The Mills & Boon Ultimate Christmas Collection. Kate HardyЧитать онлайн книгу.
glass office building and, before they got out of the limo, Apollo turned to her to say, ‘To all intents and purposes this has to seem like we’re planning a normal marriage,’ he warned her. ‘You must not mention your brother’s debt or anything of that nature.’
‘OK,’ Pixie muttered uncertainly.
‘All you have to sign is a pre-nuptial agreement with a confidentiality clause included,’ he revealed. ‘You will have your own legal team to advise you.’
‘My…own?’ she whispered shakily, her eyes wide.
‘To advise you of your best interests. You must’ve had access to legal advice to make the agreement stand up in court,’ he explained. ‘I know a lot about the subject because every one of my father’s wives signed one of these agreements and half of them tried to wriggle out of it during the divorce negotiations.’
‘I won’t be wriggling anywhere,’ Pixie mumbled.
‘So, act like a girlfriend, not someone I hired!’ Apollo advised in a warning aside.
‘How would a girlfriend behave?’ she whispered.
‘I don’t know. I’ve never had one, only sexual partners,’ Apollo admitted, grasping her hand to urge her out of the limo.
‘Never?’ Pixie repeated incredulously.
‘Just think about how a real bride-to-be would behave for this and behave accordingly.’
And an hour later, seated at a large conference table where the two sets of lawyers argued, often employing terms she didn’t understand, Pixie took Apollo’s advice and acted accordingly and accidentally brought the table to a standstill of silence.
‘You mean…’ she finally grasped ‘… I get financially punished if I’m unfaithful but Apollo doesn’t? How is that fair? I won’t accept that.’
That was the instant when Apollo appreciated once again that Pixie could take advice too literally and that characteristically she was seizing on something none of his father’s wives had even picked up on. Not only had he underestimated her intelligence, he had also seemingly overlooked what appeared to be a very moral take on infidelity and his heart sank because he had never planned to be faithful during his marriage. He had planned to be very discreet but not faithful because only once in his life had he been faithful to a woman and it brought back appalling memories of betrayal and stupidity.
‘Fidelity isn’t a negotiable concept,’ Pixie declared with even greater clarity.
And every man at the table studied Pixie as though she had landed on it wearing wings and carrying a flaming sword of justice.
‘If Apollo is unfaithful he has to suffer for it,’ Pixie completed with satisfaction, wondering why Apollo wasn’t looking impressed that she had finally spoken up and behaved as a real bride-to-be surely would have done.
Apollo compressed his firm sensual mouth and studied the table. In point of fact billionaires who married penniless women didn’t expect to suffer in any way when they finally got bored, least of all financially. Was this Pixie’s clever way of trying to increase her divorce settlement? It had to be the money she was thinking about, the profit, he reasoned and then he glanced up and Pixie nailed him with grey eyes like volcanic rock and he realised that the issue of actual fidelity was one he had completely forgotten to discuss. Breathing in deep, he suggested a break for coffee.
Shown into an empty office, he studied Pixie. ‘I wasn’t planning to be faithful,’ he admitted bluntly.
‘Then this arrangement dies now. I’m not willing to have sex with a man at the same time as he is having sex with other women!’ Pixie declared in a wrathful undertone of ringing disgust.
‘You’re forgetting that this is a business arrangement.’
‘Business arrangements don’t normally include sex!’ Pixie shot back at him defensively.
A faint line of colour accentuated Apollo’s supermodel cheekbones. ‘We have an extraordinary arrangement.’
‘But you don’t get to sleep with other women and me at the same time!’ Pixie told him doggedly. ‘That’s immoral and I refuse to be part of it.’
It was what was called an impasse and Apollo had very rarely met with anything similar. Just when he was within an ace of making the first move towards his goal of regaining his birthright too! He gritted his teeth. ‘I’ll try to be faithful,’ he framed in a roughened undertone of frustration.
But Pixie was seriously disappointed in Apollo. She hated cheats and had even less time for married men who played away. And Apollo might not love her and she might not love him but it was not unreasonable for her to expect him to treat her with respect.
‘It’s not going to look much like a real marriage if you’re still acting like the biggest man whore in Europe!’ Pixie flashed back at him, watching temper flare like burning flames in Apollo’s green eyes and watching him bite it back. And why had he bitten it back? Because she had only stated the truth, she suspected.
And eventually they signed the pre-nuptial agreement with an addendum that stated that the bridegroom would ‘endeavour’ to remain faithful but relations were strained right round the table, both legal teams well aware that wedding fever was at a low ebb just at that moment. Apollo was merely relieved by the knowledge that he was flying out to Athens that evening. He was also reluctantly recalling that Vito had warned him that Pixie could be hot-headed and difficult and wondering if only his haste had persuaded him to overlook that distinct drawback. What else could it have been?
But how could she be so naïve and unreasonable as to demand fidelity from him? He knew what he was, hell, even she knew what he was! But he had promised to try and he would try because he stuck to his word, even if it choked him. And on some strange level he was conscious that her stance had made him respect her. She had standards and nothing he could offer would sway her from them.
PIXIE TWIRLED IN front of the full-length mirror and smiled hesitantly because her glossy reflection was unfamiliar. Having enjoyed the attentions of a make-up artist and a grooming day at a salon recommended by Holly, Pixie had never before enjoyed such a level of sophisticated presentation.
‘I really did think you’d choose to wear white,’ Holly confided.
‘White would be wasted on Apollo,’ Pixie replied, wrinkling her nose and making Holly laugh. ‘If I ever get to have a real wedding, I’ll wear white.’
‘I still can’t believe you’re marrying him. I was really shocked when Vito told me.’
Pixie sat down on the end of the bed and studied her linked hands. ‘There’s still stuff you don’t know about the deal I made with Apollo,’ she admitted uncomfortably because she could not bring herself to admit that sex and conception were involved, fearing that Holly would think badly of her for being so desperate that she would agree to a demand of that nature.
Yet while remaining fearful of the judgement of others, Pixie had made peace with that condition on her own behalf. She had always planned to become a mother some day, to have a child who was absolutely her own to love and nurture and protect. To fulfil that longing while married and to be assured of a future income with which to raise that child might yet prove to be the best chance she would ever get to have a baby and give it the happy childhood she had personally missed out on.
After all, she was no great shakes at dating, she acknowledged ruefully. She had always had to force herself out of the door to even socialise with men and the few she had taken the risk of spending time with had turned her off the notion entirely. Consequently she had decided that, left to her own devices, it was perfectly possible that she would’ve stayed single and alone and would never have had the opportunity to settle down with a partner and have a family. On that basis, she had decided that