‘Maybe that’s because I don’t do intimacy,’ he snapped.
‘Well, don’t you think you ought to try? We can’t keep talking about cups of tea and the weather.’
‘Why are you so curious, Keeley? Do you want something to hold over me?’ He slammed his whisky glass down on a nearby table so that the amber liquid sloshed around inside the crystal. ‘Some juicy segments of information to provide you with a nice little nest egg should ever you wish to go to the papers?’
‘You think I’d stoop to something as low as that?’
‘You already did when you wanted to leave Lasia, remember? Or are you blaming a suddenly defective memory on your hormones?’
It took a moment or two for Keeley to recall her blustering bravado, spoken when she’d been swamped by humiliation and the realisation that he’d had sex with her for all the wrong reasons. ‘That was then when you were intimating that you might not allow me to leave your island,’ she retorted. ‘This is now...and I’m having your baby.’
‘And that changes things?’ he demanded.
‘Of course it does. It changes everything.’
‘How?’
She licked her lips, feeling as if she were on trial, wishing her gaze wouldn’t keep straying towards his hands and wishing they would touch her. ‘What if our little boy...?’ She saw his face change suddenly and dramatically. Saw the same look of fierce pride darkening his autocratic features, as it had done when the sonographer had skated a cold paddle over her jelly-covered bump and pointed out the unmistakable outline of their baby son. For a man who claimed not to do emotion it had been a startling about-turn.
‘What if our little boy should start asking me questions about his family, as children do?’ she continued. ‘Isn’t it going to be damaging if I can’t answer a simple query about his grandma just because his daddy is uptight and doesn’t do intimacy? Because he insists on keeping himself hidden away and won’t even tell his wife?’
‘I thought you said our vows weren’t real?’
She met his eyes. ‘Fake it to make it, remember?’
There was a pause. He picked up his glass and took a long mouthful of whisky before putting it down again. ‘What do you want to know?’ he growled.
There were a million things she could have asked him. She was curious to know what had made him so arrogant and controlling. Why he possessed a stony quality which made him seem so distant. But maybe the question she was about to ask might give her some kind of insight into his character. ‘What happened to her, Ariston?’ she questioned slowly and watched his face darken. ‘What happened to your mother?’
CHAPTER NINE
ARISTON’S HEART PUMPED violently as he looked into the grass-green of Keeley’s eyes. And although deep down he knew she had every right to ask about his mother, every instinct he possessed urged him not to tell her. Because if he told her he would reveal his inner self to her, and that was something he liked to keep locked away.
He understood where his aversion to intimacy stemmed from but was content to maintain that state of affairs. He made the rules which governed his life and if other people didn’t like them, that was too bad. His demanding lifestyle had suited him perfectly and, although his lovers had accused him of being cold and unfeeling, he’d seen no reason to change. He’d been self-sufficient for so long that it had become a habit.
Not even Pavlos knew about the dark memories which still haunted him when he was least expecting them. Especially not Pavlos—because hadn’t protecting his brother been second nature to him and the highest thing on his list of priorities? But here was Keeley, his new and very pregnant wife, her face all bright and curious as she asked her question. And this wasn’t some boardroom where he could quash any unwanted topic at a moment’s notice, or a lover he could walk away from without a backward glance because she was being too intrusive. This was just him and her—a woman he was now legally tied to—and there was no way he could avoid answering.
He stared at her. ‘My mother left us.’
She nodded and he could see the effort it took her to react as if he’d said nothing more controversial than a passing reference to the weather. ‘I see. Well, that’s...unusual, because usually it’s the man who goes, but it’s by no means—’
‘No.’ Impatiently he interrupted her. ‘You want the truth, Keeley? The plain, unvarnished truth? Only I warn you, it’s shocking.’
‘I’m not easily shocked. You forget that my own mother pretty much broke every rule in the book.’
‘Not like this.’ There was a pause. ‘She sold us.’
‘She sold you?’ Keeley’s heart began to slam against her ribcage. ‘Ariston, how is that even possible?’
‘How do you think it’s possible? Because my father offered her a big, fat cheque to get out of our lives and stay out, she did exactly that.’
‘And she...never came back?’
‘No, Keeley. She never came back.’
She blinked at him uncomprehendingly. ‘But...why?’
Behind the hard set of his lips, Ariston ground his teeth, wishing she would stop now. He didn’t want to probe any more because that would start the pain. The bitter, searing pain. Not for him, but for Pavlos—the little baby whose mama didn’t want him enough to fight for him. He felt his heart clench as he started to speak and the bitter words just came bubbling out.