'This is not honour I'm dealing with!'

Nik reached into his pocket and withdrew a piece of paper. He tossed it down on the hall table. ' If you want to be treated with honour, behave like a wife!' he launched at her lethally.

Prudence stared down, transfixed, at the newspaper photo of her with Leo in the London restaurant. That s.n.a.t.c.hed picture had actually appeared in print? Leo would be equally appalled by that development. She was astonished, too, at how misleading an impression a photo could give. There she was, seemingly holding hands with Leo, and her tears were not visible. She simply appeared to be looking at her companion with intense interest. Her lips parted on the hail of words that would have a.s.sured Nik that Leo was truly only a friend. Then she remembered the sc.r.a.pbooks of Nik's love affairs and her heart hardened to the consistency of a granite rock. Folding her lush mouth firmly shut, she said nothing. So Nik didn't like it when the tables were turned? Tough!

Nik waited for her to utter a denial and an explanation. He knew she would not lie to him. When the rushing silence continued, he felt strangely light-headed and hollow and thinking was suddenly a challenge. And then bang, those weird sensations were gone, and in their place was a primitive corrosive anger that made it impossible for him even to look at her.

'You have twenty-four hours to make a decision-'

'Twenty-four hours?' she echoed in consternation.

'You don't understand, do you?' Nik swung lithely back to face her again, lean, strong face hard with resolve, dark eyes chilling. 'Even if I come to the rescue, Craighill Farm will no longer be your home. You can't stay here.'

Prudence frowned uncertainly. 'Even if you come to the rescue? But you said-'

'Think it through.' His dark drawl was abrasive. 'Theo will not let me buy this place for you. He'l be waiting for me to try. He won't sell to me and he's too devious to fall for a fake buyer. I have to find you and your dependants somewhere else to live.'

Prudence was struggling to get her head around the extremely unpalatable facts he was spelling out. 'Somewhere else? For all of us?' she exclaimed. 'But that would be impossible-'

'A tall order in this time-frame, but not impossible. If I throw enough money and personnel at the problem, I can do it. I will do it for you.'

Disturbingly conscious of his sheer height and breadth, Prudence was very tense. He was so close she could have touched him and she was appalled by the strength of her craving to do exactly that. She had suffered too many shocks recently, and at the back of her mind had still dwelt the comforting conviction that Nik would pull off a miracle and make everything perfect again. Now he was telling her that no, that wasn't possible and the situation was even worse than she appreciated. Even with his support she would still have to move out of Craighill Farm. Her head was starting to ache, pointless thoughts whirling round in ever-decreasing circles. But one thought remained crystal-clear.

'If you force me to be your wife on those terms, you'll lose my trust forever,' she warned him fiercely.

Nik rested dark golden eyes of challenge on her. 'Sometimes there isn't a choice. Just as this is the only way I have of ensuring that our marriage has a future. You now know that you'll accept my offer, because it's the only one on the table.'

Prudence studied the wall and trembled with temper and resentment. But she gritted her teeth together to bite back hasty words of defiance. As usual he was right on target. He was her only option and there was no time to waste.

'All right, so for what it's worth and even though it's very hard to see what you could possibly get out of such an arrangement...I'll...be...your...wife.' Forced out, her gritty words of surrender ricocheted off her tongue like individual bullets.

His big, powerful frame tensing at the return of that strange light-headed sensation, Nik was startled into questioning if he had caught some virus. His eyes narrowing, he kept his entire attention pinned to her and breathed in slow and deep. 'You will never regret it.'

'I hate you now...is that really what you want?'

Nik cast a flashing glance through the open doorway behind her through which he could see the crisp white and pink linen on her bed. His taut body throbbed with s.e.xual heat and hunger: he knew exactly what he wanted. She didn't hate him, she couldn't hate him; he refused to accept that. His smouldering dark golden gaze shimmied down over her mutinous face to rest on her luscious mouth, then travelled from there to the tantalising fullness of her pouting b.r.e.a.s.t.s, where he lingered before pa.s.sing on with a.s.surance to the highly feminine swell of her hips below her small waist.

