In the Greek's Bed: The Greek Tycoon's Wife / The Greek Millionaire's Marriage / The Greek Surgeon

CHAPTER SEVEN

‘MARRIED?’ 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.

When Nikos used the term it didn’t sound funny. It must be the accent—men with exotic, sexy accents could get away with saying things that a native speaker could not. It went without saying that she didn’t want anyone to call her his woman; it was sort of dated, sexist stuff—the sort of things the man that her grandfather had picked out for her mother would have used.

She concluded that his accent must be responsible for the shivery sensations she experienced every time he was around.

‘Possibly.’ He conceded her words with a careless shrug of his broad shoulders. The flimsy nature of his shirt made it difficult not to notice how his taut muscles flexed and bulged through the fine material. ‘But nevertheless I think you should let Tom decide that for himself.’

Katie’s lips tightened; his persistence, not to mention his perfect musculature, was beginning to annoy her.

‘Can’t you wait until the morning to tell him what an awful creature he’s got mixed up with?’ she taunted.

‘Actually I was thinking of how I would feel in his place.’

Katie flushed, not enjoying the sensation of being quietly put in her place. ‘I suppose that must have taken quite a stretch of your no doubt limited imagination.’

‘Theos!’ Anger lent his dark, taut features a menacing cast.

‘And I suppose you would walk away from an important business negotiation if your girlfriend needed you. That’s really likely.’ This was the sort of man who put personal relationships way down his list of priorities.

A wave of weakness suddenly hit her; it was so strong she swayed. Nikos, whose simmering anger had left him the moment he’d taken in the white-faced exhaustion in her face, took her by the arm.

‘Sit!’ he urged strongly. The woman was clearly unfit to take care of herself. He wondered why Tom let her out alone!

Katie complied, reasoning it would be a lot more embarrassing to fall on her face than follow his direction. Pride had its place but you had to know when to swallow it. She sat for a moment with her eyes closed, waiting for the awful weakness to pass. To her relief Nikos let her be.

‘I’m a little tired.’

Nikos slanted her a veiled look through half-lowered lids. ‘I find it strange that you feel obliged to apologise for behaviour that needs no apology but not for insults you throw so indiscriminately at me.’ He shook his head when she opened her mouth to respond.

‘Hush!’ he urged, pressing a finger to her parted lips. ‘We will not squabble. I am not so unimaginative that I cannot see you are at the end of your tether. As for what I would do, we are not talking about me.’

Not talking, thinking or fantasising about, which was something she really ought to bear in mind! Unconsciously she ran the back of her hand across her lips where he had touched.

‘I just thought that Tom isn’t going to lose any sleep over what he doesn’t know about. Besides,’ she added brightly, ‘he knows I don’t need him to hold my hand every time something goes wrong.’

‘You are a tough, independent woman, then?’ Nikos asked, sounding amused.

Katie’s eyes narrowed. Her want-to-make-something-of-it? look was weak, but strong enough to make her opinion of his condescension known.

‘If you’re asking if I’m quite capable of taking care of myself, then,’ she told him proudly, ‘yes, I am. Do you have a problem with that?’

He would prefer his women clingy and needy; that went without saying. The sort that would tell him at frequent intervals how big, strong and marvellous he was, and never, ever disagree with him! In short, women who would not upset his theory that the world revolved around him, she concluded scornfully.

‘Does Tom?’ he fired back smoothly.

Katie waved her tastelessly large diamond ring at him. ‘Quite obviously not.’

‘Maybe you are more circumspect around him?’ he suggested drily.

‘Around Tom I can relax,’ she breathed, closing her eyes and imagining herself in his undemanding company. With Tom she never felt stressed or under pressure or…excited?

Her eyes shot wide open; where did that come from?

‘But not around me?’

Katie laughed; she couldn’t help herself. It was such a ludicrous idea: relax with Nikos! She could more readily imagine falling asleep on top of an active volcano! But then, she mused as her eyes moved over his tall, elegant figure, he did have something of a volcano’s explosive qualities…and he was liable to erupt for no apparent reason.

‘Do I look that stupid?’ If ever there was an invitation, this was it.

Katie heaved a sigh and squared her shoulders, steeling herself for the inevitable scathing riposte…it didn’t come. In fact the strange, tense silence between them stretched on and on…

He had stilled to the point of seeming not to breathe at all as his restless dark eyes got as far as her face and didn’t move. An expression she couldn’t decipher flickered across his taut face; it was only there for a moment, but this was long enough to unsettle her completely.

‘No.’

