Dangerous Alliance

‘I’ve made a reservation, and we both need to eat. Why not share a meal together?’

‘Because I’m so mad, I’ll probably pick up the soup plate and tip the contents over your head!’

‘I shall consider myself forewarned.’

‘Or the salad,’ she muttered direly as he pulled into a car park adjacent to one of Toorak’s well-known restaurants.

The ring was an alien manacle, and she slid it off, ready to hand it to him the instant he cut the ignition.

‘Leave it on,’ Dimitri ordered as she thrust it at him.

‘Why?’

‘It stays on, Leanne.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous. It’s far too valuable, and too—’ She had been going to say beautiful, because the stone in its setting was exquisite. ‘Everyone will notice.’

‘Precisely,’ he conceded with dry cynicism, and her eyes widened in shocked disbelief.

‘You mean to go public with this?’

‘Paige has a phone beside her bed,’ he enlightened her. ‘Her weakened state doesn’t prevent her from making calls.’ He viewed Leanne’s dawning horror with musing cynicism. ‘It will take only one friend to spread the news and within a matter of days it will have circulated among the social set.’

‘You really mean to go through with this pretence openly?’

‘Of course. It has to be seen to succeed.’

‘Define succeed, Dimitri,’ she insisted, aware that the whole thing was rapidly getting out of hand. Like a snowball accumulating in size as it gained momentum and assumed the very real threat of becoming an avalanche.

‘A formal announcement in the Press tomorrow.’

‘You mean you’ve actually gone that far?’ Her voice rose. ‘You damned egotistical, proprietorial bastard!’

‘Watch your unwary tongue,’ he warned silkily.

‘Forgive me,’ Leanne flung with unaccustomed sarcasm. ‘I wasn’t aware I shouldn’t put up any resistance to a scheme I’m not happy with—or,’ she added vengefully, ‘dare to upbraid you for taking charge without my sanction.’

‘Come and eat.’

‘I don’t want to eat, and I especially don’t want to eat with you.’

‘Nevertheless, you will.’

‘I refuse to sit at the same table and pretend. The food would choke me.’

‘Aren’t you being overly dramatic?’

‘Don’t patronise me, Dimitri,’ she said darkly.

‘You used to be such an obedient child,’ he relayed musingly.

‘What would you know?’ she flung. ‘You were rarely there.’

‘Did you want me to be?’

That was too close to the bone for comfort, and her eyes were startlingly clear in the subdued overhead lighting. ‘You were thirteen years my senior, more sophisticated, and a thousand light-years ahead of me. Besides, a teenage stepsister would have cramped your style.’

‘Yet there were occasions when I partnered you to several functions Paige and Yanis chose to attend,’ he alluded with deceptive mildness.

She remembered them well, each one etched permanently in her brain. Now she felt resentful that he’d adroitly defused the immediate situation by orchestrating a subtle shift from her heated anger.

‘This restaurant is one of your favourite haunts,’ she reminded him stoically, then added the rider, ‘What if Shanna is there?’

‘We’re all civilised adults,’ Dimitri returned smoothly.

‘This—this farce,’ she said in a tight voice, ‘is solely for Paige’s benefit. If you dare to act out the part of adoring fiancé anywhere else but at the hospi-tal—’

‘Difficult to confine our actions, when it will be news in a variety of papers tomorrow,’ he drawled.

‘I’ll never forgive you,’ she vowed with renewed vehemence.

‘Our first public appearance à deux is inevitable,’ he told her drily. ‘Besides, what excuse will you give Paige for a change in plan? That we couldn’t wait to be alone together?’

She barely restrained herself from hitting out at him, and angry resolve prompted her to reach for the door-catch. ‘Do you always use such devious tactics in a bid to achieve your objective?’

She didn’t wait to hear his answer, and slid out from the passenger seat, choosing to walk on ahead of him. A fruitless exercise, for she’d scarcely taken half a dozen steps before he reached her side.

The restaurant was one she’d frequented occasionally with Paige, and its elegant décor projected an ambience that was frequently sought by the city’s upper social echelons. Which was probably why Dimitri had selected it, she decided darkly as the maître d’ proffered an effusive greeting before leading them to a prominent table reserved, Leanne instantly surmised, for the chosen, favoured few.

Dimitri ordered champagne, Dom Pérignon, and at Leanne’s faintly raised eyebrow he merely smiled and asked the wine steward to fill her glass.

The lighting was subdued and attuned to intimate dining, but she felt as if she and Dimitri were the room’s central focus. The diamond on her finger flashed with a fiery brilliance from myriad facets, and she pushed her hand out of sight on her lap, supremely conscious of its significance.

The restaurant catered for leisurely dining, and she selected the soup de jour, followed it with a prawn starter, refused a main course, passed on dessert and opted against the cheeseboard. The serving of each course seemed to take an age, and by the time coffee was brought to the table she was seething with impatience to leave.

To attempt to maintain a polite façade almost killed her, yet inherent good manners wouldn’t permit a public display of anger.

And he knew, damn him, for he kept up a divertissement that was masterly, with an ease she could only admire but inwardly seethe at as he tempted her to try a morsel from his fork and refilled her flute with champagne.

The coffee was strong and aromatic, and she sipped it abstractedly, wishing only for the evening to conclude. She was tired, emotionally exhausted, and suffering the onset of a headache.

A predominate waft—wave, Leanne corrected wryly—of exotic perfume assailed her nostrils, and was immediately followed by the tinkling sound of a feminine voice.

‘Dimitri, what are you doing here? I understood you weren’t due back from Perth until next week.’

‘Shanna.’ Dimitri’s greeting was warm, but not effusive.

Courtesy ensured an acknowledgement of his companion. ‘Leanne.’ The brunette proffered a brilliant smile. ‘How are you? Are you down on holiday from the Coast?’