The Cozakis Bride

Hauling back the covers on the bed in the aftermath, Nik swept her up and laid her down on an exquisitely cool sheet As he urged her back into his arms, Nik vented a husky laugh. 'It was worth thinking about all week as well, yineka mou,' he confided, with very male appreciation.

Olympia's heartbeat was only slowly subsiding to a less maddened pace. She discovered that once more she could think. Her joy at being with Nik again spilt over into momentary sadness, for, looking back ten years, she realised that she now saw a different picture. At seventeen, her ultimate dream guy had asked her out and put an engagement ring on her finger. Nik had genuinely been attracted to her, Nik had genuinely loved her, but she hadn't been equal to the starring role in what had felt too much like a fairy story. So, aided and abetted by her grandfather and Katerina, she had ques­tioned the dream, doubted the dream, and ended up losing the dream through her own sense of unworthiness.

Nik shifted with sinuous sensuality against her. The far­away look of regret in Olympia's eyes was replaced by one of shaken sexual awareness. In the wake of that acknowl­edgement of loss, she was gripped by a fierce desire to make the most of every moment and live it to the full. 'I loved you so much—'

'Did you?' His lush lashes dipped, screening his spectac­ular eyes to the merest glimmer of reflective light.

She sensed Nik's withdrawal and knew that once again she had got too close to the fire. She wanted to offer him feverish confirmation and tell him that she loved him still, but fear and pride held her back from that brink. Unable to voice what was on her mind, she took refuge in touching him instead. She wrapped her arms round him in an almost clumsy gesture of affection.

'You're driving me insane with all this intense rave-from-the-grave stuff...it's like the clock stopped ticking for you when you were seventeen,' Nik framed with blunt censure, sliding over on to his back and carrying her with him, rear­ranging her with confident hands to his own satisfaction.

Olympia was desperately hurt by an accusation that was, she registered belatedly, all too accurate. Yet on their wedding night she had been the one to accuse Nik of being obsessed with the past. Now their roles had been reversed. But, perhaps mercifully, her weak body was already reacting with brazen hussy efficiency to the urgent arousal of his. A wave of responsive heat gripped her, blurring all thought. Her breasts were crushed into his chest, her tender nipples tin­gling at that sensation. She was so close to him, but not anything like close enough.

Nik surveyed her with deceptively indolent sexuality and teasing expectation. 'Now I would like to demonstrate all the many wonderful ways I can give you incredible pleasure, Kyria Cozakis.'

His supreme confidence blazed over her like a scorching golden aura, and she could not hold back the tender smile curving her mouth.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Four weeks later, Olympia sat up, sipping the iced water she had poured from the flask by the bed.

They had arrived at Nik's magnificent villa on the island of Kritos late the night before. Olympia had slept well, but now she felt slightly dizzy and nauseous. And she knew why, didn't she? Frowning at that acknowledgement, Olympia tagged on a light robe and slid back the doors that gave access to the superb balcony beyond the bedroom. A sea breeze wafted in, the cooling air bliss on her clammy skin. As the voile drapes she had brushed back fluttered, she stilled them with a careful hand and glanced back at the bed.

Nik was still asleep in an indolent sprawl of long, lithe bronzed limbs, the pale linen sheet tangled round his lean hips. A dreamy smile curved her mouth. After an entire month spend cruising the Mediterranean, she was happier than she had ever dreamt of being again. Yet if that was true, why was she holding back on telling Nik that she was preg­nant?

'‘‘It was only eight, but Olympia was too restive to return to bed and went for a bath. Lying back in the scented water, she recalled the terms of their marriage deal and sighed heavily. Nik had been breaking those same rules for the past month. He was living with her! Although he had flown in several staff, and begun making use of his office on board Aurora, he still spent an enormous amount of time with her. Now that they were back on dry land again, she saw no reason why that shouldn't continue.

Towelling herself dry, she acknowledged that recently Nik had indulged her every wish to the hilt. Such freedom of choice had rather gone to her head, for all her life she had longed to travel and see the sights she had only read about Over the past weeks the yacht had docked at Majorca, Corsica, Sardinia and finally Sicily. In retrospect, a bewil­dering jumble of memories engulfed Olympia. Sunlit beaches, shimmering seas, twisting roads and extravagant and beautiful scenery.

Certain memories stood out in sharp definition. Nik linking his hand with hers as they walked through the exclusive re-sort of Porto Cervo in Sardinia a week ago...his fury at the sudden appearance of paparazzi with flashing cameras and the protective way he had screened her from that unpleasant invasion. Nik laughing, teasing, caring and attentive in all sorts of little ways. Nik telling her off for not wearing a higher factor sun cream when she got burned, his concern palpable. And, oh, at least a hundred memories of his love-making. Occasionally gentle, sometimes wild, but always passionate.

