Page 24 of His Forgotten Wife
Her cheeks flamed. “Doing what?”
“Touching each other. In comfort or passion or—”
“No! And you said you have memory gaps about the time before the accident,” she said, her heart in her throat. “Are your memories coming back? Do you remember something specific?”
A frustrated grunt fell from his lips. “No. But I…”
“What?” She had never seen him hesitate ever before and she was beginning to hate all the half-truths surrounding them. “Is this some kind of test of my loyalty?”
“Of course not.” He looked thoughtful, as if he was trying to figure out the conditions for an algorithm. “There’s a lot of confusion in my head about you. But I can see that I have horrified you by asking if we’ve ever been involved.” Alarm flashed in his eyes. “Or is it that you didn’t trust me to not take advantage of you in some way?”
Dolly swallowed the ache that was beginning to feel like a permanent resident of her throat now. “Of course you would never take advantage of me.”
The vehemence with which she said it clearly wasn’t lost on him either. Her champagne flute rattled as she placed it onthe side table. Suddenly, the yacht felt like a cage more than anything because she couldn’t run from herself.
She turned away from him, wishing there was a way to purge her awareness of him. “I think we should stop talking about this. There’s nothing to be achieved by focusing on the past.”
“I hate not knowing,” he bit out at her back, confirming her theory that his memory holes were contributing to his sleeplessness and agitation more than physical pain.
“Have you thought that if your mind’s blanking things out for you, then maybe they are not worth remembering?” she said without turning. It cost her so much to say that.
“So I should just focus ahead?”
“Yes.”
“Right, forget what we did or didn’t do in the past,ne?” He stepped in front of her again, blocking her view of the sea. “Fine. But I want to test a theory I do have about the present. About you and me.”
Her heart beat so loud that even the waves of the sea seemed to dim in her ears. Dolly pressed her palm to his chest, wanting to push him. Which was ridiculous because she might melt if he made skin contact with her. “This isn’t really the time for one of your experiments, Ares. We’re surrounded by your family and friends.”
“Who are all curious about how I act with you. I might as well be a wild animal let loose among innocent lambs for their viewing pleasure. And since my mother gave you a different room, we didn’t get any time to practice our newly engaged act.”
There was frustration and something else Dolly couldn’t pin down in his tone. Something almost like…anger. Also, now she understood another source of his mother’s doubts about her.
“You’re saying you want to share a room with me?” Although now that she knew the size of the villa, sharing a room might be like sharing a small-sized New York apartment.
“Isn’t that what engaged couples do?” he quipped, studying her intently. “Now you’ve got my entire family even more curious about us.”
“That’s your problem,” Dolly retorted, irritation making her response short. “They don’t know the little fact that you don’t like anyone in your personal space, Ares. I was trying to not step on your boundaries. And I haven’t been sleeping well anyway.”
It was the wrong thing to say to him. And in that miserable tone. It was as if she were the innocent lamb who not only had made eye contact with the wild animal but had decided to run. It was in the nature of the wild animal to give chase then.
First and foremost, Ares Demetrius was a problem solver. And she had just presented him with a very personal one, especially when he was looking for openings to persuade her that she was better off with him.
He turned fully, the heat of his body a welcome blanket against the briny breeze. “What’s wrong? Why aren’t you sleeping well?”
She didn’t miss the grimace that crossed his face at the sudden movement.
“Dahlia?”
Knowing that he was like a dog with a bone when he spoke in that tone, she gave in. “I’ve been having nightmares.”
“The same ones you had after your parents died in the car accident?”
Her head jerked up so fast that she pressed her fingers to the back of her neck. “How do you know that?”
“That one time at college, you slept at our apartment when you were dating Tony. When I came in from a midnight session at the computer lab, you were thrashing around in his bed. He had gone off to smoke.”
Shock pummeled at Dolly. “That was years ago and I dated him for like two measly weeks. It’s how I met you.” A sparkof happiness lit up within her chest at the memory. “I don’t remember telling you about their accident.”
