by Lynne Graham
‘You should have said-’
‘It was for you to notice. If you didn’t notice, I must have been good.’ Nik sent her a sizzling look of amusement that was as physical as a caress and sent her heart racing. ‘It was the first time I’ve ever made love without a contraceptive…I have to confess that I liked it. I liked it a hell of a lot.’
Already reeling with shock at his revelation, Prudence was burning up with mortification. With difficulty she thought over what he had confessed. Evading his gaze, she muttered stiltedly, ‘It’s not that easy to get pregnant, you know-’
‘No, I don’t. I’m happy to admit ignorance on that score-’
‘I should think it’s extremely unlikely that it would happen.’ Prudence was outraged by his earthy attitude and the humour he had shown.
‘Give me a month. I’m a goal-orientated guy-’
Hot, bothered and infuriated by that comeback, Prudence seized on a more positive statement to silence him. ‘I’m absolutely certain that I’m not pregnant,’ she told him, believing that she was not really lying and that within a couple of days her body would give her the proof that she was right in her conviction.
‘That’s unfortunate. But then for the moment I can only hope that common sense persuades you that rushing into the role of an unmarried mother is a very bad idea,’ Nik said drily.
‘I have a comfortable home and the trust fund my aunt put in my name for Mum and me-’
‘That fund is so tiny it doesn’t count-’
‘But I don’t have champagne tastes. I’ll work as well. Either way, I’ll have enough to raise a child,’ Prudence contended.
‘Material considerations are only one side of the equation. I have other objections. Every child deserves a father-’
‘I got by without one-’
‘Some might say his absence left you with a distinctly low opinion of men,’ Nik shot at her, his dark golden eyes grim. ‘Even if I wasn’t your husband I would have serious reservations about your plans. Raising children is challenging enough for two parents, never mind one. What if you were to fall ill? What if the child is born with a disability?’
Prudence was very pale. ‘I’ve thought of those things…I’ll manage. I’ve really thought this through. I believe I have enough to offer.’
Nik released his breath in an impatient hiss. ‘You’re more like your grandfather than I ever appreciated. When Theo Demakis wants something, he suffers from the same stubborn tunnel vision.’
Sincerely hurt and offended by that comparison, Prudence gave him a furious look. ‘I’m not stubborn…I’m not at all like him!’
‘At least learn by Theo’s mistakes within his own family circle. A child should have the chance to enjoy the benefits of a family life with a father and a conventional home environment.’
Wounded by his apparent conviction that she could not offer a child a tithe of what that little girl or boy deserved and needed, Prudence tilted her chin. ‘Such as you would offer? Have you the nerve to suggest that you could offer any woman a normal family life?’
‘Yes, I have that nerve.’
Three mistresses in three different countries, Prudence reflected in a passion of painful resentment. Normal? Conventional? How dared he criticise her quiet and decent country lifestyle and suggest that he could do better?
‘It’s amazing that you should want to stay married to me after all this time,’ Prudence contended angrily. ‘Why are you so reluctant to divorce me? Do you know what I’m beginning to think? I’m still Theo Demakis’s granddaughter-’
His lean, intelligent face set taut with tension while his stunning dark eyes took on a forbidding aspect. ‘Don’t say it,’ he breathed. ‘Don’t go down that road to insult me.’
Prudence was too upset to heed that warning. Her every instinct was urging her to fight back. ‘Perhaps you still believe I could be a financial asset to you. My grandfather may not be speaking to me right now but-’
‘I threw Theo out of my office last week. He was in a rage about your divorce plans. He seemed to think you had phoned him to tell him that news out of pure malice and he informed me that he had cut you out of his will.’
