The Cozakis Bride

'Home with you...' Olympia echoed, thunderstruck by that casual announcement.

Nik seemed to emerge from his abstraction. Swinging round, he took an almost clumsy step forward, as totally taken aback by that development as everybody else. 'What are you saying, Spyros?'

'I'm taking her back. You don't deserve her. In my home she will be properly valued and protected.'

'Spyros... Nik is in shock, as we all are,' Achilles Cozakis intervened in dismay. 'We are all very much aware that amends must be made to Olympia for her treatment, not only in the past but in the present. We are painfully conscious of our mistakes and prejudices.'

'Come on, Olympia...' Olympia found herself being hus­tled towards the door at speed by her determined grandfather, who paused in the doorway only to say in conclusion, 'You have lost yourself a fine woman, Nik Cozakis!'

‘That'll give my son-in-law something more sensible to worry about!' Spyros chuckled as he swept them both out of the Cozakis mansion. 'Did you see their faces? All that weep­ing and wailing! We Manoulises are people of action.'

'But I don't want to leave Nik,' Olympia protested shakily, the evening's events beginning to catch up with her as well, leaving her feeling momentarily weak and weepy and out of touch with what was happening around her.

'I know what I'm doing.' Her grandfather urged her with gentle hands into the limo waiting outside. 'I'm stealing you back for an hour. Now that you're married, Nik's welcome to spend the night in my home.'

'How can he spend the night when he's not with us?'

'Olympia... tonight Nik was so weighed down with his guilt and his bitterness he was in a stupor, and I felt sorry for him. When he saw his wife being trailed away, he went from the stupor into panic...much more healthy!' Spyros as­serted, patting her tightly linked hands in a comforting ges­ture. 'I have no doubt that Nik will be pounding my front door long before midnight! However, I also cruelly mis­judged you, and we also have fences to mend.'

And Olympia and her grandfather did mend those fences, quite happily, and, being both of a blunt disposition, they did the mending within a very few words. Had Olympia had Nik by her side she would have felt happier; she did not have her grandfather's faith in the belief that Nik would immediately chase after her.

Arriving at Spyros's villa, she was engulfed in a rapturous welcome by her mother, who was looking terrific.

'Doesn't she look well?' Spyros said proudly of his daugh­ter, Irini. 'Good Greek air performed the miracle.'

Neither Olympia nor her grandfather saw any point in dis­tressing Irini Manoulis with the evening's events. Olympia chose to share the news of her pregnancy instead. Spyros was ecstatic, and broke out a bottle of champagne. Her mother glowed with excitement and briefly wondered where Nik was.

'You'll see Nik over the breakfast table,' Spyros promised, ignoring Olympia's strained look.

Her mother showed her into a spacious guest room and sat down on the edge of the divan to chat to her daughter at length about babies. She began to yawn a little then, and Olympia persuaded her to go to bed. Soon after that, a loud knock sounded on the door and her grandfather appeared looking very smug. He said nothing, though. He just stepped back, and only then did Nik move into view.

His tie was missing, his black hair ruffled, half his shirt undone, a definable dark shadow now roughening his strong jawline. He was far from immaculate but, being Nik, he still contrived to look absolutely gorgeous. Her heart started beat­ing so fast she felt as if she couldn't breathe.

The silence was too much for Spyros. He slapped Nik on the back. 'Even I didn't expect a grandchild on the way this soon!' he admitted, before mercifully closing the door to leave them alone.

Olympia was cringing with mortification.

Nik had frozen in receipt of that congratulatory slap. Haunted night-dark eyes rested on Olympia. 'I didn't give you much choice, did I?'

'I'm really pleased about the baby...' Olympia told him.

'You have to be, don't you?' Nik sighed.

'I am really happy about our baby,' Olympia repeated dog­gedly, recognising the strain etched in his vibrant dark fea­tures. 'Why did it take you so long to get over here?'

‘The limo broke down. I had to get a cab, and then it got stuck in a traffic jam, and I ended up walking the rest of the way with Damianos grousing in my wake.'

Olympia had to gulp back a nervous laugh.

