CHAPTER THREE.

PRUDENCE UNFURLED THE letter from her solicitor, Mr Bullen, and her expressive eyes widened as she read. 'I don't believe it!'

'What don't you believe?' A mug of tea clasped in one hand, Leo paused in the act of shunting Prudence's two slumbering dogs off the kitchen sofa.

'Nik!' Prudence, renowned for her lack of temper and easy, tolerant nature, was pacing the cluttered kitchen in a fever of emotion. 'My solicitor hasn't even drawn up my divorce pet.i.tion yet, but Nik's fancy legal team have already been in touch with him.'

'To say what?' Leo prompted.

'That Nik has no intention of giving his consent to a divorce...How can he even consider doing that to me? Without his consent, I'll have to wait five years to get my freedom!'

'He told you he didn't want a divorce,' the blond man reminded her wryly.

Prudence stared fixedly at the old jug on the table. It was stuffed to over-capacity with gorgeous pink and white roses. In fact, there was not a room in the house that was not full of glorious blooms, for Nik had sent her flowers every day of the two weeks that had pa.s.sed since her birthday. No doubt his PA had organised the extravagant floral schedule, she thought waspishly. On a more personal level, however, Nik had phoned and she had left him talking to the answering machine until frustration drove him into flying down to see her again. The instant she had heard the helicopter hovering overhead she had jumped into her car and driven off. After all, what did she have left to say to him? she had asked herself. Or he to her? Only now was she recognising the flaw in her reasoning and the innate stupidity of practising avoidance tactics on a male as confrontational as Nik.

But Prudence still had no idea why he was behaving as he was. Why was he blocking her desire for a divorce? They had lived separate lives almost from the day of their marriage. She had dismissed the objections he had voiced a fortnight earlier: she had a.s.sumed that he was just going through the motions, acting out a conventional concern when he didn't really care either way. Now she was being forced to accept that Nik meant business. She had gone to bed with him as well. Heated memories of that event made her anxious face colour. Had her weakness, her very willingness hardened his att.i.tude? Had she, in fact, acted as her own worst enemy?

'Are you still going up to London to attend that lecture later?' she asked Leo.

He nodded. 'Why?'

'If Nik's free, I might ask you to give me a lift.'

In her bedroom, she dialled Nik direct. 'Nik? It's Prudence...'

Nik dismissed the staff surrounding him with a peremptory gesture. A brooding smile forming on his lean, dark face, for he had been expecting her call, he lounged back against his polished granite desk in an att.i.tude of relaxation that would have infuriated her had she seen it. 'How are you?'

'Not very good actually,' Prudence confided truthfully. 'I'll be in London this afternoon. Could we talk then?'

'Four o'clock, at my apartment,' Nik suggested in a tone of the utmost pleasantness. 'I look forward to seeing you.'

Prudence had had a couple of weeks to calm down and think matters over, Nik reflected. She now knew that there was no question of her gaining a divorce in the short term. So why would she still want to throw away the terrific understanding that they had always shared? Surely she would be more ready to appreciate that he could be a great husband if he chose to be? And that if she had wanted that demonstration eight years ago, she should have behaved like a wife and stayed with him, not run as fast and as far as she could go!

Nik had found it an ordeal to play a waiting game with Prudence for two long weeks. When he met opposition, he liked to act fast and hit back hard. He did not want a divorce. He had said so and she hadn't listened. But he was reining back his natural aggression in an effort to gently and patiently persuade Prudence round to his viewpoint. He could not credit that she would withstand such a campaign.

He was even willing to concede that he had a credibility problem in the matrimonial stakes. His own lawyers had barely managed to conceal their astonishment when he informed them that he would fight the divorce that his wife was planning every step of the way. And when Theo Demakis had visited to commiserate with him about Prudence's "stupidity", Nik had been so disgusted by the abusive way in which the older man spoke of his granddaughter that he had finally told Theo exactly what he thought of him. As a result of that outbreak of frank speech, Nik fully expected to find himself involved in a bitter trade war with Demakis International, for Theo was not the man to take his come-uppance lying down.

When Prudence climbed into Leo's comfortable car at noon, he was chatting on his mobile phone. She was a patient audience while Leo talked his late friend's widow, Stella, through what to do with a leaking radiator. It was two years since Leo's best friend had died of cancer, leaving Stella with three young children. Leo was a regular visitor at her home. Whether he would ever work up the courage to tell Stella that he was madly in love with her was not something Prudence had ever dared to ask, since Leo's guilty secret was that he had fallen for his friend's wife long before she became a widow.

'I was going to call round later...oh, right,' Leo was saying in a tone of forced joviality. 'No, of course I don't disapprove! I think it's great that you're going out and about again.'

