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‘Do you have cause to suspect that it may not be his?’
‘No. I don’t know anything about the woman, don’t want to either!’ Cleo confided in a distressed rush of honesty.
‘In this scenario, you can’t afford to take that attitude.’ Lisa sighed. ‘If you can’t learn to cope with this, it could mean the end of your marriage—’
In receipt of that warning, Cleo lost colour. ‘I don’t want that.’
‘Learn to cope with it, then,’ her mother advised ruefully, sliding off her bar stool. ‘Sorry, love, I have to get back to work.’
‘That’s fine. Just forget I’m here,’ Cleo urged guiltily.
It was Sunday and she was due to fly home that evening. She had had several days and several sleepless nights to think stuff through. The blinding resentment, anger and turmoilhadreceded somewhat, leaving her facing the reality that she had to handle the situation as it was, not as she wished it could be. Pessimism had already convinced her that, of course, the baby would prove to be a Stefanos baby.
The doorbell buzzed and she slid off her stool, glimpsing her reflection in the hall mirror as she passed and grimacing because she hadn’t bothered to put on any make-up and she was wearing ‘comfort’ clothes from her teenage years that consisted of a pair of lounge pants, a stretched, already oversized pullover and slippers.
To say that she was shattered to open the door and find Ari standing there would have been an understatement. One glimpse of his familiar tall, lean and powerful figure and a complex tumble of emotions washed over her. Joy, consternation and annoyance that he had taken her by surprise and found her clad in her rattiest, oldest clothes.
‘Ari...’ she whispered shakily once she had found her voice again.
‘We have some serious talking to do,’ Ari intoned coolly, his gaze raking over every inch of her, noting the tender valley of smooth skin visible at the neck of her jersey, the curve of her hip as she turned towards him, blue eyes widening, golden curls tangled.
And both that announcement in that tone and the forbidding expression on his lean, darkly handsome features made Cleo’s heart sink to her very toes.
CHAPTER TEN
‘WE’LLTAKETHISdiscussion to the hotel I’m staying in locally,’ Ari decreed.
‘I’m not going anywhere dressed like this.’ Cleo sighed. ‘Give me twenty minutes to change.’
His beautifully moulded mouth firmed. ‘I’ll wait in the car.’
Cleo fled back to the bedroom she had been using and stripped at the speed of a maniac before rushing into the shower. The whole time her brain was crackling with frantic frightened thoughts. Perhaps Ari had already decided that a divorce was the best way forward. Would he risk such a move in the midst of their application to foster Lucy? Or was it possible that the news of the baby that had been conceived with Galina could now take precedence over his niece? She supposed anything could be possible because she had run away rather than talk about that baby with him. Shame filled her as she frantically dried her hair and dabbed on some make-up to conceal her reddened eyelids. Shehadrun home like a little girl rather than stand her ground and act like a grown woman, she conceded in mortification.
Clad in jeans, a stylish red top and sneakers, Cleo walked out to the car with her heart pounding very fast in her chest.
‘I wasn’t expecting you,’ she admitted, filling the silence when she joined him.
Ari said nothing. A fierce rage had settled inside him as the days of her absence crept past on leaden feet. He couldn’t initially credit that Cleo had run home to her mother until common sense kicked in and he contrived to imagine how he might have reacted to such a situation at her age. His bride was still very young, and if she did not have his life experience and greater maturity, that rested onhisshoulders, because he had married her, hadn’t he? In any case, none of that mattered when he was so hopelessly relieved to be back with Cleo again. At that moment nothing else really seemed to matter.
Predictably, Ari was staying at a madly grand country-house hotel with turrets, luxury suites and awesome service. Too twitchy to stand still or sit down, Cleo crossed the vast reception room with its ornate antique furniture and elaborate curtains and stood at one of the windows, which overlooked an immaculately kept lawn and trees. Ari offered her a drink and she asked for water.
As he slotted the glass between her fingers, she glanced up at him mutinously. ‘Iwasplanning to catch that flight tonight and come back to London,’ she told him squarely.
‘I wasn’t prepared to wait that long,’ Ari parried without skipping a beat.
The gleam of his dark golden eyes below curling black lashes ensnared her and the heat rose in her pale cheeks. ‘I shouldn’t have left in the first place,’ she muttered reluctantly. ‘But I... I just didn’t know how to handle it—’
Ari lifted a straight ebony brow in challenge. ‘And you think thatIdid?’
Cleo reddened even more, her discomfiture pronounced.
‘I was as shocked by the information as you were,’ he admitted quietly. ‘But it also bothers me to see a pattern in your behaviour...’
Her brow indented as she shifted from one foot to the other. ‘What pattern?’
‘It worries me that we’re in conflict again over a past that I cannot change,’ Ari confessed levelly. ‘We had an argument on our wedding day about my exes—’
‘Not about their existence,’ Cleo disagreed, lifting her head high. ‘About you inviting them all to our wedding! As for this baby—’
