lips and feeling a quiver of sexual excitement run through her at his low growl of frustration
when the priest’s polite cough reminded them that their display of passion was being watched by
two hundred guests.
Their marriage was one of convenience, and a far cry from the love match she had dreamed of,
Kitty acknowledged when they walked together back down the aisle and stepped out of the
chapel into the bright sunshine. But for better or worse she was Nikos Angelaki’s, wife and it
was time she banished her romantic fantasies and accepted that she had married a man who#p#分页标题#e#
would never love her but, for now at least it seemed, desired her.
‘You look beautiful in your wedding dress,’ he startled her by saying later at the reception, when
the wedding lunch, speeches and champagne toasts were finally finished, and she had told him
that she was going to get changed before they left for Athens. ‘Don’t take too long, agape . It will be another hour at least before we make it onto the helicopter and early evening by the time we
land in Athens, and I am impatient to be alone with my bride.’
The sultry gleam in Nikos’s eyes filled Kitty with nervous apprehension, and she hurried up to
her room to change into her going-away outfit, desperate to spend a few minutes away from his
disturbing presence. The jade silk skirt and close-fitting jacket had been Liss’s choice that made
the most of her curvy figure, and suited her colouring. As she studied her reflection she
wondered if Nikos would approve when he discovered that she was wearing nothing beneath her
suit other than a black lace bra and matching French knickers. From the sound of it he wanted
their marriage to be a proper one, and she could not deny that the sexual chemistry between them
was as strong as it had been on the night of the royal ball. But despite her desperate awareness of
him, she felt nervous at the prospect of sharing his bed when she barely knew him. For her, the
intimacy of making love was a big issue, but she had a feeling that Nikos regarded sex as the
single benefit of their enforced marriage.
Lost in her thoughts she walked back down the corridor, but as she turned the corner she
cannoned into Vasilis Sarondakos, and her heart sank.
‘You hardly look the joyful bride,’ he said mockingly. ‘What’s the matter, Kitty? Are you afraid
that if you leave your husband alone for too long his attention will stray—towards your sister
perhaps?’
Vasilis was drunk. His speech was slurred, and Kitty wrinkled her nose when she caught a waft
of alcohol on his breath. She had been dismayed to find his name on the guest list, but he was an
old family friend, and she’d reminded herself that after today she would probably never see him
again. She attempted to push past him, but he grabbed her arm and shoved her up against the
wall. ‘ Let go of me! ’ She tried to jerk free of his hold but Vasilis tightened his grip and laughed.
‘You have every reason to worry,’ he taunted. ‘Liss was blessed with more than her fair share of
good looks, and Nikos is a notorious playboy.’
‘Shut up, Vasilis!’ Kitty couldn’t quite banish her envy of her sister’s beauty, and she despised
herself. ‘There’s nothing going on between Liss and Nikos. He married me, didn’t he?’
‘Ah, but the reason for your hasty trip down the aisle isn’t as secret as you might wish,’ Vasilis
said with a sly wink. ‘But I’ve got to hand it to Angelaki—he’s even more of a ruthless social
climber than I realised, and he struck gold with you. Who else would have set out to deliberately
seduce a naïve, virgin princess, impregnate her with his child and then marry her pronto to spare
embarrassment to the royal family? I’m surprised Sebastian hasn’t knighted him for services
above and beyond the call of duty,’ Vasilis finished bitterly.
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Kitty said faintly, reeling from Vasilis’s shocking statement. How on
earth did he know about her pregnancy? ‘What do you mean when you say Nikos is a social
climber?’ she demanded. ‘He’s a multimillionaire who heads his own hugely successful
company.’
‘A company that he inherited after he seduced another gullible woman,’ Vasilis said sneeringly.
‘It’s not only Hollywood starlets who sleep their way to the top. Nikos Angelaki was the
illegitimate son of a peasant woman. He grew up in the slums of Athens, and as a teenager he
was already involved with the criminal underworld.’ Vasilis paused when he saw Kitty’s
shocked expression, and gave an unpleasant smile. ‘I take it your new husband hasn’t told you