The Cozakis Bride

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?