Not Just the Greek's Wife

She’d tacked on an eventually, but Ariston had assumed the eventually would come within the initial three-year parameter of their marriage contract.

Apparently, he’d been wrong.

What was bothering him now was the possibility—no, probability—he’d been equally wrong about other things, as well.

Chloe had not been on board with her father’s idea of marrying her off in another business contract advantageous to Dioletis Industries. Ariston had known the older man’s plans in that line had fallen through, but he’d assumed it was because of actions on Ariston’s part.

He’d made subtle but unmistakable promises regarding the future of the other man’s business interests if he married Chloe. Ariston had followed that up by allowing his displeasure at the thought of his ex-wife married to someone else leak into the financial community.

It would take a brave or very stupid man to buck the Spiridakou empire.

No one had. Or so he thought.

It had never occurred to Ariston that Chloe might have refused any other marriage deal outright, that those threats might be unnecessary.

However, that made a lot more sense of the fact that she’d made a new life for herself across country. Her claim she’d had nothing to do with her father or Dioletis Industries in two years rang true and was too easily checked. As she had to know it would be.

He’d told Chloe he hadn’t had her watched by a private investigator, and he hadn’t, but now he regretted that choice.

He’d been too focused on Eber and Dioletis Industries and maneuvering her father into an untenable situation for which there was only one out—giving Ariston what he wanted. He hadn’t been focused enough on the woman who had been his wife.

Most telling, for Ariston at any rate, was that he had no trouble adjusting his view of her to something other than a mercenary witch, willing to defraud a trusting old man to get what she wanted for her father’s company, that he’d believed her to be for the past two years.

His instincts had told him Chloe was an innocent, but he’d allowed his knowledge of her deceit to override them.

His new view cast his full-on revenge plans in a different light and opened the door to other possibilities he hadn’t considered.

He hadn’t gotten where he was by ignoring potential avenues and opportunities either. In fact, he was known for his ability to change his train of thought to a new track with lightning speed and efficiency.

Their discussion earlier today would imply that whatever Chloe’s reasons for using the pill, unswerving loyalty to her father and his company was not one of them.

He had no choice but to acknowledge that it appeared she’d been far more her father’s pawn than the black queen on Eber’s side of the chessboard as Ariston had once believed.

Well before their last trip to Greece, Ariston had known Eber was courting other businessmen for another monetarily motivated wedding for his daughter.

At first, he’d assumed the rumors were about his oldest, Rhea, whose marriage Eber had never approved of. The marriage was the only thing Rhea had ever bucked her father’s will regarding and Ariston wouldn’t have put it past the other man to force his daughter into a divorce.

Only later, after discovering the birth control, had Ariston taken Eber’s rumored overtures as irrefutable proof of Chloe’s duplicity. He’d believed that she planned to walk away from their marriage as soon as the contract was completed.

It had surprised him that the family would give up stock in the still privately held company so easily. According to the terms of the contract, Ariston controlled the shares placed in a trust for the first three years of their marriage. If, after three years, either he or Chloe filed for divorce, he kept the rather large chunk of stock.

Well worth the fifty-million-dollar investment.

If Ariston had divorced Chloe before the three-year term, though, he would have forfeited the stock, and vice versa if Chloe had filed for legal separation or divorce during that time.

However, if a child resulted from their marriage, said child would then own the shares, which Ariston would only be trustee of until the child’s twenty-first year.

In addition, the terms of any divorce settlement would change significantly in Chloe’s favor once a child had been conceived. She had every monetary reason in the world to get pregnant and Ariston had wanted it that way, assuming the incentives would be enough to dictate the direction of their relationship.

He’d been wrong and he did not enjoy that state of events. At all.

Regardless, whatever it had been, he now very much doubted that Chloe’s use of birth control had been part of a plot to bilk him and his grandfather of fifty million dollars.

Because he still owned the stock as per the agreement and even if they didn’t realize it, the precarious state of Dioletis Industries did not rest on Eber’s shoulders. No matter how archaic some of his business practices.

As ignorant of the birth control as Ariston, Eber must have assumed Ariston would be the one to end the marriage at the three-year mark because Chloe had not conceived. Hence his investigations into Ariston’s legal actions.

Make no mistake, Ariston had every intention of finding out how the other man had gotten hold of the papers, but he understood the attempts to do so now.

A small spark of satisfaction flared at the knowledge Eber had been no more aware of his daughter’s efforts to prevent pregnancy than Ariston had been.

Ariston arrived at the restaurant right on time for the eight-o’clock reservation, but Chloe had already been seated.

Her now shoulder-length brown hair with its golden highlights was an unmistakable beacon at his favorite table. She appeared to be enjoying a jumbo shrimp cocktail. A mutual favorite of theirs.

“I am not late, I hope,” he said as he took the chair across from her.

She looked up, a wry twist to her lips. “You know you aren’t. But since you divorced me, I’ve been living more like a normal person and I usually eat dinner around six. I was starving, to tell you the truth.”

He was pleased to see her eating at all and thought her claims she normally ate somewhat of an exaggeration.

She had lost weight since the divorce and he would prefer to see her put it back on. For her health’s sake. Not because her overthin figure had turned him off. He wasn’t sure anything could.

For whatever reason, his libido was turned to her signal to near devastating effect.

But she’d never had much spare weight to begin with, having an indifferent attitude toward food that he had wondered about at times during their marriage.

The slightest cold or flu had her off her feet and losing pounds she couldn’t afford off her willowy five-foot-eight-inch figure.

He should inquire as to whether she’d been ill recently. That would account for her more gaunt appearance now.

For the present, he simply said mildly, “Well, that looks good. I hope you ordered me one as well.”

Her green eyes twinkled as she nodded at the waiter, hovering nearby. “Oh, I thought you could do without.”

The waiter arrived with Ariston’s matching appetizer. They took a moment to order their entrées.

“You like to tease the bear.” Ariston gave her a mock frown. “I had forgotten that.”

“Really? I thought you said I was memorable.” Something shifted in her expression, but then she was smiling again, if with less sparkle than he remembered. “But you meant sexually, didn’t you?”

He was too smart to agree with her. He might have played the fool during their marriage, but he wasn’t one. Not really.

“There are many things I remember about you, Chloe.” That, at least, was the truth.

Her green gaze narrowed speculatively. “I imagine I was the first woman to ever leave you. That would have made me memorable, I suppose.”

“That’s the thing about imagination. It’s not real.”