The Cozakis Bride

by Lynne Graham

  But how could she have defended herself? Her supposed best friend, Katerina, had backed up Lukas's lying confession of having betrayed Nik with Olympia. Olympia had been sick to the heart, and so bitter after seeing Nik with that beautiful model that all she had cared about was hitting back. Revenge... Yes, Olympia understood both the concept and the craving. Her revenge, her punishment of Nik and her grandfather for misjudging her, had been allowing them to go on believing that she was the shameless little tramp they had already decided she was. Nik had been incandescent with stunned rage, his rampant ego severely dented by the shock­ing discovery that his plain and seemingly adoring fiancée could stray.

  Only now did Olympia see how wrong she had been to try to punish them all with their own blind stupidity. Though she could not imagine even now how she could possibly have proved her innocence in the face of the lies that had been told, she knew that her frozen defiance that awful day must have contributed to that guilty verdict. And left Nik fired up with outrage and a desire for retribution that refused to dim even ten years on.

  Well, he had given her a blasted good fright the previous evening, Olympia acknowledged. But in the light of day she was too practical, too down to earth to credit that he could have meant all that he had threatened. Giving him a son and heir, for goodness' sake! And what about that extraordinary kiss? The way he had just grabbed her? What point had he been trying to make? That he could kiss her and fantasise about some other infinitely more sexually appealing woman?

  Bitterness black as bile consumed her. Of course Nik couldn't be serious...or could he be? He had taken her des­perate offer and twisted it into something so threatening her brain had gone into freefall. Having a baby with Nik—worse, going to bed with Nik...sheer madness!

  In the midst of her feverish thoughts, Olympia glanced at her alarm clock and gasped. Why hadn't her mother woken her up? It was ten to twelve in the morning! Scrambling off the bed, she hurried out of her bedroom and skidded into the lounge, hearing too late the deep burst of masculine laughter that might have forewarned her that her mother had a male visitor.

  Lodged one step into the room, clad only in a short faded nightdress, Olympia felt her generous mouth fall open, sea-jade eyes huge at the sight that greeted her. The coffee pot and the best china were out on the dining table. Irini Manoulis was squeezing Nik Cozakis's hand and wiping tears from her eyes. Eyes that were not sad but sparkling, as if an inner light had been relit.

  Supremely elegant in a charcoal-grey business suit cut to fit like the proverbial glove, Nik surveyed Olympia with the most supernatural calm she had ever seen. It was as if he was a regular visitor to her shabby home, a lifelong friend of the family, totally at ease with her mother, who was chat­tering away at speed in Greek, showing more animation than Olympia had witnessed in years.

  His dark deep-set eyes, raked with total cool over Olympia's stricken face. 'Smile, agape mou. I'm afraid that when I dis­covered that you were still in bed I was too impatient to wait any longer to share our good news with your mother.'

  'Good...news?' Olympia repeated, like a not very lifelike robot.

  Belatedly aware of her daughter's presence, and raising her brows in dismay at the nightdress, Irini Manoulis urged, 'Olympia...go and get dressed! Nik is taking us out to lunch.'

  Olympia fell back through her bedroom door like a drunk and dropped down on her bed before her wobbling legs collapsed beneath her. Evidently Nik had come here to tell her mother that they were getting married. Nik was a foe worthy of Machiavelli. And just then, Olympia was fully conscious that she was not Nik's equal in the manipulative stakes.

  Barely a step in her wake, her mother entered her room 'Nik's making the reservations on his portable phone... I need to get changed,' Irini Manoulis shared unsteadily, and then the older woman just flopped down beside her daughter and shook her greying head in an apparent daze. 'Oh, Olympia, I'm in shock...but in such happy shock I can't even reproach you for keeping so much from me. What a wonderful young man you are to have as a husband!'

  And with that assurance Olympia received a heartfelt hug from her mother, and she sat there like a stalactite in a cave, frozen in time, registering that Nik had bricked up every po­tential escape route and trapped her with horrific speed and dexterity.

