Dangerous Alliance

‘Not exactly,’ Leanne managed in polite response.

‘Is this a family tête-à-tête? Or may I join you?’

‘Leanne and I were just about to leave,’ Dimitri imparted smoothly.

‘Surely you could stay,’ Shanna suggested persuasively. ‘There’s a group of us, just friends—we’d love you to join us.’

‘Thank you—but not tonight.’

The maître d’ hovered discreetly as Dimitri signed the credit slip, then moved unobtrusively out of sight.

Shanna’s eyes moved to the empty champagne bottle. ‘Celebrating a recent success, darling?’

‘You could say that,’ he responded, shooting Leanne a musing smile. ‘Personal, not business.’

‘You’ve aroused my curiosity. Is it confidential?’

‘I’ve persuaded Leanne to marry me.’

Shanna’s smile slipped for the space of a second, and Leanne could only commend her superb control, for, although the brunette’s features portrayed surprised pleasure, her eyes held a darkness that contained bitter disappoint-ment.

‘You must tell me how you managed to convince Dimitri to make a commitment,’ she said to Leanne.

A degree of humour was the only way, and Leanne tempered her reply with a musing smile. ‘He simply slid a ring on my finger.’

Dimitri stood and held out his hand to Leanne. ‘You’ll excuse us, Shanna?’

Leanne had no recourse but to follow his lead, and she felt a certain sympathy for the attractive model. Rejection hurt like hell. Hadn’t she suffered at Dimitri’s hands more than four years ago? As she would again, a tiny voice taunted. How long after Paige’s passing would he retract the engagement—a few days, a week?

‘You’ve burned your bridges,’ Leanne said as the Jaguar picked up a cruising speed, and she incurred Dimitri’s dark glance.

‘There were no bridges to burn,’ he replied with deliberate mockery.

‘She was your—’ She couldn’t say it.

‘Lover?’ he prompted.

‘Yes!’

‘We visited the opera on a few occasions, took in the theatre, and attended several parties and functions.’

‘I don’t care what you did together.’

‘No?’

‘You could have bedded a hundred women, for all I care.’

‘I’m very particular as to who shares my bed.’

She was unable to resist the taunt, ‘I’m not the one you should be attempting to reassure.’

He didn’t answer, and there was something heady about having the last word. It lifted her spirits, and prompted an appraisal of her surroundings.

A dark indigo sky with a sprinkling of stars was at variance with the light summer shower that was as sudden as it was fleeting, necessitating only a few swishing turns of the wiper blades. Bright neon street-lights provided inter-mittent illumination, and cast long, deepening shadows from numerous trees standing guard on both sides of the suburban road.

There was the slight but distinctive sound of tyre-treads traversing wet bitumen, then the car slowed and paused as Dimitri activated the remote-control module that electronically opened the gates.

Within minutes another button released the garage doors, and the Jaguar slid to a halt between Paige’s Mercedes and a luxurious four-wheel drive.

Once inside, Leanne made her way towards the stairs.

‘Will you join me in a nightcap?’

‘No,’ she declared evenly. ‘I’m going to bed. I’m tired and I have a headache.’

‘I’m disappointed,’ he said with studied indolence. ‘I imagined the instant we reached the house you’d fly at me in a rage.’

‘I want to,’ Leanne assured him tightly. ‘Badly. Unfortunately I don’t possess the energy to launch an attack.’

A slight smile curved his mouth, and there was a gleam apparent in his dark gaze. ‘In that case, I’ll see you at breakfast.’

The words she wanted to hurl at him remained unsaid, and she ascended the stairs to her room where she undressed and removed her make-up before slipping between the cool, freshly laundered sheets.

She should have fallen asleep the instant her head touched the pillow. Instead, her mind was filled with a host of images, not the least being Paige herself, and the inimicable man who had temporarily taken charge of her life.

She had little comprehension of how long she lay staring at the darkened ceiling as the painful throbbing in her head deepened until she began to feel physically ill. Her body broke out in a sweat, then began to cool, and she knew any attempt at sleep without some form of medication would be useless.

Slipping out of bed, she crossed to the en-suite bathroom and rummaged through the bathroom cabinet for some pain-killers, only to curse softly on discovering that there were none.

She lifted a hand and pressed it wearily against her temple. Maybe there was something in the cabinet in Paige’s suite. If not, she’d have to venture downstairs.

It took only a few minutes to discover that there was nothing stronger available than paracetamol, and she closed her eyes momentarily, then opened them again in restrained exasperation. Maybe if she took two now it would take the edge off the pain sufficiently so that she could sleep.

There was a tumbler on the marble-topped vanity unit, and she half filled it with water only to have it slip through her fingers and crash down into the marbled basin.

‘Dear God,’ she whispered shakily at the explosive sound of shattering glass. It was enough to wake the dead. The last thing she needed was to have to face Dimitri at this hour of the night.

Yet he appeared in the doorway within seconds, his features dark and forbidding.

She could visualise the scene through his eyes. A slight figure attired in a long cotton nightshirt, dishevelled hair, and pale features overshadowed by large eyes darkened with pain.

‘I’m sorry the noise woke you.’ Her eyes felt heavy and impossibly bruised. She lifted a hand, then let it fall helplessly down to her side. ‘I’ll pick up the glass.’

‘Leave it,’ Dimitri instructed brusquely. ‘Eleni can attend to it in the morning.’ His eyes swept to the foil strip of tablets, then to her pale features. ‘Headache worse?’

‘Yes.’ She winced painfully, closing her eyes against his forceful image and the degree of sexual magnetism he exuded. The white towelling robe he’d hastily donned merely enhanced his height and breadth, and she was in no fit state to arm a mental defence against him. ‘I’ll just take these, then go back to bed.’

Without a word he leaned forward, extracted another tumbler, half filled it with water, then placed it in her hand.