‘That’s not possible!’ Prudence gasped in disbelief.
‘You’re a Demakis. I’m making you a very rich and very powerful woman,’ Theo Demakis continued with satisfaction. ‘If I’d known how stubborn you are, I might not have used the tactics I did eight years ago. But it offended me to see in a girl the traits that your father, Apollo, lacked. You have his sentimentality but not his weakness. You should acknowledge that I chose you the perfect husband.’
As the recording concluded, Prudence went into shock and stared into space, her brain teeming with frantic half-formed thoughts. Her most overriding need was to see Nik but first she tackled Gregoly Lelas. ‘Demakis International is trying to put my husband out of business. What is the position now?’
‘I know I may speak for the board when I say that the directors have no desire to continue what has been seen as a personal vendetta,’ he responded smoothly. ‘But the position is essentially what you choose to make it. Theo made his own decisions. He led very much from the front. When the terms of his will are publicised, Demakis International will need a strong guiding hand.’
Nik, she thought numbly. Nik’s would be the guiding hand, just as Theo Demakis had always intended. And the whispers of her incredible inheritance had already begun to travel; she saw it in the stunned light in certain eyes that turned towards her, as the crush of people parting allowed her to cross the hall and leave unimpeded. She realised that the news would spoil Cassia’s day and that knowledge gave her a wickedly pleasant sensation.
She got into the limousine. I am rich. She shook her head a little to clear it but the floating sensation of unreality persisted. This time around, she was going to save Nik, and that had a certain poetic justice.
Nik was chatting on the phone when she found him. His dark eyes flared gold when he saw her standing on the threshold of the large airy reception room. A smile curving his handsome mouth, he stretched out a lean brown hand to welcome her to his side. Willingly she grasped that hand and let him fold her up against his hard muscular frame while he completed his call in husky fluent French that made her toes curl.
‘How was it at the house, pethi mou?’ he asked softly.
‘Not so bad…but Cassia was there and less than pleasant.’
‘Nothing new in that.’
Prudence eased round to look up at him in surprise at that quip. ‘Well, guess what? Cassia also admitted that she spiked your drink on our wedding day.’
Nik raised a questioning black brow. ‘How did you get her to confess? Thumbscrews and a rack?’
‘She couldn’t resist the urge to crow about it-’
His wide, sensual mouth hardened. ‘What a bitch,’ he murmured with contempt. ‘I suspected it but I didn’t think I’d ever know for sure.’
‘To be frank, I want to discuss something rather more important than Cassia…’ Prudence ran possessive fingers down over the lapel of his beautifully cut jacket. ‘I understand that my grandfather spent the last few weeks of his life trying to put you out of business.’
Nik stiffened and set her back a step to scan her oval face. ‘How did you find out?’
‘You’d never believe it if I told you,’ Prudence sighed, thinking of the recording that had allowed Theo Demakis to speak from beyond the grave. ‘Obviously it’s true. But I can’t understand why you didn’t tell me yourself-’
Nik frowned. ‘Of course you can understand. You’re my wife. He was your grandfather. The situation would have upset you.’
‘Yes but-’
‘I couldn’t allow that to happen. It was my duty to protect you.’
‘By keeping me in the dark for weeks on end? It actually makes me feel quite foolish. I’m not a little kid, Nik. I also feel that I’m an equal in this marriage, and that if you think it’s your job to protect me I think it’s my job to be supportive when times are tough.’
‘That’s sweet, thespinis mou.’ Nik dropped a kiss down on the crown of her head as though she was the child she had denied she was. He was so close she could smell the evocative scent of his skin and it sent a trail of sensual messages winging through her sensitised body. ‘But if I’d told you what was happening, it would have wrecked our honeymoon. Then you had the shock of the miscarriage to deal with. You would have fretted yourself to death. I couldn’t allow that.’
‘But I had a right to know-’
‘I won’t apologise.’ He released the clip that restrained the chestnut fall of her hair at the back of her neck and encouraged the thick, silky strands at the front to curve round her flushed cheekbones. ‘If I had the same choice again, I would behave in the exact same way-’
‘No, you wouldn’t-’
‘We have a real marriage now. It was important that we spent time together in Italy and that nothing spoiled those weeks. Also, that you recovered fully from losing our baby-’
‘But you shut me out of what was really happening in your life-’
Brown fingers turned up her chin, brilliant dark golden eyes colliding with hers. ‘You shut me out when you lost our child…’
‘I did…didn’t I?’ Prudence conceded, her throat thickening with tears.
‘You were hurting and I wanted to help and you wouldn’t let me. I’d never thought of a child as something missing from my life,’ Nik admitted tautly. ‘But when I thought of you having my baby inside you, it blew me away. Right up until the last minute I prayed there would be a miracle and you wouldn’t lose our child.’
‘Oh…’ Prudence was initially silenced by that admission, for his sincerity was indisputable. As she looked up at him, her blue eyes shone over-bright. ‘You did? So did I,’ she confided gruffly.
‘Whenever you’re stro
ng enough and you feel that the time is right, I want to try again, thespinis mou.’
She swallowed hard, happiness slanting through her like a burst of sunlight on a dull, overcast day. And what better day to celebrate the possibility of new life? she asked herself feverishly. ‘Grandfather would have been really pleased-’
‘I’m sure you’ll understand that I mean no disrespect when I say that Theo’s tyrannical wants and wishes were and are a matter of supreme indifference to me.’
‘Yes, you’re entitled to feel that way.’
‘How do you turn me on so hard and fast?’ Nik gritted, hauling her close with impatient hands and lowering his proud dark head to possess her luscious pink mouth with a driving sexual passion that made her knees go weak.
‘There’s just one thing I should mention,’ Prudence broke free to mumble through reddened lips.
‘Can’t it wait?’ His breath fanning her cheek, he let his teeth graze her full lower lip. When he dipped his tongue into the moist interior of her mouth in a powerfully erotic invitation she gripped both his arms to keep herself upright.
‘I think you’ll want to hear that you don’t have to worry about Demakis International destroying your company any more,’ she whispered with a sunny smile. ‘Am I right?’
‘I hate to disappoint you, pethi mou,’ Nik husked, ‘but I’d pretty much worked that out for myself. The same day that Theo passed away the dirty-tricks campaign ground to a sudden halt. Such a battle made no economic sense.’
Feeling a little cut off but grateful for the news all the same, because she still could not get her head around the reality that she now owned Demakis International, Prudence muttered, ‘That’s great. I’m relieved.’
Nik scooped her up into his arms and carried her down the corridor into an imposing masculine bedroom furnished in contemporary style.
‘You know, I got quite a surprise when the will was read,’ she began. ‘Cassia had mentioned these German cousins-’
‘Everybody’s heard of them. Rich as Croesus, and as old as the hills.’ Nik stole a long, lingering, passionate kiss and slowly lowered her down on the bed. ‘Theo would have been wiser leaving his ill-gotten gains to some charitable endeavour.’