silence descended. The shift of a slight wind batting against the bare limbs of the trees surrounding them was the only sound. For a moment, she imagined they were back in the sublime silence of the country. In Greece, where, for a time, she’d let herself believe.

In him. In them.

“Why did you give the money back?” The whisper came across the bench. With masculine husk, male bewilderment.

Her hands clenched in her pockets. Still, somehow the silence and odd peace of the place gave her the courage to speak. “I don’t want your money. I never wanted your money.”

Taking a deep breath in, he flicked a glance at her. “You needed that money to save yourself and we’d made a deal. You’d fulfilled your side and I was just fulfilling mine.”

Instant rage at his stupidity made her whip her head around to spear him with a heated glare.

“What?” his sugar-gold brows frowned in confusion. “Why are you angry?”

Here was an answer she did have for him. “Because,” she spat, “I don’t take money from a man I…slept with.”

His brows rose at her pause, only to fall back into puzzlement when she finished. “But that was our deal.”

Leaning across the stone, she spit out another answer. “Deals have nothing to do with love…making.”

“Love…making.” He echoed her, his pause even longer between the two words.

Jerking back into the circle of the seat, she pinned her gaze on the rolling hills of the park. “Are we done? I need to get going.”

A dry chuckle slipped across the stone. “We’re not done. I still need answers.”

Folding her shaking hands in front of her, Natalie gritted her teeth in resigned disgust at herself. And at him. She was an idiot to stay here even though her curiosity and bittersweet emotions kept her glued to this bench. And he was an idiot for missing the most important answer she’d given him moments ago.

She loved him.

But he’d missed the subtle confession. Thank God.

“Let’s talk about love.” His voice drifted across to her.

Her hands tightened into aching fists again. Why would she ever think this intelligent man would miss anything? “Let’s not.”

“I think…” He paused and although she wasn’t looking at him, Nat could imagine the expression on his face by the tone of his words. One of befuddled confusion. “I think I need some answers about love.”

Stupid man. Swinging back to stare at him once more, she let him have it. “You already know all about it.”

“What?” His eyes widened. “I don’t know—”

“Don’t tell me you don’t love your grandparents. Don’t tell me you don’t love that entire family over in Greece.”

His face went pale. With fear.

Fear? This man who charged through New York City, conquering everything before him. This man who founded companies in his spare time. This man who could do anything he set his mind to—was afraid?

Afraid of love.

Now that she took a moment to think, however, it made sense given his history with his father and stepmother. Nat had a feeling she’d just scratched the surface of his past, but she knew enough to understand his reluctance to trust. And a person had to trust to love. Yet whatever damage his father had done to him beyond throwing him out of his house, his grandparents had blessed him with at least a partial healing.

A knowing settled in the center of her soul. He might not love her, still, she could give him this answer. This answer that hopefully would help him find his way back to the love he needed in his life. Not hers, that wasn’t the love he wanted. But his family’s. “Aetos.”

“What?” His expression turned hopeful. “Tell me.”

“You love. You love like no man I’ve ever met.”

The fear lashed across his face once more, but he didn’t pull back or reject her words with a tight, harsh snap of his accented tongue.

Taking heart, she kept going. “You love your
giagiá
and your
pappoús.
You love Doris and Uncle Orion and Rhea. You might not say the words, yet your actions speak louder than anything you could say. You love them.”

His brows furrowed as if he were actually taking her statements in and rolling them through that formidable brain of his. Nat held her breath, hoping for a miracle.

She got one.

“You’re right.” His dark gaze locked with hers. “I do love them.”

Gasping out the breath, she smiled. A genuine one, although her heart broke all over again. Because he might have admitted his love for his family, but that was a far cry from admitting any emotions for her. “There’s your answer.”

“What?” He reared back against the stone rail, his face filling with confusion once more.

“Your family is your answer.” Brushing her hands down her coat, she tried to turn brisk and business-like. “You need to spend time with them.”

“Do I?” he said. “That’s the only answer?”

She glanced at him to find his gaze centered like a laser on her. “That’s the main answer.”

“The main answer,” he echoed her again, his expression going contemplative.

“Yes. Go back to Greece and spend time with them. You’ll find any other answers that you need there.” This was the last thing she could do for him. She’d had enough and her poor heart couldn’t take being with him any longer. Standing, she stuffed her hands in her pockets. “Time for me to go.”

The confusion and contemplation fell from his face, replaced by dogged determination. “No.”

“I’ve given you all the answers I have.” That was so true. She’d given him everything, more than she thought she had to give. “I need to get going.”

An intense light flashed in his eyes. “Where are you going to go?”

There was a good question. But for now, she’d keep it simple. “Back to the limo to get my luggage.”

“And then where?”

For a moment, she let herself return to the girl who had dreams. The girl who’d imagined traveling the world and telling stories. It suddenly hit her that she was finally free. Free from her mother’s despair, her father’s sins, her brother’s schemes. She stared at the man sitting on the bench in front of her. The man who’d taken her heart into his hands. Tied her to him with golden strands of light and lust and life. Nat knew she wouldn’t be free of Aetos Zenos for the rest of her life. Still, he had given her the freedom to move forward. Move toward her old dreams once more.

“I’m not sure yet.” She wasn’t dead. She didn’t owe the mob a dime and for that, she should be grateful. “ But thank you.”

With a jerk, he straightened, a frown creasing his brows. “You don’t owe me any thanks.”

“Yes, I do.” Shifting on her feet, she gave him a grateful smile. “You’ve given me my freedom.”

“What do you mean by that?” His frown turned into a scowl.

“I can go anywhere.” The words strummed inside her. Why had she let her aching love for this man blind her to the possibilities? She was a healthy, young female who could do anything she wanted. Natalie glanced away from him and looked out across the park, imagining another kind of life. One bereft of Aetos, yet still worth living. “Now that I don’t owe that money, I can travel anywhere in the world.”

A tense silence came from the end of the bench, before he blurted, “like Greece.”

The two words shot into the air, bringing her focus back to him. “Um. Yeah. I suppose.”

“With me.”

“What?” Her brain was so overloaded with old dreams, she couldn’t take in his odd suggestion. “You don’t want me with you.”

“Don’t I?”

Her mouth dropped open as she stared at him. He eased himself back on the bench, his long legs stretched in front of him like he didn’t have a care in the world. Like he hadn’t just said something incomprehensible. “You paid me to leave you.”

“Did I?” Keeping his gaze on her, he slid his hand into his coat and pulled out the envelope. “Then how about I pay you to stay with me?”

The slap of the money-laden packet on stone cut through the silence between them.

Nat didn’t know if she should be offended or confused. So, she decided to be both. “Are you crazy?” she snapped. “You can’t buy me.”

He flinched, his big body going taut. “That’s not—”

Marching up to him, she leaned down to glare into his pale face. “Do you think you can throw money at me and I’ll trail around after you to wherever you want to go?”

‘I thought perhaps you’d want to go back to Greece with me.” His chestnut eyes gleamed with fragile hope, a golden twist of light swimming inside them. “I thought you might like to see my family again.”

What was going on here? She lurched back, her mind in awhirl. “I like your family—”

“You love my family.” The claim was made with his usual confidence, as if he’d finally figured out all there was to know about love.