'Don't you dare look me over like I'm something on a butcher's block!' Prudence launched at him in a tempest of fury and mortification.

'You're my wife...it's allowed. I also now know what a fantastic body you work so hard to hide beneath those clothes. I want you and I'm not ashamed to admit it.' Nik scored a lean forefinger along the ripe curve of her lower lip and watched her shiver as though she were standing up to storm-force winds. 'How long are you planning to make me wait?'

Prudence reddened to the roots of her hair. On a level she was reluctant to explore she was sinfully willing to hear that she could be an ongoing object of desire for him. 'Stop it,' she told him primly.

'I can't.'

Prudence could feel her own weakness rising like a tide inside her. She wanted him, too, she acknowledged; she wanted him to an indecent degree. Rage and self-loathing tearing at her like vengeful claws, Prudence dragged her gaze from the earthy desire in his, forced her trembling legs to move in the direction of the door and then yanked it open. 'I will start behaving as a wife when I am in my new home and not before then.'

'You're kidding me...' Nik breathed in a raw undertone of rampant incredulity.

Prudence could feel something that felt uncommonly like a power current leaping through her. He really did l.u.s.t after her, she conceded in astonishment. It was incomprehensible to her, but the high-voltage charge of his white-hot s.e.xuality was focused on her like a blowtorch. He wasn't used to anything other than instant gratification either. Waiting would indeed be a new and challenging experience for him.

Prudence drew herself up to her full insignificant height, feeling very much taller than she usually did. 'No, I'm not kidding you.'

Nik surveyed her with smouldering disbelief. 'We made a deal-'

'When you've fulfilled your part of the bargain by finding us all somewhere else to live, I will fulfil mine,' Prudence stated tautly.

His strong jaw line hardened. 'Do you doubt my ability to keep my promise?'

Prudence jerked a stiff shoulder. 'No, but I'm being forced into this and I won't pretend otherwise. I won't behave like your wife until I have to. I don't even feel married-'

'But you will, I a.s.sure you,' Nik sliced in, soft and low and lethal, his Greek accent feathering over every syllable with purring exact.i.tude. 'Give me time.'

In shock at the agreement she had given, Prudence stared into s.p.a.ce for a long time after he had gone. That was that, then. She was finally going to get to be Mrs Angelis years after she had stopped weaving dreams round the idea. This time around, however, she had few illusions. Even so, the discovery that Theo Demakis and Nik Angelis were brothers under the skin had shattered Prudence. Only now was it dawning on her that Nik must always have been tough and unemotional. Indeed, those very qualities might well have persuaded her grandfather that Nik Angelis would make the right kind of son-in-law. She had just learnt the hard way that, when it came to getting what he wanted, Nik was as ruthless and cold-blooded as his reputation implied.

But perhaps Nik needed to learn that a wife was not as easily controlled as an employee or an inanimate object, she reflected tautly. Perhaps he needed to learn that she could fight back and be every bit as strong and dispa.s.sionate as any man could be. In fact, if she played her cards right, Nik might even be glad to give her a divorce by the time she had finished with him...

Leo hurried in at tea time to brandish the offending newspaper photo before her eyes. 'Have you seen this? I was gob-smacked when some pupils I teach showed it to me and asked if that was me,' he groaned. 'Goodness knows what Stella will think! Did you get your loan?'

'Nik and I have decided to try being married for a while,' Prudence informed him as casually as she could.

Leo was not taken in. 'I don't believe you. He's the Casanova of his generation. How can a woman with your moral views try being married to a bloke with three mistresses?'

