Husband By Request

“Does it matter?”

“Dominique!” His harsh tone caused her to flinch. “Did you have to see a doctor?”

“No—” she cried, bewildered by the question.

“Don’t lie to me.”

“I’m not. I had a checkup in New York before I came to Greece. If you don’t believe me, call Dr. Canfield.”

She could hear his mind working. “If that’s true, then there’s only one person I can imagine you going to see. It was Theo, wasn’t it?”

Dominique colored.

“I can see in your face I’m right.” He shook his head. “Don’t you realize what you’ve done?”

“What’s so terrible about it? I decided to talk to the one person who could give me some answers.”

“So you appealed to my arch enemy instead of me?”

‘Oh, really, Andreas!” She made an exasperated gesture. “Since you made it clear it was goodbye last night, I had no choice but to go to the one person who knew what happened at the trial.”

“My attorney sent yours a full transcript.”

“I know, but I could never bring myself to read it.”

Muttering a curse, he pressed a balled fist to his forehead. She stared at him, suddenly conscious of the towel still wrapped around her head. In a jerky motion she pulled it off.

His glittering black eyes wandered to the damp hair she didn’t bother to rearrange. “Yet you decided you could believe every word Theo told you instead of coming to your own husband?” He was furious.

She hunched her shoulders. “With Olympia and the baby on board, the Cygnus didn’t seem the place to have a private talk with you.”

He swore again and paced restlessly about the patio. “Did he tell you Ari was my flesh and blood?”

“As a matter of fact he didn’t.”

Andreas halted and stared at her with a brooding gaze. “And you accepted that as the truth?”

“Yes.”

“But when I asked you to trust me you couldn’t do it.” His eyes had grown bleak as the dead of winter.

Dominique just sat there and studied him helplessly. It had been a whole year, and she loved him so desperately. Yet here they were, almost at each other’s throats. A small sob escaped.

She finally found her voice. “That was a long time ago.”

He looked at her grimly. “So long, in fact, you appealed to him, not to me.”

She heaved a sigh. Somehow this conversation had turned into a slanging match—the last thing she’d wanted to happen.

“On the yacht you told me you never wanted to see me again.” She struggled for breath. “I went down the only avenue left open to me.”

He let out a frustrated groan. It sent shivers across her skin because she didn’t know how to interpret it.

“So now you assume you know the truth?” he bit out.

She put a hand to her throat. “Please, Andreas—can we get off the subject of Theo for a minute? Th—There’s something I have to ask you.”

His face closed up. “I already know what it is. You don’t have to beg me to pay for your medical expenses, Dominique. Don’t you realize I would never leave you destitute?”