‘You threw him out…oh,’ Prudence mumbled uncomfortably, unable to meet his gaze, for she was ashamed of herself for throwing the slur that would draw the most blood. She knew it had no basis in fact. Nik was very proud and his sense of honour strong. He would never have married her to save his own financial skin but he had found it impossible to stand by and watch his family suffer the ignominy of bankruptcy. As for that news about her grandfather’s will, she spared it barely a thought because she had never dreamt that anyone who disliked her so thoroughly would consider leaving her anything.
‘So, you don’t figure as a profitable enterprise in any way. In fact, staying married to you might even be bad for business because Theo is a very bitter man right now,’ Nik imparted between clenched teeth of restraint. ‘As you’re also aware, it’s several years since I paid back your dowry with interest. I owe Theo nothing and, when he’s as rude as he was about you last week, not even the time of day.’
Prudence winced at the revelation that defending her name had pitched him into a battle with the older man. ‘I know…I accept that. I shouldn’t have said that about the money-’
‘But you did say it and I won’t forget it,’ Nik swore darkly. ‘I’m well aware that my family profited from our marriage in a way that you and your mother did not. But you have stonewalled my every attempt to redress that balance. You have always refused to accept an allowance from me-’
‘Oh, Nik, please, don’t say any more,’ Prudence urged in a stifled voice of distress and regret that she had reduced their relationship to such a mercenary level that he felt he had to defend his own behaviour. ‘We didn’t have a proper marriage, so I couldn’t possibly have accepted money from you. It just wouldn’t have felt right. You helped out in lots of other ways. When Mum was ill, with the nursing expenses, and other things-when I needed shelters for the animals and extra food…’
‘I am only asking you to give our marriage a chance,’ Nik ground out in a driven undertone. ‘What would that cost you?’
Prudence let her strained blue eyes linger on his lean, bronzed features for a split-second and hurriedly looked away again. But even that one stolen appraisal dazzled her, just as he had dazzled her the very first time she saw him eight years ago. If he had had the slightest idea what it would cost her he would not have asked that question. Once she had been obsessed with him. Was that the Demakis blood in her veins? Was that why she had found it so very hard to let go of loving Nik? But, having mastered that love and distilled all that energy into friendship and acceptance that she could never have anything more, she was terrified of exposing herself to that much pain again.
‘I can’t…I just can’t,’ she said flatly and, glancing down with relief at her watch, she began walking hurriedly to the door. ‘I must go-’
‘You’ve only been here half an hour-’
‘I have to meet Leo at six and you and I have already said all there is to say. I don’t want to say the things I’m saying to you…it’s upsetting me,’ she condemned chokily.
Incensed at the very mention of the other man’s name, Nik caught her hand to pull her back before she could make it out through the front door. ‘And doesn’t that tell you something?’ he growled in a driven undertone. ‘If you fight me you will get hurt, and that isn’t what I want either.’
‘I can’t believe that you know what you want-’
‘Don’t I? Am I so bad at putting my message across?’ A dangerous light in his shimmering dark golden eyes, Nik brought his sensual mouth crashing down on hers.
Astonishment gripped her, for there was nothing cool or sophisticated about caveman tactics. But she found that scorching onslaught as shockingly exciting as the domineering way he hauled her up against him. She kissed him back with bittersweet fervour, opening her mouth for the ravishing quest of his ton
gue. Her heart was pounding into a crazy crescendo. Her body felt tight and hot and oversensitive. She was pushing closer, burrowing in the hard-muscled contours of his powerful frame. And then her subconscious mind served up an image that cut right through that passion. Her memory leapfrogged back to her wedding day and the moment that she had seen Nik kissing Cassia Morikis. That was when she had truly understood that even a wedding ring could not bind Nikolos Angelis to her and make him hers in the way she needed him to be.
Yanking herself free of him, she rubbed a hand across her reddened lips as if to deny the taste of him. ‘You shouldn’t have done that!’
Prudence tottered into the lift on wobbling legs and let it carry her down to the ground floor. She felt emotionally battered, but her body was still alight with the passion Nik had awakened and the ache of desire made her despise herself even more. It was the stuff of nightmares for her to emerge from the building and find that she was the target of cameras and shouted questions from a crowd of journalists wielding microphones. For a split-second she was paralysed, as blind and helpless as a rabbit caught in car headlights.