Eyes veiled, Prudence jerked a noncommittal shoulder. Leo might be a close friend but some plans weren't for sharing. She was planning to fight Nik from behind the scenes and he would eventually discover that she could get down and dirty, too. If he could use blackmail, she could use female cunning. Had it ever occurred to Nik that they did not have a prenuptial agreement that might protect his wealth in the event of a divorce? She thought not, for Nik was too well accustomed to her fierce independence and her long-standing refusal to benefit financially from their relationship. Well, she was about to change tack. If Nik was unfaithful to her she would hire the best divorce lawyer in London. And at the end of it all, every animal in the sanctuary would be able to look forward to a lifetime of clover and honey...

CHAPTER FIVE.

THE LIMOUSINE PURRED down a long wooded drive and paused at the crown of a gentle hill. It was the perfect vantage point for a view of the ancient property that sat at the heart of the lush green parkland.

As the sole occupant of the limo, Prudence, who had come out determined not to be impressed, discovered that she was being impressed to death. She had never taken much interest in houses, but then she had never seen a house quite like Oakmere Abbey before. A hotchpotch of different roof heights and wonderfully tall chimneys, matched with mellow stone and mullioned windows, gave it a beauty and warmth that she found amazingly appealing.

The car phone buzzed and she answered it.

'First impressions?' Nik asked lazily, his rich, dark drawl setting up a vibration down her responsive spine.

Prudence was not prepared to gush. 'It certainly enjoys a lovely setting.'

'Look, the board meeting overran. I'm still an hour away. Why don't you check out the land and the agricultural buildings first? We'll view the abbey together.'

The chauffeur, evidently already primed with his instructions, ferried her to a remarkably well-kept farm yard, where the estate manager was waiting to give her a guided tour. It was only a week since Nik had promised to find a new home for the sanctuary and, although he had admitted that old buildings held little appeal for him, the abbey met what he deemed to be the most important requirements. Within reach of London and currently empty, it offered ample land and livestock housing as well as staff apartments and cottages.

Nik, accustomed to women who never put him to the trouble of having to find them, finally ran Prudence to earth in the stable yard at the back of the house. Chesnut-brown hair ruffling in the breeze, one hand dug in the pocket of an over-large weathered green waxed jacket that might have been new a decade ago, she was seated on a bale of hay in an open shed, cheerfully chatting to the middle-aged estate manager and petting a dog. Animated and laughing, she looked amazingly attractive and full of life. Then she saw Nik and instantly her oval face tensed and her lovely natural smile dropped away. It made him feel like the guy who stole Christmas.

Having greeted the older man, Nik extended a lean brown hand to Prudence in an intimate gesture, as calculated as it was determined to make her accept the change in their relationship. 'Let's go and see the house...I told the agent we'd prefer to look it over alone.'

Scrambling off the bale, Prudence wondered morosely if she would ever overcome the breathlessness and racing heartbeat that Nik's sudden appearance could always inspire. Every time she saw him his lean, dark, bronzed face made something tender twist and ache inside her. He was gorgeous, he had always been gorgeous, but he also rejoiced in an extra-special and very powerful something that made her eyes want to cling...and cling...and cling. Dragging her attention from him, she knew that if she didn't learn to get a grip on her reaction to his sleek, darkly handsome looks, she would humiliate herself and suffer a great deal of unnecessary pain. She ignored his hand altogether and buried her own uncomfortably in her pockets. Pa.s.sive resistance, she reminded herself, no unnecessary physical contact of any description. She had to be careful. If she gave him the slightest encouragement or allowed the smallest intimacy, he'd take advantage. His intellect had programmed him to take advantage of weak and foolish opponents. Look what he was already doing to her peace of mind! If she didn't watch out and keep him at a distance, he'd soon be shaking a hoop in front of her and snapping his fingers to make her jump!

'Your thoughts so far?' Nik prompted flatly, aware of her unease in his presence and infuriated by it. Her warmth and trusting openness had vanished. What was the matter with her? So he had put pressure on her to give their marriage a chance. He was willing to make the effort, why wasn't she? She had to be in love with Leo Burleigh.