  How long has Nik been here?' Olympia asked weakly. All morning...I would have woken you but we had so much to discuss.' Too excited, it seemed, to notice that her daughter appeared to be oddly silent, Irini drew back and clasped Olympia's hands emotively between her own. 'He invited me to live with you, but I said no... When I'm older, who knows? But young couples deserve their privacy, and if I ever return to Greece I would like my father to invite me. For now, London is my home.'

  'What...what did Nik tell you?' Olympia studied her mother's workworn hands and gently patted them, struggling to reason, finding it all but impossible.

  Irini cleared her throat. 'Everything, Olympia. Indeed he embarrassed me with his honesty, but I can truthfully say now that I have no reservations about you marrying him.'

  'Really?'

  Her mother sighed. 'I know how terribly hurt you were that night when you saw Nik with that other girl—'

  Olympia's teeth ground together.

  'You were both too young, Olympia. And the marriage was not to take place until Nik had finished university,' the older woman reminded her. 'A two-year engagement might test even the most decent young man—'

  'We'd only been engaged two months,' Olympia heard herself interrupt.

  An explosive surge of rage was rising inside her, threat­ening to choke her to death. How could Nik walk in cold and introduce himself to her trusting mother and contrive to wash himself clean of his past sins? It wasn't fair. It was disgusting, calculating, horrendous...

  'Yes, but there was alcohol involved. Sometimes when you're young, control is difficult to maintain,' her mother muttered uncomfortably. 'Who knows that better than I? Men have strong appetites...'

  Olympia caught her tongue between her teeth before it could blow that dated sexist whopper out of the water.

  'Nik had been strictly warned by your grandfather that prior to your marriage there were to be no intimacies between you,' Irini Manoulis pointed out, as if she was telling Olympia something she already knew. 'After what I had done, your grandfather wanted no risk of your marriage hav­ing to be brought forward because of a pregnancy.'

  In an effort to contain herself, Olympia sucked in oxygen in a long, dragging gasp. The level of Nik's sheer inventive-ness hit her like a punch in the stomach.

  'It was right to protect you when you were so young.' Her mother sighed. 'But Nik was young too...'

  And 'possessed of strong appetites', Olympia repeated, for her own benefit alone.

  'Where's your ring?' her over-excited mother was already demanding.

  Olympia got up and dug the diamond ring out of the drawer below the wardrobe.

  'I told Nik that we had been burgled twice...he doesn't want us to spend one more night here.' Her mother's eyes shone with happy tears as she admired the beautiful diamond 'It's just like a fairytale...you and Nik. Just like a fairytale. Olympia.'

  Ten minutes later Olympia emerged from her bedroom dressed in black trousers and a loose tunic top. Nik was in the lounge, still using his portable phone, talking in Greek Olympia studied him, her temper running hot as lava. Just like a fairytale indeed! There would be no going back now. It would break her poor mother's heart to have her hopes raised so high and then dashed.

  ‘I suppose you think you've been very, very clever,' Olympia condemned as Nik switched off his phone.

  He swung round, dark deep-set eyes pinning to hers and flaring to gold enquiry, his jawline hardening. Her tummy muscles clenched, her heartbeat quickening. He let his keen gaze roam down the taut length of her, lingering on the thrust of her breasts that even her tunic top couldn't conceal, the swell of her hips, the apex of her thighs, down and down, and then slowly back up again. By that stage Oly
mpia's face was flaming and her teeth were practically chattering with rage. He looked at her as if she was something he already owned, a possession, something he had rights over when he had no rights!

  'Irini's happy,' Nik murmured flatly. 'What on earth have you told her about us?' Nik loosed a soft, sardonic laugh. ‘The cover story de­manded a shrinking violet afraid to tell her mama that she was again seeing a man whom she had once believed had been less than faithful to her.' 'I will not give you a child—'

  'You won't get a divorce until you do,' Nik countered, smooth as silk. 'It's your choice.'

  Olympia tore her attention from him and covered her fu­rious face with unsteady hands. 'I really hate you—'

  'Don't muddy the waters with emotions, Olympia. We made a deal—' 'You made a deal.'

