"SHE'S COMING out of it."
Eden heard the words, but didn't recognize the voice. Her
eyelids felt glued together over a layer of sandpaper. It
took a Herculean effort to force them apart and, at first,
all she saw was white light and moving shadows.
There were more words, but they sounded like they were
coming from under water.
Someone moved to her right. "Yes, Doctor."
Her eyes began to adjust, making recognizable
interpretations of the light and shadows.
A young doctor bent over her, his pale blue eyes intent on
her face. "Hello, Mrs Kouros. I'm Adam Lewis, the doctor
on call when you were brought in. How do you feel?"
"Like I've been hit by a truck," she rasped. Her tongue
felt parched and swollen.
"You were...or at least your car was."
Images flashed in her mind. Driving rain, a wet road, the
sound of squealing tires. Headlights coming straight at
them. The grating honk of a car's horn, long and
penetrating. Aristide swearing in Greek and English. His
arm coming out to shield her, the airbags rendering the
gesture superfluous. Her brown hair swirling around her
face, it and the airbag blocking everything else from view.
More distressing images bombarded her and her hand moved
restlessly to cover her still-flat stomach.
Her gray eyes clung to the doctor's, begging
reassurance. "My baby?"
The paramedics had said the tiny life inside her probably
wouldn't survive the trauma, but she'd prayed desperately
they were wrong. She didn't remember anything from that
desperate prayer until waking up just now.
"You're still pregnant."
"Thank God," she said brokenly, relief pouring through her
slight body.
"Unfortunately, you're spotting. The good news is that
there is no amniotic fluid in the blood. However, the
amniotic sac has disengaged from the wall of your womb in
one place. We'll do everything we can to save the baby,
but the next seventy-two hours are going to be critical.
You must remain in this bed and stay calm."
She nodded and winced at the ache in her head. "Hurts..."
"Yes." He shone a small flashlight in her eyes and made a
note on her chart. "You're suffering a minor concussion
and have several small abrasions on your right arm from
shattered glass."
Now that he mentioned it, her arm did sting, but her
entire body felt like she'd been beaten.
Where was Aristide? Surely he wouldn't leave her to face
this alone. He might not love her, but he adored being a
father. Even after their argument, he would be by her
bedside for the baby's sake.
"Where is my husband?"
The doctor laid his hand on her forearm. "You must remain
calm, are we agreed on that?"
"Yes." She willed her emotions in check, despite fear
trying to take a choke-hold on her. "Please tell me."
"Mr Kouros is in a room down the hall. His vitals aren't
bad, but he hasn't come round yet."
"He's in a coma?"
"Yes."
She flinched as if the word had been a physical blow. She
felt like it had been. Prior to the accident she'd
convinced herself and told Aristide that she was ready for
her marriage to end. She had believed there was no greater
pain than loving a man she was certain cared for another
woman, but she had been wrong.
The prospect of Aristide dying hurt much worse. "Will he
come out of it?" She could barely make herself ask the
question, she was so terrified of the answer.
"There's no way to tell, but indications are good."
"I need to see him." If she could see him, it would be all
right. It had to be all right.
"Not just yet. As I said before, moving you would be
detrimental to your pregnancy. You must remain here."
"How can I stay here while Aristide is in a coma in
another room?" She struggled to sit up.
He pressed gently against her shoulders, putting a halt to
her feeble efforts. "Your husband will continue to live
without you by his side, but, if you attempt to go to him,
your baby might not. When he wakes up, we will bring him
to you."
She appreciated the "when" rather than the doctor
saying "if", but his promise was not
enough. "Please...isn't there some way you can take me to
him?"
"Your baby's life depends on you remaining calm and
remaining flat on your back in this bed," the doctor said
too firmly for her to ignore.
She gave up trying to move. "Seventy-two hours?"
"If he hasn't woken up by then and you are no longer
spotting, we will arrange for you to be taken to his room
to sit beside his bed."
She knew she had to be strong, but it was so hard. She
just wanted everything to be the way it had been before
she got married, when she thought Aristide was just poor
at expressing his emotions toward her...before she'd
decided he didn't have any.
The doctor squeezed her shoulder in comfort before
stepping back. "Bed rest is the best chance you have of
ensuring the viability of your pregnancy at this point,
Mrs Kouros. I know it is difficult, but you must stay
here. We will keep you apprised of your husband's
progress. I promise."
"Thank you." She blinked away tears at the kind
understanding she saw reflected in the doctor's eyes. "I
need to make a phone call."
"Of course."
She called her mother-in-law. Phillippa was frantic at the
news of the accident and Aristide's coma. Even so, she did
not neglect to ask how Eden was doing.
"I'm fine. Some minor complications...a concussion... it
will keep me on bed rest for a few days, though." The only
family member who knew she was pregnant was Aris-tide and
she had every intention of keeping it that way.
She'd found out very recently herself and the news had
come as a total shock. She was still breast-feeding Theo,
or had been, but her milk had stopped producing and she'd
gone to her doctor to find out why. She'd been dumb-
founded to discover she was pregnant again so soon after
the birth of her first child. Theo was only nine months
old.