Leo set aside the phone and ignited the engine. 'Stella's going out for a drink with friends.'

'I heard.'

'This is just the beginning...she's a very attractive woman,' he breathed morosely. 'She'll have a boyfriend in no time.'

Prudence said nothing. Leo was in a horrible situation. He could speak up and risk destroying his current relationship with Stella, who might well be horrified by the feelings he revealed. Or he could stay silent and suffer while some other man filled the empty s.p.a.ce in her life. There was no easy answer. In the act of giving his arm a sympathetic squeeze, Prudence frowned at the sight of the two men erecting a 'For Sale' board at the foot of the farm lane.

'What on earth are they doing?' Leo exclaimed.

Prudence got out of the car and tackled the workmen. When she told them that they were putting the sign up at the wrong property she was shown a worksheet that listed her home, Craighill Farm. She used her mobile phone to ring their boss, who suggested she take the matter up with the estate agent.

Leo drove on while Prudence tried to get hold of the agent. He was unavailable. A salesman informed her that Craighill Farm was to be surveyed for the sales brochure the following day. Having pointed out that she lived there and knew nothing about any such arrangement, she requested the name of the supposed vendor and was informed that that was confidential information. Coming off the phone again in exasperation, she sighed. 'I'll sort it out with the agent later. Why is it that n.o.body will ever accept responsibility for a silly mistake?'

Nik lived in a vast London apartment complete with a roof garden and a pool. Prudence had been there lots of times but had never felt at home with its sleek designer furniture, the modern sculptures or wide, echoing swathes of marble floor. Her nerves were on edge long before she even emerged from the lift. Having resisted all urges to dress up until she lost her nerve at the eleventh hour, she was wearing a long brown skirt and a cream gypsy top that was a little too tight for her to relax in. But she would relax, she a.s.sured herself staunchly. As long as she suppressed all memory of that unfortunate episode in the bedroom and kept her temper, there was every chance that she could recapture her former easy-going relationship with Nik.

'Prudence...' All cool and sophistication in a light grey business suit, Nik crossed the imposing lounge to greet her. He looked shockingly handsome: lean, mean and darkly magnificent.

Attacked from within by a flashing recollection of him stripping by the side of her bed, Prudence turned scarlet and froze to the spot.

Nik closed a lean hand over hers and walked her back across the room with breathtaking a.s.surance. 'You look s.e.xy in that top-'

'Don't say stuff like that!' Prudence told him in consternation.

Nik came to a slow halt and gazed down at her, the dense black fringe of his lashes accentuating the flaring gold of his eyes. 'Everything's different. You can't pretend it didn't happen-'

'Yes we can if we want to!'

His golden eyes smouldered. 'But I don't want to forget the longest, hottest climax I've ever had,' he spelt out succinctly. 'In fact, I would much prefer to-'

Aghast at his candour, Prudence planted a harried forefinger in a silencing gesture against his full lower lip. 'Please...'

Nik ran the tip of his tongue down her finger into the palm of her hand while she stood there transfixed and trembling. Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s rose and fell with the rapid, shallow breaths she was taking and she was unbearably conscious of the tingling tightening of her nipples inside her bra. She could not credit what he was doing to her. She was both appalled and fascinated. He curled her fingers into his, lifted his arrogant dark head and breathed huskily, 'So I want to go to bed and you want to talk-'

In a heroic effort to fight her own helpless craving, Prudence stepped away from him. 'I'm only here because you told your lawyers you won't consent to a divorce.'

'So which part of that did you misunderstand?' Nik enquired with insolent a.s.surance. 'I have no intention of changing my mind.'

'But why?' Prudence demanded helplessly. 'I can't understand why.'

'When I married you, I married you for life. You're my wife. I will not willingly let you divorce me. Of course, I will have no choice in five years-'

'But you can't ask me to put my life on hold for five years!'

A slow-burning smile curved Nik's lean, strong face. 'I'm not. I believe I'm an improvement on a sperm bank...'

Angered by that crack, she threw back her head, glossy brown hair tumbling back from her flushed face. 'You may like to think so-'

'I know so. Of course, it's a moot point if there's another man involved in your wish for a divorce, ' Nik purred very softly, his entire attention welded to her.

'Is that what this is all about? You think that you might be in some sort of macho compet.i.tion? Why can't you accept that I simply do not want to be married to you any longer?' Prudence slung at him with fierce sincerity.

'But you've never been married to me in the normal sense of the word,' Nik contended in a tone of cold implacability that was new to her.

Prudence could feel emotion swelling inside her like a dangerous riptide. Keeping her back straight, she walked over to the window, striving with all her might to appear controlled and composed. ' And I don't want to be. We were friends. I liked that. But that's it; that's as much as I can handle!'