'There's a lot of land...the sanctuary would only use a small part of it,' Prudence commented. 'An estate this size must cost an absolute fortune.'

'I can afford it. The location couldn't be bettered.'

In a silence that fairly bristled with edgy undertones, they walked round to the main entrance. The great hall rejoiced in elaborate carved screens and a flagstoned floor. Nik frowned. 'It'll be very cold in winter.'

Prudence was admiring the grand stone chimney piece that was incised with a date in the sixteenth century. 'Too much heat isn't healthy,' she told him, walking past him to explore a vast reception room that looked across the park to the beautiful woods in the distance. 'That view is out of this world. It's like the twenty-first century doesn't exist.'

Nik, who was rather attached to the twenty-first century and all the technology that went with it, knew when to keep quiet. Prudence, who was shying away if her shadow so much as encountered his, was, he soon noticed, getting very touchy feely with her ancient surroundings. Rooms tacked on without any apparent regard to the architectural whole were p.r.o.nounced 'charming' and the innumerable opportunities to burn open fires in giant smoke-blackened hearths praised to the skies. She termed the horrendous basic barn of a kitchen 'characterful', informed him that the need to provide heating, rewiring and plumbing was 'to be expected', went into raptures over panelled rooms that all looked the gloomy same to him and saw nothing amiss with the serious lack of bathrooms.

'My goodness...the master bedroom even has an en suite!' Prudence exclaimed, looking madly impressed by the sight of the giant roll-top bath that lurked in an alcove, complete with a Victorian enamelled shower frame. 'Isn't that just amazing?'

Nik surveyed the elderly fixtures: 'amazing' was not the word that came to his mind. He was frankly appalled. In his opinion everything they had seen belonged in a builder's skip. His apartment rejoiced in a pool, a hot tub and a sauna; the bathrooms came equipped with power showers, wet rooms, steam facilities and spa baths. He could not imagine living any other way.

'The abbey is smaller than I appreciated,' Nik remarked. 'It needs a major extension. But this is a listed building and it would be a headache getting plans pa.s.sed for one.'

Paying no great heed to his comments, Prudence reluctantly removed her admiring gaze from the bath and strolled back into the dusty corridor. 'I think a dozen bedrooms is more than adequate. But if you felt it wasn't, there's a very pretty courtyard of what used to be staff accommodation at the rear. It could easily be made accessible from the main house.'

The suggestion left his lean, strong face unmoved. 'The condition of the house is also a good deal rougher than I was led to expect.'

Beneath his bemused gaze, Prudence, who seemed blissfully unaware of his negative outlook on the abbey, caressed a carved wooden panel with reverent fingertips. 'I suppose it does need a little updating here and there-'

'Here and there?' Nik echoed in disbelief. 'I don't think it's been touched since the nineteen-twenties!'

'Which is marvellous, because it's completely unspoilt.' Prudence sent a dreamy smile in his general direction. 'It's been a happy house, too...I can feel it in my bones.'

In the act of adding another nought to what he believed Oakmere would ultimately cost him, Nik registered that she was finally smiling at him again and he studied her with veiled intensity. 'Would you like to live here?'

'Oh, yes...' Prudence had no doubts whatsoever on that score.

She had walked into the great hall and it had been a case of love at first sight. Her only previous experience of so sudden and intense an attachment had been falling in love with Nik eight years earlier. That had been, she was willing to admit, a most unhappy experience. Fortunately, she was convinced that loving bricks and mortar would be much safer and more rewarding. She was well aware that Oakmere wasn't Nik's style. He was accustomed to luxury and very contemporary in his tastes. He had also never evinced an interest in historic buildings or in country life. But those realities didn't bother Prudence in the slightest. After all, she reflected resolutely, the abbey would ultimately be her house, her home, as she had every intention of claiming it as part of the divorce settlement when they broke up.

