The Greek Tycoon's Wife (8 page)

‘Your husband's right, it's always best to be on the safe side, and that was quite a tumble you took. Did you do any damage?'

‘You fell?' Nikos inserted, for all the world as if he actually was a concerned husband.

‘She went down like a stone,' the other man confirmed. ‘It isn't exactly a good idea to enter a burning building,' he added, slanting Katie a wry look.

‘You went back into the building?'

Bemused by his anger, Katie shook her head. ‘No, I didn't.'

‘She fell over before she could get there. That's quite a turn of speed you have there, Mrs Lakis. I wouldn't bet against you in the hundred metres,' he teased.

Nikos, who was regarding her with total incredulity, did not appear to share his amusement.

‘I wasn't thinking,' Katie said in a small voice.

‘Don't worry about it,' the paramedic advised kindly. ‘People rarely do think when they know a loved one is trapped in a burning building. Ask any of the fire crew.'

Katie didn't know where to look—except
not
at Nikos!

‘Katerina has always been an impulsive creature, haven't you,
yineka mou
?'

The satiric bite in his voice made Katie wince. She did her best to disguise her limp, but evidently not well enough.

‘You've hurt yourself!' the paramedic exclaimed in concern before she'd taken a couple of steps. ‘Hey,' he hailed, ‘the lady here needs a stretcher.'

Katie laid a restraining hand on his arm. ‘Please, no stretcher,' she appealed, shaking her head. ‘I'd much prefer to walk and it's nothing serious.'

To her intense annoyance he looked towards Nikos, who presumably gave her request his husbandly seal of approval, because the guy walked away and left them to make their own way to the ambulance.

Unbelievable!
If she had been his wife in the real sense of the word, admittedly a scenario about as likely as seeing a herd of flying pigs overhead, but had she been, she would definitely have challenged this outrageous sexist assumption that she needed permission…that she wasn't capable of making her decisions.

Oh, my goodness, wouldn't I just!
she thought grimly.

Obeying another of those unwise
impulses
, Katie lifted her head and for a split second her eyes meshed with midnight-dark orbs. It was long enough to reveal Nikos seemed to be really steamed up. This struck Katie as particularly perverse; she was the one who'd been made to feel a total
fool. How dared he go around telling everyone she was his wife? As for the image the guy had drawn so vividly of a woman pushed beyond reason by an overriding compulsion to save her man, she had thought she would die from sheer embarrassment!

‘Lean on me,' Nikos wanted to throttle the woman, but felt obliged to put aside his natural inclinations and offer his assistance having watched her painfully hobble a few steps while maintaining the pretence every one didn't hurt her like hell.

‘I'd prefer to crawl on my hands and knees.'

The air hissed through his clenched teeth as he exhaled. ‘As you wish,' he replied stiffly.

He made no concessions to her injury as he strode off, not that Katie wanted or expected any, but the grim smile pinned on her lips got harder and harder to maintain with each step.

‘So were you so frightened for me that you were willing to risk your life in a futile attempt to rescue me?' Nikos's dark, sardonic voice observed somewhere above her head.

Katie's spirits, already badly mauled, sank to knee-level. Her worst fears were confirmed. This was exactly what she'd been dreading—he'd thought about her crazy rescue bid and come to the conclusion she'd acted that way because she was nursing some burning passion for him. Maybe he half expected women to fall in love with him? And maybe that expectation was usually justified, an ironic voice in her skull suggested.

Actually, when you thought about it, it was quite funny.

Despite recognising the humorous potential of the situation Katie found herself unable to laugh or even smile. She was, however, seized by a desperate need to establish that she was not one of the worshipping masses.

‘It wasn't like that…' She paused and gave a frustrated sigh; how could you explain away why you did something
when you didn't know yourself? ‘I didn't think…' she revealed lamely.

