The Kouvaris Marriage

This morning, restless, she had walked the perimeter of the huge grounds. The weather was pleasantly cooler now, and the emphatic expert opinion, after her latest check-up the day before, was that everything was going along just fine, absolutely as it should. She was to get on with her life as normal. That made her unaccountably edgy. Almost as if she didn’t want to leave him. When she knew darn well she did!

What had been totally unexpected had been Dimitri’s reaction to the welcome news. He had stared at the doctor as if hearing something deeply unpalatable, his features assuming a chilling distance, and he had barely exchanged a word with her on the drive home, engrossed in private thoughts. And last night he hadn’t dined with her as usual. The housekeeper had imparted the information that he had been unavoidably detained and that she wasn’t to wait for him.

So what? She shrugged slim shoulders in an effort to put him right out of her mind as she came full circle, back to the terrace. She had the all-clear. There was now nothing to stop her leaving, making flight arrangements to take her back to England and away from him, making a new life for herself and her baby, leaving him to his obsessive passion for the stick insect!

Opting to rest on one of the loungers instead of going inside the house, she closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable.

Eleni with her tray! No doubt the staff had instructions to keep an eye on her. One of the gardeners would have relayed the information that she was back at base! Dimitri’s orders, naturally. He wouldn’t want her doing a disappearing act with her precious cargo.

Hearing footfalls, Maddie let her mouth curve in a smile. She had grown fond of the young Greek girl, and they had tentatively begun teaching each other their own languages. It could be hilarious, and provided a more than welcome respit

e from her tangled emotions where Dimitri was concerned.

Turning her head in the young girl’s direction, Maddie opened her eyes—and her heart bumped to a standstill, then thundered on.

Him!

She never laid eyes on him between breakfast and the evening meal. And not always then. And now, as ever, his stupendous sexiness set off a totally unwanted leap of sensation deep in her pelvis, almost pulverising her with longing.

Hoisting herself up on her elbows, all thoughts of relaxation flying, she watched as he put a tray on a small glass-topped table within easy reach.

Coffee, for two, a plate of the little sweet cakes that were so delicious she was developing a needing-to-be-watched passion for them, the never absent small posy of flowers, and a bowl of fresh fruit.

She tensed. Speechless. Now was the perfect opportunity to put him in the picture regarding her set-in-stone decision to end their marriage. But the words wouldn’t come. Her mind was in chaos.

When he sat on the end of the lounger she moved her legs sideways at the speed of light. Physical contact would make the chaos worse!

Turning to her, the force of his steely will holding her unwilling sapphire eyes, he stated flatly, ‘Our child is no longer in any danger. That being the case, we have to talk. And I want the truth—the whole truth. I’ve been too blinkered to want to hear it. But now it’s time.’

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

MADDIE’S heart leapt like a landed fish. Her hand lifted automatically to her breast, where she could feel it bumping through the fine white organza of her sleeveless top.

Why now, when everything was over between them? When she could walk away with some dignity, without laying her broken heart before him, suffering his scorn or—heaven forbid—his pity?

Yet—her brow furrowed with indecision—maybe telling him what she knew, had known for ages, would be a catharsis, a cleansing. Keeping it locked inside her, where it would fester for the rest of her life, would do her no good at all, deny her any kind of closure.

‘Maddie?’ he prompted. His voice was gentle. ‘Tell me what made you demand a divorce all those weeks ago.’

A muscle in her throat jerked and her eyes slid away from his.

Dimitri knew he couldn’t take it if she refused to give him any explanation, or told him that his suspicions had been right all along.

Whatever—he had to know why she was determined to end their marriage. ‘When we agreed to make a fresh start, after we discovered you were carrying my child, I wouldn’t let you tell me why you’d left me. I was wrong to insist that the slate had to be wiped clean. It was a form of cowardice and I’m not proud of that. I was desperate to keep you, to make you happy. I just wanted to start over.’

A sigh was wrenched from him before he stated, ‘But the slate isn’t clean, is it? Again you threaten to leave me, so the stain must still be there. So tell me. Is it money? I need to know.’

He enclosed her hand in his lean, bronzed one and his touch was fire in her veins. Maddie swung her feet to the ground and shot upright, dragging her hand from his.

She didn’t need this! This instinctive reaction to his touch!

And she didn’t want a pay-off. How could he think that? His wealth had never interested her. And now this demeaning physical reminder of the way he could make her feel, the agony of loving, wanting and needing him that she couldn’t shake off—no matter how often and how staunchly she informed herself that she hated and despised him!

The trouble was, she knew herself too well. With him she had always found it so easy, so imperative, to give of herself, to respond. But she was not going to let herself fall into the abyss of blind love and yearning again!

She turned back to face him. He was standing now, and his tall, powerful physique gave her the feeling of being overwhelmed. Wrapping her arms self-protectively around her midriff, she met his eyes, determination in the sparkling blue.

But her mouth shook a little when she got out, ‘We’d been married for just a few days when Irini told me exactly why you’d picked me.’