Dangerous Alliance

‘Dimitri is very fond of you,’ Paige offered huskily. Perhaps medication had eased her pain, for she didn’t seem to be under quite so much strain. ‘Anything you need, he’ll advise and guide you. He’s given me his word.’

Leanne wanted to cry, and her vision began to shimmer with the onset of tears. Oh, dear God, she agonised, help me.

‘Yanis loved you so much, almost as much as I do. He adored having you as his daughter.’

‘He was a wonderful man.’

‘Yes,’ Paige agreed simply. ‘As is his son.’

No. The single negation was a silent scream which seemed to reverberate inside her brain. Don’t do this to me. She longed to say that Dimitri had been the embodiment of her fantasy hero, as seen through the eyes of a teenage child. Her problem was in discovering he had feet of clay.

‘Everything I have will be yours. Property, jewellery,’ Paige continued after a long pause. ‘It amounts to a very sizeable inheritance, darling.’

Leanne felt her chest tighten with emotional pain, and her throat began to constrict as she attempted to gain some control over her turbulent emotions. ‘I don’t think I want to talk about it. It hurts too much,’ she whispered.

‘But I’m not afraid. Really,’ Paige assured her gently, her eyes a soft blue without any hint of fear. ‘My beloved Yanis will be there. And I don’t want you to be sad.’ Her eyes misted, and her lips curved into a soft, tremulous smile. ‘If I could have one wish, it would be to see you happily settled with a man who will love and care for you. Marriage,’ she continued quietly, and her fingers stroked Leanne’s hand with an absent, abstracted movement. ‘And children.’

Grandchildren you’ll never have the pleasure of seeing, Leanne said silently. It wasn’t fair. Paige would have made a wonderful grandmother.

Leanne was aware that any moment now she’d burst into tears. ‘I am happy,’ she said quickly. Too quickly. Paige’s illness and level of medication hadn’t diminished her perceptiveness in any way.

‘Are you, darling?’

Unable to find any adequate words that wouldn’t sound defensive, Leanne offered a shaky smile and launched into an amusing anecdote about something that had happened at the clinic. Then she left Paige to rest for an hour, and returned briefly with some of her mother’s favourite roses as well as some fresh fruit in the hope of tempting her appetite.

It was almost five when she arrived home, and after alerting Eleni that she was back she moved swiftly upstairs, shed her clothes, donned a swimsuit and then made her way down to the pool.

Perhaps if she set herself a rigorous number of lengths she would be able to dispel the haunting image of her mother’s pale features and the infinite sadness beneath her gentle smile.

It didn’t work; nor did attempting to focus her thoughts elsewhere. Consequently she was feeling infinitely fragile when she descended the stairs a few minutes before six.

Dimitri was in the lounge, a tall glass of chilled water in one hand, and his dark eyes speared hers as she entered the room.

‘A cool drink?’ He indicated a crystal water-pitcher liberally filled with ice-cubes and decorated with sliced lemon and sprigs of mint.

‘Please.’

He took a glass and filled it, then handed it to her, his expression musingly speculative as she carefully avoided touching his fingers.

He looked what he was: a well-educated man, well-versed in the analysis of humankind and aware of the limits of his control. It was a mantle he wore with uncontrived ease, and she felt a thousand light-years removed from his particular brand of sophistication. Which was crazy, especially as she’d been privy to an elevated lifestyle during the past ten years, and could converse knowledgeably on a variety of subjects.

It was Dimitri himself who unsettled her, for his degree of sensuality was a heady, potent entity she constantly fought against, aware that if she were ever to lose her inner battle the results would be totally cataclysmic.

He subjected her to an thorough appraisal, then let his gaze rest thoughtfully on the contoured pink fullness of her mouth.

‘When you’ve finished, we’ll leave.’

In the car he slotted a cassette into the stereo system and concentrated on negotiating the early evening traffic. Leanne conjured up a number of conversational subjects to pursue, only to discard each one, and she sat quietly as the sleek, powerful vehicle ate up the distance.

Paige had already eaten, and she brightened as Leanne preceded Dimitri into the room.

‘You look lovely, darling,’ Paige complimented her gently. ‘That shade of blue does wonderful things for your eyes.’ Her gaze shifted to the man at her daughter’s side. ‘Don’t you think so?’

‘Stunning,’ Dimnitri agreed as he crossed to the bed and brushed his lips against Paige’s temple. ‘How are you feeling?’

There was such a depth of affectionate concern in his voice that Leanne’s body quivered slightly, and she was conscious that her voice sounded a little too bright as she greeted her mother, then sank into a chair which Dimitri had pulled close to the bed.

He merely stood close behind her. Much too close. She was conscious of him with every muscle in her body, every nerve-end, and it was all she could do not to visibly jump when his hand came to rest on her shoulder.

Paige noticed the implied intimacy, and smiled. ‘Where are you going for dinner?’

He named a restaurant that was not only ruinously expensive, but well-known for its fine cuisine.

Paige’s eyes took on a luminous sheen. ‘Is it a celebration of some kind?’

‘Not quite,’ Dimitri drawled, and Leanne felt his fingers tighten slightly over the fine bones at the edge of her collarbone. ‘I’m hopeful that the combination of an excellent vintage wine and superb food will persuade Leanne to accept my proposal.’

The air became trapped in her lungs, impeding her breathing, and she could have sworn that the beat of her heart stopped before it went racing into overdrive. Words froze in her throat as he curved his free hand round the sensitive arch of her nape.

You bastard, she longed to cry out at him. An angry denial rushed to her lips, then died as she caught sight of her mother’s expression.

Joy, pure joyous relief intermingled with a happiness so vivid it lit her features and turned them into something so incredibly beautiful that it brought any verbal negation that Leanne might have uttered to a halt.

As Dimitri had known it would. Just as he knew she wouldn’t have the heart to do anything other than go to her mother’s outstretched arms and accept the loving embrace, share her tears, then watch with a sense of stunned disbelief as Dimitri extracted a slim pouch and slid a large, pear-shaped diamond on to the appropriate finger of her left hand.

‘You didn’t breathe a word this afternoon,’ Paige said huskily.

‘Quite simply because I had no idea of Dimitri’s intention,’ Leanne responded with a calm she was far from feeling. The ring felt heavy, and she barely resisted the temptation to tear it from her finger.

‘Yanis would have been so happy. As I am.’ Her mother’s words were faintly breathy, emotion-filled, and somehow Leanne managed a suitable response.

Presenting the façade of a newly engaged fiancée took all her acting ability, and it was a minor miracle that she managed to emerge almost forty minutes later from Paige’s suite without having resorted to histrionics.

Leanne was silent all the way to the car, and she didn’t utter a word as he reversed out of the car park and eased the vehicle on to the main thoroughfare, then her tightly controlled anger erupted in a heated flow of words designed to blister his hateful hide.

‘How dare you?’

‘Pre-empt your decision? It was a foregone conclusion, knowing the depth of your love for Paige.’

‘That doesn’t give you the right—’

‘I care for Paige very much. Enough to give her pleasure for what limited time she has left. Surely we can put aside our own differences long enough to perpetuate an illusion?’

‘That isn’t the point!’

‘What is the point, Leanne? Your resentment, your anger? Surely the focus should be Paige herself?’

She was too incensed to accede to his dictum, and she flung furiously, ‘I don’t want to have dinner with you.’