Nik swallowed. One of his hands moved in an awkward gesture and then stilled again. He watched her with intense and beautiful dark eyes and then he breathed in very deep. 'You know I love you so much it hurts...' he said with rag­ged sincerity.

She flew off the edge of the bed and flung herself at him.

Nik caught her into his arms and held her so close she almost couldn't breathe. 'I was planning to say a lot of other things, but when it comes down to it loving you is about the only thing I've got to offer in my favour.'

'Rubbish,' Olympia scolded chokily.

'I thought I knew so much ten years ago and I didn't know anything. I should have known they were lying!' Nik groaned into her hair. 'I can't forgive myself for being that stupid. How can you? I wrecked everything for us—'

'We were so young, and we were both so desperate to save face we couldn't be honest with each other.' She smoothed possessive fingers through his black hair, allowing happiness to channel through her in an exhilarating wave. 'I don't want to look back any more, Nik. You can't look out for the Katerinas of this world. She was very clever and very con­vincing. I really trusted her as a friend and I was shattered at the way she just turned on me that night.'

'When Damianos found the photo trail led back to her I was devastated, and I knew instantly that everything you had ever tried to tell me about her had to be true,' Nik confided tautly.

'When did you find out?'

'Late last night. My first urge was to fly straight out to Kritos, but I decided it would be better to confront Katerina and that you had the right to be there too.' His beautiful mouth tightened. 'I didn't want to tell you in advance in case in some way you alerted her and put her on her guard. I knew we didn't have a shred of proof about what she did ten years ago, but I was determined to get the truth out of her or your sake.'

'I'm so grateful you had the evidence that it was her be­hind those photos.'

Nik looked down at her with immense regret. 'She caused us so much misery. But there's never been anybody but you in my heart...nobody else even came close.'

Olympia hugged him tight, his gruff honesty bringing tears to her eyes.

'I really had already overcome my...my—' 'Unreasonable feelings about what you thought I had done with Lukas?' Olympia put in helpfully. 'I know you had. You made that quite clear—' 'The day you threw me out of the house.' 'I know.' Olympia sighed lovingly. 'You got no credit at all. The fact sort of got lost in what I was feeling about those photos.'

'Katerina again

,' Nik ground out.

Olympia snuggled past his jacket into his shirtfront, drink­ing in the achingly familiar scent of him, wonderfully aware of the tall, hard, lean length of him. 'Do you know she ac­tually told me that our marriage was arranged before you even met me?’

'What nonsense is that?' Nik held her back from him.

'I know,' Olympia sighed shame-facedly. 'How could I have believed something so far-fetched?'

'There was no arranged marriage.' Nik cupped her cheek­bones. His gorgeous dark eyes sought hers with glimmering amusement. 'But I did see a photo of you in Spyros's office the year before we met,' he confided. 'You were sitting with a white cat on your knee. You had such a glorious smile that I had to ask your grandfather who you were.'

Olympia stared up at him in surprise, for she recalled that photo.

'Your grandfather knew I was impressed, and that may be why he invited me over to meet you as soon as you arrived in Greece...I wouldn't put it past him.'

'Neither would 1...' But Olympia smiled, tickled pink by the idea of Nik having admired her that much even before he met her. 'Were your parents feeling better by the time you left?'

'They're very upset about the way they've treated you, and concerned that they may inadvertently have encouraged Katerina. Possibly there was a time when my mother thought she wouldn't mind if I married her,' Nik acknowledged grimly. 'However, I never had the slightest interest in her in that way.'

'But she doesn't ever seem to have faced that, which is very strange.' Olympia frowned, feeling sorry for the other woman as she recognised how irrational Katerina's behaviour had been.

'Because she's obsessed. My father will talk to her family and suggest that she has professional help. It's not a problem that can be ignored. I suspect that guilt over Lukas's death may have hit Katerina harder than any of us could have ap­preciated,' Nik conceded ruefully. 'He was infatuated with her. How must she have felt when he crashed that car?'

Olympia shivered, and decided a change of subject was overdue. Tell me, would you really have dumped me back at my family's feet in front of our wedding guests?'