The Greek’s Chosen Wife

honeymoon and returned to London to prepare for the battle ahead. By staying on in Italy, he had left himself more exposed. Robert Donnington would back him. But the shrewd banker had already warned Nik that his sale of his multi-million-pound yacht to speed up the purchase of Oakmere Abbey had been badly timed, since it had dented his impregnable image and revealed a weak flank. Yet, given the chance to go back in time and let Oakmere go, Nik knew he would not have done anything differently; the abbey was Prudence’s dream come true and, like the honeymoon, little enough recompense in his opinion for the disappointments she had endured in the past.

When Chantal Donnington came to greet them, Prudence tensed. She immediately recognised her hostess as one of Nik’s exes. The willowy blonde’s gushing welcome was not matched by the coolness of her green eyes, and with the excuse of taking Nik to join her father in the all-male preserve of the snooker room she divided Nik as cleanly from his wife as a surgeon.

Parked on the grandiose terrace with an alcoholic drink she didn’t want, Prudence felt uncomfortably warm even in the shade. The golden heat of midday was like a blanket. She began to wonder if it was that time of the month-when she would sometimes feel under par-although it seemed like a very long time since she had suffered that particular reminder of her womanhood. She counted back the weeks and conceded that her menstrual cycle seemed to have been upset for some time. Were the birth-control pills the cause? She could not help recalling that her last period had been unusually brief. Was there a chance that the pills might not have done the trick and that she had fallen pregnant? No, that had to be wishful thinking, she scolded herself in exasperation.

Before she could dwell any longer on why she was not feeling her usual energetic and rudely healthy self, Chantal Donnington came over and trilled, ‘Let me introduce you to a couple of guests who are just dying to meet you…’

Prudence’s eyes widened when she saw a leggy dark-haired beauty in an outrageously short skirt approaching her. The brunette was accompanied by a spiky-haired blonde dressed in the sort of clinging white dress that only a very thin woman could aspire to wearing. Unless she was very much mistaken, and Prudence did not think her memory was at fault, she was about to meet another two of Nik’s former lovers. The feminine antagonism in the air made the skin prickle at the nape of her neck.

‘I’m Jenna Marsden,’ the brunette announced tautly.

‘Zoe Amberley,’ the blonde supplied with a challenging smile. ‘You may not be aware of the fact but we all have something in common.’

‘Nik…’ Prudence saw no point in pretending ignorance.

‘Nik Angelis is an extraordinary guy.’ Zoe’s husky voice made a suggestive meal of the statement and Prudence’s tension increased. ‘Quite unforgettable.’

‘Yes, he certainly lives up to his legendary reputation.’ Chantal rested spiteful green eyes on Prudence.

Although colour had blossomed over her cheekbones, Prudence just smiled as though she had the skin of a rhinoceros. ‘Doesn’t he just?’

‘When Chantal mentioned that Nik’s wife would be here today, Zoe and I agreed that we just had to meet you as well,’ Jenna declared in a defensive rush that suggested that she was uncomfortable with the animosity in the air. ‘What’s it like being married to him?’

‘Fabulous.’ Prudence was striving not to feel cowed by the fact that she had three women a foot taller than she was towering over her. Actually, it was their sheer physical beauty rather than their height that intimidated her. Every comparison she had most feared was now in front of her in full daylight and living flesh: women with perfect faces and sleek, stunning bodies without flaw. No ordinary woman could bear such a cruel contrast. How could Nik not feel that his wife was less than what he deserved? Yet had Nik not made his choice of his own free will? And Nik, she reminded herself doggedly, was no fool and no sacrificial lamb either.

‘I would not live with Nik’s womanising,’ Zoe pronounced in a pitying tone.

‘I would have far too much pride,’ Chantal affirmed.

Prudence wore an expression of polite surprise because Nik had never, to her knowledge, offered any of his mistresses his exclusive attention. Or even pretended to do so.

‘Any other woman would have divorced him long ago,’ Zoe sneered.

