‘How dare you let your lawyers sit and talk over how I’m going to lose my children when you’re the one most likely to wreck the marriage in the first place!’
At that ringing indictment of his character, dulled coins of colour accentuated the superb line of his classic Petrakos cheekbones. ‘I don’t accept that.’
‘Marriage is something that I take very seriously.’ Maddie lifted her chin.
His dark eyes had the icy glitter of stars, and she knew his temper was under wraps again. ‘As do I…hence the pre-nup. But I take very strong exception to the demands that you saw fit to voice through your lawyer!’
‘You didn’t give me much of a choice about marrying you, but at least I have more sense than to go plunging into it without foreseeing the pitfalls and trying to avoid them!’ Maddie launched back at him with conviction.
‘But all you ever see is pitfalls and problems! What happened to trust and optimism? I believe that I will be an exceptional husband.’ Giannis slung that assurance back at her without hesitation, for he had spent every free moment during the past ten days trying to decide on the wedding details that she had yet to show the smallest interest in. ‘But face it now…I will not stoop to sign an agreement which tries to tell me what I can and cannot do in my life!’
‘Has anyone ever tried to impose boundaries on you?’ Maddie was genuinely curious on that score, because it seemed to her that Giannis had always done exactly as he liked while utterly refusing to acknowledge his mistakes.
His stubborn jaw line squared. ‘I have complete faith in my ability to choose my own boundaries,’ he spelt out grittily.
‘Do you think that attitude might possibly explain why you’re now on the brink of a shotgun marriage?’ Maddie dared, fighting back with all her might. ‘Engaged to one woman, sleeping with another? It was a recipe for disaster.’
Pure outrage at that unbelievably tactless reminder assailed Giannis. His golden eyes smouldered like the heart of a fire, his ferocious pride stung. ‘I will not discuss this with you any more,’ he framed thickly, striding towards the door. ‘I cannot—’
‘Yes, you can,’ Maddie protested, dismayed that he was planning to walk out on her.
‘You are a pregnant woman and you shouldn’t be getting upset. I can’t argue with you like this!’
Pregnant or not, Maddie made it to the door ahead of him. She plastered her back to it and spread her arms as if she was ready to barricade him in and hold him prisoner if necessary. ‘Don’t be daft…of course you can argue with me! I’m tough. I can take it. What do you think I’m made of? Glass?’
‘Glorious curves.’ His masculine attention was unashamedly locked to her voluptuous shape. As she’d raced across the room her towel had slid down several inches, and the luscious swell of her creamy breasts was now shockingly prominent over its fleecy edge.
Maddie met his stunning eyes and a wicked little coil of heat spread wanton fingers of awareness through all the tender, responsive parts of her body. Knowing that if she stayed there one second longer Giannis would be more than willing to employ sex as a distraction, she stepped away from the door and put some sensible space between them.
‘We don’t have to argue…we just need to talk,’ Maddie reasoned soothingly.
Giannis didn’t want to talk. He just wanted to take her towel off and sink himself into her delicious pink and white body until the tumult of his irate thoughts stilled and the tormenting ache of lust was quenched.
‘Please don’t go,’ Maddie urged, desperate to keep him with her. ‘I really do want our marriage to work.’
A tiny amount of his sceptical tension ebbed, and he swung back to face her again.
‘You see…it’s not a matter of anyone trying to tell you what to do. You picked that up all wrong,’ she assured him winningly. ‘I know that wouldn’t work.’
Giannis felt reassured enough to let his rigid shoulders rest back against the solid wood door.
‘I mean, the way I see it the choice is all yours. We can have a marriage that’s just a façade—’
A slight frown began to divide his sleek ebony brows again. ‘A façade?’
‘For the sake of the children. We’d share everything to do with them and you could do as you liked with other women.’
Giannis tensed. He didn’t know what she was about to say next. Knowing her views, he was extremely suspicious of such uncritical candour. She had also managed to make that option sound sleazy rather than liberated. ‘What are you getting at?’
‘Well, it would be sort of marriage-lite, as I see it. We’d pretty much lead separate lives.’
‘Separate?’ Giannis was getting disturbing vibes about the offer of marriage-lite, as she called it. It sounded like a poisoned chalice.
Maddie flushed. ‘Well, obviously we wouldn’t be sharing a bedroom—’
Giannis shook his arrogant dark head in instantaneous rejection. ‘Sounds more like marriage-hell than marriage-lite. Don’t ever take a job as a saleswoman.’
‘But if you can’t commit to fidelity that sort of marriage will suit you best.’
Giannis stretched back against the door like a hungry predator, wakening to find a three-course lunch parading past. His brilliant eyes gleamed.
His silence put Maddie more on edge. ‘There would be obvious benefits. At least we’d be accepting each other as we are.’
‘Me the eternal sinner and you the suffering saint of restraint?’ Giannis quipped with rich cynicism
‘No. Eventually we’d forget…well, you know…that we had ever slept together,’ she muttered self-consciously. ‘And then we’d be able to be friends.’
Giannis shook his handsome head in vehement rejection of that hope, and jerked his thumb down like a Roman emperor ordering the death penalty. ‘I take it option two is following my marriage vows or being fined millions and millions for breaking your rules?’
Maddie winced. ‘That’s a very emotive way of putting it.’
‘How would you describe it, glikia mou?’
‘I just need you to take marrying me seriously,’ she admitted.
‘Marriage-heavy?’ Giannis breathed in silken derision. ‘If I do as I’m told, you’ll condescend to share my bed? Forget it…Greece doesn’t breed wimps who let their women call the shots.’
‘Where is it written that a Greek tycoon has to have a mistress?’ Maddie suddenly launched at him in furious frustration. ‘Aren’t I enough for you? How would you feel if I got another man?’
All pretence of relaxation banished, Giannis flipped away from the doorframe and strode forward, dark eyes bright with aggression. ‘Don’t even think about it. I wouldn’t tolerate even a flirtation. Not for one moment!’
Maddie sent him a winging glance. ‘I won’t make the obvious comment.’
‘Theos mou…are you calling me a hypocrite?’
‘I don’t suppose it much matters—since we probably won’t be getting married now anyway. After all, it doesn’t look like either of us is going to sign that pre-nup.’ There was a tiny catch in Maddie’s voice, for it was not the conclusion she had dimly envisaged. Unfortunately she had not thought through to the likely end result of her strategy. Why hadn’t it occurred to her that she was dealing with a virile male to whom machismo was a matter of pride and honour? There she had been, thinking she was so smart, but she had boxed herself into a corner with her own options.
In the uneasy silence Giannis expelled his breath on a slow hiss. Darkly handsome