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He couldn’t seem to tear his eyes away from hers and yet looking into her innocently questioning gaze was searing him with pain. ‘I would never intentionally hurt my son,’ he said hoarsely, his accent thicker as he fought to contain memories from the past.
He waited for her to contradict him. To say that she could see the blackness inside him, but she didn’t. Instead she nodded curtly. ‘Follow me.’
He released a harsh breath and followed her out into the main area of the centre, which was eerily neat and quiet. The blonde from before stepped through the opposite doorway. ‘Ty is in the sandpit.’
‘Thanks, Aimee. You go ahead. I’ll be home shortly.’
‘I’ll probably be at Todd’s.’
Lexi smiled and Leo’s stomach did a somersault. ‘I’ll see you next week then.’
‘Have a fun time away if you decide to go.’ She raised her eyebrows and Leo wondered where Lexi Somers was going this weekend and why he cared. Then he forgot about it as the blonde walked away and he was confronted with an empty doorway.
His heart felt like a dead weight in his chest as he stepped through it and gazed at the blond-haired toddler happily making truck sounds as he scooped sand into the digger.
Chort vozmi. God damn it. He couldn’t do this.
He turned to the woman behind him and gripped her arms as a fear he hadn’t felt in years assailed him.
‘You can’t do what?’ Lexi asked, her eyes racing across Leo Aleksandrov’s suddenly pale face. He looked as if he were facing a smoking gun and she had no idea what to do. Her heart hammered in her chest. This close, she could see the blue of his eyes was shot through with silver and the stubble lining his jaw made his face impossibly handsome. ‘Mr Aleksandrov?’
Her soft tone seemed to bring his eyes back into focus because he let her go and stepped backwards as he turned to stare at his son.
She rubbed her arms and glanced at Ty, who was regarding them curiously, no hint of recognition on his face at all. She tried to remember what Amanda Weston had said about Ty’s father when she had first enrolled Ty at the centre but her memory was hazy. Something about him not being interested in Ty and a request that they not ask Ty about him. Obviously, whatever had happened between Amanda and Leo, it had not ended well and Ty had borne the brunt of that.
Lexi felt sick. She hated men who didn’t take responsibility for their actions, who didn’t care enough about their children to spend time with them.
Trying to quell her rising anger for Ty’s sake, Lexi stepped forward. ‘Ty, come on. Your da— Oh!’
Strong fingers bit into her upper arms as the man behind her grabbed her and hauled her back against him. Lexi stumbled in her high heels and fell back against a chest as rock-solid as granite. The breath left her lungs as one of his powerful arms banded her torso just below her breasts to keep her upright.
She instantly caught fire at his touch, unbidden lust tightening her breasts and sending a spiral of heat straight to her pelvis. Shocked by her instant sexual response—a response she’d been trying to deny since she’d first seen him—Lexi turned in the circle of his arms with every intention of pushing him away. Only once her hands flattened against the brick wall of his chest, his heat and his scent had a paralysing effect on her senses. Now she didn’t want to push him away. Now she wanted to rise up onto her toes and kiss him. As if reading her thoughts, his eyes darkened to navy and took on a fierce quality that sent her senses into overdrive.
The faint buzzing of the airconditioning and the gentle sound of the wind chimes receded and Lexi was completely captivated as his head slowly lowered to hers. His hands at her waist tightened, pulling her inexorably closer, and her startled gaze flew to his as she felt the unmistakable edge of his erection brush against her belly.
His eyes held hers, his mouth hovering just out of reach, their breaths mingling, and Lexi couldn’t move. Then his gaze clouded over, registering the shock she felt, and before she could suck in another breath he shoved her back from him and stalked inside.
Lexi followed him to the doorway as if in a daze, her body sending all sorts of mixed messages to her brain. One of which was to follow him inside and press herself up against him and never let go. Which was just crazy! She never behaved like that. Not even with Brandon!
‘He doesn’t know I’m his father.’
The harsh words broke into her personal thoughts and when she realised what he had said she couldn’t hide her horror. ‘How—’
‘We’ve never met.’
What?
Lexi gripped the door frame, shaking her head. ‘That’s not possible.’
Leo’s face as he looked at her was grim, all signs of his earlier arousal gone, while her own body still felt soft and jittery from the shock of all that maleness pressed so intimately against her own. She’d been right in her premonition before. The man was lethal—just not in the way she had expected.
His mouth tightened and she realised she was staring at it, wondering how it would have felt if he hadn’t stopped himself before. If she’d taken matters into her own hands and … whoa, girl, hold the fort. You do not want to kiss this man.
‘I assure you it is,’ he rasped raggedly.