Nik watched the flutter of her curling eyelashes lift on her blue eyes. That she really went for the house filled him with intense satisfaction. He had picked a winner. He watched her gently pat the bal.u.s.trade on the staircase as if it were a living thing in need of affection and he almost laughed: she was the most tender-hearted, truly feminine woman he had ever known.

Her preoccupied gaze roused his curiosity. 'What are you thinking about?'

Disconcerted pink warmed her cheeks. 'Nothing important-'

A slow burning smile slashed his handsome mouth. 'I bet you were thinking about us...living here, pethi mou.'

Even though instant guilt flared through her when he made that a.s.sumption, that smile of his made a curl of heat leap and dance in the pit of her tummy. Simultaneously, the thoughts in her head burned to dust. 'Maybe...'

The silence lay thick. She met brilliant dark golden eyes and was suddenly impossibly aware of every inch of her all too female body and of every tiny breath that she drew. She straightened her back in an effort to ease the tingling sensitivity of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

Bracing long brown fingers on the wall to one side of her head, Nik angled his proud dark head down to press a light, teasing kiss to the corner of her mouth. With a low-pitched gasp, she turned her head to blindly seek more direct contact. His breath fanning her cheek, he toyed with the soft fullness of her lower lip, r.i.m.m.i.n.g the upper with an erotic dart of his tongue. 'Nik...' She leant forward, literally begging for more, her entire being on fire for the taste of his pa.s.sionate mouth on hers.

'Mr Angelis?' A male voice called from the direction of the great hall.

Startled back to reality, Prudence jerked back from Nik as if she had been violently slapped.

'Relax, it's only the agent,' Nik breathed with a husky sound of amus.e.m.e.nt. 'Come home with me.'

Beetroot-pink, Prudence retorted, 'You can forget that!' and hurried off to greet the agent.

Nik raked impatient fingers through his luxuriant black hair and expelled his breath on a hiss. He had coerced her into accepting his terms and he had expected too much too soon. But his bewilderment lingered for the Prudence he had believed he knew inside out, who was gentle, soft-hearted and serene. The woman he was currently dealing with was pa.s.sionate, stubborn and angry to a degree he would not have believed.

The rich scent of the roses in her exquisite bouquet made Prudence breathe in deeply. Yet her brow had an anxious furrow and her eyes were strained.

In a couple of hours she would be walking out of Craighill Farm forever and taking up residence at Oakmere Abbey as Nik's wife. From then on, Nik, and the marriage that he had sworn he wanted to be a real one, would be on trial. If he betrayed her trust their marriage would be over. She had to fight her own corner, stand up for what she believed in. No wilting wallflower would ever be the equal of Nik Angelis, and she could not make the mistake of getting emotionally involved with him again. An unfaithful husband, who broke her heart and humiliated her, would never make her happy, she acknowledged ruefully. For that same reason she had visited her doctor and had embarked on a course of contraceptive pills. She would not run the risk of falling pregnant in a marriage that might not last that long.

Nik had forced her into a marriage that she wanted to put behind her. Yet, in recent weeks, Nik could not have been more considerate or helpful. Although she had not seen him once in the flesh, he had phoned every day and had gone to remarkable lengths to ensure that she had practical a.s.sistance in every corner of her life. For starters, professionals had taken care of all the work of moving for her. Dottie and Sam were over the moon with the cottage they had been offered and were already installed in it. Over the past three days all the animals had been transferred and settled on the abbey estate and a full-time worker had been engaged for the sanctuary.

Nik had even sent her an outfit to wear. He knew she hated shopping and had probably a.s.sumed that she would be grateful to be relieved of the task. But Prudence was not pleased at all. Nik buying clothes for her only reminded her that he was a notorious womaniser, who knew more about female garments and sizes than she thought decent or acceptable.

