by Lynne Graham
Why so much pain? And why was she missing Nik so dreadfully? She ought to have been glad to see him go, grateful that he stayed away. But she wasn't. She was hurting too, shaken that Nik was as bitter if not more bitter than she had peen. Her own emotions were all over the place. Either she had never got over Nik or she was falling for him again. And that suspicion made her very angry with herself. Nik had married her to gain the Manoulis empire and Nik would divorce her as soon as she gave him a son and heir. It was a straight business deal that had no room for emotion.
When Nik had been gone for five days, Olympia decided it was time to abandon ship. Given the opportunity to travel, she ought to be taking full advantage of it, not sitting around on board Aurora with nothing to do but sunbathe and think about a husband who had dumped her for more exciting things within a day of their wedding.
Nik's captain spoke excellent English, and when Olympia told him that she would like to visit the port of Malaga on the Spanish coast he was happy to be furnished with a destination and even mentioned the necessity of taking on fresh supplies. Evidently Nik had not been in touch since his departure, a state of affairs which was the perfect vehicle for her own intentions.
When the yacht docked at Malaga, as an act of exorcism and a statement of her new independence, Olympia asked her maid to cut twelve inches off her hair; she liked the results. However, the Captain looked dismayed when Olympia appeared, to disembark with a travelling bag in her hand. She told him that she would return in exactly a week and then she hastened towards the gangway like an escaping prisoner. It rather spoiled the moment when the older man intercepted her to point out that there were certain formalities to be observed before she set foot in a country of which she was not a resident.
However, within half an hour Olympia had satisfied those requirements and she was on her way. Having read Washington Irving's Tales of the Alhambra the previous year, and renewed her acquaintance with the book during Nik's absence, Olympia had her itinerary all worked out. She was heading for Granada, to see the wonderful gardens and the palace-fortress of the legendary Moorish sultans. She caught the train from Malaga, but when she arrived it was late afternoon. Wanting more than a couple of hours to explore the Alhambra complex, she found a small city pensione in which to spend the night.
The next morning, coolly clad in a lilac dress in a light floaty fabric, she was walking past the car parks at the entrance to the historic site when a long silver limousine pulled up beside her. His broad face expressionless, Damianos climbed out and flipped open the rear passenger door for her. 'Kyria Cozakis...'
Having stilled in astonishment at first glimpse of Nik's bodyguard, Olympia was frozen to the pavement. How on earth had she been found at such speed?
'Olympia...' A dark, deep familiar drawl murmured from the interior. 'I'll give you a count of five to join me inside the limo without argument.'
A furious flush lit Olympia's cheeks. Outraged at being addressed as if she were a spoilt child likely to throw a tantrum, she took a hasty couple of steps closer. 'Someone followed me off the yacht...right?'
'One,' Nik sounded, infuriating her even more.
'Someone's been spying on me. Well, I think that was really low and contemptible—'
'Two.'
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Damianos retreat back round the limo and fold into the front seat. 'Furthermore, I have plans of my own—'
'Three.'
'I just want to see the Alhambra...OK?'
'Four.'
'There's no way you are going to tell me to get in that car when I don't want to, Nik Cozakis!' Olympia slung fierily, with her hands planted on her hips. 'Five...'
Snatching in a ragged breath, Olympia crossed her arms and thrust up her chin. Nik emerged in one fluid but forceful movement. Sheathed in a tailored suit the colour of pale honey, he looked spectacular, and, even mad as she was with him, her heartbeat quickened and her mouth ran dry. Taking note of the curious tourists nearby, Nik assumed a studious air of solicitude.
Lifting her into his arms with exaggerated care, he drawled with fake anxiety, 'You never could take the heat, darling... you need to lie down for a while. Preferably under me.' he completed for her ears alone.
Stowed inside the limo because she honestly didn't have me nerve to fight him in a public place, but incensed at the growling arrogance of that conclusion, Olympia gasped, 'I'm getting straight back out again—'
Slamming the door, Nik swung back to her, brilliant eyes hard and angry. 'You took your life in your hands when you left the security of the yacht yesterday!'