‘That I never doubted,' he incised grimly. ‘For the past seven years when I have thought of you at all it has been as a shrewd, hard-headed young woman who, despite an extraordinarily innocent exterior, is capable of bending the rules ruthlessly to get what she wants. In short, a woman well able to take care of herself.'

He exhaled and dragged a hand roughly through his dark hair. ‘That is what I expected, you understand? A woman like you should know how to negotiate. But what do I get?' His revolted gaze came to rest on the top of her head, which had she been able to stand upright would have just topped his shoulder.
‘You…!'
He shook his head and, with an expression of rampant exasperation, began to list the traits he had discovered her to possess. ‘Not only are you opinionated to the point of derangement…' he choked.

Good grief
, she thought, lifting her astonished eyes to his furious face.
I needn't have worried—he doesn't think I'm in love with him, he just thinks I'm crazy! Could be he's not far out,
she thought, contemplating the firm contours of his mouth with an expression of dreamy speculation.

‘Do not interrupt!' he thundered, holding up his hand. ‘You are sentimental and you possess no sense of self-preservation whatever. I am a patient man…' he revealed without a trace of irony.

Too late, Katie clamped her hand over her lips to prevent the gurgle of laughter escaping.

Nikos gave her a thunderous look as he visibly fought to retain control of his extremely volatile temper—only he didn't have a volatile temper. ‘I have humoured you too long,' he announced forcefully.

‘That's a laugh—' she began. She let out a strangled shriek when without warning he swept her up into his arms and strode off without a single word.

‘Put me down this instant!' she hissed. His arms were muscular and extremely strong because, although Katie was slim, she was not a small woman and he barely seemed to register the burden he carried.

‘What, and see you stagger along in that ridiculous manner?'

Silently seething and reduced to winding her arms around his neck to anchor herself, Katie allowed herself to be carried to the ambulance with as much dignity as she could muster—what choice did have?

Sadie was waiting at the steps. ‘Why did you tell them I had been in the flat?' Katie demanded of her friend in a trembling undertone.

Sadie looked startled at her vehemence and followed them up the stairs. ‘Sorry, but they asked.'

Katie felt a wave of remorse. ‘Sorry, I didn't mean to take it out on you. That man,' she explained, glaring at Nikos's ear, ‘is a manipulative snake.' Even his hair curled perfectly into the nape of his neck.

She held herself rigid while, apparently oblivious to her insult, Nikos deposited her on a seat and straightened with sensible caution considering the limited headroom.

‘I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him—
less
, in fact!' she declared loudly.

Sadie shot a wary look in Nikos's direction and he in his turn returned her look with a smile of spectacular charm, which much to Katie's disgust had an immediate effect on Sadie. She melted like an ice cream on a warm day.

‘A sexy snake.'

Sadie's sly remark earned her an amused grin from Nikos. ‘Thank you,' he said, inclining his head. ‘And may I say that a true English rose like yourself is much admired in my country?'

Katie shook her head as Sadie blushed. ‘What a load of b—'

‘Don't spoil it, Katie,' Sadie interrupted, casting her
friend an irritated glance. ‘Do go on,' she begged Nikos with a throaty laugh.

Katie glared at her friend indignantly—she was flirting, and flirting pretty well. ‘Has anyone ever told you that you're a sucker for a pretty face?'

‘Frequently,' Sadie admitted. ‘I'd better go,' she added as the ambulance crew began to display impatience to be off. ‘Call me later.' She smiled at the paramedic who, after checking that his passengers didn't require anything, had taken a seat at the opposite side of the vehicle.

‘I feel terrible leaving you to cope with all of this mess,' Katie fretted.

‘You know me, I thrive on challenge,' Sadie replied, cheerily waving goodbye.

‘Your friend is very nice.'

‘She's just recovering from an extremely messy divorce. So leave her alone, the last thing she needs is some slick operator moving on her,' she warned him grimly.

‘I can pass the time of day with a woman without contemplating sleeping with her, you know.'