Even if it had been a planned event, she would have
hesitated to impart news of her pregnancy to her mother-
inlaw when there was a chance it would end in grief.
Her heart contracted at the thought and she sent yet
another desperate prayer heavenward.
"I'm so glad Theo is staying with you."
"You must not worry about your son. All is well." Eden
actually managed a smile; thoughts of her son always gave
her pleasure. "Thank you."
It had been murder leaving him behind and she went to
sleep every night with images of his baby features, so
like his father's, firmly fixed in her mind's eye. Theo
shared Aristide's dark curly hair and olive complexion,
but he had her gray eyes. She missed him like crazy, but
she had intended this trip to NewYork to be an opportunity
to cement her relationship with Aristide.
She had thought that by coming back to where they had met
and been lovers, she could recapture the way things had
been between them. However, the trip had been a dismal
failure. She'd ended up playing second fiddle to
Kassandra...again, and getting so mad about it, she'd
asked Aristide for a divorce.
She could barely believe she'd done it. She'd been crazy
in love with him from practically the moment they met.
She'd thought he felt the same way. He'd certainly acted
like it.
They'd bumped into each other in front of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art. It had been a muggy day in summer and Eden
was visiting her dad in the city. He was busy in a last-
minute business meeting and had cancelled their plans for
lunch. There was nothing new in that and she'd taken
herself off to the museum as she'd done on so many
occasions in the past.
Only this time, she'd never made it inside.
*** Busy thinking, Eden let her instincts guide her toward
her destination. Now that Dad had cancelled lunch, she'd
have time to meet with that new glass artist she'd heard
about. Would he be open to showing his work in the
upcoming "History of Glass in Art" exhibit at the small
museum she worked for in upstate New York? Not all artists
were open to museum exhibition.
There was little to no money in it for them, but the
exposure was good.
She was composing her approach to the artist in her mind
when she hit what felt like a brick wall and bounced
backward. Her gaze flew up as two strong, masculine hands
grasped her shoulders and prevented her from falling.
Not a brick wall. A man. The most stunningly gorgeous male
specimen she had ever seen. Easily six foot four, the dark-
haired Adonis had eyes the color of blue lapis and a
finely sculpted body encased in an Armani suit of perfect
fit. He even smelled gorgeous. Wow. She thought maybe she
mouthed the word, but wasn't sure.
He smiled down at her and she felt all the air go
whooshing from her lungs while the blood rushed from her
head. Dizzy, she could only be grateful he had kept his
hold on her shoulders.
Those incredible blue eyes skated over her features with
tactile intensity. "Excuse me, I did not intend to nearly
knock you over."
But she knew, just knew, it had been the other way around.
"I wasn't watching where I was walking," she admitted with
a grimace while she fought a totally inappropriate urge to
reach out and touch the hard body so close to her
own. "And I was too busy watching you to notice the
direction my steps took me." He spoke with a slight accent
she could not place, his words infinitely more formal than
the average American businessman.
She stared. "Did you really just say that?" His smile grew
to such sexy proportions, she was in danger of melting in
a puddle at his feet. "You are unused to the men around
you being honest in their attraction to you?"
"I'm not used to men like you being attracted to me at
all." As soon as she blurted the words, she blushed so
hotly she felt like her cheeks were on fire. She couldn't
have been more gauche if she'd tried.
He didn't seem to notice. In fact, he was shaking his
head, his eyes speaking messages she had to be
misinterpreting. "You are teasing me, no?"
"No. I'm not very good at that sort of thing."
This made him laugh. "You are charmingly honest."
"Whereas you are embarrassingly so," she muttered, not at
all sure how to take this man's attitude.
He opened his mouth to speak, but his cell phone rang. He
frowned. "Excuse me for a moment."
She went to move away, but he kept one hand firmly on her
shoulder while flipping his phone open with the other. She
had no trouble reading his expression then. He was
silently telling her to stay right where she was and
arrogantly assumed she'd do it as he turned his attention
to his phone call.
Her heartbeat tripled at his continued nearness and the
knowledge she didn't want to go anywhere.
He started speaking in another language, one she could not
place any more successfully than she had placed the accent.
He didn't talk very long before hanging up the phone and
then smiling at her once again. "I must apologize. It was
my assistant."
"If you need to go..."
He shook his head. "No. I find my afternoon free. My hope
is to spend it with you."
Totally unprepared for that claim, she shook her head,
trying to clear it.
"You have another engagement?"
"No. I..." She swallowed. "A guy like you...you don't have
free afternoons."
"A guy like me, pethi mou?"
"What does that mean?" she asked, diverted.
"Pethi mou? Loosely translated, it means my little one."
"In what language?"
"I am Greek."
"Oh," she sighed out. She should have realized. He was
every bit as yummy as any statuary she'd ever seen of the
Greek gods. More so, if she was honest with herself.
"Now, answer me...what do you mean by a guy like me?"
"A businessman...a corporate shark."
"You think I am a shark?"
© 2003-2026