Olympia bridled. 'What on earth are you talking about?'
His lean, strong face set in grim lines, Nik continued to study her with unconcealed censure. 'Whether you like it or not, you are the wife of a very rich man and the granddaughter of another, and that makes you an extremely vulnerable target.'
'For what?'
'For kidnappers, thieves and aggressive paparazzi!' Nik spelt out with wrathful bite. 'The instant I learnt you had left Aurora alone, I was seriously worried about your personal safety! The crew member who followed you for your own protection was unable to report your whereabouts until late last night.'
Involuntarily, Olympia had paled. 'No thief would find anything worth stealing on me.'
'And how would you like to find yourself at the mercy of a gang of thieves who couldn't even get a Rolex watch for their trouble?' Nik demanded rawly.
Olympia's tummy curdled and she dropped her head. His genuine concern made her feel ashamed, for if she was truthful her primary objective in getting off the yacht had been to infuriate Nik with a taste of the same treatment he had given her. 'I wouldn't...I'm sorry, I honestly didn't think.'
Nik expelled a slow, fracturing hiss. 'At least you are all right...apart from your hair.'
'My hair?' The sudden change of subject disconcerted her.
Nik skimmed lean brown fingers down the foreshortened length of the glossy mahogany strands now hanging just below her shoulder blades. 'You butchered your beautiful hair. How could you do that?'
Hot pink flooded Olympia's cheeks. She hadn't been prepared for Nik to be that blunt, nor for the strength of his unconcealed regret.
'You knew how much I loved your hair.' Nik withdrew his hand with a heavy sigh. 'I suppose I'm lucky I didn't hold your throat in the same regard. No doubt you would have cut it and bled to death.'
It was ridiculous, but, feeling like a woman who had sacrificed her sole attraction, she found her eyes smarting with tears. 'It'll grow...' she heard herself say in a wobbly voice, even though she preferred her hair shorter and found it far easier to handle.
'So now we go and see the Alhambra,' Nik murmured flatly.
'No, never mind...you're not even dressed for—'
'I insist, pethi mou. Today we take up where we left off a week ago and start learning to be married.'
Olympia flicked a startled glance at him.
Dark, deep-set eyes met hers levelly. 'I had some stuff to work out but I should not have stayed away for so long.'
With Damianos and another bodyguard trailing them at a discreet distance, Nik and Olympia went off to explore the Alhambra. It was a gorgeous day. The sun shone down on wooded walks with the green freshness of spring. Olympia was enchanted by all that she saw: the haunting inner courts with their tranquil fountains and the sand-coloured towers mirrored on the surface of still, silent pools.
They wandered through the lush gardens of the Generalife. In a cool rose-shaded arbour, sunlight sparkling through the drops of a water spout, Olympia glanced up and found Nik's intent gaze welded to her.
'What?' she muttered self-consciously. 'You are quite unaware of your own power,' Nik asserted with an amused shake of his dark head. 'In many ways, still so innocent. That day in my office I would have recognised that if I hadn't been so angry with you.'
Olympia tautened. She recognised the change in his outlook with
slow, wondering relief. In his time away from her, Nik seemed to have shaken free of his anger and his bitterness and his desire to wound. 'I did try to tell you that nothing happ—'
'No...' Nik pressed a cool forefinger against her eagerly parted lips. 'Leave it all in the past, where it belongs.' Her eyes shadowed. 'But—'
'No more bad memories.' Brushing back the smooth hair falling across her cheekbone as she frowned, he murmured grimly, 'We were just kids, and kids do stupid things when they get in too deep too young.'
For a split second she wanted to protest that she hadn't done anything stupid, had indeed done nothing to deserve the condemnation she had suffered, but she sensed that it was neither the time nor the place to press that argument again. Nik had moved on, and in the short term so must she, unless she was prepared to risk the promise of a new and better understanding. As she lifted her head again, she collided with smouldering dark golden eyes. Instantly she was divorced from everything but her intense awareness of him. His lean, lithe powerful physique, the proud tilt of his well-groomed dark head, the strong cheekbones which stamped his bronzed features with such strength and character and the wicked sensuality of his beautiful mouth.
