The Cozakis Bride

A dark flush scored Nik's fabulous cheekbones. 'I wanted you to think I would. Christos...the minute you forced your way into my office it all started up again for me. But it had to be on my terms this time, so that I felt I was in control. Then the minute we made love, on our wedding night, ev­erything just went haywire for me...'

'How?'

'You were seasick and all I wanted to do was look after you.' Nik groaned. 'And then we lay talking on the bed and it felt completely right, not strange at all. It actually felt as if we'd never been apart.'

'Really?' Olympia was delighted by that admission.

'All of a sudden I couldn't kid myself that I was still in control. That's why I took off the next day.' Nik grimaced. 'I didn't like what I was feeling.'

'What were you feeling?'

Nik released a self-mocking laugh. 'If I'd known I wouldn't have had to go away. I went to Switzerland and I was absolutely bloody miserable, sitting drowning my sor­rows.'

'I'm glad you were miserable because I was too. What conclusions did you come to?'

'That I was in trouble, agape mou. That I wanted to be with you rather than in Switzerland. That I still had feelings I didn't want to examine too closely,' Nik admitted with a rueful twist of his sensual mouth. 'And then we got together again in Spain and I didn't bother beating myself up any more about what I might or might not have been feeling.'

Olympia looked up at him in reluctant fascination and re­proach.

Nik said defensively, 'I was really happy, but I know I should have mentioned that that outrageous marriage deal idea was history as far as I was concerned. But then I didn't know how you felt...'

'And no way were you going to say anything before I did...' Olympia recognised, giving him a teasing look of comprehension.

'You still haven't said anything,' Nik reminded her, study­ing her with brilliant dark eyes.

Olympia's eyes danced. 'It was your turn this time...I did all the talking ten years ago!' She stretched up on her tiptoes and linked her arms round his neck. 'I love you, Nik Cozakis...'

Liquid dark golden eyes' gazed down into her. 'Madly, to­tally and for ever?'

'What a memory you've got!' Olympia was thrilled he could recall her saying those words to him ten years earlier. He must have treasured them to remember them so well, and that really touched her.

'That's how much I love you,' Nik confessed, bending his dark head to taste her mouth with aching slowness. Her heart sang and her knees trembled, and suddenly she was moving backwards, well aware that there was a bed behind her.

Nik came down beside her with a wolfish grin. 'We've still got talking to do...'

Olympia flicked a button loose on his shirt. 'I'm listening.'

He grasped her hand, eyes suddenly level and serious again. 'These last few days away from you were hell. I was really scared I'd lost you. When you said you wanted me back, on the phone, I felt so sick with relief I couldn't think of a thing to say.'

'Sometimes actions speak louder.' Olympia lay back against the pillows with the faint air of a woman arranging herself to her best advantage. 'You're not great on the phone, but you have your talents in other places.'

'Picking bunny-boilers?' Nik asked with glinting eyes, shrugging out of his jacket with fluid sexy ease.

'Are you ever going to let me forget that scene I made?' She groaned, her face burning. 'I never said sorry for hitting you either.'

'And I never said sorry for going on like a jerk about the way you were acting that day. It's just I didn't know what was wrong and I was panicking.' Nik sighed and kissed her with slow, sensual intensity.

'I saw that,' she whispered tenderly.

'You won't get the chance to accuse me of straying again. I don't like being away from you. I'll cut down on travel so that we can base ourselves on the island,' Nik shared huskily, resting the palm of his hand on her still flat stomach and smiling at her with unconcealed contentment at that prospect. 'You and me and the baby together.'

It sounded like paradise to Olympia. They exchanged an­other kiss. It went on a little longer than the previous one. They shifted closer and closer. Nik admitted he felt very strange, getting put into a bedroom with her in her grandfa­ther's home, and they both started laughing. And when the laughing stopped they lost themselves in each other, the ex­perience all the more intense and all the sweeter for the love they now openly shared.

Olympia settled their infant daughter into her cradle. Alyssa had loads of dark curly hair and eyes the colour of sea jade. And from the hour of her birth she had drawn both Nik and Olympia's families closer together.

