Eden couldn't believe her ears. He was saying what she had thought for so long she almost pinched herself to see if she was in some bizarre dream.
"I do not know…I think marriage to a woman as delectable as your wife would be a constant distraction no matter where I lived and worked," an Italian man, who had joined their group just before Aristide, said.
She had never met him before, but the way he looked at her made her feel like crossing her arms over her less than generous curves.
"And you are?" Aristide asked with freezing cool that left no doubt what he thought of the other man's comment.
"Haven't you met Giuseppe?" their hostess asked, jumping in with an adroit maneuver meant to defuse the situation. "He's a great supporter of children's charities."
"Now that your husband is putting you in charge of corporate charities, we'll have to get together for lunch and talk over some of my pet projects." Giuseppe's sensual mouth curved in a smile that intimated he was interested in more than discussing their mutual interest in needy children.
She remembered someone saying once that all Italian men flirted, but she couldn't imagine most of them did it this blatantly. What did he see between her and Aristide that he thought he could get away with it or that she might possibly welcome it? Maybe it was the fact she had spent the first forty-five minutes of the party being virtually ignored by her tycoon spouse.
He wasn't ignoring her now though. Aristide looked ready to blow a gasket, but Kassandra's shocked gasp was audible to everyone.
"I thought you were happy with my management of that area of the company," she said, affecting a wounded attitude.
Eden nearly ground her teeth in frustration, certain Aristide's offer would be rescinded in days, if not hours. Kassandra was very adept at undermining Eden's progress with her husband.
"If you find you do not wish to alter your company's arrangements, I would be very happy to discuss Eden helping me with my efforts," Giuseppe said and Eden could have kissed him.
Their hostess smiled brightly, ignoring the undercurrents of the situation as any good society hostess would try to do. "What a wonderful idea."
"No, thank you," Aristide said to Giuseppe, shockingly talking right over their hostess's words. "My wife is sufficiently occupied. She does not have time to pursue outside endeavors of the type you are suggesting."
She should be used to having her sometimes arrogant Greek husband speak for her, but she wasn't and didn't plan to ever develop any real tolerance for it. "I think that is a decision I need to make, Aristide."
"Absolutely. You have got to remember, your wife is American." Kassandra said it like Eden was an alien species. "She prefers to remain independent in many ways. Playing the heavy husband will not go over well with her."
"When I need marital advice I will ask for it," Aristide said with a glacial look and more censure than Eden had ever heard him use toward his assistant.
Kassandra's big brown eyes filled with glistening moisture and her lip quivered. "Of course, I never meant… I know I am only your employee. If you will all excuse me." She spun on her heel and rushed toward the terrace.
Aristide cursed and, without consulting Eden, excused them both from the small group. He started tugging her toward the terrace, but she dug her heels in.
"Where do you think you're taking me?"
"I was rude and I need to apologize to her."
"You were honest."
"I hurt her."
"You hurt me, but I haven't received any heartfelt apologies."
The look of chagrin on his features said her words had hit their mark.
She pulled her arm from his grasp. "Go talk to her if you think you need to, but leave me out of it."
His hands fisted at his sides and his body went rigid with tension, but he nodded. "Perhaps that would be best."
Eden watched him walk away, her stomach churning and ended up making her own mad dash for the bathroom. Morning sickness that did not limit itself to the mornings was the pits. When she came out fifteen minutes later, Aristide and Kassandra were just returning from the terrace together.
Eden walked in the opposite direction the couple was heading. She'd had enough of her husband's assistant's company for one evening. She spent the next hour avoiding them both, catching a glimpse of irritation on her husband's face more than once when she made herself scarce the minute he walked into a room. Well, too bad.
She'd warned him her tolerance level for Kassandra's game playing was at an all-time low. He should have listened, but, unsurprisingly, he had chosen to dismiss her concerns.
She was in an animated discussion about children's charities with Sebastian, Rachel and Giuseppe when she sensed Aristide's presence behind her. A scant second later his arm landed around her shoulder and it was all she could do not to throw it off, but she felt they'd caused enough of a scene tonight.
"Your wife has a real admirer here, little brother," Sebastian said with more warning than teasing.
Eden frowned at her brother-in-law.
He grinned back at her, unrepentant. "You're a lovely woman, Eden…it is no surprise my brother is not the only man to appreciate you so enthusiastically."
Giuseppe smiled as well, his eyes roaming over her like hands. "You are a very lucky man, Signor Kouros."
Aristide went rigid beside her, his hold on her shoulder tightening almost painfully. "I am well aware of my good fortune in my choice of a wife."
The words were born of his pride, not honesty, and that infuriated her. Not only had he not chosen her for his wife—nature had done that for him in allowing her to become pregnant—but he could in no way imply he currently wanted to be her husband in any shape or form.
Angry at his willingness to claim her for the sake of his ego and not her heart, she twisted out of his hold. "I'm ready to go home."
"The evening is still young," Giuseppe said.
Almost as annoyed with the Italian as she was with Aristide, she smiled saccharine sweetly at him. "Then I suggest you find someone young to share it with you. As we say back home, I'm an old married woman. My baby son will wake me up bright and early no matter what time I go to sleep tonight."
She turned to Aristide. "You are welcome to stay. I can catch a taxi home with no trouble at all."
"We will drop you off," Sebastian said quickly. "Our little ones do not sleep much past dawn either, right, agape mou?" he asked, looking down at Rachel with love in his eyes.
Eden usually rejoiced in her in-laws' adoration for one another, but tonight it was like salt in a fresh wound. If she had to travel home, witnessing it at close proximity in the car, she would probably end up in tears and totally embarrassing herself.
"If you are ready to leave, I will of course accompany you," Aristide said with steel in his voice.
She had no desire to argue, but neither did she offer him any conversation once they were in the car. She could tell he was just sitting there stewing, his driving movement precise and indicative of tightly controlled anger.
They were almost to the villa when he broke the silence. "I do not appreciate my wife flirting with other men."
"I did not flirt."
"Giuseppe wants you."
"That's his problem."
"Is it?"
"Yes. I don't want him."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm a married woman, for heaven's sake, Aristide."
"But you do not feel like a married woman."
"That doesn't mean I'm going to jump in bed with the first beautiful Italian man who asks me." Giuseppe had been over the top and even a little smarmy in the way he looked at her, but he'd also been gorgeous.
His jaw clenched. "And if I asked you?"
"Asked me what?"
"To go to bed with me."
"After you disappeared on the terrace with your personal assistant?" She made a sound of disgust. "Forget it."
He said a very nasty American swear word. "She was upset. You told me to go to her. What did you expect me to do, ignore her distress?"
"Why not? You've done a very good job of ignoring mine on more than one occasion. And I didn't tell you to go to her. I made it clear I wanted no part of it, if you did."
"I'm sorry if my actions tonight offended you." It was a stilted apology at best.
"Celibacy starting to wear on you, is it?" she asked cynically, implying that was his only reason for saying he was sorry. And maybe it was.
"Yes, but my apology was sincere. It was not my intention to put Kassandra's feelings above your own. I did not seek her out merely to soothe her feelings, but also to make it clear I do not appreciate being the center of an emotional scene."