shifted in her seat. ‘I really don’t—’
‘Erotic is concerned with the most intense and arousing of sexual pleasure. When a woman uses her femininity as part of sexual stimulation, that’s erotic. When a man gives in to powerful sexual desire and pleasures a woman, that’s erotic. It’s an orgy of sensual fulfilment, agape mou, not a word extracted from Greek mythology. To give it a more contemporary translation, erotic is carnal, erogenous, rousing, seductive, sexy, suggestive, voluptuous—’
‘Stop it! Be quiet!’ She put her hands over her ears, unable to listen to another word. For a moment she couldn’t breathe at all and then his eyes lifted back to hers and suddenly she felt as though she had jumped straight into the deep end of a swimming pool from a great height. Out of her depth, she looked away from him, desperately trying to slow the rapid thump of her heart. His knowledge of Greek mythology surprised her but somehow he’d managed to take what could have been a stimulating academic discussion and lower it to the basest level. Which was entirely typical of him, she thought shakily. It was evident that, when he was with a woman, all he thought about was sex.
Consoling herself with the fact that she still held the trump card, she finally managed to steady her breathing and ignore the insidious throb deep in her body. ‘I’m sure that the word “erotic” has featured frequently in your life in the past,’ she said in a shaky voice, trying and failing to understand the burning ache between her thighs. ‘Which is actually just as well because it certainly isn’t going to feature in your life again in the future.’
‘You think not?’ Something about his deep velvety voice set her heart thumping again and she shifted in the seat.
‘I know not.’ Confused by her own feelings and furious with him for tying her in knots, she finally turned her head and looked at him. ‘Aren’t you going to ask me what I want written into the pre-nuptial agreement?’
‘It’s of very little interest to me.’
‘Really?’ Suddenly she wanted to do something to shake him out of his customary cool. She really, really wanted him to mind about something and as far as she could see, apart from money, there was only one thing that dominated his Neanderthal brain. ‘I’m going to insist that the lawyer includes a clause which prevents you from having sexual relations with another woman. Once you marry me, you’re going to live a celibate life, Nikos, so you’d better learn to say goodbye to all things erotic.’
A warm feeling of smug satisfaction spreading through her body, she settled back in her seat and waited for the reaction. But if she’d expected an explosion, then she was disappointed. Instead he lay sprawled in his seat, watching her from under half lowered lashes, the expression on his handsome face unreadable.
‘You don’t want me to have sex with another woman?’ His gaze lingered on her face. ‘You’re absolutely sure about that?’
‘Absolutely sure.’ She smiled, confident that she was now back in control. ‘And, if at any point during our marriage I’m shown evidence of your infidelity, then I won’t reveal the whereabouts of the jewel.’
‘You return the jewel to me on the day of our wedding, otherwise the deal doesn’t go ahead.’
‘If I did that, then you would simply divorce me.’
He gave a faint smile. ‘I’ve instructed my lawyers to draw up an agreement which binds us together for two years, just as you requested. That should be more than enough for us to drive each other up the wall and for you to extract what you see as revenge. If you’re in any doubt as to the depth of the punishment, then I can assure you that two years with you will be the equivalent of twenty years with any other woman.’
She absorbed the insult, telling herself that the more he loathed her, the more effective the revenge. ‘So you agree to my terms?’
He suppressed a yawn. ‘I agree not to have sex with other women for the duration of our marriage, if you’re absolutely sure that’s what you want. You might want to think hard before you confirm that point.’
She didn’t need to think at all. She knew it was the right thing to do and was extremely glad she’d thought of it—and slightly surprised, if she were honest. Things pertaining to sex weren’t usually high in her thoughts. She smiled, delighted that she’d won that point and wondering why he hadn’t constructed a more vociferous argument in defence of his sex life. Or any argument, come to that. He’d been remarkably compliant considering the issue at stake. Surely a man as obsessed with sex as Nikos Kyriacou wouldn’t so readily agree to having his activity in that area curbed for a full two years? Wouldn’t agree to celibacy? On the other hand, he probably didn’t want to reveal just how badly her punishment was affecting him. A man like him had an ego to protect. Except for the few occasions where she’d obviously driven him to the extreme limits of his patience, he clearly prided himself on his cool, unemotional approach to life. He was hardly going to display his true feelings on the matter.
Convinced that she had the upper hand for possibly the first time in days, Angie smiled at him, unable to hide her triumph. ‘It’s what I want.’
His eyes rested on her face and for a brief moment she thought she saw amusement in his gaze but then it was gone and he sat forward, hit a button that opened an intercom between him and the driver and issued another stream of instructions. ‘We’ll see the lawyer right away. Why wait?’
Her feeling of triumph faltered slightly in the face of his indifference. Then she reminded herself that so far they’d spent less than an hour in each other’s company. If he found her personality unfortunate on such relatively short acquaintance, she was surely guaranteed to cause him complete misery when they were joined in matrimony.
Chapter Five
TWO weeks later, Angie sat waiting for the make-up artist to finish her work. ‘Not too much. I don’t usually wear makeup.’ She couldn’t quite believe that she’d allowed her mother to talk her into this. She would have been quite happy to just turn up at the wedding looking the way she always looked. It wasn’t as if Nikos had any other expectations. He hadn’t so much as mentioned a wedding dress or flowers. In fact, he’d treated their forthcoming nuptials in much the same vein as he might a business meeting.
She still smarted with indignation as she remembered his attitude during the visit to the lawyer. He’d virtually dragged her into the room and had then proceeded to ignore her, speaking entirely in Greek to the young, nervous lawyer seated behind the enormous desk. But even her fluency in his language hadn’t helped her understand what was going on in his head. He’d instructed the man to ensure that the jewel became his on marriage.
Then they’d switched to English and it had been left to her to stumble out her wish that Nikos be banned from indulging in extramarital sex, a conversation she’d found painfully embarrassing to conduct with a third party.
Instead of looking annoyed, Nikos had lounged in a chair in the furthest corner of the room, occasionally glancing at his watch as if he were being detained from something far more pressing than the simple matter of a pre-nuptial agreement.
In the car following their visit to the lawyer, he hadn’t spoken to her. Instead he’d checked his e-mails on his Blackberry and made endless calls on his mobile phone, pausing only long enough to drop her home with the announcement that he’d send a car for her in two weeks’ time. Then he’d driven off without a backward glance, leaving her seething and fuming.
It was clear that he wasn’t allowing