‘Is it true you’re divorcing Nik, Mrs Angelis?’
‘Does Nik want to marry someone else?’
‘Any truth in the rumour that your grandfather begged him to stay married to you?’
CHAPTER FOUR
‘DON’T BE STUPID!’ Prudence heard herself say before she got wise and simply turned on her heels and ran for her life.
She did not stop until she had outrun the pack of journalists following her down the street. Gulping in fresh air, she took a careful look around her and slowed her pace; the paparazzi had gone. It had been an enervating episode for a woman who was not accustomed to media interest. Her face had only made it into the newspapers twice since her marriage-and only then at private events held to bring in funds for the sanctuary. It shook her to acknowledge that Nik lived with that kind of attention every day.
For the first time she allowed herself to mull over the astonishing fact that Nik had been willing to run the risk of getting her pregnant to keep her. At heart Nik could be very basic. Naïve as well, she thought ruefully. According to what she had read, it was quite common for couples to have to spend a year trying for a baby. The same gloomy book had informed her that even though she was only in her late twenties, her most fertile years already lay behind her. On that basis she thought there was virtually no chance that conception could have taken place on the strength of a single occasion.
When she met up with Leo again, he looked as grim as she felt.
‘What’s up?’ she asked.
‘I ran into a friend of Stella’s at the lecture. She let drop that Stella’s actually going out on a date tonight with some guy…she just didn’t know how to tell me and thought I would disapprove.’
Prudence winced and tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow. ‘Oh, dear. Mind you, she has been on her own for two years now.’
‘I know that.’ Leo settled frustrated brown eyes on her. ‘Give me the female viewpoint. Advise me on my next move…’
‘I can’t…I can’t! You have to make that decision.’
‘I’ve got too much to lose,’ Leo sighed. ‘Look, let’s have dinner before we drive back. It’s not like I’ve got anything better to do.’
‘How did you get on with Nik this afternoon?’ he finally enquired while they were studying their menus in the restaurant.
Prudence tried to hoist her usual bright smile onto her mouth and failed. She thought of the fact that her relationship with Nik now lay in broken pieces. She thought of the fact that he was cruelly forcing her to continually reject the marriage that had once been her naïve and foolish dream. And to her horror and without the slightest warning, tears sprouted into her eyes and poured in a flood down her cheeks.
‘Prudence…’ Leo was horrified and palpably embarrassed and he gripped the hand she had rested on the table. ‘Shall we leave?’
‘No, I’ll be all right in a minute…sorry,’ she told him ruefully, fumbling for a tissue and smiling apologetically at him through her tears.
Somewhere very close a camera flashed. Leo blinked and released his hold on her to shoot upright. ‘That bloke just took a photo of us! What’s going on?’
‘I must have been followed from Nik’s apartment. I thought I’d shaken the reporters off, but obviously I was wrong,’ Prudence sighed, mopping her face dry.
Leo stayed upright, making it clear that he would still prefer to leave. ‘You should have warned me…I had no idea you attracted this kind of attention when you were in London.’
‘I don’t as a rule, but word seems to have leaked out about the divorce and evidently anything to do with Nik’s private life is news. The paparazzi adore him.’ It crossed Prudence’s mind that, put in the same position as Leo, Nik would have shrugged and stayed to eat. But then Nik had a magnificent disregard for incidents that embarrassed other people. She felt guilty for comparing him to Leo, who was more sensitive and not at all arrogant.
On the drive back home, Leo told her that he had applied for a teaching position in London. A pang of dismay assailed her, for if he was successful he would be selling up and moving to the city and she would miss his company. Yet she also appreciated that such a move would make sense for him now that his father was no longer alive.
