Husband By Request

“You’re lying.” The words came out more like a breath. “Someone had to put those thoughts in your mind.”

Even if someone had, she had no desire to tell him. “I don’t need to lie. After looking at the picture of Maris you keep on your desk, I realized it was the truth. If I’d been your mom I would have been disappointed to meet a foreigner like me. Especially one who could have passed for a boy if you didn’t look too hard.”

The waiter couldn’t have chosen a better time to give them the dessert menus. “I don’t care for any. What about you, Dominique?” Andreas handed his back without looking at it.

She followed suit. “The moussaka was so delicious, I couldn’t eat another thing right now.”

“Very good.”

As soon as the waiter went away Andreas shot her an angry glance. “We’re not through with this discussion.”

“Andreas—let it go,” she urged calmly. “What we’ve been talking about is long since in the past. All I care about is spending an enjoyable evening with your family. You said you had a lot of old home movies on video packed away somewhere. What would you think if we got them out and showed them? I’ve always wanted to see them, and I bet your parents would love it too. It might open them up, get them to talk and share some of their feelings. I’d like to think it could bring us all closer together.”

“It’s a brilliant idea.”

He meant it or he wouldn’t have said it. She was overjoyed, but she wasn’t fooled. Andreas would probe until he got that name from her. He’d guessed that someone had influenced her thoughts about his parents. Dominique’s only fear was that it would upset him. She’d gotten past her pain ages ago.

After paying the bill, he pushed himself away from the table and came around her side to help her. “Let’s go home and we’ll look for them. I think I put some boxes of them on one of the shelves in the guest bedroom.”

They returned to the penthouse in a taxi.

When they entered the foyer, she turned to Andreas. “While you find the boxes, I’ll phone my folks. Dad needs to know I’m not coming back to work. We already talked about that eventuality, but I need to make it official.”

“That’s something else we need to talk about.”

“What?” she cried, half afraid he was going to tell her their experiment wasn’t working after all.

He traced the mold of her facial features with a finger. His touch turned her blood molten.

“I’m not unaware you’ve held a job during our time apart. Tomorrow I’ll get up and go to work, but you’ll be here with time on your hands. Much as I wanted a stay-at-home wife, in retrospect I can see that wasn’t fair to you.”

Elated by the admission, she said, “You’ll always be my first priority, but I do have some plans that won’t require punching a time clock. That is if they meet with your approval. After I get off the phone, I’d like to run them past you and get your opinion. I’m expecting you to be totally honest with me.”

“That works both ways,” he murmured, before heading for the guest bedroom.

Deciding there weren’t going to be any more secrets in this house, she followed him. When Andreas discovered she was right behind him, he flashed her a surprised glance. She pressed a kiss to his lips, then sat down on the bed to make her call.

It looked like the closet was a treasure trove of memorabilia he’d collected. She couldn’t wait to examine everything, but right now she had a more pressing issue.

“Domani!” Her father always called her that.

“Hi, Dad.”

“Your mom’s going to have a fit she missed this call. She’s over at the Ladislavs’ consoling them. Their cat died today.”

“Blaz?”

“Yes.”

“Oh…I’ll send them a sympathy card.”

Her father chuckled. “Sounds just like the sort of thing my darling daughter would do. How are you?”

“I’m sitting on a bed at our penthouse, watching my husband clean out a closet I don’t think he’s touched in years.”

Andreas flashed a smile at her over his broad shoulder. She loved his big, gorgeous build. She loved everything about him.

“I take it you won’t be coming back to work?”