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 space 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 nobody 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 assured 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 assurance. ‘You look sexy 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 breasts 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 assurance. ‘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 competition? 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 prickling 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 assumed 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.’