'You LOOK as if you need a good, stiff drink.' Rising gracefully upright, Nik strode across to the polished antique sideboard, extracted a brandy goblet and calmly poured a measure from the cut-glass decanter. With incredible cool, he settled it down on the table in front of her and strolled across to the marble fireplace.
'You can't be serious,' Leah told him, dry-mouthed.
'Apart from the taint of your family tree, you're everything 1 want in a wife.'
'Forgive me if I find that impossible to believe.'
'You're beautiful, sexually appealing and you're already mine,' he drawled with wry amusement. 'And I haven't met anyone else one half as suitable.'
'Thanks but no, thanks,' Shaken to her innermost depths by the proposition, Leah was bereft of the wit to come back with anything more sarcastic.
'I don't recall saying you had the right of refusal. And I'm prepared to be reasonable. I proved that last night.' Nik dealt her a razor-sharp glance of explicit meaning. 'I could have flattened you down on my bed there and then—'
'No!1 Leah rose upright, rigid with rejection.
'But I didn't. I'll give you time to adjust to the idea. I don't expect you to behave as though the last five years never happened."
'I love Paul.'
'And I don't expect to hear his name on your lips again. I warned you. That is over. You're allowed one mistake, one vengeful little fling and you've had it.' Nik ran hooded dark eyes grimly over her pale, set face. 'One mistake.' he repeated in case she hadn't got the message. 'Phone him. go near him ever again and I'll break both of you because whether you like it or not you're my wife!'
'You can't do that...you can't threaten me!'
''That wasn't a threat, pethi mou. That was a cast-iron promise. Cross the boundary-lines I set and take the consequences. Don't say you weren't warned,' he murmured with chilling emphasis. 'Don't think that because I was tolerant last night I'll be tolerant again. I won't be.'
"You can't make me stay with you.'
'Try me; .step out of line and see what happens.' he invited darkly, scanning her with angry black eyes. "And don't kid yourself that you've found true love. Woods has a history of chasing wealthy women.'
'He didn't even know I was wealthy!" Leah spat at him furiously.
'He'd have to be blind not to. Look at your jewellery...look at your clothes! Why do you think you have a bodyguard? You're a walking invitation for every mugger for miles around! That bracelet on your wrist is worth more than he could earn in a lifetime!' he slashed back rawly. 'And he needn't think you'd be bringing your father's blood money with you because you will be signing your entire inheritance away to charity.'
'Really?' she gasped.
'You want to keep it? Profit from all the misery he caused his victims?'
Sick to the stomach at the idea, Leah slung him a thwarted look of loathing and turned away.
'You return to London and pack. We're flying to Greece in forty-eight hours.'
'Greece?' she echoed.
'it's time you met my family.'
'No way am I staying married to you and no way am I going to Greece!'
'Go take a long, cool shower and concentrate on the absence of options available,' Nik advised dryly. 'And when you've finished doing that, think about how long Woods lingered in your dizzy brain when you were in my arms last night.'