Katie snorted and Nikos looked amused. ‘I have never been in an ambulance before,' he remarked, looking around with interest as the door closed. ‘Or even,' he added with a mock growl, ‘made love in one.'

‘Very funny.' No doubt tonight's events would be regurgitated for the amusement of his glitzy friends—with suitable witty additions—for many weeks to come. ‘I suppose
you
ride around in gold-plated limousines.'

‘No, as a matter of fact I fly my own helicopter when possible. So do you really think I have a pretty face?' he continued seamlessly.

Talk about anything you say being used in evidence!

‘That was a figure of speech.' Actually his was not a pretty face, it was a formidably
beautiful
face. She didn't need to look to see his dark, fallen-angel features or be
transfixed by the brooding sensuality of his sexy eyes and mouth—they were etched in her mind.

How, she puzzled, could something as basic as the arrangement of planes and angles of a face make it so…? She struggled for a term adequate to describe it—unforgettable was a term casually bandied about, but in this instance it was fully deserved. Her memory would never be free of the image, she acknowledged, looking down at her hands tightened into fists on her lap.

‘If you continue to breathe like that the professionals—' Nikos glanced towards the uniformed figure who had left his seat opposite and was now talking to the driver ‘—will assume that you need oxygen.'

Katie was disconcerted to discover that his eyes were contemplating the rapid rise and fall of her breasts…actually, disconcerted didn't really cover the things that were happening to her body. Nikos had to have noticed at least one of them as his attention was riveted in one of the areas in question; her breasts felt tense and tender and her nipples were active in a pleasurably painful way.

It had reached the point where she couldn't be sure what shocking surprise her body was going to spring on her next. Even the things coming out of her mouth seemed to be bypassing her brain.

‘Why did you tell them I'm you're wife?' she asked in a desperate attempt to divert his attention from her aching, brazen breasts.

‘You
are
my wife.'

Her inability to dispute this made Katie scowl. ‘Only when it suits you,' she pointed out tartly.

Somehow she doubted Nikos would have been so eager to recognise their relationship if she'd turned up at his place of work declaring to all and sundry that he was her husband! What she couldn't figure was why he'd carelessly gone public, in this admittedly limited way, now. The last
thing he struck her as being was a careless man; quite the contrary, she was pretty sure he never did anything without a reason, but what reason?

Possibly his actions were simply designed to wind her up?

For the past seven years he had successfully managed to forget he had a wife so she could strike the possibility that he'd decided she was the perfect bride for him.

No, he was up to something.

‘We may have gone through a ceremony and signed on the dotted line, but it takes more than a signature on a piece of paper to make me your wife!' she told him scornfully.

‘So, what does it take…?'

Katie shuffled away to lessen the contact of his heavy thigh against her own. The action only increased the worrying air of smug triumph she sensed in him.

‘It takes…oh, for goodness' sake, will you stop that?'

‘Stop what?'

‘Will you stop looking at…you know?'

‘No.'

Katie gave a snort of exasperation; the innocent look sat very uncomfortably. ‘Well, how would you like it if I kept looking at your…?' Content she'd made her point, and deeply embarrassed into the bargain, she decided it would be expedient to move quickly on.

Nikos, however, seemed in no hurry to do so. ‘I think I would find it quite stimulating,' he said.

Taking a deep steadying breath, Katie gritted her teeth and doggedly refused to allow him to distract her. ‘It takes…' she began.

‘What does it take?' he prompted, his curiosity genuinely aroused by the wistful expression he saw flit across her delicate, fine-boned features.

Katie shook her head; she was not about to expose her idea of an ideal marriage to his cynical scorn.

‘Do you think they might let us a share a room at the hospital?'

‘I suppose in Greece that passes for a sense of humour?' She gave a disdainful sniff and tried to stop herself coughing. ‘Just for the record, I'm not sharing a room with you and I'm not staying in any hospital.'

Nikos shook his head. ‘Did nobody ever tell you it's dangerous to tempt fate?'

