Lynne Graham - The Greek’s Chosen Wife

She took a cab back to the Demakis villa and swanned in as though she had always lived there. The staff still on duty were assembled and formally introduced to her. The cook promised her a special supper calculated to tempt the most delicate appetite and the housekeeper showed her into a magnificent bedroom suite with a balcony that overlooked the garden. She went for a shower and put on a light wrap.

Why was she feeling so devastated? She was furious with Nik and she had every right to be! Supper arrived on a tray. Stress always made her want to eat but when she looked at that food and thought of never, ever being held in Nik’s arms again she felt sick with fear. She wanted Nik. She craved Nik. This was crazy. He had fought to keep her as his wife. He had forced her to stay as his wife and to live with him. He took marriage very seriously. He could not just suddenly decide to let her go solely because she had inherited a lot of money… could he ?

Could he really be so diabolically unreasonable? He was stuffed full of macho reactions and ferocious pride. With reluctance she recalled his raw admission that, eight years earlier, he had been taunted about what a good financial catch she would be. What a prophetic warning that had been! Well, she already knew that Nik wasn’t after her money, she thought wretchedly. No decent male would want to be labelled a fortune hunter. She could understand that but she could not understand that he could be prepared to abandon her and their future together on the strength of a principle.

Dogs were barking frantically in the grounds that surrounded the villa. The sound of the commotion prompted her to walk out onto the balcony that overlooked the gardens. A security man came to apologise for the noise. He explained that a man had been seen climbing in over the wall, and that there had been a chase, but the intruder had got away.

Prudence got into bed and lay there getting madder and madder. But underneath the anger was a vast, spreading well of terrified insecurity and fear. She loved Nikolos Angelis to bits. She adored him. She had been so, so happy with him, but she had let a crack appear and a distance develop when she’d turned away from him after her miscarriage. That gulf had only lasted for a few weeks but it had strained their relationship and left a vulnerable spot. I lost a child, too, he had said. Maybe he was still angry about the way she had reacted. She should not have left the apartment in a temper; she should have stayed.

Exhaustion sent her to sleep in bursts. Around dawn an idea that at first seemed crazy came to her. She ran it round and round inside her head until it no longer seemed quite so off the wall. She could do to him what he had done to her. She could put pressure on him through his company. Why not? What did she have to lose? What was pride if it meant life without Nik?

The delicate, summery blue dress she put on had a neckline that dipped in a flattering V at back and front. She examined herself from all angles and was extra-careful with her make-up. He would be at his office in Athens. He was there a couple of days a month and she had planned to start accompanying him on the trips. Of late, she had developed an embarrassing tendency to pine when he was out of sight and touch for longer than ten hours. All the barriers had come down and love had got a firm and increasingly desperate hold on her. But when Nik heard what she had to say, he would be surprised and she had not the slightest idea how he would react…

Before Prudence could go out, Cassia Morikis arrived at the gate and asked to see her. On the brink of turning down the request, Prudence changed her mind and received the beautiful blonde in the vast expanse of the formal drawing room. Encouraging her visitor to relax and feel at home was not on her mind.

Looking unusually subdued, Cassia fixed anxious brown eyes on her. ‘I’m sure you know why I’m here. I’m afraid I drank too much yesterday and I was very rude to you.’

Prudence knew very well that the other woman must have panicked once she realised that Prudence was now her father’s employer. ‘Yes, you were.’

‘I hope you’ll accept my apologies,’ Cassia murmured plaintively. ‘I’m sure that Nik would want you to forgive me.’

‘Nik couldn’t care less. I told him who spiked his drink,’ Prudence countered drily, watching dismay and embarrassment flare in the blonde’s gaze. ‘But I assure you that I won’t hold your behaviour against your father.’

Minutes after Cassia’s hasty departure, Prudence left the villa, propelled by her determination…

WHEN PRUDENCE ENTERED Nik’s cool contemporary office, her heart rate speeded up as if she was running a sprint.

As Nik’s stunning dark golden eyes collided with hers, an electric jolt of attraction flamed through her. His lean, darkly handsome face broke into a smile as he strode towards her. ‘You are very welcome, thespinis mou .’

Wrong-footed by that unexpected salutation, Prudence went pink and worried that he assumed her visit meant surrender to his terms.

‘Would you like a tour of the building?’ Nik enquired smoothly, for it was her very first visit to his offices in Greece.

Prudence tensed. ‘Perhaps later. I came here because I have something important to tell-’

His slumberous gaze wandered from the moist fullness of her lips to the luscious curve of her breasts and back up again in an act of bold appreciation. ‘I like the dress-’

‘Please let me say what I have to say,’ Prudence cut in a touch unsteadily, liquid heat pooling in her pelvis and making her press her thighs together. It shook her that he could awaken desire in her so easily with a certain look or the dark resonance of his husky voice.

With a graceful movement of one hand that signified assent to her wish to talk, Nik leant back against his glass desk and regarded her with an intimidating level of expectancy.

‘I place a very high value on our marriage,’ Prudence told him stiffly.

‘That’s good.’

‘So if you don’t come back to me-’

Nik shifted long, graceful fingers. ‘But I haven’t gone anywhere-’

‘Don’t interrupt me. If you destroy our marriage I will allow Demakis International to destroy your company,’ Prudence completed tightly and she was holding herself so rigidly that her knees began wobbling.

Nik studied her in fulminating silence, dark eyes shorn of gold and gleaming, his big, powerful frame motionless and still apparently relaxed.

‘You think I won’t do it but I will!’ she swore shakily. ‘We were very happy together and money shouldn’t be allowed to come between us.’

‘I should have known what I was doing when I blackmailed a Demakis into making our marriage real. You learn fast, pethi mou .’

Prudence sucked in a steadying gust of oxygen, her nerves leaping like jumping beans. She had done it. She had threatened him just as he had once threatened her with the loss of all she held dear. But she was appalled at herself, sick inside, ashamed.

Dry-mouthed, she said, ‘So what do you say?’

‘Bring on the big guns.’

Her cheeks flamed, her tummy flipping. ‘That’s not a serious response.’

Nik continued to regard her levelly. ‘It is. Coercion doesn’t work with me. Do you think Theo didn’t try it?’

Her throat felt very tight. ‘So you’re saying…no?’

‘I’m saying no.’

She could feel the colour draining from her face. Suddenly the solid ground beneath her feet was vanishing, for she had backed herself into a corner from where there was nowhere else to go. But she lifted her head high, tilted her chin and shrugged as if his response was a matter of near indifference to her. Turning on her heel, she began to walk away.