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‘That would depend on whether you prefer the relaxed, casual holiday atmosphere the locals enjoyed all year round with only the inconvenience of visiting tourists during peak season, or the bustling commercial centre Surfers’ Paradise has now become.’
‘I guess one has to admit it’s progress,’ Alyse opined as the luxurious vehicle purred swiftly north along the double-lane highway.
‘There’s been a massive injection of Japanese-controlled funds into the area—hotels, resorts, golf courses,’ Aleksi told her. ‘The flow-on has resulted in a building boom: houses, shopping centres, high-rise developments, offices.’
‘As a builder, you must be very pleased with the increased business.’ It was a non-committal comment, and not meant to be judgemental. However, it earned her a quick piercing glance before the road reclaimed his attention.
‘The Coast has a long history of boom-and-bust cycles in building and real estate. Only the foolish choose to disregard facts and fail to plan ahead.’
No one in their right mind could call Aleksi Stefanos a fool, Alyse thought wryly. Remembering the force of his kiss, the steel-like strength of his arms as they had held her immobile, provided a vivid reminder of what manner of man she intended playing against. Yet it was a game she must win.
As the BMW pulled into the outer lane and sped swiftly past a line of slower-moving vehicles with ease, Alyse could only wonder at its horsepower capacity. There were outlines of densely covered hills reaching into the distance as Aleksi veered inland from the coastal highway.
‘Sovereign Islands comprises a number of bridge-linked residentially developed islands situated to the east of Paradise Point, less than an hour’s drive from the airport,’ he told her. ‘It’s a prestigious security-guarded estate, and accessible by road from the mainland via a private bridge. Every home site has deep-water anchorage.’
‘A gilded prison for the fabulously wealthy, with a luxury vessel moored at the bottom of every garden?’
‘The residents prefer to call it civilised protection, and are prepared to pay for the privilege.’
‘Suitably cushioned from the harsh realities of life.’ Alyse couldn’t believe she was resorting to sarcasm. It simply wasn’t her style. Yet for some unknown reason the man behind the wheel generated the most adverse feelings in her, making her want to lash out against him in every possible way.
He didn’t bother to reply, and she sat in silence, aware of an increasing anxiety as the car sped steadily north. Her home in Perth seemed a million kilometres away; the relative ease of life as she’d known it equally distant.
Her marriage was one of necessity, and merely mutually convenient. So why was she as wound up as a tightly coiled spring?
‘We’re almost there,’ Aleksi declared drily, and Alyse spared her surroundings a swift encompassing glance, noting the numerous brightly lit architect-designed homes and established well-kept grounds.
Aleksi had said his home was a showcase, and she silently agreed as he turned the car on to a tiled driveway fronting a magnificent double-storeyed residence that seemed far too large for one man alone.
Pale granite walls were reflected by the car’s powerful headlights, their lines imposing and classically defined. At a touch of the remote control module the wide garage doors tilted upwards, and Aleksi brought the BMW to a smooth halt alongside a Patrol four-wheel-drive vehicle.
Minutes later Alyse followed him into a large entrance foyer featuring a vaulted ceiling of tinted glass. A magnificent chandelier hung suspended from its centre, lending spaciousness and an abundance of light reflected by off-white walls and deep-piled cream-textured carpet. The central focus was a wide double staircase leading to the upper floor.
Wide glass-panelled doors stood open revealing an enormous lounge furnished with delicately carved antique furniture, and there were several carefully placed oil paintings gracing the walls, providing essential colour.
‘I suggest you settle Georg,’ said Aleksi as he brought in the luggage. His expression was a inscrutable mask as he chose a passageway to his left, and Alyse had little option but to follow in his wake.
‘The master suite has an adjoining sitting-room overlooking the canal—’ with a wide sweep of his arm he indicated a door immediately opposite ‘—an en suite bathroom, and, to the left, a changing-room with two separate walk-in wardrobes.’
The décor had an elegance that was restful and visually pleasant, utilising a skilful mix of pale green and a soft shade of peach as a complement to the overall cream.
