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deny it. Her pleas of innocence had fallen on deaf ears in the past and always would.

      He had painted a picture of her as unfaithful, and nothing would ever rid him of that image—no matter how far from the truth it was. Alexei saw the world as he wanted to. Maybe that was what all rich men did. He had a single-mindedness which was both his strength and his weakness, and nothing would ever sway him.

      What had her lawyer said? ‘Keep it short and keep it sweet—it’s best that way. After seven years apart, there can’t be a lot to say to say to each other.’

      Her lawyer, of course, did not know of Alexei’s burning desire to always have the last word. To always be in the right. To get his own way, as he had spent his life doing. And—in spite of her intention not to do so—Victoria could not resist probing. But of course she was curious—what woman in her situation wouldn’t be?

      ‘You must be fairly keen to get divorced yourself, I would have thought?’ she questioned innocently. ‘I’m sure there must be a long line of women who are eager to become the next Kyria Christou?’

      Of course there was! His cruel lips curved in anger. Did he mean so little to her that she could casually enquire about the women who had taken her place in his bed? The bitter seed of resentment, which had been planted so long ago and lain dormant for so many years, now began to spring into rampant and dangerous life.

      Furiously, he acknowledged that she had somehow managed to kill his arousal stone-dead, and his fury grew. He waved the brunette away with an impatient hand and got up from his chair, going over to the window to stare out at the matchless blue of the Aegean sea, which was a sapphire stripe of ribbon in the distance.

      ‘Naturally, I remain a magnificent marital prize in most women’s eyes,’ he boasted softly. ‘But, unlike you, I have no desire to get divorced.’ He saw the brunette turn around and stare at him reproachfully, and remembered that she knew more than a smattering of English. He pointed to the door and indicated five minutes with his fingers—softening his dismissal of her by blowing a kiss, and seeing her grudging smile in return. Some men might have felt guilty at such cavalier treatment of a woman, but not Alexei.

      He never promised what he couldn’t give—which was zero in the way of commitment. But he was never less than completely honest with the women who shared his bed, or who arrived on a whim to pleasure him when he was bored at work. From him they gained access to the most glittering parties around the globe. He bought them trinkets and jewels, and flew them around on his private jet.

      Most importantly, he made them gasp with pleasure. Every single woman he had ever had sex with had told him that he was their greatest lover ever—and Alexei didn’t doubt them for a moment. He prided himself on his sexual prowess—but to him it was yet another thing to excel at.

      So what if the lovers in his life were foolish enough to believe that they would be the one to change his mind about settling down? Sometimes women only believed what they wanted to believe—which was nothing like the harsh reality. And that was not his problem. Either they faced the truth of what he could offer them—or they were history.

      ‘You’re saying you want to stay married?’ Victoria was asking in disbelief as the penthouse door quietly closed and the brunette disappeared from his office with a final delectable wiggle of her lush bottom.

      Alexei gave a humourless smile. ‘That is not what I am saying at all,’ he reprimanded softly. ‘I said that I did not wish to get divorced—the two concepts are quite different.’

      At that moment she hated him, and his clever, slick way with words—the way he could twist things round to make her sound completely stupid. And in a language which was not even his mother tongue!

      ‘You’re talking about interpretation,’ she protested.

      ‘We both know what I’m talking about, Victoria,’ he retorted softly. ‘I didn’t get a lot from my marriage to you—but at least now it serves the purpose of keeping ambitious women off my back!’

      Victoria bit back her outrage, knowing that Alexei’s appalling attitude towards women had nothing to do with her—but her future was.

      It was time to stop tiptoeing around his feelings. She had rights—and all she wanted was her freedom.

      ‘Well, I do want a divorce,’ she said coolly.

      ‘Do you now?’ He gave an exaggerated sigh. ‘Then we seemed to have reached a sort of impasse.’

      She heard the silken taunt in his voice and—despite all her vows not to let it—her temper flared.

      ‘You can’t stop me from getting one!’

      ‘Can’t I?’

      There was a pause, and when Victoria spoke her voice was breathless. ‘Are you … th-threatening me?’

      ‘Threatening you?’ He gave a low laugh. ‘What a vivid imagination you have, Victoria.’

      ‘Don’t you dare patronise me!’

      ‘Now, now.’ His smile widened as he realised that he had very successfully hit his target. ‘There is no need for hysteria.’

      Which, of course, made her want to give in to exactly that. She could have screamed. Or told him that he was the most egotistical and controlling man she had ever met. But she forced herself to take a deep, steadying breath instead—because she needed all her wits about her if she wanted to challenge him on an equal footing. And why tell him something he already knew but didn’t particularly care about?

      ‘Do you want me to have the papers served on you, Alexei? Because you’re going the right way about it!’

      He gave another low laugh of pleasure as he heard the fury in her voice. How could he have forgotten how stimulating resistance could be? He might have a whole list of complaints about the woman he had been misguided enough to marry—but boredom had never featured on it. ‘You’d have to find me first,’ he challenged.

      ‘Oh, that’s possible—believe me. My lawyer can engage someone in Athens to track you down and serve you with divorce papers. This kind of thing happens all the time, you know—errant husbands refusing to face up to their responsibilities!’ And suddenly she stopped, aware that she had said too much.

      Alexei drew in a silent and thoughtful breath. It sounded as if she had done her research. And it sounded as if she wanted money. His eyes narrowed. How much of a claim on his fortune was she intending to make? he wondered. He ran a speculative finger over the shadowed rasp of his jaw, which had sprung up despite an early-morning shave grabbed on the run from the brunette, who seemed to have discovered the principle of non-stop pleasure and was eager to put it to the test.

      He stared out to sea, where he could see a ship moving slowly along the blue horizon—a Christou ship. It was just one of a mighty fleet of vessels which were renowned the world over and owned exclusively by the Christou family—with Alexei as its figurehead. Shipping brought untold wealth, and Christou dominated the market.

      Could he be bothered even to fight this divorce? Alexei stretched his arms above his head and yawned. Even a weighty claim by most people’s standards wouldn’t even make a dent in the Christou billions. Shouldn’t he just sign Victoria her cheque and wave goodbye?

      But his heart began to thud rhythmically in his chest.

      Damn it, yes! He would fight her—as she deserved to be fought—for she had hurt and betrayed him. She had let him down, and that had been a hard lesson for a man like him to learn. He had held her in the kind of regard and esteem that he had felt for no other woman, and what had she done but hurl it all back in his face?

      And in a way hadn’t he been expecting this for a long time? His estranged wife had surprised him by not demanding a slice of his fabulous wealth within months of the marriage ending. And then months had become years. It had become a stand-off, and he’d known that one of them would have to break it—but he had also known that it would never be

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