After the build-up she’d been expecting something a bit more—memorable than that.

‘You didn’t answer my question.’ Except with a question—he seemed to be good at that. ‘Do you have a problem with strong women?’

Nikos shrugged. ‘Strength is not an issue. My relationships with women are rarely competitive either physically or intellectually.’

Katie’s contempt increased. In other words he picked them weak, thick and great in bed. Just as well I’m not after the job because I don’t qualify in any of the above.

‘Some women feel there is a need to sacrifice their femininity in order to compete on an equal footing with men; that is their choice. I just happen not to find them particularly attractive. I admire women that manage to succeed but do not try to be one of the boys.’

‘Are you calling me unfeminine?’ she demanded hotly.

‘I would hardly categorise you as a high-flyer who is anxious to compete with men on their own terms.’

Why, the patronising—!

‘Are you leaving your job before or after the wedding?’ he wondered with a guileless smile.

Katie caught her breath. You had to hand it to the man—he could deliver insults with a smile better than anyone she had ever met.

‘I’m not leaving at all. My job may not be high-powered but I happen to enjoy it,’ she told him with frigid dignity.

‘Really?’ One dark eyebrow lifted. ‘Tom led me to believe you could not wait to leave…’

‘I haven’t told Tom yet,’ she interrupted tightly.

‘Do you tell Tom anything?’

‘My relationship with Tom is none of your business.’

‘Actually it is very much my business.’

‘Only because you’re an insufferably, interfering…’ Lips compressed, eyes glittering with suppressed frustration, Katie bit back the rest of her tirade; this was neither the time nor place for a slanging match, especially one she was likely to lose.

‘Don’t you think Tom is capable of making his own decisions without you to shove him in the right direction? Not that you could,’ she added quickly. She lifted her chin. ‘Tom is his own man!’ she declared proudly.

‘I’m sure Tom is more than capable of making his own decisions when he is in possession of all the facts…once he has them I will be more than happy to abide by his decision.’

‘It’s not the facts, it’s the way you present them.’

‘Then you present them in the manner you feel shows you in the kindest light; I have no objections. Even if Tom accepts his wealth has nothing to do with your desire to be his wife.’ His expression made it clear he was a lot less gullible. ‘That does not alter the fact you are not free to marry him.’

‘I could be if you weren’t such a stubborn, malicious…’ She heaved several steadying breaths; she would not resort to name-calling. ‘Why should I marry Tom when apparently I’m already married to a billionaire?’

Nikos, who seemed prepared for her comment, totally misinterpreted her throw-away sarcasm.

‘Before the pound signs start flashing before your eyes I will draw to your attention the fact that the pre-nuptial agreement Harvey had me sign works both ways. I’ve checked, Harvey knows his business, it’s watertight. Sorry, but I’m not your golden goose. What’s wrong?’ he asked as the colour seeped from her skin.

Katie, her eyes bright pools of shimmering anger stared up at him. Incredibly his bafflement seemed genuine…how could anyone possibly insult a person like that and not realise it might offend?

She began to slide his jacket off her shoulders. ‘Don’t let me keep you,’ she said pointedly.

‘Don’t be foolish,’ he retorted impatiently. ‘You are cold, I’m not. This is a foolish gesture.’

Katie shrugged and let the jacket slip to the ground. ‘Maybe I want to make a foolish gesture.’

‘Now you’re just being ridiculous,’ he gritted, bending to retrieve the garment from the carpeted floor. His colour was heightened when he took his seat; the twist of his sensual lips was overtly contemptuous.

‘That’s your fault,’ she blurted resentfully.

One supremely eloquent dark brow twitched as his expressive eyes swept over her face. ‘This I have to hear,’ he remarked, throwing the jacket casually across one shoulder. ‘You were saying?’

Katie flushed. ‘There’s no point saying anything because no matter what I say you’ll just twist it,’ she announced mutinously.

‘In other words your accusations have no foundation.’ Before she could protest he replaced his jacket over her shoulders and, keeping a grip on each lapel, jerked her gently towards him. Katie was overpoweringly conscious of his strength; she breathed in his warm male scent and felt uncomfortably giddy.

He bent his head towards her. ‘No matter how outrageously unpleasant you become,’ he imparted softly, ‘I am not leaving you alone.’

‘So you’ll just call me an avaricious grasping bitch!’ To her intense dismay Katie felt her eyes fill with weak tears.

Nikos looked into the swimming blue pools, an expression of genuine surprise stamped across his handsome features. ‘I said nothing of the sort!’ he ejaculated.