Ten days later, there was an expectant hush in the elegant drawing-room of Harriston Hall once the lawyer had finished explaining the salient points of the pre-nuptial agreement to Maddie.
She had been shaken when she heard that, in the event of a marital breakdown, Giannis expected to retain custody of their children. It seemed to her that the inclusion of such a condition implied that he was betting on their marriage failing, and was unlikely to make the effort to ensure that their relationship survived.
‘Giannis retains custody regardless of who is at fault?’ Maddie queried. ‘That’s totally unfair.’
‘I’m afraid fault doesn’t come into it.’
‘Well, it should,’ Maddie told the lawyer roundly. ‘I presume I can make conditions too?’
‘Of course. But it will extend these negotiations,’ the suave older man warned her, as if he expected that fact to put her off.
Maddie almost smiled. ‘That’s fine by me. I won’t accept that clause concerning the children. My stipulation is that if Giannis breaks his marriage vows he has to surrender his right to retain custody.’
Unprepared for that announcement, the lawyer gave her a startled look, before professionalism smoothed over his face again.
‘I do appreciate that Giannis won’t like that.’ Her eyes gleamed like emeralds, startlingly vivid against her white skin. ‘I also think that, since fidelity is very important to me, there should be a clause that discourages him from the pursuit of other women.’
Her companion was now regarding her in total fascination. He had been planning how he would describe the future Mrs Petrakos to his interested colleagues, for she was a source of enormous curiosity. Exotic, unusual, sexy…but the extraordinary je-ne-sais-quoi that had netted her a billionaire bridegroom had eluded his detection. Now he saw that quality in neon lights. The bride might be pregnant, but she was in no hurry to get to the church, and she was voicing her controversial demands with composure. She was exactly the kind of woman who would take a tiger by the tail. Or, in this case, a notorious womaniser.
‘What exactly were you thinking of?’
Maddie was considering what was most important to Giannis. His reputation? His power? His wealth? He was incredibly serious about business and the art of making money. Perhaps the knowledge that infidelity would cost him money would act as a deterrent? And, if it did not, at least she would have the satisfaction of being rich in her own right, as well as wretched. ‘If he is unfaithful, it should cost him millions.’
‘I believe that a clause of that nature would raise quite a storm,’ the older man cautioned.
‘I’m sure it will.’ But Maddie was not prepared to back down. If Giannis was determined to marry her, he would have to make choices too. He could not have everything his way.
‘What sort of a financial figure do you have in mind as a disincentive to a straying husband?’ he enquired.
‘A figure that would hurt.’
The lawyer could hardly wait to lay that tantalising and explosive prospect before the haughty Petrakos legal team, who had made it clear that they expected the pre-nup to be signed immediately and without even a minor quibble. He wondered which fall guy would get the thankless task of briefing Giannis Petrakos on his bride-to-be’s punitive take on adultery.
After his departure, Maddie went for a walk in the grounds of the house. Harriston Hall was a very comfortable Edwardian mansion that had been remodelled so extensively inside that very little of the original property remained. It was as sumptuous as a hotel, and its staff could not do enough to make her feel comfortable. After several nights of undisturbed sleep and regular meals, her bone-deep tiredness and almost all the sickness had gradually faded away. She was feeling healthier and stronger. Since she had left London she had seen Giannis only once, and that had been in the first few days when he had flown in for lunch en route for Brussels. Her coolness had washed off him like ice-cream left out in the sun. He had nerves of steel. But she was pretty certain that the clause she wanted inserted in the pre-nup would bring Giannis down to visit again. She was looking forward to that prospect…
That evening, Maddie was enjoying a long, lazy soak in her en-suite bathroom when a sharp knock sounded on the door. She sat up with a start, water sloshing noisily around her. ‘Yes?’ she called out.
‘It’s Giannis…’ The door swung open.
Maddie let out a muffled shriek and crossed her arms over her rounded tummy. ‘Don’t you dare come in!’
‘Don’t keep me waiting,’ Giannis intoned. ‘Can you manage on your own? Or would you like me to play lady’s maid?’
‘I’m not the size of a house yet!’ Maddie exclaimed, standing up, water streaming off her in rivulets as she snatched frantically at a towel. She got a glimpse of herself in the mirror and very nearly groaned out loud. She was pink all over, like a freshly boiled lobster, and her mass of curls was anchored to the top of her head by a lime-green clip in the shape of a dog.
From the other side of the bedroom Giannis studied her as she emerged, swathed from neck to toe in a very large towel. The silence literally screamed.
‘If you give me five minutes, I’ll get dressed,’ she told him in a rush.
‘In those rags?’ Giannis scooped up the shortie pyjamas lying on the bed, and tossed them down again in contemptuous dismissal. The sight of that familiar set acted as an inflammatory reminder of Morocco, where matters had swung from paradise to hell and out of his control. ‘You reject everything I give you…you reject who I am!’
Maddie gulped. ‘I—’
‘What interest have you even taken in your own wedding?’ His complete incomprehension on that score was as palpable as the truth that he had been deeply offended by her display of uninterest. ‘If you ruin it, you can’t have it over again!’
Maddie found herself squirming. The flash of masculine bewilderment she recognised in his penetrating gaze made her feel bad. Her sole intent had been to demonstrate to him that she wasn’t prepared to act the joyful bride when she had given her consent under duress. But hadn’t she already decided that she would marry him anyway? Was it his fault he hadn’t appreciated that she had no intention of letting him go free? And was she prepared to let her pride spoil her wedding day?
‘But what I cannot excuse is that you should choose to denounce my standards of behaviour through my own lawyers!’ Giannis raked at her in condemnation. ‘How could you do that?’
HIS strong face clenched, Giannis was even angrier than Maddie had anticipated.
‘I thought it was okay to say anything I liked to a solicitor hired to represent my interests.’
‘What gave you that idea?’ Giannis challenged, without skipping a beat ‘The word “anything” covers a lot of ground that I would not have taken into the public arena!’
‘Well, you didn’t have a problem with me being told that if our marriage broke up you would get to keep the children,’ Maddie reminded him. ‘How much more personal can you get?’
Giannis stilled for a moment in his restive passage round the spacious room and shot her a dark-as-midnight glance that revealed nothing. ‘That is not the point.’
‘It’s exactly the point,’ she declared. ‘That was a major part of the pre-nuptial agreement.