'I want you, yineka mou,’ Nik admitted with a boldness that shook her, his brilliant gaze roaming over her shapely figure with explicit hunger.
Just as suddenly, the atmosphere crackled with electric energy.
Olympia felt her face burn and her skin dampen. All sound around them was distanced, just as if the world had stopped. No longer did she hear the soft rush of playing water, the distant hum of voices in the hot still air. Her heartbeat thudded as she snatched in a stark breath. Embarrassment seized her as she became conscious of the heaviness of her breasts and the tormenting throb of her swollen nipples.
His hands on her tense shoulders, Nik drew her closer, a world of intimate knowledge in his stunning eyes. She trembled, the power of every sense heightened, an almost choking excitement currenting through her. But she found it unbearable to be held and not touched.
'It may hurt to wait, but anticipation makes the pleasure all the keener,' Nik muttered thickly, linking his fingers tautly to hers and urging her back into the sunlight.
Later she didn't recall that walk back to the limo, only that it left her with legs that felt as weak as cotton wool. Damianos mentioned something about lunch and Nik vented a ragged laugh. She looked at her watch, but she couldn't interest herself enough to focus and think. Nothing mattered but the burn of Nik's jaguar eyes on her, the possessive hold of his hand, a proximity which was as much a torture to her as a necessity,
She leant towards him in the back of the limo. His fabulous bone structure taut below his golden skin, he held her back. 'Not enough time,' he spelt out with roughened urgency, I don't want to be interrupted.'
Olympia snatched in a wavering breath as the limousine sped away. The silence sizzled. She was trembling. She skimmed a fascinated glance down at their still linked hands and felt as if her heart was expanding inside her constricted chest. A wealth of emotion was welling up within her. Fierce longing mingled with even fiercer hope.
For the first time in a month she truly understood herself. She didn't question from where her feelings had come, or even how, she simply accepted the reality of their existence. She loved Nik Cozakis. Not with the uncritical adulation of her youth but with the deep desperation of a woman, who knew the pitfalls and the probable hurt that lay ahead. Love wasn't on the agenda in their marriage deal.
The limousine pulled up in front of a palatial building built of ancient weathered stone. Nik tugged her out into the sunlight. With an inclination of his imperious dark head he acknowledged the respectful greeting of an older man standing on the steps and swept her straight through the imposing entrance into a dim interior. On his impatient passage to the stairs she glimpsed a mate dark antique furniture and a vast Persian rug lying on worn flagstones. From the stairs, she saw upturned curious faces studying them across the vast reception hall, and finally realised that they were in a very grand and no doubt very exclusive hotel.
She coloured. 'People are staring at us;—'
The shift of one broad shoulder signifying his supreme unninterest in the curiosity of strangers, Nik strode across the magnificent landing. A maid waiting there bobbed the equivalent of a curtsy and hastened to throw wide the double doors of a beautifully furnished reception room.
'This is really lovely—' Olympia began, just a tiny bit taken aback by the indecent speed with which they had arrived within reach of a bedroom and striving to play it cool. But Nik swung her back to him, cupped her cheekbones with hard, impatient hands and drove his lips down on hers with an explosive hunger that blew her away. She clung to his suit jacket to stay upright, whimpering low in her throat in startled response as his tongue stabbed sensually deep into the tender interior of her mouth.
'Theos mou... I need to be inside you,' Nik groaned in frustration as she lay against him, struggling to get air back into her lungs, her whole body weak with aftershocks and the kind of anticipation that reduced all self-discipline to rubble.
He gathered her up into his arms and strode with purpose into the bedroom. Lowering her back on to her feet, he pulled down the zip on her dress and brushed it from her shoulders so that it slid into a heap round her ankles. He scanned her scantily clad figure with heavily lidded golden eyes that made her entire skin surface burn and tingle and slowly settled her back on to the foot of the big bed.
Struggling to concentrate, Olympia muttered anxiously. 'Shouldn't we have checked in at Reception?'