  'To suit my needs...why not?' Nik fenced back with the same unnerving cool. 'Now go back into your bedroom and put on something more festive. This is your mother's day, not yours. You can leave the talking to me, but you need to work on smiling and pretending to be happy.' 'And what if I don't?'

  Nik slung her an impatient look. 'You will. You'll pretend for her sake.'

  We made a deal. What madness had taken her over that she had imagined they might somehow get married and never live together without anyone even commenting on the fact? What had she been thinking of that first day when she had left her grandfather and came up with that wild idea? What had she imagined she would tell her mother in such circum­stances?

  'I called Spyros last night,' Nik volunteered. 'He didn't ask a single question, but he said he was pleased and he thought that I would make you an excellent husband.'

  'He probably hopes you're going to beat seven bells out of me every night!'

  Nik dealt her a sardonically amused glance. 'When we have the mutual pleasure of announcing your first pregnancy, Spyros will appreciate that I was much more sensibly occu­pied.'

  Olympia fled back to her bedroom before she lost her head and screamed at him. For her mother's benefit, she extracted a blue dress and light jacket from her restricted wardrobe and got changed.

  Nik took them to the Savoy Hotel. They lunched in state. Just as he had promised, Nik did all the talking. They were to move into his London apartment as soon as possible. Irini would be able to decide where she wanted to live at her leisure. Their wedding was to be held in London in a fort­night. Unfortunately, Nik was far too busy to stay put in London until then, and was in fact flying back to Greece that very evening. Olympia studied her plate at the tone of regret he utilised to make that announcement. He was so clever, she grasped dully. He was ensuring that their supposed relation­ship was subjected to no closer scrutiny than it had already undergone.

  Having escorted the two women back to their flat, Nik watched his future mother-in-law excuse herself to go and lie down for a while.

  Get Irini to a specialist before the wedding,' Nik advised ruefully. 'I never thought I would say it, but your grandfather is stubborn to the point of cruelty. Surely he cannot be aware of how your mother has been living?'

  'He wasn't interested in hearing how we were living...or anything else. Nik, please listen to me...' Olympia pressed her hands together, her sea-jade eyes open and unguarded. 'Feeling as we do about each other, how can we possibly live together?'

  'Where did you get the outrageous idea that we were about to do that?' Nik demanded in a dark undertone, lean, strong face hardening. 'Do you honestly think I would want to live with a woman like you?'

  Utter confusion claimed her. 'I don't understand...'

  Nik vented a grim laugh. 'I have some pride. I'll share a bed with you, but I won't share anything else!'

  Olympia gazed unseeingly into space. He believed a child could be conceived in mutual hatred? But what did it matter what Nik's plans were now? He might be able to railroad her into marriage on his terms but once that marriage existed he would find his mistake. She would not allow him to use her like that. She didn't owe him a child. She didn't owe him anything...

  CHAPTER FOUR

  On the morning of the day that Olympia's wedding was to take place, Spyros Manoulis arrived at Nik's apartment.

  Not having heard his arrival, and simply wondering where her mother was, Olympia left the luxurious guest room she had been using swathed in a cotton wrap. She heard the low, tense exchange of Greek and, frowning, peered round the corner into the spacious hall. Her grandfather was standing, his white head bowed and what she could see of his face convulsed with strong emotion, as he gripped both her mother's hands. Instantly Olympia retreated back in the di­rection she had come.

  She was pleased for her mother's sake that some sort of reconciliation was taking place, but Spyros had left it to the very last minute. Olympia was inclined to suspect that only the grotesque prospect of striving to ignore his estranged daughter at his granddaughter's wedding had finally broken down the older man's resistance. Indeed, though feeling in­tensely critical of any person capable of withholding for­giveness for twenty-eight years, Olympia was only humbled by the belated realisation that she had held spite against both her grandfather and Nik for ten years already. Her sense of superiority faded fast.

  A week earlier she had visited the office of Nik's London lawyer and signed the pre-nuptial contract. She hadn't read it, nor had she sought independent legal advice. As long as her mother's future was secure, Olympia was indifferent to any financial arrangements made for herself. She had got all she wanted already, and she was eager to demonstrate to her bridegroom that she wasn't greedy.