‘There’s the requisite nursery furniture in the sitting-room,’ he continued, moving forward. ‘And a spare bed which you can use until—’
‘Until—what?’ Alyse’s eyes blazed blue fire in an unspoken challenge.
‘You’re ready to share mine,’ he drawled with imperturbable calm.
She was so incredibly furious that she almost shook with anger, and she failed to feel Georg stir in her arms, nor did she register his slight whimper in sleepy protest. ‘That will be never!’
Dark eyebrows slanted above eyes that held hers in deliberate mocking appraisal. ‘My dear Alyse,’ chided Aleksi with chilling softness, ‘surely you expect the marriage to be consummated?’
Her eyes widened with angry incredulity. ‘In a house this large, there have to be other adequate bedrooms from which I can choose.’
‘Several,’ Aleksi agreed. ‘However, this is where you’ll stay.’
Her chin tilted in a gesture of indignant mutiny. ‘The hell I will!’
‘Eventually you must fall asleep.’ He gave a careless shrug as he indicated the large bed. ‘When you do, I’ll simply transfer you here.’
‘You unspeakable fiend!’ she lashed out. ‘I won’t let you do that.’
‘How do you propose to stop me?’
His expression was resolute, and only an innocent would fail to detect tensile steel beneath the silky smoothness of his voice.
Alyse’s heart lurched painfully, then skipped a beat. Only a wide aperture separated the sitting-room from the bedroom, with no door whatsoever to afford her any privacy.
‘You’re an unfeeling, insensitive—’ She faltered to a furious halt, momentarily lost for adequate words in verbal description. ‘Brute!’
Something flickered in the depths of his eyes, then it was successfully masked. ‘I suggest you settle Georg before he becomes confused and bewildered by the degree of anger you’re projecting.’ He turned towards the bedroom door. ‘I’ll be in the kitchen, making coffee.’
Alyse wanted to throw something at his departing back, and the only thing that stopped her was the fact that she held Georg in her arms.
Experiencing momentary defeat, she turned towards the sitting-room, seeing at a glance that it was sufficiently large to hold a pair of single chairs and a sofa, as well as a bed and nursery furniture.
Placing the baby down into the cot, she gently covered him, lingering long enough to see that he was asleep before moving back into the bedroom.
Defiance emanated from every pore in her body as she retrieved her nightwear from her bag. A shower would surely ease some of her tension, she decided as she made her way into the luxuriously fitted bathroom. Afterwards she’d beard Aleksi in the kitchen and reaffirm her determination for entirely separate sleeping quarters for herself and Georg.
It was heaven to stand beneath the jet of pulsating hot water, and she took her time before using one of several large fluffy bathtowels to dry the excess moisture from her body. Her toilette completed, she slipped on a nightgown and added a matching robe.
There were bottles to sterilise and formula to make up in case Georg should wake through the night, and, collecting the necessary carry-bag, she went in search of the kitchen.
She found it off a passageway on the opposite side of the lounge, and she studiously ignored the tall dark-haired man in the process of pouring black aromatic coffee from a percolator into one of two cups set out on the servery.
Luxuriously spacious, the kitchen was a delight featuring the latest in electronic equipment, and in normal circumstances she would have expressed pleasure in its design.
‘I’m sure you’ll find whatever you need in the cupboards,’ Aleksi drawled as he added sugar and a splash of whisky.
‘Thank you.’ Her words were stilted and barely polite as she set about her task.
‘A married couple come in daily to maintain the house and grounds,’ he informed her matter-of-factly. ‘And a catering firm is hired whenever I entertain.’
‘With such splendid organisation, you hardly need a wife,’ she retorted, impossibly angry with him—and herself, for imagining he might permit a celibate cohabitation.
‘Don’t sulk, Alyse,’ he derided drily, and she rounded on him with ill-concealed fury.
‘I am not sulking! I’m simply too damned angry to be bothered conducting any sort of civilised conversation with you!’ With tense movements she put the newly made formula in the refrigerator.
