Page 19 of His Forgotten Wife

Between hot-air balloon rides , swimming lessons, shopping trips with Juliana and going running with Arabella at the crack of dawn, in addition to the acquisition meetings she attended with Christina and Ares for a company he was buying, Dolly wanted to tell herself she was too busy to think of his outrageous proposition that they indulge in a red-hot affair.

She kept using outrageous every time she thought of it, because she needed her mind to keep thinking of it as such. Her heart and body, the traitors, had already discarded the word and adopted delicious instead. Especially when she remembered the heady free fall of her orgasm while she rode him.

She still couldn’t believe that she had been that wild, wanton creature who had simply demanded and then taken what she needed. Every time she thought it, her cheeks flushed and a pulse seemed to come alive at her core.

Now, in moments when she didn’t actively work on resisting the thoughts, she was reminded that it was her deepest fantasy coming true. God, she’d even crushed on him at Columbia. Nine whole years…

Spoken in such bare terms, the proposition should have felt anything but romantic. And yet, Dolly had never heard such naked, honest wanting before. Had never seen that need for her. And that it came from Ares still boggled her mind.

She kept wandering through her days, head in the clouds. While Ares hadn’t asked her again in the following week, he had kissed her at every opportunity.

Like during the hot-air balloon ride, when they were literally floating above the clouds. When she’d teased him that he was turning green and didn’t have to be all macho when he had a fear of heights.

Like when she’d panicked during the swimming lessons, had swallowed too much water and couldn’t breathe.

Like when she had drifted off during the virtual quarterly meeting with shareholders—imagining introducing Ares to her grandpa and letting his strategic mind beat Ares at chess—and he’d pulled her off camera with her braid twisted around his fingers and kissed her upside down… just as she’d put on the list.

Then there was the time just two nights ago when she had found him immersed in the Jacuzzi, his complexion deathly pale after a brutal physiotherapy session.

Knowing that he didn’t like to see her worry over him, she’d joined him, hoping to distract him.

Of course, the man had other plans. As he always seemed to do, when it came to her these days.

Instead of giving him solace, she’d ended up with his fingers inside her, working that glorious, deep spot that turned her into sheer sensation as if he was already a master at finding it, while his thumb tap-tapped against her clit relentlessly, urging her toward ecstasy.

Teeth digging into his shoulder to lock away her moans, she had come so hard that she’d nearly blacked out, and had needed his help to get out of the tub.

She should have known better than to challenge him with the list. Although, with each item he crossed off on it, she couldn’t help wondering how he would tackle the rest. Especially the romance-and-marriage-and-babies part.

Obviously, he couldn’t make them come true, but with Ares and his single-minded focus…anything was possible. She shivered as her mind went to forbidden zones made of foolish dreams.

And the crux of the matter was that she couldn’t deny him anything.

With each day and heated encounter dragging her deeper and deeper into falling for him, her fear about what would happen when he discovered the contract marriage also escalated. She wasn’t even sure why she was hiding it anymore—it wasn’t as if they weren’t already involved.

Or was it the fear that when he learned the truth, he would feel betrayed?

Or that when his memories returned and he felt whole, his current attraction to her would fade completely and he would want things returned to as they were before?

That he would have nothing but scorn and contempt for what he would see as his weakness?

Like when her aunt had shown her true feelings about Dolly coming to stay with them after her parents’ insurance payout had dried up.

Overnight, Dolly had gone from a cherished niece to a painful burden, with reminders that every meal, every pen and notebook she needed for school, every piece of clothing she was bought, was a result of their generosity.

Losing her parents had been bad enough, but that rejection—having her aunt turn on her overnight, had hurt worse than any pain she’d ever known.

She’d never quite recovered from the abandonment, had only tried again and again to please her aunt.

To gain back her approval. That was why she had used some of the money from the marriage agreement to reimburse her aunt.

Which was the saddest thing ever. Because her aunt would never be happy with Dahlia, not even if she kept her in luxury.

Even her battered heart knew that Ares could never be as willfully malicious as her aunt. But he could hurt her worse than her aunt ever had or could.

She needed to remember that after the accident and the coma, he was on a novelty kick, that his interest in her would reset back to her being an efficient assistant to him. To a necessary cog in the complex machine that was his brain.

That, even if she slept with him, which she so desperately wanted to, she needed to remember that nothing could change when the month was over. It would simply be a fling.

It was inevitable that Ares would return to his previous hyper fixation on work and innovation, and she would become an afterthought in the margin.

Already, she could sense the restlessness in him, even though he claimed that his hip pain and headaches were getting better.

Could sense that he was feeling caged, either by the villa and his family or the restrictions put on him by his health.

In two weeks, she would be leaving. Her grandpa needed her assistance to make the permanent move to the long-term facility.

Ares, she knew from experience, would be more than glad to uncomplicate this whole tangle between them, whatever he said now.

Time was ticking down. Which meant time was running out and it was foolish to not reach for what she so desperately wanted.

“Come in,” came his command when she knocked at his door.

Just that phrase seemed to reverberate through her.

Once she had made the decision, it had been impossible to wait for a moment.

Still, she’d given him enough time to recover from the evening session of physiotherapy.

The last thing she wanted to do as his lover was to become a bumbling mess at the sight of his pain.

Running a hand over her abdomen, where butterflies seemed to be having a parade, she opened the door and walked in. Her fingers lingered on the doorknob as she took in the gray and navy furnishings of his suite.

It was five times the size of her bedroom and done in a very masculine scheme.

Dressed in gray sweatpants and his chest bare, Aries was standing by his desk with his glasses on, peering at some notebook.

He turned when the door clicked shut behind her and his eyes swept over Dolly from top to toe.

She was very glad for picking the emerald green pj’s.

They were one of the most luxurious things she’d ever owned, and as she stood there, she realized she had been saving them for him.

The silk robe she’d worn over the pajamas fluttered against her freshly shaved legs as she moved into the room. As if following her steps, the recess lights flicked on and a gasp escaped her.

His bare chest was littered with so many tiny scars that instant tears prickled behind her eyelids.

Then there was the network of deeper scars and burn marks that littered his right hip.

“God, Ares. You must have been in so much pain. I wish I could take it from you. Because I would.” Her impassioned declaration hung in the silence but Dolly refused to take it back.

The fact of the matter—that she kept trying to fight—was that she would do anything for this man.

Walking around the bed, Ares plopped at the edge of it.

Long legs kicking out in front of him, he crossed his arms at his abdomen and the sight of his hair-roughened forearms and the lean definition of his chest made some of her ache recede.

“That’s a ridiculous idea. You can’t take my pain away, Dahlia.

And even if you could, you’re the last person I would give it to. ”

Folding her arms at her midriff, she half laughed, half nodded. “I know that it’s not possible. It’s something you just want to do for someone you care about.”

“So you do care about me, then?”

Her impatient exhale came out as a whistle. “Of course, I care about you. I’m here, aren’t I? Trapping myself deeper and deeper into your web.”

He frowned. “I’m not a spider nor are you a nasty little bug.”

“It’s an analogy, Ares,” she said, walking deeper into the room. “If I had any sense, I’d be miles away. If I had even an ounce of self-preservation, I would not be standing here in your bedroom.”

“You need self-preservation only if I were somehow harmful for you.” His frown deepened, highlighting the lines of pain around his sharp features. “You think I would hurt you?”

She shrugged, refusing to get into an argument with him. Especially one that was beyond the scope of his understanding of emotions. And it came to her then.

Ares could absolutely shatter her into so many tiny pieces but he would do it without meaning to. It was just how he was built.