All That Glitters Read online

  "Nothing else to say?" he jeered.

  She managed a cool shrug. "Why waste my time? You'll do what you want anyway, so I might as well go along for the ride."

  "Does that mean you've agreed to marry me?" The tone was mocking, but she sensed the seriousness underlying the mockery and she realized that he wasn't certain that she'd stay.

  "Yes, I'll marry you," she replied. "On the same conditions that I agreed to be your mistress."

  "You backed out of that," he pointed out unkindly.

  "I won't back out of this."

  "You won't get a chance to. The same conditions, eh? I seem to remember that you didn't want to live with me; needless to say, that condition doesn't stand."

  "The part about the money does," she said, turning her green eyes on him, opaque and mysterious with the intensity of her thoughts. "I don't want your money. Anything that I want, I'll pay for myself."

  "That's interesting, even if it isn't convincing," he drawled, putting one strong brown hand on her throat and lightly stroking her skin. "If you're not marrying me for my money, why are you marrying me? For myself?"

  "That's right," she admitted, meeting his gaze squarely.

  "Good, because that's all you're getting," he muttered, leaning toward her as if drawn irresistibly by her mouth.

  His lips fastened angrily on hers; his hands were hard and punishing and he pulled her close to him, but she didn't struggle. She rested pliantly against him and let him ravage her mouth until the anger began to fade and the hungry desire in him became stronger. Then she kissed him back, tentatively, and the pressure of his hard mouth lessened.

  The long kiss provided an outlet for his black anger and she could sense him growing calmer even as his passion flared. He was prepared to wait now; he knew that she would be his within a week. He drew back and stared down into her pale face with its soft, trembling lips, then he kissed her again, hard.

  The arrival of their dinner interrupted them and he released her to get to his feet and open the door. He seemed in a calmer frame of mind now, and as they ate, he even made small talk, telling her about his meeting and the problems that had been discussed. She relaxed, sensing that the worst of his temper had passed.

  Andros arrived right on cue just as they were finishing the meal, and his dark eyes flashed at her in silent hostility before he gave his attention to Nikolas.

  "Jessica and I are going to be married," Nikolas announced casually. "Next week, on the island. Tuesday. Make all the arrangements and notify the press that an engagement has been announced, but give them no details about when the wedding will take place. I'll call Maman myself, early tomorrow morning."

  Andros's astonishment was plain, and though he didn't look at Jessica again, she sensed his dismay. No doubt his nose was more than a little out of joint to learn that the woman he actively disliked was going to marry his employer!

  "We'll also have a prenuptial agreement drawn up," Nikolas continued. "Take all of this down, Andros, and have it on Leo's desk tomorrow morning. Tell him I want it back the day after tomorrow at the latest. It will be signed before we go to the island."

  Andros sat down and opened his pad, his pen at the ready. Nikolas gave Jessica a considering stare before he started speaking again.

  "Jessica renounces in advance all monetary claims against my estate," he drawled, sitting down and stretching his long legs out before him. "Should we be divorced, she will be entitled to no alimony and no property except such gifts as I have made to her, which will be her personal property."

  Andros flashed Jessica a startled look, as if expecting her to disagree, but she sat quietly, watching Nikolas's dark, brooding face. She felt calm now, though she knew that her entire future was at stake. Nikolas had agreed to marriage when she had thought that he never would, so it was a start.

  "While we're married," Nikolas continued, leaning his black head back against the sofa, "Jessica will conduct herself with strict propriety. She's not to leave the island without my personal escort, or with my permission and a substitute escort that I've chosen. She will also turn over the handling of all her income from her first husband to me." Now he, too, looked at Jessica, but still she made no protest. Her business affairs would be in marvelously competent hands with Nikolas, and she had no fears of him cheating her.

  Then a thought occurred to her, and before she could halt herself, she said evenly, "I suppose that's one way of getting back the money you paid for my stocks."

  Nikolas's jaw went rigid and she wished that she'd held her tongue rather than make him even angrier. She wasn't even protesting letting him have control of the money; she hadn't wanted it anyway. He wanted to have her completely under his power and she was willing to go along with him. It was a chance she was taking, but she had to hope that when he found out how wrong he was, he would soften his stand.

  After a tense moment Nikolas delivered his final condition. "Last of all, I shall have final authority over any children that we should have. In case of divorce, I'll retain custody, though of course Jessica will be permitted visitation rights if she wants to come to the island. Under no circumstances will she be permitted to take the child or children away from the island or to see them without my permission."

  Pain twisted her heart at that last and she hastily turned her head away so they couldn't see the welling of tears in her eyes. He seemed so hard! Perhaps she was being a fool; perhaps he'd never come to love her. Only the thought that he would know beyond a doubt that she came to him an innocent gave her the courage to agree to his conditions. He would at least realize that she wasn't going to corrupt their children.

  If only there would be children! Nikolas seemed to take it for granted that their marriage wouldn't last, but already she knew that for her it was forever. No matter what he did, she would always be married to him in her heart. She wanted to have his children, several children, miniature replicas of him with black hair and black, flashing eyes.

  "No comments, Jessica?" Nikolas asked softly, the jeering tone plain in his voice.

  Jerking her thoughts back from a delightful vision of herself holding a tiny black-eyed baby in her arms, she stared at him for a moment as if she didn't recognize him, then she gathered herself and replied almost inaudibly, "No. I agree to everything you want, Nikolas."

  "That's all," he said to Andros, and when they were alone again, he snapped, "You won't even make a token protest to keep any children, will you? Or are you hoping that I'll pay you to stay away from them? If so, disillusion yourself. You won't get a penny from me under any circumstances!"

  "I agreed to your conditions," she cried shakily, her control broken by a heavy pain in her chest. "What more do you want? I've learned that I can't fight you, so I won't waste my breath. As for any children we might have, I want children—I want your children—and the only way I'll ever leave them will be if you physically throw me off the island. And don't insult me by insinuating that I won't be a good mother."

  He stared down at her, a muscle in his jaw jerking out of control. "You say you can't fight me," he muttered hoarsely, "but you still deny me."

  "No, no," she moaned, despairing of ever making him understand. "I'm not refusing you. Can't you see, Nikolas? I'm asking more from you than you're offering, and I'm not talking about money. I'm talking about yourself. So far you've offered me only the same part of yourself that you gave Diana, and I want more than that."

  "And what about you?" he growled, getting to his feet and pacing restlessly about the room. "You won't even give me that much; you hold yourself away and demand that I give in to you in every respect."

  "You don't have to marry me," she pointed out sharply, abruptly weary of their bickering. "You can let me walk out that door, and I promise you that you'll never see me again, if that's what you want."

  His mouth twisted savagely. "You know I can't do that. No, you've got me so twisted inside that I've got to have you; I'll never be worth a damn if I can't satisfy this ache. It's not a weddi