‘M
ARRIED
?'
the on-call radiographer, or Clare, as she had introduced herself, glanced towards Nikos. ‘Yes, of course you are,' she said, not without a hint of envy. ‘Date of birth…?' Katie gave it and the older woman checked the details on the form and nodded. ‘Is there any possibility you are pregnant?'

She stood with her pen in her hand waiting for Katie's response. Katie, aware of Nikos's very interested presence beside her, felt her face flush. After a lengthy pause she shook her head and mumbled an indistinct, ‘No, there isn't.'

The radiographer obviously misunderstood her hesitation. ‘If you've any doubts?'

‘I've no doubt at all,' Katie responded firmly. ‘I can't possibly be pregnant. I haven't…' she choked.

‘Oh, I see…' The radiographer nodded understandingly and shot a speculative look in Nikos's direction. ‘So long as you're sure.'

‘We have been living apart,' Katie was dismayed to hear him suddenly volunteer glibly. Equally suddenly he picked her hand up from where it lay twisted with its partner on her lap. With a tender smile he raised it to his lips. ‘We are only recently reunited.'

His words and the fervent kiss he planted on her open palm managed to hint at a lovers-parted-and-reunited story of epic proportions.

The radiographer was clearly a big fan of a happy ending. ‘Oh, isn't that lovely?' she sighed soulfully. ‘You just wait here a moment, Mrs Lakis, and I'll be right back.'

The instant she was gone Katie snatched her tingling
hand away and wiped it across her lap vigorously, as though she could wipe his touch away.

‘Was that charade really necessary?' she enquired icily. It seemed he couldn't resist any opportunity to provoke and embarrass her. Or maybe, she mused scornfully, he just couldn't let the implied slur on his manhood stand. Yeah, that would be right.

‘So you're not sleeping with Tom?'

Katie stiffened defensively as his question took her off guard. ‘That's none of your business, but if I was,' she added confidently, ‘
I
certainly wouldn't be stupid enough to get pregnant.'

Though she wasn't as a rule a judgmental person, she had always found it hard to understand how in a day and age when contraception was so readily available people still fell pregnant unintentionally—though the
falling
was part of the self-deception as far as she was concerned; there was nothing accidental about it.

‘Maybe, maybe not…people in the grip of passion do not always think logically.'

‘Rubbish.'
One dark brow lifted at her forceful denunciation. ‘There's absolutely no excuse for neglecting to take basic precautions.'

Katie frowned to hear herself sound so self-righteous and dogmatic…it was the sort of uncharacteristic response he brought out in her. He said night and she was almost falling over herself to screech day.

An enigmatic half-smile touched the corners of Nikos's wide, passionate mouth as he observed the flare of panic in her eyes.

‘So you don't think that the dizzy heights of passion could make a person, could make
you
, forget?' His heavy lids lifted and Katie found herself captured and as helpless as a butterfly caught on a cruel pin by his dark gaze. ‘Forget your own name, where you begin and your lover ends…?' he persisted throatily.

His rough velvet voice was describing a situation that was beyond her understanding, but one that held a dangerous appeal. Just listening to his sweetly insidious drawl made her feel hot and cold at the same time, and increased that tight, achy feeling that had been a more or less constant presence low in her belly all night.

The way his knowledgeable eyes were scanning her face made Katie, bitterly ashamed of her body's wanton response, shift uncomfortably in her seat.

‘Forget the most basic precautions? Do me a favour,' she scoffed stubbornly.

‘You cannot visualise yourself in a situation like that?'

‘No!' Katie gritted through clenched teeth as she tried very hard not to allow the images he spoke of to crystallise in her mind. Even though she tried very hard some images filtered through her mental block; they were of limbs entwined, warm brown skin gleaming with sweat, fractured gasps and soft moans. She was hard put not to moan herself.

Nikos was beginning to think that the favour that would most benefit her would come from someone who could wipe that smug look of superiority from her face—his narrowed gaze homed in on the soft contours of her full lips—and why should that person not be him?

