of your family!’
Nik lounged back against the balustrade and surveyed her steadily. ‘You are angry with me…very angry.’
‘Anger would be too strong a word. I’m irritated. You’re making a quite unnecessary big deal out of something trivial—’
‘Since when was marriage a trivial matter?’
Although Nik was laying himself wide open for a counter-attack, Prudence valiantly resisted the temptation. ‘I don’t think I could comment on that when we’ve never had a normal marriage. Whatever, I would like a divorce now.’
Shimmering dark golden eyes lit on her like torches. ‘Why?’
The atmosphere was leaping and jumping with hostile vibrations. Thinking about her maternal ambitions, Prudence squirmed. In the mood he was in she was not prepared to bare her soul to him. ‘I don’t need to give you a reason—’
‘Yes, you do.’ His accent raked round the edges of her response, the intonation grim and intimidating.
Nik had never spoken to Prudence like that before and she resented it very much. ‘No, I don’t.’
Without warning, Nik flung up lean brown hands in an expansive gesture of frustration and reproof that was explosively Greek. ‘What’s come over you? Where is all this coming from?’
Soft pink mouth compressed, Prudence shrugged and turned away in a defensive movement to gaze out over the fast-flowing river. ‘Don’t talk down to me like I’m stupid—’
‘I have not done that.’
‘That’s exactly what you’re doing!’
Nik prided himself on his control over his temper. He had never dreamt that Pudding, of all people, would push him to the brink of losing it. He surveyed her with fulminating force. Without her awareness the pashmina had slid down her arms, baring her smooth, rounded shoulders and the creamy swell of her full breasts. Nik stared. He could not help staring, for he had not seen that much of her since the neckline of her wedding gown had showcased her ample curves and filled him with an instant lust that almost embarrassed him in the church. She had the kind of opulent bosom popularised by forties film stars in tight sweaters. It was many years since he had allowed himself to recall that fact. Suddenly he was having trouble concentrating. ‘I bring you here in all good faith to celebrate your birthday and out of nowhere you make—’
‘A perfectly reasonable suggestion that, since the emergency is long since over, we dissolve the legal connection between us!’ Prudence completed heatedly.
‘And I asked…perfectly reasonably…why?’
Her chin came up, her blue eyes bright with defiance. ‘That’s none of your business.’
Nik could not credit what he was hearing. ‘I insist…’
A little scarlet devil literally leapt up in the invigorating surge of Prudence’s anger. If he wanted the whole truth and nothing but the truth she would give it to him. ‘All right…’
‘Let’s eat while we talk.’ Nik urged her back indoors to where the first course awaited them.
Prudence sat down. Even in that short space of time her temper was fading and she was shaken by the hostility in the air, not to mention her own unfamiliar desire to fight with him. For goodness’ sake, she was hugely fond of Nik. There was no sense in destroying their friendship by trying to score points. An apologetic light in her soft blue eyes, she forced a smile back on her tense mouth and speared a juicy cube of melon. ‘I can’t believe we’re arguing.’
‘Believe it.’ Bereft of an appetite for food, Nik rested back in his seat in an attitude of highly deceptive indolence. His cutting-edge logic had already led him to draw a conclusion that shook him to his core. There was another man in her life; there had to be. For what other reason would she suddenly demand a divorce?
Prudence stole a glance at him from below her eyelashes. His remarkable eyes were smouldering like the stormy heart of a fire, eyes the colour of amber and precious gold that had haunted her thoughts for far too long, she conceded guiltily. Breaking free, breaking the final bond was the healthy thing to do. Lingering on the edge of his life was pitiful, she reminded herself.
‘But there’s no need whatsoever for this bad feeling,’ she murmured quietly. ‘I’m so fond of you…’
‘You’re also fond of cats, dogs, foxes, badgers, donkeys, horses…in fact, all the members of the animal kingdom…and of most of the people you meet.’
The vein of derisive dismissal in that response made Prudence redden. ‘I thought you’d want a divorce, too. I don’t see the problem unless it’s because I came up with the idea first. It’s not as if we’ve ever been married like other people—’
Nikolos levelled brooding eyes on her. ‘Whose choice was that?’
Her smooth brow furrowed. ‘I beg your pardon?’
‘I asked you whose choice it was that we ended up with a marriage that never got off the starting blocks.’
Her sense of perplexity deepened. ‘I always thought it was a mutual thing—’
‘Did you really?’ His rich, dark drawl was so quiet she actually leant forward to hear him, her whole attention welded to his lean, strong face. ‘Yet you’re the one who moved out of my bedroom. You’re the one who had hysterics when I tried to kiss you. You’re the one who took the first excuse available to leave Greece and stay away.’
It was Prudence’s turn to disbelieve the evidence of her own ears. Her eyes had opened very wide. ‘Er—you’re complaining?’
‘I was in no position to complain, was I?’ Nik breathed, tight-mouthed.
Prudence had no idea what he was driving at and she lacked the ability to listen and learn, for she did not want to relive the painful period of unhappiness she had endured before she bit the bullet and left Greece. Her face felt all tight and her tummy muscles were taut with stress. ‘Well, I hardly think you were likely to complain, Nik. In fact, I think it’s very hypocritical of you to make comments of that nature—’
‘Is that a fact?’
‘Yes, it is a fact. Honestly, I don’t understand why you’re acting like this,’ Prudence condemned shakily, pushing her chair back from the table in a sudden movement. ‘After all, I know you must have been hugely relieved when Trixie’s illness gave me a very solid reason to get back out of your life again!’
‘That is not true,’ Nik shot back.
Prudence was flushed and trembling. When it came to talking about anything that touched on the hurt and humiliation of their marriage, she reached the edge of her control very fast. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said fiercely. ‘But that’s not a very convincing protest from a guy who got himself blind drunk so that he could successfully avoid having to consummate our marriage!’
For an instant, Nik sat as though he had been turned to stone. Then with equal rapidity he sprang upright, took a pace forward and stood over her, six feet three inches of uncompromising, aggressive masculinity. His darkly handsome features were forbidding. ‘Say
