Lynne Graham - The Greek’s Chosen Wife

‘That’s not an excuse for taking contraceptive pills to ensure that you didn’t have my baby,’ Nik condemned roughly, his Greek accent raking round every syllable of that abrasive comeback.

‘Everything’s changed since I took that decision.’

‘But my sins have come back to haunt me. Some would say that is very appropriate and deserved,’ Nik said quietly.

‘I wouldn’t…’

But Nik was no longer focusing on her. His striking gaze seemed to be looking inward and the sombre cast of his features struck a chill into her bones.

‘Don’t be like this-’

Nik rested brooding dark eyes on her. ‘How else do you expect me to be?’

Prudence moved towards him and made a tiny placatory gesture with one hand, before hurriedly squeezing her fingers together and letting her hand drop back to her side. In such a mood he would reject her and all bravery deserted her in the face of that prospect. ‘Don’t think that I don’t appreciate that you’ve had to be tough to survive,’ she told him awkwardly. ‘Your whole family depend on you and I know that you had to be a hard-hitter to break away from my grandfather and still stay in business.’

Nik bit out a harsh laugh, for she had not the slightest idea that once again he was fighting to stand firm against the might of Demakis International. But that was how it should be in his opinion: it was his duty to protect her from such worries. He cherished the memory of her happiness in Tuscany. ‘Is this my wife making excuses for me for being a bastard? Don’t waste your time. I’m not ashamed of what I am.’

Prudence could feel the hostile distance in him and that was when she realised how much damage had been done to their marriage. He was Greek and he was very proud. At the end of the day, family meant everything. She knew that the belief that she did not want his child must have cut deep. ‘I didn’t want to tell you about the pills, because I knew they would create a stupid misunderstanding.’

Nik shrugged a broad shoulder with magnificent cool. ‘What’s to misunderstand? As I said, I didn’t want a child until I made the error of assuming that you were desperate for one. Keep taking the pills with my blessing,’ he urged. ‘Look, I have to go into the office. A lot has been happening on the business front while we were sunning ourselves in Italy.’

Dismay and disappointment assailed Prudence. Just when she had given him her trust, just when she was ready to openly admit to him how very much she wanted to have a child with him, Nik had withdrawn the possibility and shut the door in her face. Even worse, his use of that word ‘desperate’ in relation to her feelings about babies sealed her lips on any protest. She did not want to figure as desperate in Nik’s eyes, not when he made it so plain that he had only ever been willing to consider fatherhood for her benefit.

‘Is that really how you feel?’ Prudence prompted tightly, with tears burning the backs of her eyes and her throat aching.

Nik opened the door. ‘How else would I feel?’

In considerably less demand than a sperm bank, he thought to himself in answer to that question when he was safely on the other side of the door. He wanted to punch a hole in the wall. He needed to vent the explosive emotions attacking his usually clear thinking processes. That violent urge shook his view of himself, but Prudence had deceived him and he had fallen for it hook, line and sinker. His destructive thoughts raged on: how did he know that she had ever planned to use a sperm bank to have a child? Had he given her the divorce she had so badly wanted, would he then have discovered that Leo Burleigh was destined to become the father of her children? A sperm bank? Prudence, who was so conventional? Had that ever been a credible tale?

Once again, it seemed, he had underestimated his wife. She had seen through the façade and realised that he was a callous bastard. Nik raked long brown fingers viciously through his black hair and then studied his hand with a frown, for it had developed a slight tremor. What was the matter with him? At a time when he was fighting for survival in business he needed all his wits and his strength. Never had he been unequal to a challenge, he reminded himself fiercely. At best he had been on trial during their honeymoon. At worst Prudence was planning to walk out on him for another man. Why else would a woman who had been so keen to have a baby now guard so carefully against the possibility?

By the time Prudence got dressed and went off in pursuit of Nik, it was too late: he had gone. Panic threatened to take her over. She lifted the phone to call him and then hesitated. Wouldn’t it be wiser to wait until he came home? She could then talk to him with calm and sense. At present, she acknowledged, she felt neither calm nor sensible. In fact, she felt frantic and tearful and furious and hurt and terrified. Nik had been honest: he didn’t want a baby. She thought it was wonderful that he could admit that while censuring her for practising birth control. But the reflection was of little consolation to her. What really mattered to her was that she had hurt his pride and disappointed him and she blamed herself bitterly for not being more honest with him in Italy.

The evening passed slowly, enlivened only by a call from Leo, who asked her to view a couple of properties with him later in the week. It was after midnight when Nik finally phoned to say that he would be working right into the early hours and staying at the apartment. Listening to the low voices and the bustle she could hear in the background, Prudence swallowed her disappointment and tried to act as if nothing was wrong. Maybe it was a good idea to let the dust settle, she told herself unhappily.

Nik was away for two days, and on the third evening, when he did return to Oakmere, it was Prudence who was absent from home and hearth. Nik went all over the habitable rooms, looking for a note. Then he went down to the stable yard and checked the sheds and the fields but there was no sign of his wife anywhere. When there was no other choice he rang her on her mobile phone.

‘Where are you?’ Nik enquired a shade tersely when she answered.

‘I’m viewing an apartment in London with Leo…’

Nik breathed in very deep and slow.

‘Are you still working?’

‘No. I came home to spend time with you.’

‘And I’m out…what a shame,’ Prudence lamented with all the seeming regret that any man could wish to hear. ‘I didn’t think you’d be back tonight.’

Nik found that confession far from comforting. What if handsome, attentive Leo wasn’t just a friend? How could he know for sure? Leo did nothing without consulting Prudence first. He rang Prudence continually and Prudence was attached to him. In comparison, Nik was conscious that he himself was at a severe disadvantage. He had coerced Prudence into living with him. She didn’t love him. Taking into account what she had said about his character, his wife didn’t like him very much either, he reflected heavily. But she still couldn’t keep her hands off him. Sexually he was very much in demand. Or had that been an act, too? A matter of good, clean fun? Prudence was a deeply sensual woman. And a deeply sensual woman, who had waited so long to explore that side of her nature, might well want to experiment…

‘Nik?’ Prudence pressed in the humming silence. ‘Look, I have to go. I’ll see you later.’

It was very much later by the time that Prudence finally walked wearily through the ancient front door of the abbey. All she wanted to do was lie down and sleep for a month. Her desire to hurry home had been frustrated at every turn. Nik greeted her at the foot of the stairs. The minute she saw him butterflies flew loose in her tummy. He looked so achingly handsome that she couldn’t drag her eyes from his lean, dark face.