Lynne Graham - The Greek’s Chosen Wife

‘A film? He knew that he was ill?’

‘Yes. He preferred that his fragile state of health towards the end of his life remained a private matter.’ The lawyer passed her a DVD in a sealed case, indicated the player and announced that he and his colleagues would wait outside to answer any questions she might have.

With a thudding heart, Prudence broke the seal, extracted the DVD and fed it in. The image of her grandfather flicked up on screen. It was a good five years since she had seen him in the flesh, and age and poor health were etched in his grim pallor.

‘How does it feel to be an heiress and hold your husband in the palm of your hand?’ Theo Demakis asked with a sardonic smile. ‘As this film is being made, you and Nik Angelis are sunning yourself in Italy and carrying on like newly-weds. You can thank me for that development.’

‘No…you can’t have known!’ Prudence gasped in stark disconcertion that the older man could have found out about their Tuscan honeymoon.

‘Picking a fight with Nik was not difficult. He’s very loyal to you. When I evicted you and your menagerie from that squalid house, Nik raced to your rescue as I knew he would. It brought you together. Adversity brings out the best in Nik. So I put him under financial pressure by poaching contracts from his company. He fought back. He even sold his yacht to fund the purchase of Oakmere Abbey. How chivalrous of him.’ The older man shook his grizzled head in wonderment. ‘Since then, as you’re no doubt aware, Demakis International’s campaign to put your husband’s company out of business has been steadily gaining ground. I knew Nik wanted to feel free of my influence and I gave him good reason to believe he had succeeded.’

‘Oh, my word…’ Prudence mumbled sickly, for a hundred and one things were falling into place for her and she was aghast at what she was hearing. On more than one recent occasion, she had marvelled at the endless hours of work Nik put in and the frequent phone calls he made and received. Indeed, she had scolded him for his preoccupation with business and his exhaustion. But he must have been worried sick, for her grandfather was a formidable opponent. How could she not have guessed what was going on? And how could he not have told her?

‘And now Nik is yours and you can call all the shots, Prudence. That is how I always planned it,’ her grandfather assured her.

‘That’s not possible!’ Prudence gasped in disbelief.

‘You’re a Demakis. I’m making you a very rich and very powerful woman,’ Theo Demakis continued with satisfaction. ‘If I’d known how stubborn you are, I might not have used the tactics I did eight years ago. But it offended me to see in a girl the traits that your father, Apollo, lacked. You have his sentimentality but not his weakness. You should acknowledge that I chose you the perfect husband.’

As the recording concluded, Prudence went into shock and stared into space, her brain teeming with frantic half-formed thoughts. Her most overriding need was to see Nik but first she tackled Gregoly Lelas. ‘Demakis International is trying to put my husband out of business. What is the position now?’

‘I know I may speak for the board when I say that the directors have no desire to continue what has been seen as a personal vendetta,’ he responded smoothly. ‘But the position is essentially what you choose to make it. Theo made his own decisions. He led very much from the front. When the terms of his will are publicised, Demakis International will need a strong guiding hand.’

Nik, she thought numbly. Nik’s would be the guiding hand, just as Theo Demakis had always intended. And the whispers of her incredible inheritance had already begun to travel; she saw it in the stunned light in certain eyes that turned towards her, as the crush of people parting allowed her to cross the hall and leave unimpeded. She realised that the news would spoil Cassia’s day and that knowledge gave her a wickedly pleasant sensation.

She got into the limousine. I am rich . She shook her head a little to clear it but the floating sensation of unreality persisted. This time around, she was going to save Nik, and that had a certain poetic justice.

Nik was chatting on the phone when she found him. His dark eyes flared gold when he saw her standing on the threshold of the large airy reception room. A smile curving his handsome mouth, he stretched out a lean brown hand to welcome her to his side. Willingly she grasped that hand and let him fold her up against his hard muscular frame while he completed his call in husky fluent French that made her toes curl.

‘How was it at the house, pethi mou ?’ he asked softly.

‘Not so bad…but Cassia was there and less than pleasant.’

‘Nothing new in that.’

Prudence eased round to look up at him in surprise at that quip. ‘Well, guess what? Cassia also admitted that she spiked your drink on our wedding day.’

Nik raised a questioning black brow. ‘How did you get her to confess? Thumbscrews and a rack?’

‘She couldn’t resist the urge to crow about it-’

His wide, sensual mouth hardened. ‘What a bitch,’ he murmured with contempt. ‘I suspected it but I didn’t think I’d ever know for sure.’

‘To be frank, I want to discuss something rather more important than Cassia…’ Prudence ran possessive fingers down over the lapel of his beautifully cut jacket. ‘I understand that my grandfather spent the last few weeks of his life trying to put you out of business.’

Nik stiffened and set her back a step to scan her oval face. ‘How did you find out?’

‘You’d never believe it if I told you,’ Prudence sighed, thinking of the recording that had allowed Theo Demakis to speak from beyond the grave. ‘Obviously it’s true. But I can’t understand why you didn’t tell me yourself-’

Nik frowned. ‘Of course you can understand. You’re my wife. He was your grandfather. The situation would have upset you.’

‘Yes but-’

‘I couldn’t allow that to happen. It was my duty to protect you.’

‘By keeping me in the dark for weeks on end? It actually makes me feel quite foolish. I’m not a little kid, Nik. I also feel that I’m an equal in this marriage, and that if you think it’s your job to protect me I think it’s my job to be supportive when times are tough.’

‘That’s sweet, thespinis mou .’ Nik dropped a kiss down on the crown of her head as though she was the child she had denied she was. He was so close she could smell the evocative scent of his skin and it sent a trail of sensual messages winging through her sensitised body. ‘But if I’d told you what was happening, it would have wrecked our honeymoon. Then you had the shock of the miscarriage to deal with. You would have fretted yourself to death. I couldn’t allow that.’

‘But I had a right to know-’

‘I won’t apologise.’ He released the clip that restrained the chestnut fall of her hair at the back of her neck and encouraged the thick, silky strands at the front to curve round her flushed cheekbones. ‘If I had the same choice again, I would behave in the exact same way-’

‘No, you wouldn’t-’

‘We have a real marriage now. It was important that we spent time together in Italy and that nothing spoiled those weeks. Also, that you recovered fully from losing our baby-’

‘But you shut me out of what was really happening in your life-’

Brown fingers turned up her chin, brilliant dark golden eyes colliding with hers. ‘You shut me out when you lost our child…’

‘I did…didn’t I?’ Prudence conceded, her throat thickening with tears.

‘You were hurting and I wanted to help and you wouldn’t let me. I’d never thought of a child as something missing from my life,’ Nik admitted tautly. ‘But when I thought of you having my baby inside you, it blew me away. Right up until the last minute I prayed there would be a miracle and you wouldn’t lose our child.’