about his past? Ask him about the tattoo on his shoulder if you don’t believe me.
‘Somehow, Nikos met a millionairess, Larissa Petridis, daughter of the shipping magnate
Stamos Petridis,’ Vasilis continued. ‘Larissa had inherited her father’s company after his death.
She was a spinster with a penchant for good-looking young men. Rumour has it that she quickly
became besotted with charming, handsome Nikos, despite the fact that he was twenty years
younger than her. Nikos seized his chance to escape a life of poverty and he became her lover,
and when Larissa died a few years later she left Petridis Shipping to him. Not a bad prize for
being a stud to a lonely older woman, was it?’ Vasilis jeered.
Kitty felt dizzy as Vasilis’s poisonous words swirled in her mind, but she was determined not to
reveal her shock at his revelations by fainting, and she pressed her back against the wall for
support. ‘I don’t believe you,’ she muttered. ‘How do you know so much about Nikos?’
‘I hired someone to make a few enquiries,’ Vasilis said without a flicker of shame. ‘I like to
discover the skeletons in people’s closets. You never know when the information might come in
useful. I’ll show you the report my private eye filed on Angelaki if you like. It makes interesting
reading. Almost as interesting as this week’s edition of Glamorous magazine,’ Vasilis added,
grinning at Kitty’s puzzled expression.
‘Is there anything to read in a downmarket publication devoted entirely to celebrity gossip?’ she queried coldly.
‘Not much,’ Vasilis admitted, ‘but there are plenty of pictures showing what your new husband
was getting up to in the three weeks prior to your wedding.’
‘Nikos was in the US, working hard to tie up a business deal,’ Kitty said sharply.
‘Well, he was certainly working hard, but in the bedroom rather than the boardroom. Face it,
Kitty,’ Vasilis said nastily. ‘You’re not Angelaki’s type—which I guess is why he spent the last
weeks with his mistress, Shannon Marsh…here’s the evidence.’ He withdrew a copy of the
glossy magazine from his jacket pocket and flipped it open to a double page spread of
photographs showing Nikos and a stunning, tanned blonde.
In the photos Nikos looked bronzed and gorgeous with a lock of his dark hair falling across his
brow. He was relaxed and laughing with his beautiful companion and the obvious familiarity
between them tore at Kitty’s heart even more than the images of Shannon pressing her naked
breasts against Nikos’s muscular chest.
She snatched the magazine from Vasilis and scanned the short paragraph beneath the photos,
paling when her own name leapt from the page together with the speculation that, while Nikos
was about to marry a European princess, he was still clearly smitten with his American lover.
‘I told you that you should have married me.’ Vasilis swayed unsteadily. ‘I wouldn’t have
humiliated you on your wedding day. As it is, many of the guests here today have probably read
this over their breakfast this morning, and there’s fevered speculation among them about the real
reason why Nikos hurried you down the aisle.’
A wave of nausea swept over Kitty at Vasilis’s words and her fragile self-confidence shattered.
The wedding guests hadn’t stared at her in the chapel because she’d been transformed into a
beautiful bride—they had been comparing her to Shannon Marsh, whose stunning figure was
revealed in all its lissom glory in a magazine that had worldwide circulation.
And what about Nikos, and his apparent eagerness to take her to bed—how could he possibly
desire her when he had Shannon waiting for him in America? She would be a poor consolation
prize, Kitty thought miserably.
She jerked out of Vasilis’s hold, and felt no sympathy when he stumbled drunkenly. She was
shocked to realise that her whole body was shaking with reaction. The tension wouldn’t be good
for the baby, and the knowledge forced her to take a ragged breath. The baby was the only thing#p#分页标题#e#
that mattered, the only reason she had married Nikos, and from now on she would concentrate all
her energies on the tiny scrap of life growing inside her.
‘Angelaki only married you for the kudos of having a royal bride.’
Vasilis’s spiteful taunt followed Kitty as she walked slowly back down the stairs, but she did not
pause or look back. She knew exactly why Nikos had made her his wife. He wanted his child.
But he had told her once that he valued his freedom above everything, and the magazine photos