He loved her body. She accepted that now. At every op­portunity he made her feel sexually irresistible. There had been days when her plans to explore new places hadn't even got off the ground, days when Nik had taken one incredulous glance at the itinerary she had mapped out and rebelled, tak­ing her back to bed instead. Nights when they'd never made the dinner table and had eaten in the early hours.

Yet still she was in no hurry to share the news that she had conceived their first child. It was forty-eight hours since Nik had insisted that a doctor examine her sunburned shoulders. Conscious that she hadn't had a period since before their wedding, Olympia had made full use of that consummation. A brief examination and one little test had followed, and then the confirmation had been given: she was going to have a baby. She was both thrilled and terrified. Before their marriage Nik had made her getting pregnant sound like a likely halfway post to divorce.

And what if they didn't really have a new understanding? How could she tell for sure? Nik never mentioned the future. Nik never mentioned the deal he had forced upon her. They could well have been living in a time capsule, where only the immediate present existed. And for now he was charming, the ultimate in entertaining company. But then why shouldn't he be? she thought with a sinking heart. He had already got her pregnant in record time.

'I've got a complaint to make. Where were you when I woke up?'

Olympia jumped halfway out of her skin and spun round from the mirror. Nik was poised in the doorway, black hair wildly tousled, strong jawline dark with stubble, slumberous dark golden eyes gleaming, a wolfish grin of amusement carving his mouth. He looked heartbreakingly gorgeous.

Nik—'

'I've ordered breakfast...for later.' Strolling across the spectacular mosaic-tiled bathroom, Nik closed his hands over hers and urged her into his arms. 'Join me in the shower and tell me who you were daydreaming about... it had better have been me, pethi mou.'

Delicate colour burnished her cheeks. She buried her face in his shoulder, loving the hot, musky evocative scent of his brown skin. 'Who else?'

Disposing of her robe, he swept her under the shower with him. 'I have so much work to catch up on,' he muttered raggedly between hard, drugging kisses that left her taut and trembling, caught up and inflamed by his hungry urgency. 'We have guests coming too. Theos mou...to hell with all that!'

A long while later, they breakfasted out on the beautiful stone terrace, shaded by tulip trees and a lush, colourful tangle of bougainvillea. The day was glorious, hot and still, the very light golden. In every direction the views were breathtaking. Set high on a mountainside studded with cy­press groves, which stretched down to the blue green waters of the Aegean, the villa was surrounded by lush natural gar-dens which blended into the landscape.

In the distance she

could see the harbour, adorned by picturesque collection of houses, and the most lovely little church with a domed campanile. In the deep natural bay Au­rora towered like a giant ocean-going liner in a sea of brightly coloured fishing boats. From her first glimpse of Kritos by moonlight the night before, Olympia had been ut­terly enchanted.

Only then recalling Nik's reference to guests, Olympia frowned in sudden mingled dismay and amusement at her own inability to concentrate earlier. 'You mentioned guests... who's coming and when?'

'Markos Stapoulos and his wife, Samantha. She's British. I think you'll like her,' Nik drawled levelly. 'They couldn't make our wedding because Markos's father was ill, but they're flying in to lunch with us. They should be here in about half an hour.'

Olympia had already stiffened. Ten years back, Markos Stapoulos had been Nik's best friend. Filled with strong dis­comfiture at the prospect of meeting him again, she said sharply, 'I suppose Markos knows all about that pathetic car park story as well!'

If ever a silence could have been said to sizzle like the string leading to a stick of dynamite, the endless yawning silence which followed that exclamation sizzled.

Studying her with stunned and disconcerted eyes, Nik rammed his hands down on the surface of the table and leapt up to his full intimidating height. 'Christos! Do you think I dined out on that particular story?' he grated, with an explo­sive fury that shook her. 'Apart from your grandfather, only my parents and Katerina know about that night!'

As Olympia watched, pale but unbowed, Nik strode out from beneath the shade of the tulip trees and into full sun­light. He swung back to face her, his bone structure rigid beneath his bronzed skin, brilliant dark eyes hard with con­demnation as he spread his arms in a striking show of raw incomprehension. 'Why are you dragging all this up again?'

'Because you still won't either listen to or believe in my version,' Olympia whispered ruefully. 'And I resent that.'

A dark line of colour scored Nik's hard cheekbones. 'Theos mou...you have no right to resent anything! You're damn lucky I decided to put mat tawdry episode behind us and appreciate you for the woman you are today!'

if you put it behind you, why are you still shouting at me?'