The Cozakis Bride

'Damianos will deal with this sleazy invasion of our pri­vacy and identify the culprit,' Nik imparted with whip-like clarity, staring up at her with a thunderous frown. 'You should have told me about this immediately! That any em­ployee of mine should have the insolence to play a part in such disgusting behaviour outrages me! I am not surprised that you are out of your head with...distress.'

'I'm not distressed, Nik...I'm so angry—'

'You can't punch straight...I got the message. You're very Greek when you're angry. Olympia.' Breathing in deep on that sentiment, Nik sent her a gleaming look of grim amuse­ment. 'And as I can understand that this unpleasant campaign has been working on your mind, I .can excuse your loss of control, and indeed marvel at your ability to remain even polite in my radius today.'

'Do you think talking all round the real issue here is going to deflect me?' Olympia demanded, her wrath and confusion only rising to ever more dangerous heights at the lowering suspicion that she was being patronised. 'Do you think I'm stupid or something?'

'These photos were taken well over a year ago,' Nik mur­mured very dryly. 'Unfortunately the first I knew of their existence was when that tabloid chose to publish one of them. I was not with another woman that week. And, with regard to that offensive newspaper story, a retraction and a humble apology has since appeared in print. If I chose to discuss the matter with my lawyers rather than with you, put it down to my consideration for your feelings.'

'My feelings?' Olympia squeezed out shakily.

'I didn't want you to feel that you had been humiliated by a sleazy rag that calls itself a newspaper! I will tell you some­thing else too,' Nik continued with a preoccupied frown. 'I can't see Gisele as the instigator of all this.'

Olympia looked unsurprised by his defence of the other woman. 'Naturally not.'

'I tell you...she's not the type. Gisele is not spiteful and we parted on good terms. Yet who else would have reason to target you like this?' Nik questioned for himself, molli­fying Olympia slightly with that concession.

'Katerina...' Olympia suggested, unable to withhold the suggestion.

Nik's mouth compressed. 'Don't be ridiculous!'

Silence fell. Having now explained himself to his own sat­isfaction, Nik dealt Olympia an expectant appraisal.

A laugh with a ragged edge was torn from Olympia. 'Yes, you do think I'm stupid, don't you?'

Nik frowned. 'I've just about had enough of this, Olympia. Naturally I can produce the retraction and apology which were printed. I was not with Gisele the week after our wed­ding!'

Olympia was unimpressed. 'So you say. But you could've bribed the photographer to say he'd lied about where he took that photograph. You could have intimidated the newspaper editor with the threat of a big costly court case. Maybe that one photo they printed was the only proof they had and, let's face it, photos don't carry dates! Without further supporting evidence that you had been with Gisele, what could the news­paper do but cave in to your threats?'

'You're accusing me of lying...'

The way Nik stared at her, he couldn't seem to credit that she could dare.

'You warned me that you would do whatever you liked when you married me,' Olympia reminded him flatly.

'If I was doing what I liked right now you would be down at my feet begging me for forgiveness!' Nik exploded with an abruptness that shook her. 'How dare you doubt my word?'

'Being caught out once is careless. ..being caught out twice is one hundred per cent proof that you're a womaniser as far as I'm concerned,' Olympia informed him fiercely. 'And I have no intention of living with a womaniser!'

Nik strode back towards the stairs. 'Twice? Where the hell does that come from?'

'I was foolish enough to swallow your story about some­one having spiked your drink ten years ago in that night­club... but don't ask me to swallow another dose of the same nonsense where that flat-chested bunny-boiler is concerned!' Olympia spelt out bitterly.

'You are linking this peculiar business with Gisele back to—?'

'Why so incredulous, Nik? You couldn't even believe me once...you took everybody's word over mine about Lukas,' she reminded him in a voice that trembled with the force of her resentment and pain. 'If I was accused of the same thing again you would slaughter me where I stood and you wouldn't listen to any explanation I tried to give!'

'So we're back to squabbling over what did or did not happen in that bloody car park...I don't believe this!' Nik thrust long fingers through his luxuriant black hair, smoul­dering eyes fixed to her in dark, disbelieving fury.

'I don't trust you because you don't trust me. I don't trust you because we don't have a marriage; we have a business deal—'

'You shut up and you listen to me...' Nik broke in with barely leashed savagery.

Olympia shook her dark head. 'I've fulfilled my part of the deal.'

Nik threw both his arms wide apart in dark fury. 'If you use that word ‘deal’ just one more time—'

'I'm pregnant, and now I want you to get out of this house and leave me alone.'

Nik froze, his stunning dark-as-night eyes flying to her pale frozen face and staying there for long, timeless moments. 'You're pregnant?' he echoed in open disconcertion and doubt. 'Already?'

'Well, you put in a lot of overtime on the project, didn't you?' Olympia shivered with loathing and hurt, chilled to the bone.

Nik was appraising her with eyes that had turned dark liquid gold. 'You're so strung up you barely know what you're saying. Theos mou...you're pregnant,' he said again, still in shock from that revelation but beginning to show a growing sense of male satisfaction. 'You crazy, foolish woman, you could have hurt yourself hitting me!'

Olympia blinked in disconcertion.

Nik bent and lifted her off her feet with strong and very careful hands. 'You shouldn't be throwing scenes like this either. You need to lie down and stay calm...think of the baby,' he urged, taking advantage of her complete bewilderment at this sudden change in tack to stride down the corridor towards their bedroom.

'Nik...I just asked you to leave this house and me.'

r /> 'You don't mean it.'

'I do mean it!'

With a heavy sigh, Nik settled her down on the bed. 'You're hysterical.'

Olympia thrust her hands beneath her and reared up off the pillows. 'I am not hysterical!' she shrieked at him full blast.

'I'm not going to argue with you about this. Naturally you're upset. You're feeling suspicious and with good rea­son. You're right. Gisele was obviously a secret bunny-boiler who fooled me,' Nik conceded, spreading soothing hands, his calm, his control, his lack of anger now hitting her with striking effect.

'You think you've got me where you want me because I'm pregnant!' Olympia launched at him. 'Well, you haven't! My grandfather will look after my mother, so you can't get me on that, and if you don't get out of this house I'm going to take off in your yacht!'

'The crew are on leave...it would be difficult for anybody to take off anywhere in Aurora right now. Only the helicopter is available.'

Olympia trembled. 'You've got no right to do anything more to me than you have already done—'

'I hate to descend to this level...but if you feel like that, why did you let me make love to you this afternoon?' Nik angled a cool, enquiring scrutiny at her.

Her face burned as red as fire. 'That was sex. I used you because I felt like it!'

His ridiculously long black lashes lowered. He averted his head, stiffened his shoulders.

'You think that's funny, don't you? I bet you think I'm crazy about you and that this is just a lot of empty shouting and threatening...but it's not. Do you really imagine that I could be foolish enough to care in any way for a guy who married me just so that he get hold of my grandfather's money?'

Nik's proud head came up fast. If he had been trying to stifle amusement, he wasn't now.

'You're a laugh...you're a real laugh,' Olympia con­demned with ferocious bitterness. 'So superior in every way, and yet you were willing to marry a woman you think of as a tramp to gain Manoulis Industries!'

Momentarily, Nik was immobile. Pallor was spreading round his rigid mouth. His eyes glittered like ice, his distaste palpable. The temperature had dropped to freezing point. Without another word, he swung on his heel and strode out of the room.