  Hopefully, when Nik was brought to appreciate that reality, he would stop being greedy too, and he would see that the outrageous concept of conceiving a son and heir for his own convenience was quite unnecessary when he was still only twenty-nine years old. Having only spoken to Nik on the phone over the past two weeks, Olympia had been steadily recovering the calm and sensible outlook which came most naturally to her. Nik would see sense, of course he would...

  ‘Darling, I'm so sorry...I lost all track of time!' Irini Manoulis entered her daughter's bedroom in a guilty rush and discovered that Olympia had got into her wedding gown all on her own.

  Olympia smiled. 'I knew that my grandfather had arrived. I guessed that you would have a lot to talk about...'

  In the space of a fortnight her mother had altered almost beyond recognition. She was eating better, sleeping better and, even more crucially, she had recovered her interest in life. True, she was still frail and easily tired, but an existence free of worry and stress was exactly what the heart specialist had advised and now it was hers,

  'You look so lovely...no wonder Nik couldn't wait to marry you this time,' Irini sighed fondly.

  All brides were lovely, most particularly in their own mother's eyes, Olympia conceded, unimpressed. And Nik was rushing her to the altar because he was eager for the fresh challenge of taking over her grandfather's companies. Hadn't he said so himself when she'd asked him why?

  'Nik will restore your confidence in yourself,' Irini said with conviction.

  Olympia almost forgot herself and snorted at that unlike­lihood. Her wedding dress, purchased along with a modest new wardrobe on the credit cards Nik had had sent to her, was beautiful: slender and elegant in shape, with the most exquisite overlay of handmade lace. It was also dazzlingly white in colour, which would undoubtedly curl Nik's lip.

  Indeed, Olympia had rejected other gowns purely on the grounds that they were not quite white enough.

  It did not dawn on Olympia until the last possible moment that her grandfather was intending to accompany her to the church and walk her down the aisle. As she stepped into the limo while Spyros hovered uneasily on the pavement, the atmosphere between them dripped ice.

  'I have been too hard on your mother,' the older man conceded curtly as the car drew away from the kerb. 'But I will make up for that now. If Irini wishes to do so, she can make her home with me again.'

  'Good,' Olympia muttered grudgingly.

 
The silence hung.

  'You are a very stubborn woman, Olympia. Very like my late and much loved wife—but in that way alone,' Spyros hastened to assure her, her supposed lack of morality clearly still so much on his mind he could think of little else even now.

  ‘Thanks...I think.'

  'I really do not want to know how you and Nik arrived at this astonishing rapprochement—'

  'Good,' Olympia slotted in.

  'But I feel it my duty to warn you that you may have troublesome in-laws.'

  Olympia unfroze and turned. 'Sorry?'

  Spyros grimaced. 'Nik's parents are not pleased, but no doubt in time they will come around. I feel sorry for him They were a close family.'

  Until he chose to marry the hussy, Olympia filled in, suddenly feeling hugely rejected and bitter. She had liked Nik's parents once, and his lively little brother, Peri, who had been a child of only ten back then.

  'Yet they must feel a certain relief at the ending of the other connection...' her grandfather mused, half under his breath.'

  'Other connection?'

  Spyros frowned, as if she had been eavesdropping. 'I was talking out loud to myself.'

  Nik had been having a wild affair with someone even more unsuitable than she was, she decided. Well, what was that to her? Why should she care? He was welcome to his women, who clung and begged. Her chin came up. Olympia could not imagine demeaning herself to that level with any man. But then Nik wasn't the celibate type, as she had discovered to her cost during their brief engagement She was glad she would be living alone, sleeping alone.

  The church was filled with flowers. The scent of them hung heavy on the air. Nik turned from the altar to watch her approach with grave dark eyes, so incredibly handsome he took her breath away. Tall, dark, beautifully built, his spectacular bone structure accentuated by the candlelight. Her heart turned over and skipped a beat. Hadn't she loved him once? Hadn't this once been her dream? How had it all gone so drastically wrong?