That awareness in mind, Prudence pulled a face at the opulent, long halter-neck dress and bolero jacket hanging on the back of the door. It was definitely not her style. It was obvious, though, that Nik was determined to behave as though the day was a special occasion. The outfit might also be a hefty hint that some sort of surprise party was to take place. She could only cringe at the potential prospect of once again greeting Nik's friends and relations in a dress that bore more than a pa.s.sing resemblance to a wedding gown. The white silk sheath might be considerably more elegant and sophisticated than the frilly satin horror she had worn at nineteen, but it had heavy bridal overtones.

As she climbed into the limousine sent to collect her, the removal company arrived to pack up her last possessions. There was a selection of magazines in the car and she leafed through a fashion publication without much interest, until a glimpse of a familiar face made her freeze. It was Ca.s.sia Morikis, who had put her talent for acting to good use as a soap star on television before her marriage to a British rock star. His recent death and the subsequent fight over his estate by his previous wives and children had caused more than a few headlines. Prudence studied Ca.s.sia's exquisite face and held the page up to the light to see if she could spot a single flaw. But she was disappointed: Ca.s.sia was still incredibly beautiful.

The blonde's spite did not show on the surface, Prudence conceded ruefully. On the day that Prudence had married Nik, Ca.s.sia had upstaged her at every turn. Ca.s.sia had worn white as well and had inevitably looked much better in it. Everyone had also known that Ca.s.sia had been Nik's girlfriend a month earlier and she had enjoyed the support of a sympathetic and attentive band of friends.

'What a big girl you are in every department, Pudding,' Ca.s.sia had whispered in her saccharine-sweet voice to Prudence when n.o.body else was listening. 'Poor Nik won't be able to close his eyes and pretend that it's me in bed with him tonight!'

'Stop it,' Prudence had urged in a stricken undertone.

'No, stopping is the one thing Nik and I won't be doing. Enjoy your wedding ring. It's the most you'll ever have of him.' Ca.s.sia had given her a malicious smile. 'Why do you think you're not getting a honeymoon? Nik refused to do without me for that long.'

Reliving that poisonous memory from the past, Prudence shivered. Ca.s.sia had soon underlined her threats with a wounding demonstration of her hold on Nik. When Prudence had noticed that Nik was missing, she had not wanted to believe that she would find him with the beautiful blonde. Any faith she had had in her bridegroom had come crashing down when she saw him in Ca.s.sia's arms. Yet Prudence was willing to concede that the explanation Nik had given her just weeks ago might well be true. Perhaps Ca.s.sia had been the schemer and the instigator; perhaps Nik had rejected the girl's advances. Unfortunately, Prudence had not stayed around long enough to find out either way.

The limo finally drew up outside Oakmere Abbey, and Prudence stepped out onto a red carpet that ran all the way to the front door. For a split-second she felt a little dizzy and she blinked in surprise but the moment was almost immediately forgotten in her eagerness to see what had been done with the house. A week ago, Nik had thrown an army of cleaners and decorators into the abbey to make a select few rooms habitable. While he had insisted that he wanted to surprise her, she had worried that he might allow the atmosphere of the house to be spoilt with inappropriate colour schemes and furnishings.

The front door stood wide open. She wandered in slowly and immediately smiled when she saw the fire burning in the chilly great hall. A glorious flower arrangement stood on a table and a couple of comfortable antique chairs added to the welcoming ambience.

'What do you think?' Nik prompted.

She whirled round, her dress rustling round her legs in a white swirl of silk, and saw Nik in the shadows by the wall. Light from the leaded windows burnished his black hair and lean, dark, devastating face. Her mouth ran dry and she s.n.a.t.c.hed in a jerky breath. 'I...I-'

'You look wonderful in that dress,' Nik cut in, stunning dark golden eyes travelling over her as thoroughly as a coating of molten honey.

Prudence tensed. 'You don't need to say stuff like that...'

'I do and you need to listen.' Nik closed a determined hand over hers and tugged her over to the mirror on the opposite wall. 'You have to learn to see what I see-'

Prudence squeezed her eyes tight shut, chin taking on a mutinous angle. 'No, I don't. I've never liked flattery.'