The voice of reason in his head immediately provided at least half a dozen legitimate reasons why it should not. Despite this, the idea, however ill advised, lingered on.

‘No matter how sophisticated society becomes, mother nature has built in some very efficient safety systems into the human design that will ensure the continuation of the species despite our best attempts to foil her.' In a voice that was all honeyed temptation and earthy suggestion, he expanded his theory into territory Katie found even more uncomfortable, yet despite this she found herself perversely hanging on his every word. ‘It is not by accident that we
are intoxicated, that sense and reason are suspended in the heat of passion.

‘Men,' he proclaimed confidently, ‘are programmed to impregnate and woman are programmed to bear children.' He shrugged and studied her shocked face; it seemed to Katie that the silver flecks in his eyes glittered like stars in a night sky. ‘You can't fight against basic instincts,
pethu mou
.'

She tried to escape but her restless gaze was repeatedly drawn back to his; a stab of sexual longing so fierce it robbed her of breath lanced through her body.

Katie shook her head. ‘You can't talk like that,' she gasped in an agonised whisper. The men she knew didn't casually discuss impregnation in hospital waiting rooms.

‘You find my frankness offensive? Such things make you squeamish?'

Offended? She was terrified.

‘I am not squeamish. I just don't think this is the appropriate time or place for talking about such things,' she told him repressively. Unfortunately Nikos was not so easily repressed.

‘Sex is not a subject for open discussion?'

‘Not between people who are virtually strangers.'

‘So if I was Tom you would feel comfortable discussing sex.'

Katie took a deep, infuriated breath. ‘Tom and I do not discuss sex,' she yelled.

‘Mrs Lakis…?'

Katie spun around to find the radiographer standing there.

‘We're ready for you now.'

Her ankle was declared a nasty sprain, which they strapped with a stretchy support bandage and advised her to keep elevated. The doctor said he was satisfied that she had not sustained any damage to her lungs, though he did suggest Katie might like to stay in overnight to be observed.

To her relief when she politely but firmly refused the invitation he wasn't too perturbed.

‘The doctor should be finished with your husband in a few minutes,' the nice nurse who had attended her promised, showing her to a waiting area.

I can hardly wait.

Katie had caught sight of her reflection in a plate-glass door so wasn't surprised that on the way there she was the focus of a number of curious stares.

Not to put too fine a point on it, she looked scary!

It was hard to tell what the original colour of Sadie's once lovely dress was and there were several rips in the long skirt that revealed more than was decent of her long, grubby legs. Though she'd had the opportunity to wash the worst of the dirt from her face and hands, what she longed for most was to soak in a lovely hot bath until the acrid smoky smell that seemed to have penetrated pore-deep was gone.

‘I feel awful for asking, but I don't suppose you've got any change for the phone, have you? I didn't exactly come prepared,' she explained with a rueful glance down at her ruined outfit.

Katie waited until the helpful nurse was out of sight before she headed for the pay phone she'd spotted in the foyer. First she phoned Tom; he wasn't at home and he wasn't answering his cell phone. She was about to leave him a message, but thought better of it…there was nothing he could do and telling him about the fire would only alarm him unnecessarily.

Next she rang Sadie's mobile number.

‘I was starting to think they were keeping you in,' Sadie said, sounding tired but pretty upbeat, which in the circumstances said a great deal for her powers of endurance.

Sadie got the bad news over with first.

‘Your flat's a write-off. The good news is they managed to contain the fire to the top floor. The rest of the house is
all right, barring some smoke damage in the hall and down the stairs. I'm staying with the Jameses next door tonight, they said you're quite welcome to kip down on their sofa. I've got the spare room.'

‘Say thanks to them from me, but actually I can't face the journey back.' The hospital was a fifteen-mile trip from the village and she was ready to drop; in fact, remaining upright was difficult. ‘I'm just going to get a taxi to the nearest hotel and sleep for a week.'

‘Fair enough, see you tomorrow?'