‘The bedroom arrangement stays,’ Aleksi declared with hard inflexibility, and her eyes became brilliant blue pools as she stood looking at him, refusing to be intimidated by his powerful height and sheer indomitable strength.
‘All hell will freeze over before I’ll willingly share any bed you happen to occupy!’
A faint smile tugged the edges of his mouth, and the expression in his eyes was wholly cynical. ‘Why not have some coffee?’ he queried mildly, and Alyse was so incensed by his imperturbable calm that she refused just for the sheer hell of opposing him.
‘I’d prefer water.’
He shrugged and drained the contents of his cup. ‘I’ll be out most of tomorrow, checking progress on a number of sites, consulting with project managers. I’ve written down the name and phone number of a highly reputable babysitter in case you need to go out, and I’ll leave a set of keys for the house and the car, together with some money in case there’s anything you need.’
‘I have money of my own,’ she declared fiercely, and saw one eyebrow lift in silent quizzical query.
‘Call it a housekeeping allowance,’ Aleksi insisted as he leaned against the servery. ‘And don’t argue,’ he warned with dangerous softness.
Without a further word she turned and filled a glass with chilled water, then drank it. With head held high she crossed the kitchen, her expression one of icy aloofness. ‘I’m going to bed.’ It was after eleven, and she was weary almost beyond belief.
‘I’ll show you how to operate the security system,’ he insisted, straightening to his full height.
Five minutes later she entered the master suite, aware that he followed in her wake. Her back was rigid with silent anger as she made her way through to the sitting-room, and once there she flung off her robe, slid into bed, closed her eyes and determinedly shut out the muted sound of the shower operating in the en suite bathroom.
Much to her annoyance she remained awake long after the adjoining bedroom light was extinguished, and lay staring into the darkness, incredibly aware of Aleksi’s proximity.
She hated him, she denounced in angry silence. Hated him. Why, he had to be the most damnable man she’d ever had the misfortune to meet. Indomitable, inflexible, impossible!
She must have slept, for she came sharply awake feeling totally disorientated and unsure of her whereabouts for a brief few seconds before memory surfaced, and she lay still, willing conscious recognition for the sound which had alerted her subconscious mind.
Georg? Perhaps he was unsettled after the long flight and restless in new surroundings.
Slipping cautiously out of bed, she trod silently across the room to the cot, her eyes adjusting to the reflection of the low-burning nightlight as she anxiously inspected his still form.
Wide eyes stared at her with unblinking solemnity, and Alyse shook her head in smiling admonition. With practised ease she changed his nappy, then covered him, only to hear him emit a whimpering cry.
Within seconds it became an unrelenting wail, and, quickly flinging on a wrap, she picked him up, murmuring softly as she cradled him.
‘Problems?’
Alyse turned in startled surprise at the sound of Aleksi’s voice so close behind her. ‘He’s only very recently started missing a late-night feed,’ she told him quietly. ‘I think the flight may have unsettled him.’
‘Give him to me while you heat his bottle.’
‘I can easily take him into the kitchen, then you won’t be disturbed.’
‘Go and do it, Alyse,’ drawled Aleksi, calmly lifting Georg from out of her arms.
Her chin tilted fractionally as she met his unequivocal gaze, then just as she was about to argue the baby began to cry in earnest and, defeated, she stepped past Aleksi and made her way from the bedroom, fumbling occasionally as she searched for elusive light switches.
The tap emitted hot water at a single touch. Boiling hot, she discovered, biting her lips hard against a shocked curse as she withdrew her scalded hand. Ignoring the stinging pain, she warmed a bottle of prepared formula, then hurried back to the bedroom.
Aleksi was sitting on the edge of the bed cradling the tiny infant, and Alyse experienced a shaft of elemental jealousy at his complete absorption.
She wanted to snatch Georg out of his arms and retreat from the implied intimacy of the lamplit room with its large bed and the dynamic man who seemed to dominate it without any effort at all.