Lexi’s mind retraced their conversation and a thousand questions winged into it. But uppermost in her thinking was Ty’s welfare. He hadn’t been the same since his grandmother had passed away and now, to be taken by a strange man for three days—even if he was his father—could have a huge psychological impact on him.
And could she trust that this dangerous Russian was telling the truth about why he wanted Ty?
She forced herself to meet Leo’s guarded eyes and willed her mind to concentrate on what was important. ‘If that’s true, he’s not going to feel comfortable going with you,’ she informed him shortly.
He rubbed the back of his neck and glanced away. ‘I know. I should have thought of that earlier and organised the nanny to meet me here instead of my apartment.’
‘Nanny?’ Lexi frowned and glanced behind her to make sure Ty was still playing happily. ‘Has Ty met this person before?’
‘No.’
‘Then he won’t be happy with her either.’
‘She’ll know what to do.’
‘Not necessarily. Do you even have a proper car seat fitted?’
‘I have a limousine.’
‘That doesn’t answer my question. Listen, if Ty doesn’t know you and you’re taking him to an unfamiliar place, that will be scary for a three-year-old. Not to mention potentially damaging to his psyche.’
‘You let me worry about his psyche,’ he growled impatiently and Lexi could see from the arrogant tilt of his head that his momentary panic from before was over and that he was firmly back in control.
‘It doesn’t seem that you’ve been worried about much at all where your son is concerned,’ she said tartly.
His gaze sharpened. ‘Who do you think pays for this fancy establishment?’
‘I meant emotionally.’
He looked at her as if she were speaking a foreign language and she huffed out a breath. Arguing was not going to solve this situation. ‘He needs something familiar. Do you have his favourite toy? Blanket?’
For a minute he looked utterly lost and despite the fact that she despised his type, her heart went out to him.
He paced away from her and it seemed an age before he answered. Then he turned and her breath stalled at the sight of the bold smile that tilted the corners of his sexy mouth. ‘I have something better.’
She was almost afraid to ask. ‘Like what?’
‘Like you.’
CHAPTER THREE
‘WHY is he crying?’ Leo asked, tugging loose another button on his shirt, which felt suddenly too tight. Ty had been crying on and off for half an hour and the sobs were twisting his gut to the point where he couldn’t concentrate on work.
Lexi Somers, who had reluctantly accompanied him to his apartment two hours ago, reached across and took the distressed toddler from the matronly arms of the nanny, Mrs Parsons, whom Danny had organised. Instantly the boy cuddled into her and started sucking his thumb, huge teardrops clinging to his lower lashes.
Leo was aware that his pulse was racing just looking at his son and turned his attention to the woman holding him. Which wasn’t much better because his mind instantly recalled the feel of her soft body against his and the moment he’d almost kissed her. As if he needed that complication right now. Today, at lunchtime, he would have welcomed the way she made him feel. Now, with his world unravelling at the seams, the last thing he needed to think about was sex. Especially sex with a cute woman who was utterly furious with him.
‘He’s not comfortable with Mrs Parsons yet, but that’s to be expected,’ she answered him briskly, one of her hands rubbing Ty’s back soothingly. ‘This is all very traumatic for him.’ The reproach in her voice was unmistakable.
Not just for him, Leo thought.
‘He seems very comfortable with you,’ he said.
‘I’ve looked after him almost every weekday for two years. It’s only natural he feels comfortable with me.’
Leo felt movement behind him and turned to see Danny standing in the door of his home office. ‘Dmitri is on the phone.’
‘Right.’ Due to the delay in collecting Ty, Leo still had work to wrap up. But first he needed to sort the problem of Ty and the nanny. ‘You take him to bed,’ he instructed Lexi. ‘And then—’
‘Please.’
Leo blinked at her quiet reprimand.
He thought about telling her that if she interrupted him one more time with that gorgeous mouth he’d do something they’d both regret but found himself in the unique position of needing somebody else more than they needed him. A situation he did not like at all. He had to get rid of her and the sooner the better. ‘Please, Miss Somers, would you be so kind as to take my son to his bed?’
He could tell she wasn’t fooled by his mocking tone, but that was okay. He knew she’d do it. Ever since she had told Ty that this ‘nice’ man was taking them on an adventure and had made it sound as if it could rival Disney World he knew she was a soft touch under her no-nonsense exterior—a weakness he was ruthless enough to exploit.
‘Which room is his?’ she muttered.
‘This way.’ Leo hadn’t thought about which of his spare rooms to give Ty, but they were both the same so he chose the first one he came to.
He opened the door and inhaled vanilla as Lexi moved past him and looked around the room, a frown marring her smooth forehead.