Prudence could only think of how hard Nik had fought to stay married to her and a secretive little smile curved her full mouth in answer.

When Nik emerged from the villa and saw the three women surrounding Prudence, he went rigid. It could be no coincidence that another two of his exes should be present at a social engagement in Italy. He was outraged that Prudence should have become a target for his sins. Dark fury and concern flashing through his big, powerful frame, his lean, bronzed face hard, he strode across the terrace.

‘Ladies…Zoe, Jenna,’ Nik acknowledged, cool as ice, curving a protective arm to Prudence’s tense spine. ‘You must excuse us…’

Disconcerted by his sudden appearance, Chantal loosed a rather forced laugh. ‘We were just curious, Nik. My goodness, you don’t need to come rushing to your wife’s rescue. All we really want to know is…what makes Prudence so very special?’

A razor-edged smile slashed Nik’s hard mouth. ‘She never forgets that she’s a lady.’

As their companions absorbed that smooth, cutting counter-attack with varying degrees of discomfiture, Nik swept Prudence off to introduce her to Robert Donnington and soon afterwards lunch was served. At the table she and Nik were seated separately.

Jenna settled down into the chair next to Prudence. ‘It took me so long to get over Nik,’ she confided plaintively. ‘I fell into a rebound romance after him and that went wrong, too.’

‘You’re so lovely, you’re sure to meet someone else,’ Prudence told her gently.

‘But not someone like Nik,’ the exquisite brunette lamented.

‘You should concentrate on what annoyed you most about him,’ Prudence advised.

The stress of deep thought was clearly marked on Jenna’s lovely face. ‘He never phoned…he wouldn’t go to parties, business always came first,’ she recited obediently.

With charged disbelief, Nik looked down the table half an hour later and saw his wife and Jenna Marsden laughing together as though they were the warmest of old friends. Glancing up, Prudence met Nik’s burnished golden appraisal and ready colour warmed her complexion. His attention lingered on her and a wicked little frisson of heat and awareness awakened in her pelvis. While Jenna continued to give her chapter and verse on her most recent romantic disappointment, Prudence found her gaze continually stealing back to Nik’s bold dark profile. Catching her watching him again, he flashed her a look and a smile which sizzled with a raw, erotic understanding that mesmerised her and set her treacherous body on fire. Nik could convey desire and invitation with a single flash of his stunning eyes.

It became an effort for Prudence to concentrate on what her companion was telling her. Mortified by the swollen sensitivity of her nipples, Prudence stopped looking in Nik’s direction altogether but it was a punishment to practise such self-denial. She wanted him. He had made her shameless. He had taught her a desire she could not quench. Love and longing, she acknowledged, were destroying her self-control.

Fresh drinks were being served when Nik appeared by her side without warning. Without giving her the chance to ask what was happening, he assisted her out of her seat with cool assurance.

‘I’ve explained that the jet is on standby and that we have to leave now,’ Nik spelt out quietly.

Prudence gathered that some business crisis was demanding that they leave Italy a day sooner than planned. Disappointment assailed her, for she had cherished every hour of their time at the villa. To have Nik all to herself for so long had been a joy and to lament the loss of a single day was childish and ungrateful, she told herself sharply. As they left the terrace she was conscious of Chantal and Zoe watching Nik with a blatant hunger that neither could hide. It shook her to see such naked sexual longing.

But was she any stronger or wiser where Nik was concerned? Did she look at him the same way? Sudden doubt and fear gripped Prudence. Barely three weeks ago, she had seen Nik as the enemy and she had been full of fighting fervour with all her defences in place. But Nik had triumphed over her fears and her insecurities by the most simple and yet subtle moves. He had treated her to a glorious honeymoon in Italy, introduced her to a passion that was indecently absorbing and had awarded her the heady effect of his entire attention. Was it any wonder that he currently had her eating out of his hand like a pet dove? And was she really planning to let that humiliating state of affairs continue?

He brought the Ferrari to a halt a couple of miles down the road. ‘Come here…’ he urged with husky impatience.