‘I’ll take him now,’ she declared firmly, and her hand brushed his as she retrieved the baby, sending an electric charge through her veins.
Sheer dislike, she dismissed as she tended to Georg’s needs, and on the edge of sleep she took heart in the fact that she would have most of the day to herself. A prospect she found infinitely pleasing, for without Aleksi’s disturbing presence she could explore the house at will, even swim in the pool while Georg slept. And attempt to come to terms with a lifestyle and a husband she neither needed nor coveted.
CHAPTER FIVE (#ulink_bb5d30fe-d50e-57f1-800d-c5341c1534a6)
ALYSE ENTERTAINED NO qualms whatsoever as she followed Georg’s pre-dawn routine. If Aleksi insisted that she and Georg occupy the master suite, then he could darned well suffer the consequences of sleep interrupted by a baby’s internal feeding clock, she determined as she settled Georg after his bottle. Gathering up jeans, a warm long-sleeved sweater and fresh underwear, she crossed to the en suite bathroom and took a leisurely shower.
When she re-entered the bedroom Aleksi was in the process of sliding out of bed, and she hastily averted her eyes from an expanse of muscular flesh barely protected from total nudity by a swirl of bedlinen.
‘Good morning.’
His drawled amusement put her on an immediate defensive, and her eyes lit with ill-disguised antagonism as she uttered a perfunctory acknowledgment on her way to the sitting-room.
Damn him! she cursed as she quickly straightened her bed, tugging sheets with more than necessary force. He possessed an ability to raise her hackles to such a degree that she was in danger of completely losing her temper at the mere sight of him!
Aleksi was already in the kitchen when she entered it some five minutes later, and she cast his tall rangy jeans-clad, black-sweatered frame the briefest of glances as she took a cup and filled it with freshly brewed coffee, blithely ignoring the fact that he was in the process of breaking eggs into a pan.
‘Breakfast?’
She met his dark gaze with equanimity. ‘It’s barely six. I’ll get something later.’
A newspaper lay folded on the servery and she idly scanned the headlines as she sipped the contents of her cup.
‘There’s an electronic device connected to the intercom system that can be activated to ensure that Georg is heard from any room in the house,’ Aleksi told her.
‘You were very confident of succeeding, weren’t you?’ Alyse couldn’t help saying bitterly. ‘The abundance of nursery furniture, toys—everything organised before you left for Perth.’
He skilfully transferred the contents from the pan on to a plate, collected toast and coffee and took a seat at the breakfast table.
His silence angered her immeasurably, and some devilish imp urged her along a path to conflagration. ‘No comment?’ she demanded.
He looked up, and she nearly died at the ruthless intensity of his gaze. ‘Why indulge in senseless fantasy?’
‘Don’t you mean fallacy? Somehow it seems more appropriate.’
‘Are you usually this argumentative so early in the morning? Or is it simply an attempt to test the extent of my temper?’
There could be no doubt he possessed one, and she cursed herself for a fool for daring to probe the limit of his control. Yet beneath that innate recognition was a determined refusal to be intimidated in any way.
‘Do you have a problem with women who dare to question your opinion?’ she countered, permitting one eyebrow to lift in a delicate arch. ‘Doubtless all your female friends,’ she paused with faint emphasis, ‘agree with everything you say to a point of being sickeningly obsequious. Whereas I couldn’t give a damn.’
‘That’s a sweeping generalisation, when you know nothing about any of my friends.’
‘Oh, I’m sure there’s any number of gorgeous socialites willing to give their all at the merest indication of your interest,’ she derided. ‘I wonder how they’ll accept the news that you’ve suddenly plunged into matrimony and legally adopted a son?’
Aleksi subjected her to a long level glance. ‘I owe no one an explanation for any decision I choose to make.’ He picked up his cup and drained the last of his coffee. ‘The keys to the BMW are on the pedestal table beside my bed.’ He rose from the table with catlike grace. ‘Enjoy your day.’