King-sized bed, bedside tables, French windows leading to an outside balcony, private bathroom. What was there to frown about? Except maybe the absence of a cot. Chort vozmi. He hadn’t thought of that.
‘Are they locked?’ She nodded towards the French windows and spoke softly as the toddler was almost asleep in her arms, something Leo was glad about because he couldn’t look at Ty without remembering his brother, Sasha.
‘Of course,’ he said, but he walked over and rattled the handles anyway.
‘He really has never been here before has he?’ she said, almost to herself.
‘I told you that.’
‘Yes, but I don’t think I wanted to believe you.’ ‘I don’t lie.’
She cast him a fathomless look. ‘Can I have some more pillows?’
‘Why?’
‘Because he’ll feel more secure if he’s surrounded by pillows. This bed is too big for him.’
Leo opened the inbuilt wardrobe and pulled out three spare pillows and placed them on the end of the bed. ‘Anything else?’
‘Pyjamas.’
He glanced at Ty’s jeans and T-shirt. ‘Can’t he sleep in what he’s got on?’
‘Do you sleep in jeans?’
Her sharp rebuke both surprised and irritated him.
‘Are you trying to find out what I sleep in, Miss Somers?’ he asked, wondering if her eyes flashed golden when she was aroused as they did when she was angered.
He expected her to snap at him but instead she smiled sweetly. ‘I already know. It’s called a coffin.’
Leo blinked, astounded at her unexpected sassiness and then she surprised him again by shushing him. ‘Just go.’ She waved him away with her free hand as if he were an annoying insect. ‘I’ll take care of this.’
Leo left, not sure whether to be bemused or outraged at her temerity.
Lexi fixed the bed so that Ty wouldn’t fall out of it and then sat beside him while he fell into a deep sleep.
Then she picked up her phone and called Aimee in case she hadn’t left for her boyfriend’s house and was worried as to why she hadn’t returned to their shared apartment. When Lexi told her who Ty’s father was she could almost see Aimee slap her forehead.
‘I knew I recognised him. Oh, my God. I didn’t know he had a son.’
‘What do you know about him?’ Lexi found herself asking without actually meaning to. Because really she already knew any information Aimee could impart would just be more nails in the coffin she had accused him of sleeping in. Her lips twitched now at the remembered surprise on his face when she’d said that. Clearly people didn’t tell him when he was being overbearing and arrogant often enough.
‘He’s mega wealthy. And I mean mega.’ Aimee added with emphasis. ‘Russian. Has been in the papers all week because he helped rescue two of his workers from a massive construction accident in Dubai. Remember, I told you about it.’
‘Mmm,’ Lexi said noncommittally. She had a vague recollection but the problems with their second centre had been taking up a lot of her head space lately.
‘He also changes his girlfriends as often as he changes his underwear and is supposed to be fantastic in bed. Hubba hubba.’
‘And which magazine did that little titbit come out of?’ Lexi asked, thinking that it was most likely true.
‘I can’t remember. Anyway, what’s he like?’
‘Arrogant, rude, obnoxious.’ Chiselled, gorgeous and utterly male, a little voice taunted.
Which she promptly ignored. She’d met Leo Aleksandrov’s type before. Oh, not with the mega-wealthy tag, but arrogant men who viewed permanent relationships the way they viewed dental hygiene—sometimes required, but not necessarily so.
Her father had been one of those: a professional golfer who had never married her mother despite having two children with her, and who had then left them all to take up with his mistress. And Brandon had been no better. At the time they’d met he’d been a charismatic, well-connected university jock who had pursued her and convinced her he was falling for her, all in the name of sport.
Finding out that she had been played like so many other girls he had gone after had made her feel ill, as had his complaint that she had not only been too serious, but that she had been below average in bed. Of course she hadn’t believed him, but it hadn’t stopped her confidence from taking a heavy knock. So heavy, in fact, she hadn’t dated seriously since.
Suddenly an image of Simon popped into her mind and she groaned. She couldn’t do it. She wasn’t ready to get serious with anyone yet. Maybe she never would be and that might not be a bad thing. She had good friends, a growing business …
Lexi realised Aimee was still talking about Leo and felt rude for being so caught up in her own thoughts she hadn’t been paying attention. ‘I’m sorry, Aim, I haven’t been listening but I don’t want to talk about this man any more. He’s too irritating for words.’
‘Irritating or irresistible?’ her friend joked.
‘I’m not going to dignify that with an answer,’ she said, ignoring her brain’s contradictory messages about him. ‘But don’t tell anyone about Ty being his son. I’m not sure what’s going on yet, but I would hate Ty to get hurt in any way.’