Tears were p.r.i.c.kling the backs of her eyes but she had complete faith in what she was telling him. Nik needed a wife who would be content with a superficial show of marital togetherness and turn a blind eye to his mistresses. A wife who would accept money and status in place of his heart or his attention. Prudence knew that she was not capable of taking on that role. He was a bred-in-the-bone womaniser with a taste for gorgeous supermodels whom no average woman could ever hope to rival. He would be unfaithful and she would not be able to bear it. It would destroy her...he would destroy her if she was not strong enough to resist him. That was why she would not allow herself to be tempted by the illusion of the real marriage that he was offering her.

'You slept with me. That changed the rules of the game,' Nik delivered with razor-edged cool.

An odd little shiver ran down her spine. She stole a glance at him, clashed with scorching golden eyes and felt a tiny twist of heat low in her pelvis. 'It's not a game-'

'The way you're behaving makes it feel like one. Have you any idea yet whether or not you're pregnant?' Nik asked levelly. 'Or is it too soon to tell?'

That casual question threw Prudence into a startled loop. 'Pregnant?' she parroted in shock. 'You mean you didn't-?'

'When you let me take you to bed, I naturally a.s.sumed that an ongoing marriage was a done deal. ' Nik studied her with steady golden eyes and she squirmed and lowered her lashes in guilty self-defence. 'You told me how much you wanted a baby, so I saw no point in using contraception.'

'You should have said-'

'It was for you to notice. If you didn't notice, I must have been good.' Nik sent her a sizzling look of amus.e.m.e.nt that was as physical as a caress and sent her heart racing. 'It was the first time I've ever made love without a contraceptive...I have to confess that I liked it. I liked it a h.e.l.l of a lot.'

Already reeling with shock at his revelation, Prudence was burning up with mortification. With difficulty she thought over what he had confessed. Evading his gaze, she muttered stiltedly, 'It's not that easy to get pregnant, you know-'

'No, I don't. I'm happy to admit ignorance on that score-'

'I should think it's extremely unlikely that it would happen.' Prudence was outraged by his earthy att.i.tude and the humour he had shown.

'Give me a month. I'm a goal-orientated guy-'

Hot, bothered and infuriated by that comeback, Prudence seized on a more positive statement to silence him. 'I'm absolutely certain that I'm not pregnant,' she told him, believing that she was not really lying and that within a couple of days her body would give her the proof that she was right in her conviction.

'That's unfortunate. But then for the moment I can only hope that common sense persuades you that rushing into the role of an unmarried mother is a very bad idea,' Nik said drily.

'I have a comfortable home and the trust fund my aunt put in my name for Mum and me-'

'That fund is so tiny it doesn't count-'

'But I don't have champagne tastes. I'll work as well. Either way, I'll have enough to raise a child, ' Prudence contended.

'Material considerations are only one side of the equation. I have other objections. Every child deserves a father-'

'I got by without one-'

'Some might say his absence left you with a distinctly low opinion of men,' Nik shot at her, his dark golden eyes grim. 'Even if I wasn't your husband I would have serious reservations about your plans. Raising children is challenging enough for two parents, never mind one. What if you were to fall ill? What if the child is born with a disability?'

Prudence was very pale. 'I've thought of those things...I'll manage. I've really thought this through. I believe I have enough to offer.'

Nik released his breath in an impatient hiss. 'You're more like your grandfather than I ever appreciated. When Theo Demakis wants something, he suffers from the same stubborn tunnel vision.'

Sincerely hurt and offended by that comparison, Prudence gave him a furious look. 'I'm not stubborn...I'm not at all like him!'

'At least learn by Theo's mistakes within his own family circle. A child should have the chance to enjoy the benefits of a family life with a father and a conventional home environment.'

Wounded by his apparent conviction that she could not offer a child a t.i.the of what that little girl or boy deserved and needed, Prudence tilted her chin. 'Such as you would offer? Have you the nerve to suggest that you could offer any woman a normal family life?'

'Yes, I have that nerve.'

Three mistresses in three different countries, Prudence reflected in a pa.s.sion of painful resentment. Normal? Conventional? How dared he criticise her quiet and decent country lifestyle and suggest that he could do better?

'It's amazing that you should want to stay married to me after all this time,' Prudence contended angrily. 'Why are you so reluctant to divorce me? Do you know what I'm beginning to think? I'm still Theo Demakis's granddaughter-'

His lean, intelligent face set taut with tension while his stunning dark eyes took on a forbidding aspect. 'Don't say it,' he breathed. 'Don't go down that road to insult me.'