Only when Leo had finished telling Prudence about his plans was she free to ponder her own predicament. It seemed to her that she was in a no-win situation. If she continued with the divorce proceedings in the teeth of Nik’s opposition she would be wasting money she didn’t have on legal bills. She would have to find another way of changing Nik’s mind. Of course, a really bold woman would not allow Nik to come between her and her future plans, Prudence reflected ruefully. A really bold woman would head off to the sperm bank regardless, reflecting that she had asked for a divorce and that if her subsequent fertility caused her husband embarrassment and some denials, it would be entirely his own fault. But even though she was angry with both Nik and her grandfather, she did not wish to affront either man to that extent.
A strange car was parked in the yard at her home. Annoyed that the ‘For Sale’ board was still there at the foot of the lane, Prudence was hoping that the car belonged to the estate agent so that she could give him a piece of her mind. A small, pugnacious man in a suit got out of the car and approached her. ‘Mrs Prudence Angelis…?’
Prudence nodded confirmation. ‘Yes?’
He handed her a document and got straight back into his car to drive off again. She opened it up. It was an eviction notice drawn up by her grandfather’s legal firm in London.
Her solicitor, Mr Bullen, was able to see her first thing the next morning. He studied the notice she had been served with and sighed. ‘Yes, I’m afraid it’s in order. Your mother was warned that this could happen some day.’
‘My mother, Trixie…knew that there was a risk of this? She never mentioned it to me. I don’t understand,’ Prudence protested, her eyes shadowed by the horrible sleepless night of worry she had endured.
‘As you know, my colleague, who handled your late mother’s estate, retired last year. He may well have assumed that your mother had already explained the intricacies of your position and that you understood the problems.’
‘I thought I did, but I obviously didn’t. I knew that I would never own Craighill Farm. But I believed that it was mine to use for my lifetime.’
‘The farm belongs to your grandfather and he has always had the right to ask you to vacate the property so that it can be sold. The agreement by which your mother acquired the right to live at Craighill was extremely complex. In it, however, your grandfather, Theo Demakis, clearly reserved the right to put an end to the agreement at any time and he has now chosen to exercise that option.’ The solicitor surveyed his client with a curiosity he could not conceal. ‘Of course you could purchase Craighill Farm for your own use and that would soon settle the problem.’
Prudenc
e stretched her mouth into as good a semblance of an unconcerned smile as she could manage. She was fully conscious that while she carried the name Angelis a plea of poverty was unlikely to receive a sympathetic hearing. She walked slowly back out to her battered four-wheel-drive. She felt traumatised. She was to move out of the farm within the month. It was a bad moment to appreciate that, whenever trouble loomed on her horizon, she was accustomed to phoning Nik. He had always been her first port of call in a tight corner and his advice and guidance had proved invaluable a dozen times in the past. But she couldn’t phone Nik for support this time, could she?
There was certainly no point contacting her Greek grandfather, who had made his animosity clear with a speed and a ferocity that appalled her. Evidently, her decision to divorce Nik had been the last straw. In her ignorance she had believed that her father, Apollo, had funded the purchase of the farm and that it would be her home until the end of her days. The truth had come as a severe shock. Why should her grandfather let her continue to live in his property when as far as he was concerned she was a rubbish granddaughter? Theo Demakis owed her nothing, she conceded wretchedly.
In less than a month, every animal in the sanctuary would be homeless. It was as if a bomb had exploded under her tidy little world. With it went all her dreams. To think she had believed that she was financially secure enough to contemplate single-parenthood! Only now did she see that her freedom from having to pay either rent or a mortgage had been the foundation of her security and that without that advantage all her plans came apart at the seams.
But she was being horribly selfish when all she could think about were her own problems, she acknowledged guiltily. Dottie and Sam Trent lived at Craighill as well. Where would they move to? She had let the cottage to them and cheerfully assured them that they could live there for as long as they liked. She felt sick at that recollection.