The second she sat behind the wheel, her fragrance reached out to him. Again he was stunned because it was the scent he would always associate with her. It took him back to the last time they were together. Everywhere he’d kissed her, she’d tasted delightful, like fresh flowers on a warm spring morning.
Right now it was the last thing he wanted to be reminded of, but trying to blot out certain intimate thoughts was like attempting to hold back a tidal wave.
He turned to her, sliding his arm across part of the seat. She’d averted her eyes. If he wasn’t mistaken, she was trembling. On some level it pleased him she wasn’t in total control.
“Thank you for meeting me, Stella.”
“You didn’t leave me a choice.” Her words came out jerkily.
“Actually, I did.”
“You’re talking about court. I can’t imagine anything more terrifying for Ari,” she cried, sounding desperate.
“Believe it or not, it frightens me even more. Too much time has been lost as it is.” It surprised him how much he wanted to reach out and touch her, to see if she was real. “You were always lovely before, but you’ve turned into a startlingly beautiful woman.”
If anything, her features hardened at the compliment.
His gaze drifted beyond her face. “Strange how this little secluded stretch of beach reminds me of—”
“Don’t.” Her profile looked chiseled. Apparently she’d had the same impression and didn’t want to travel down that road of remembered ecstasy. “I agreed to meet you so we could talk about the best way to help Ari deal with this situation.”
A situation that had been put in play six years ago and was never of his choosing, but he didn’t voice his thoughts. For the moment Theo was walking on eggshells. “Do you think he’d be more comfortable meeting in Athens than here?”
She kneaded her hands, drawing his attention to her beautifully manicured nails. He grimaced to realize every part of her body looked quite perfect to him. It was impossible to eye her dispassionately. “Ari won’t be comfortable anywhere with you, but since we’re staying on Andros for a while, it should probably take place here.”
“What have you told him about me?”
She sucked in her breath. “Very little.”
“Even so, could you spell that out for me?”
Suddenly she jerked her head in his direction. Those gorgeous brown eyes pierced his with laserlike intensity. “You mean the way you spelled it out for me?” she cried. Her hands had gripped the steering wheel with enough force he imagined she could bend it. “I told him the truth, that you didn’t love me after all, so we never saw each other again. That was all I knew to tell him. It’s all he knows.”
Theo studied her features. “Yet you left out half the story. It’s time he heard that you stopped loving me. I’m sure he has no idea that you never intended to come to the church and go away with me so we could be married and have our baby in peace.”
The blood seemed to drain out of her face. “I was there, waiting inside the back of the nave. I waited for hours,” her voice throbbed.
Theo was incredulous. “That’s an interesting fairy tale. I was attacked before I could make it inside and was told that you got rid of our baby because you didn’t want anything to do with me.” For now he didn’t want to mention Nikos’s name and give her something else to fight him about.
“You’re lying!” she lashed out. “No one would believe such a monstrous story.”
“In the beginning I didn’t, either, not until you never, ever tried to make contact with me again. Obviously, this is a case of your word against mine, except I have the scars to prove it.”
“What scars?”
“The ones you’re looking at. While we’ve been talking, I’ve felt your eyes on me. They’re traveling over the small cuts, noticing the dents where my face got smashed in and my nose had to be rebuilt. These are nothing compared to what my X-rays show below the neck.”
Stella quickly concealed her glance, but not before he glimpsed confusion in those dark brown depths. That was something, at least.
“Whatever happened to you,” she finally said in a less-than-assured voice, “don’t you think it’s stretching it just a little to take six years before showing up?”
“Under ordinary circumstances, yes, but after you were nowhere to be found and all my mail to you came back unopened, I realized I would have to return to Greece and hire a PI to locate you. Unfortunately, I didn’t have that luxury at the time, not when I was building a business I couldn’t leave.”
Her head whipped around. “I don’t know what mail you’re talking about.”
Theo reached in his trouser pocket for the first letter he’d sent to her after he’d gotten out of the hospital. He’d addressed it to Stella at the Athens villa. It had the canceled stamp and date. Across the bottom the words “Addressee Unknown” had been scrawled.
“Take a look.” He handed it to her. “If you’re ever curious enough to read what’s on the inside of the envelope, then you’ll know my state of mind at the time. In the meantime, I’m here to claim what’s mine—Ari.”
She glanced at the front of it before tossing the letter back at him. “Ari’s not yours,” she said in an icy voice he didn’t recognize.
He put the letter back in his pocket. “Let me phrase that a better way. He’s both of ours.”
She threw her head back, causing those glistening dark strands to splay across her jaw. Combined with her golden skin, she was a miracle of womanhood. “You gave him life, but that’s all you did.”
“That was all I was allowed to do,” he countered. “Since you clearly don’t believe me, let’s not talk about the past. It’s over and done with. I much prefer to discuss Ari’s future. Perhaps you could bring him here tomorrow so we can get acquainted. We’ll let him choose what he’d like, or not like, to do. How does that sound?”
Her body stirred in agitation. “You can’t expect too much, if anything, Theo.”
As if he didn’t know. “I’m aware of that. What time shall I meet you both?”
She started the car. “Tomorrow’s Sunday. We have plans.” She was stalling, but he had to be patient if he hoped to get anywhere with her. “The day after would be best. One o’clock.”
“I’ll be here. Stella, I swear I’ll treat him with the greatest consideration possible. I’m not unaware he wouldn’t be the marvelous boy he is if you weren’t his mother. You were meant to be a mother, Stella. Every child should be so lucky.”
Though they weren’t touching, he could feel her trembling. “Y-you can have two hours with him if he’s willing,” she stammered.
“That’s more than I’d hoped for. The Stella I once knew was a giver. Remember that little heart I gave you?” It had been a cheap trinket he’d bought her in the Plaka because it had been all he could afford, but the sentiment had described her. “Love the giver.”
She revved the engine, obviously not liking being reminded of anything to do with their past. “Please get out of the car. Ari’s waiting for me.”
There was a time when she would have begged him not to leave. Of course, back then he wouldn’t have gone anywhere because he’d needed one more kiss, one more embrace before wrenching his mouth from hers. Damn if he didn’t need her mouth so badly right now he was ready to explode.
Forcing himself to act, he got out of the front seat. “I love your car by the way. With its classic