Nik frowned. 'Why?'
'Because that's what people usually do...isn't it?’
‘Not when they own the hotel.'
'Oh...' Olympia watched him discard his superb tailored suit with the same sort of pent-up excitement she might have felt at the highest point of a roller coaster ride. Her heart was hammering so hard it was literally a challenge to breathe Her tongue couldn't form words. Her body trembled, awake and eager and utterly outside her control.
Across the room, she encountered dark golden eyes that made her head spin. She was weak with a wanting so powerful it hurt, but still she attempted to be sensible. 'We... we should talk first,' she whispered unevenly.
'At this particular moment?' Nik demanded in frank disbelief. 'No chance!'
Hot-faced, she surveyed him, her heartbeat pounding ;I insane rate in her own eardrums, her swollen lips parted, her mouth dry as a bone.
'This past week has felt like six months,' Nik imparted, Greek accent thick as molasses as he stripped off his boxer shorts and strode back to her, naked and glorious.
‘I feel like I'm going to die of excitement,' Olympia mumbled in honest shame, shattered by the strength of the craving he could rouse in her. With his eyes, with his words, with the hard, sleek urgent masculinity of his magnificent physique. He was pure, packaged sexual enticement at that moment, and she was enthralled.
As he came down to her, Nik treated her to a primal smile of promise. 'Not yet, pethi mou...but soon.' Already she ached for him, feverishly aware of the hot pulse between her thighs. She held herself very still as he skimmed the straps of her bra out of his path and eased away the embroidered cups to expose her full breasts and their prominent pink peaks.
Venting a groan of satisfaction, Nik captured a sensitive bud between his lips and laved it with the tip of his tongue. With a gasp of reaction, she arched her hips off the bed.
Raising his head, Nik pushed his hands beneath her hips and removed her briefs. He let his tongue delve into the sucked-in hollow of her navel while his skilled fingers went on to explore the straining length of one taut thigh. She jerked, almost out of her mind with excitement. Then without warning found herself wondering if it was always like this for him with a woman, indeed, if he was the same with other women, and she tensed, coldness touching the fire burning through her.
She looked up at him, lifted an unsteady ha
nd to stroke her fingers through the black hair she had already tousled and let her fingertips trail back down over one high, proud cheekbone to the firm curve of his chiselled mouth. For a split second, eyes as dark as jet assailed hers. Nik ravished her mouth with his again. It drove her mind blank, shut out everything but the all-consuming power of sensation and her own needy response. Casting aside her bra, he directed his attention back to the tender flesh he had already sensitised. She squirmed and gasped out loud, the heat building in the pit of her stomach sending a message of fire to the very heart of her.
'Theos...if I had touched you in the car, I would have had you,' Nik swore with a ragged laugh. 'Sometimes you turn me on so fast and hard, I feel like an animal.'
'I want you too...' she confided unsteadily, desperate need digging talon claws of impatience into her.
He touched her then, where she so needed to be touched. He discovered the swollen damp welcome that already awaited him and with a hungry growl he shifted and pushed her thighs back with determined hands.
She saw the wildness in him as he came down over her. It was a savage hunger for possession that melted her skin to her bones. His cheekbones were taut and flushed, his brilliant eyes blazing. She lay there pliant and exposed, exulting in his forceful maleness with every fibre of her being.
'I am burning for this,' Nik intoned quietly, with feeling fervour.
He entered her with a single driving thrust that wrenched a keening moan of shaken response from her. Buried deep inside her, he gazed down at her with burning satisfaction and rasped, 'You feel like hot silk. This...being with you again...is all I've thought about since I left you.'
She couldn't speak. The intimacy of his bold possession brought a wave of delight that was blindingly intense. Every inch of her quivering body was leaping with crazy excitement, and with his every virile stroke the level of her craving for him increased. Heart banging, pulses pounding, she clung to him. Wild sensation overwhelmed her with hot, drowning pleasure. Then a shooting starburst of explosive heat consumed the last of her awareness and left her freefalling from mindless ecstasy back to the real world again.