‘Definitely,' Katie agreed. ‘Sadie…I'm really sorry,' she added in a rush.

‘God, we don't even know if it was your fault and I'm the one that didn't get around to refitting the fire alarms after the painters finished last month. Besides, nobody was hurt, that's the main thing, and I'm extremely well-insured,' she added cheerfully. ‘So don't beat yourself up about it.'

It wasn't until she'd hung up that Katie realised she had no money for a taxi, hotel room or, for that matter, any more for the phone.
Don't panic, think about this calmly and logically,
she told herself.

So
logically
she had no money, and calmly she had no transport, her head hurt and she was dressed in revealing rags—Katie reckoned she was entitled to panic a little and to feel mildly despondent.

Maybe I should have taken up the offer of a hospital bed,
she thought as she stepped into the reception area, a big densely carpeted open space that was divided by banks of greenery and seats—obviously meant to give a welcoming impression. The place, a hive of activity during the daytime, was, barring a few porters and sundry members of staff who were on their way somewhere in a hurry, almost completely deserted at this time of night.

Katie wasn't on her way anywhere. She wrapped her arms across her chest feeling incredibly conspicuous and rather lonely. Her adrenalin levels had dropped and the
events of the evening were beginning to catch up on her with a vengeance.

‘Here, take this.'

Startled out of her gloomy thoughts by the deep voice, Katie looked at the jacket being offered to her and then warily at the man himself.

He was as dishevelled as she was, his skin and clothes streaked with black, but unlike her he appeared supremely indifferent to the fact. It struck her as deeply unfair that, whereas torn clothes and messy hair made her look like a scarecrow, they lent him an indefinable edge of mystery and danger…mean, moody and macho…nobody was going to overlook him in a crowd!

She was inclined to think that if you stripped this man of his wealth, status and even his clothes he wouldn't lose his infuriating imperious air of command.

Katie raised her eyes with a jerk to his face feeling, and probably looking, as guilty as any nicely brought-up girl would caught in the act of mentally stripping a man—
make a note for future reference: do not think naked around Nikos
—but then no matter how things turned out she wouldn't be around him for very much longer.

This reflection ought to have made her feel upbeat—but somehow a heavy feeling had settled over her.

‘You are shivering,' he observed with a frown.

Katie looked again at the jacket; she thought of refusing it and then decided this would be an empty gesture and, besides, she didn't want to risk being arrested for indecent exposure!

‘Yes, I am. Thank you.' She slid the jacket over her hunched shoulders, and drew it around herself. It still held the warmth of his body; she found this second-hand warmth disturbingly intimate. ‘My dress has a little more ventilation than was intended.'

‘I could say I hadn't noticed, but I'd be lying.'

Katie shot him a wary glance but his enigmatic expression was unrevealing—maybe that was just as well.

‘Sit?' he suggested, nodding towards a seated area.

Katie shook her head. ‘Hospitals at night are strange, don't you think?' Her restless glance took in the big empty area. ‘Almost spooky,' she heard herself babble.

‘I thought you'd gone.'

Katie didn't tell him that that had been her plan.

‘Have you contacted Tom?'

She shook her head. ‘I tried to.' Not so very hard, a voice in her head suggested drily. ‘He's not picking up, but it sounded as if he was in for an all-night session, didn't it? He could very well be in the middle of sensitive negotiations,' she elaborated, ‘so it's probably better I don't bother him.'

‘I don't think many men would consider it a
bother
to drop whatever they were doing if their woman had just escaped death.' The contemptuous curl of his upper lip seemed to be a reflection of Nikos's opinion of any man who wouldn't rush to the side of their woman.

Katie was annoyed that she felt impelled to defend her absent fiancé.

‘And Tom would!' she began. ‘Escaped
death
…' she added, frowning. ‘Isn't that a tad over-dramatic?' Her light laughter trailed away as she tried to imagine Tom calling her
his woman
in that way, and if he had she would probably have laughed.