Spyros Manoulis was a regular visitor. Spyros, who had had little to do with his own children because he had been too busy building his empire while they were growing up, had succumbed to a fever of adoration for his great-granddaughter, whose every tiny move he applauded.

Olympia's mother, Irini, whose health had improved in step with her increasing sense of well-being, was an equally keen grandmother, but currently had another interest in her life as well.

Olympia smiled at the memory of her grandfather's shock the previous winter, when his middle-aged daughter had gone out to dinner with a retired widower she had met through friends. Irini was getting married to Sotiris in a few weeks' time and Olympia was looking forward to the wedding.

Achilles and Alexandra Cozakis could not have done more than they had done over the past year to establish a close and loving relationship with their daughter-in-law. Peri's irrev­erent sense of humour had done much to lessen the strain which Katerina had left in her wake. And Alyssa, adored by all, had been a wonderful blessing.

About six months after that night when Katerina's lies had been exposed, Katerina had written to Nik and Olympia of­fering them her assurance that never again would she seek to interfere in their lives and saying that she now deeply regretted all the trouble she had caused. Since then Katerina had moved to London, to live with her elder sister and her family, and was apparently embarking on a new life.

There was not a single cloud in Olympia's world. Exactly a year ago she had married Nik, expecting nothing but hurt and pain to result, and since then she had gained the loving support of two families, a gorgeous baby daughter and a hus­band she loved more with every passing day. This was their wedding anniversary, but they were staying home on Kritos because with the number of social invitations they received staying home alone was more of a treat than going out.

Olympia fingered the diamond necklace round her throat and looked in the mirror with a secretive smile. Once she wouldn't have thought she suited diamonds. Then she had begun seeing herself through Nik's eyes, and finally through her own, and her old lack of confidence was long gone. Her reflection showed a woman with very long dark hair—Nik's pleas had prevailed—wearing a beautiful designer gown that made the most of her lush breasts and hips.

'Sensational...' Nik purred from the doorway.

Olympia gave a sensuous little wriggle of appreciation as he kissed one smooth bare shoulder.

Nik gazed down at their baby daughter with softened eyes. 'She's tremendous. Do you know what my first thought was when you threw me out of the house nearly a year ago?'

'I didn't know Olympia had the guts?' Olympia teased, turning round to study him, her attention roaming over his vibrant good looks with possessive appreciation and, even now, a heart which developed a distinctly rapid beat at his proximity.

'No. What if she has a boy and says, Right, that's it. You've got your son and heir, where's my divorce?' Nik confessed with a rueful groan of remembrance. 'I started praying for a whole succession of girls the same moment!'

Olympia was entranced by that admission. She liked him to know that he had almost shot himself in the foot with that marriage deal he had proposed. But as a bridge to a shared future which he couldn't have brought himself to reach for otherwise the marriage deal had worked just great, in her opinion. They had enjoyed such a blissfully happy first year together, and s

he had been fortunate enough to have an easy pregnancy and delivery.

Nik laced his fingers with hers and kissed her with all the considerable skill in his repertoire. 'I love you, agape mou.'

'Madly, totally and for ever,' she confided, quivering a little with a heat that was all too familiar and pulling herself back from him by exerting every means of self-control she knew. 'Dinner,' she reminded him, colouring.

it was just one kiss,' Nik pointed out. It rarely stopped at one kiss, though. They strolled out to the stone terrace and took their seats at the beautifully set table awaiting them. In the drowsing heat of early evening, Olympia took in the magnificent views which had so enchanted her on her first morning on the is­land. And then she gazed at Nik, more enchanted than ever. He was the love of her life, and on that thought she began to eat the exquisitely cooked meal which was being served to them. Their eyes met, jaguar-gold into green, with increas­ing frequency. And if they ate a little more quickly than was expected, and got a bit impatient between courses, and van­ished altogether before the coffee arrived, the staff weren't surprised. They had seen it all so many times before.