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‘Max put you at risk I can’t close my eyes to that and whether I hire or fire anyone I employ is not your business,’ he completed in a tone of cold finality
Ella was undaunted, her eyes glea like polished e of staff in the marital home would be very much my business as your wife’
‘But at present it is not our marital home and you are not e ‘The responsibility remains mine’
‘If you want it to be our marital home and you want me to be your wife you will listen tounfair to Max I hadn’t the faintest idea that Cyrus was liable to turn violent like that, so hoas Max supposed to knoere any of us supposed to know that?’
And that was the crux of thethat had happened was his fault Only he had known that Cyrus could be dangerous He had never dreah, that Cyrus would dare to approach Ella when she was staying with Nikolai But then very probably Cyrus had heard about the hotel fire and had assu Nikolai would be otherwise engaged Nikolai knew that he should have warned Max never to let Cyrus Makris into his home but that possibility hadn’t even crossed his mind When he had realised that Cyrus was there, when he had found Cyrus attacking Ella, the world had turned blood red for Nikolai He knew that if Ella had not intervened, he would have kept on hitting Cyrus and in the after for someone to blame for an untenable situation Soed with a fierce regret that he could never have expressed
In the s silence, Ella studied Nikolai She kneas thinking hard and fast and deep but typically he was not sharing a single thought ‘You said you wanted to make me happy I like Max You were exhausted that day after the fire That ghastly episode with Cyrus upset youthat wasn’t his fault’
‘If I’e my decision,’ Nikolai declared in a driven undertone
‘And why have I suddenly got a driver and a bodyguard the size of a mountain?’
Nikolai breathed in slow and deep and wondered if this hat e his every decision? He made his own choices and he always stood by the faced with the need to compromise, the need to defend or reconsider his black-and-white thinking processes It would be a steep challenge to becoid and more flexible for her sake
Making Ella happy and keeping her happy would be no cake walk
‘I won’t apologise for hiring a bodyguard for your benefit It is my responsibility to keep you safe and I take it very seriously,’ Nikolai assured her confidently ‘I will not take the risk of Cyrus approaching you again’
‘Do you really think that is likely?’ Ella pressed in astonishment
‘He was off his head with rage that day I don’t think that we can afford to assume that he will keep his distance I prefer to ensure that you are protected when I’m not around’
Ella searched his lean, hard features and the lack of co bone structure She suppressed a sigh
‘I will consider retaining Max but I will not reconsider uard,’ Nikolai admitted with flat emphasis ‘Quit while you’re ahead, Ella’
‘We still have so much to learn about each other,’ Ella whispered ruefully ‘A you out?’
His dark golden eyes glittered ‘I have strong shoulders’
Nikolai was all h He wasn’t about to admit that he had made a mistake with Max but she knew she had won because Nikolai had a strong streak of fairness But in pushing that issue, she had crossed a line with Nikolai and she recognised that as well She had forced hie her as an equal, not as a weak or lesser person, and he wouldn’t forget that
Nikolai surveyed her, his wide sensual lips set in a hard line He would take no risks with her safety and he didn’t care if that infringed her freedoive himself She was his to look after Only a couple of weeks back he hadn’t recognised the level of responsibility he was taking on by bringing her into his life but he did now
Ella first, second and thirdby the ti raciously step back and hand her over At least that was supposed to be his real goal, Nikolai conceded with brooding ferocity Familiarity was supposed to lead to conte for freedom If she met another man, would he then return to normal?
He was gried froendary cool control was under attack His hts farhaving loftily declared that they would live apart until the wedding
Indeed, so disturbing were the changes that he recognised in hihts and anxieties that he had suppressed for years That slight hint of instability totally unnerved hie of a precipice Even worse, the threat of seeing Ella with another ht at this very moment he knew he couldn’t face that possibility, but surely with time those responses would fade?
It would be so siet bored; she would get bored She would want her freedoowouldn’t he?
CHAPTER EIGHT
‘SO, ARE YOU putting in a replace the old contraceptive implant from her arm
‘Dr Jenks only asked ily
Perhaps her doctor thought she was suffering side effects fro at other contraceptive ht ruefully, because she had only come to see the doctor in the first place because she wasn’t feeling herself Not ill exactly, just not right Her appetite had changed, her taste buds had gone awry and she was suddenly so blasted tired all the time! He had sent her for a battery of tests the day before and made a second appointment for her
Ella was grateful she had come home, which had enabled her to see her usual doctor rather than having to find a new one in London She had persuaded Nikolai that she wanted to be married from home, so that fa day She still couldn’t quite believe it but there was soht about the reality that she literally couldn’t wait to get down the aisle to become Nikolai’s wife
‘It’s called love,’ Gramma had told her cheerfully ‘I’d have been worried if you weren’t excited about getting married to him’
Resisting the urge to rub her slightly sore arm with its neat little plaster, Ella returned to the doctor’s surgery She was thinking about her wedding dress, which she adored, when one of the doctor’sconcentration Conceivedconceived? Her n because the very unexpectedness of it threw rationality out of the
‘But I had the iether on her lap
‘As I pointed out, the implant is only effective for three years and you missed your follow-up appointment and failed to respond to the letter that was sent out’
‘But it is only three years since—’ she began heatedly
Dr Jenks went through the dates with her In fact,
it turned out to be over four years since she had got the iuest recollection of the reminder letter he mentioned After Paul had passed away, contraception had been very low on the list of her priorities But Ella was still stunned to appreciate that when she had lost her virginity with Nikolai she had not been protected as she had naively assumed Her main mistake had been the assumption that the implant lasted for four years when in fact it only worked for three And she had conceived Nikolai was going to be shatteredbut Ella was equally convinced that she would never recover from the shock either