Prudence was too upset to heed that warning. Her every instinct was urging her to fight back. ' Perhaps you still believe I could be a financial a.s.set to you. My grandfather may not be speaking to me right now but-'

'I threw Theo out of my office last week. He was in a rage about your divorce plans. He seemed to think you had phoned him to tell him that news out of pure malice and he informed me that he had cut you out of his will.'

'You threw him out...oh,' Prudence mumbled uncomfortably, unable to meet his gaze, for she was ashamed of herself for throwing the slur that would draw the most blood. She knew it had no basis in fact. Nik was very proud and his sense of honour strong. He would never have married her to save his own financial skin but he had found it impossible to stand by and watch his family suffer the ignominy of bankruptcy. As for that news about her grandfather's will, she spared it barely a thought because she had never dreamt that anyone who disliked her so thoroughly would consider leaving her anything.

'So, you don't figure as a profitable enterprise in any way. In fact, staying married to you might even be bad for business because Theo is a very bitter man right now,' Nik imparted between clenched teeth of restraint. 'As you're also aware, it's several years since I paid back your dowry with interest. I owe Theo nothing and, when he's as rude as he was about you last week, not even the time of day.'

Prudence winced at the revelation that defending her name had pitched him into a battle with the older man. 'I know...I accept that. I shouldn't have said that about the money-'

'But you did say it and I won't forget it,' Nik swore darkly. 'I'm well aware that my family profited from our marriage in a way that you and your mother did not. But you have stonewalled my every attempt to redress that balance. You have always refused to accept an allowance from me-'

'Oh, Nik, please, don't say any more,' Prudence urged in a stifled voice of distress and regret that she had reduced their relationship to such a mercenary level that he felt he had to defend his own behaviour. 'We didn't have a proper marriage, so I couldn't possibly have accepted money from you. It just wouldn't have felt right. You helped out in lots of other ways. When Mum was ill, with the nursing expenses, and other things-when I needed shelters for the animals and extra food...'

'I am only asking you to give our marriage a chance,' Nik ground out in a driven undertone. ' What would that cost you?'

Prudence let her strained blue eyes linger on his lean, bronzed features for a split-second and hurriedly looked away again. But even that one stolen appraisal dazzled her, just as he had dazzled her the very first time she saw him eight years ago. If he had had the slightest idea what it would cost her he would not have asked that question. Once she had been obsessed with him. Was that the Demakis blood in her veins? Was that why she had found it so very hard to let go of loving Nik? But, having mastered that love and distilled all that energy into friendship and acceptance that she could never have anything more, she was terrified of exposing herself to that much pain again.

'I can't...I just can't,' she said flatly and, glancing down with relief at her watch, she began walking hurriedly to the door. 'I must go-'

'You've only been here half an hour-'

'I have to meet Leo at six and you and I have already said all there is to say. I don't want to say the things I'm saying to you...it's upsetting me,' she condemned chokily.

Incensed at the very mention of the other man's name, Nik caught her hand to pull her back before she could make it out through the front door. 'And doesn't that tell you something?' he growled in a driven undertone. 'If you fight me you will get hurt, and that isn't what I want either.'

'I can't believe that you know what you want-'

'Don't I? Am I so bad at putting my message across?' A dangerous light in his shimmering dark golden eyes, Nik brought his sensual mouth crashing down on hers.

Astonishment gripped her, for there was nothing cool or sophisticated about caveman tactics. But she found that scorching onslaught as shockingly exciting as the domineering way he hauled her up against him. She kissed him back with bittersweet fervour, opening her mouth for the ravishing quest of his tongue. Her heart was pounding into a crazy crescendo. Her body felt tight and hot and oversensitive. She was pushing closer, burrowing in the hard-muscled contours of his powerful frame. And then her subconscious mind served up an image that cut right through that pa.s.sion. Her memory leapfrogged back to her wedding day and the moment that she had seen Nik kissing Ca.s.sia Morikis. That was when she had truly understood that even a wedding ring could not bind Nikolos Angelis to her and make him hers in the way she needed him to be.

Yanking herself free of him, she rubbed a hand across her reddened lips as if to deny the taste of him. 'You shouldn't have done that!'

Prudence tottered into the lift on wobbling legs and let it carry her down to the ground floor. She felt emotionally battered, but her body was still alight with the pa.s.sion Nik had awakened and the ache of desire made her despise herself even more. It was the stuff of nightmares for her to emerge from the building and find that she was the target of cameras and shouted questions from a crowd of journalists wielding microphones. For a split-second she was paralysed, as blind and helpless as a rabbit caught in car headlights.

'Is it true you're divorcing Nik, Mrs Angelis?'

'Does Nik want to marry someone else?'

'Any truth in the rumour that your grandfather begged him to stay married to you?'