All That Glitters Read online

  "What a charming picture!" she cried in sudden desperation. "Let me go, Nikolas. I won't stay with you."

  "You'll have to," he told her, his black eyes gleaming. "The island is mine, and no one leaves without my permission. The people are loyal to me; they won't help you to escape no matter how you charm them."

  Impotently she glared at him. "I'll make you a laughingstock," she warned.

  "Try it, my dear, and you'll find out the extent of a Greek husband's authority over his wife," he warned. "I won't look such a laughingstock when you're sitting on pillows."

  "You'd better not lay a hand on me!" she said furiously. "You may be Greek, but I'm not, and I won't be punished by you."

  "I doubt if it will be necessary," he said, drawling now, and she knew that he was once more in command of the situation and aware of what he was going to do. "You'll be more cautious now about pushing me, won't you,love?"

  "Get out!" she shouted, rising to her feet in a temper that made her forget her tender head, and she was forcefully reminded of her injuries as nauseating pain crashed into her skull and she wobbled on her unsteady feet. Instantly he was beside her, lifting her in his arms and placing her on the bed, easing her down onto the pillows. Through a haze of pain she said again, "Go away!"

  "I'll go, until you've calmed down," he told her, leaning over her like the devil in her dreams. "But I'll be back, and I'll take you back to the island with me. Like it or not, you're my wife now and you'll stay my wife." On those final words he left her, and she stared through a mist of tears at the ceiling, wondering how she could endure such open warfare in the place of marriage.

  * * *

  Chapter Eleven

  But it wasn't open warfare. Nikolas wouldn't allow that, and she was helpless to fight him. The only weapon she had was her coldness, and she used that relentlessly, not giving an inch to him when he came to visit her. He ignored her lack of response and talked to her pleasantly, telling her of the day-to-day happenings on the island and the people who asked about her. Everyone sent their love and wanted to know when she would be out of the hospital, and she found it extraordinarily difficult to keep from responding to that. In the few short days she had been on the island she had been made so welcome that she missed the people there, especially Petra and Sophia.

  It was on the morning that she was released from the hospital that Nikolas shredded her self-possession, and he did it so easily that afterward she realized he had only been waiting until she was stronger to take action. When he sauntered into her room and found her already dressed and ready to leave, he kissed her casually before she could draw back, then released her before she could react to that, either.

  "I'm glad you're ready," he commented, picking up the small suitcase containing the few clothes he had brought for her stay in the hospital. "Maman and Petra gave me strict orders to bring you back as soon as possible, and Sophia has cooked a special dinner for you.

  Would you like to have soupa avgolemono, eh? You liked that, didn't you?"

  "Why don't you save yourself the trouble of taking me back and just put me on a plane for London?" she asked coolly.

  "And what if you did go to London?" he returned, looking down at her with exasperation in his eyes. "You'd be alone, the butt of more cruelty than you can imagine, especially if you're pregnant."

  Stunned, she looked up at him and he said mockingly, "Unless you took precautions? No? I didn't think so, and I confess that the thought never entered my mind."

  Impotently she glared at him. She wanted to hit him, and at the same time she melted oddly inside at the thought of having his baby. Damn him, in spite of everything, she knew with a bitter sense of resignation that she still loved him. It wasn't something she would recover from, yet she wanted to hurt him because he had hurt her. She was shocked at the violence of her feelings and she tore her gaze away from him, looking down at her hands.

  It took every ounce of her willpower to keep the tears from falling and she said defeatedly, "All right. I'll stay until I know if I'm going to have a baby or not."

  "That could take a while," he told her, smiling smugly. "After your fall, your entire system could be out of balance. And I intend to do everything I can to make you pregnant if that's what it takes to keep you on the island."

  "Oh!" she cried, drawing away from him, shattered at the thought. Her panic was plain in her eyes as she stared at him. "Nikolas, no. I can't take that again."

  "It won't be like that again," he assured her, reaching out to catch her arm.

  "I won't let you touch me!"

  "That's another right husbands have over wives." He grinned, pulling her to him. "Make up your mind to it now, pet; I'm going to be exercising my marital rights. That's why I married you."

  She was so upset that she went without protest to the taxi he had waiting, and she didn't talk to him at all on the drive through Athens to the airport. At any other time she would have been enchanted with the city, but now she was frightened by his words and her head had begun to ache.

  Nikolas's own helicopter was at the airport, fueled up and ready for flight, and through a haze of pain Jessica realized that he must have brought her to the hospital in the helicopter. She had no memory of anything after the last time she fainted on the rocks, and suddenly she wanted to know what had happened.

  "Nikolas, you found me, didn't you? When I fell?"

  "Yes," he said, frowning. He slanted a look down at her and his gaze halted, surveying her pale, strained face.

  "What happened then? After you found me, I mean."

  He took her arm and led her across the tarmac to the helicopter, walking slowly and letting her lean on him. "At first I thought you were dead," he said remotely, but the harsh breath he drew told her that the memory wasn't something he could handle easily, even now. "When I got down to you, I found that you were still alive and I dug you out from under those rocks, then carried you back up to the villa. Sophia was already up; she was beginning to cook when she saw me coming up the path with you, and she ran to help me."

  They had reached the helicopter and he opened the door, then lifted her onto the seat and closed the door securely. He walked around and slid his long frame onto the seat in front of the controls and reached for the headset. He looked at it in his hand, frowning absently. "You were soaked, and shivering," he continued. "While Andros contacted the hospital and made arrangements for transportation from the airport to the hospital, Maman and I stripped you and wrapped you in blankets, then we flew here. You were in deep shock and surgery was postponed, though the doctors were concerned, but Alex told me that you almost certainly wouldn't survive major surgery at that time; your condition had to stabilize before he could even consider it."

  "Then I got better," she finished for him, smiling wanly.

  He didn't smile in return. "Your responses were better," he muttered. "But you developed a fever, and your lungs were inflamed. Sometimes you were unconscious; sometimes you were delirious and screamed whenever I or any of the doctors came near you." He turned his head to look at her, his eyes flat and bitter. "At least it wasn't just me; you screamed at every man."

  She couldn't tell him that it had been him she had feared, and after a moment of silence he put the headset on and reached for the radio controls. Jessica leaned her head back and closed her eyes, willing the throb in her temples to go away, but when the rotors began turning, it increased the pain and she winced. A hand on her knee brought her eye-lids fluttering open and at Nikolas's concerned, questioning gaze she put her hands over her ears to let him know what was wrong. He nodded and patted her leg sympathetically, which made her want to cry. She closed her eyes again, shutting out the vision of him.

  Unbelievably, she slept on the flight back to the island. Perhaps there was something in the medication she was still taking that made her drowsy, but Nikolas had to wake her when the flight was over and she sat up in confusion to see what seemed like the entire population of the island turned out for her arrival.