The Best Of The Year - Modern Romance 2016

Work hard, play hard. Alexa was beginning to understand that, for Theo, the priority was business and after that came sex. He didn’t do love and emotion but he did do sex. It was why he could be so cool about the situation they were in. He could detach.

‘Yes.’

She took a deep breath and thought she had been gifted a golden opportunity to make it perfectly clear to him that those were just the sort of guys she was attracted to. And by attraction she knew that she meant a lot more than just a passing physical tug.

‘Their priorities are all in the right places...’

‘Heart-warming,’ Theo drawled. ‘Not the most aggressive of men, though, are they...? One had his hair in a ponytail. I’m thinking that he might be the type to strum a guitar and sing a haunting ballad by way of entertaining a woman...’

‘Jorge is absolutely wonderful! Hugely caring! Besides, I don’t like aggressive men!’

‘And yet your father didn’t get where he is by being the sort of man who gets walked over...’

‘He’s not ruthless...’

‘He bartered you in marriage so that he could get me as a bonus prize...’ Theo pointed out flatly, because he didn’t do well when it came to accepting unfavourable comparisons.

‘He did it for Mum,’ she contradicted. ‘I admit he saw an opportunity and seized it, but are you telling me that you wouldn’t do the same thing? He’s been desperately worried about my mother and he was convinced that her health and her spirits would improve if...if she had this to focus on. And that’s why I agreed to...to go along with the pretence.’

‘And when the pretence comes to its inevitable crashing halt?’

‘A year is a long time,’ she mumbled, because that thought had occurred to her as well. ‘My mother’s health will be in a better place and she’ll be able to accept that the marriage didn’t work out. She’ll no longer spend her days thinking that she’s on her way out and will die before she sees me settled down.’

‘That’s very optimistic projecting,’ Theo declared, in just the sort of arrogantly self-assured voice that got on her nerves. ‘She might have a nervous breakdown when we tell her that, sadly, we’re joining the statistics of the happily divorced...’

‘That’s a risk my father was prepared to take and so am I,’ Alexa told him sharply. ‘Wouldn’t you have done the same if it had been your mother?’

Theo’s face closed down. ‘I don’t deal in pointless hypotheses.’

But it was just the sort of solution his father would have hit upon. Deal with today and let tomorrow be a bridge yet to be crossed. And, yes, Theo would have gone along for the ride. He would have done anything for his mother. He and Daniel both.

‘All that’s beside the point,’ he said, and shrugged elegantly. ‘Now, our little detour has eaten a chunk of my time. I’m going to get my driver to deliver you to your house and you can pack your bags for our trip to the States. And no protest-packing please...’ he added, for good measure. ‘During the day you can amuse yourself, but the evenings will be formal occasions. I expect we will be entertained on a fairly lavish scale.’

‘Fine—but I insist that we check in to separate rooms,’ Alexa told him.

‘Already done,’ Theo returned smoothly. ‘My person in New York has booked us a penthouse suite. Adjoining rooms...’

‘But...’

‘But what...? Do you think I might try and break down the door between us so that I can ravish you?’

Alexa felt hot colour rush into her cheeks. She had been so intent on laying down her ground rules that she hadn’t even considered the obvious—which was that he didn’t even fancy her.

‘You’re getting a little ahead of yourself,’ he said kindly. ‘Aren’t you?’

‘I was just...just...making sure... Of course I don’t think that!’ She thought of the stunning blonde and the nuisance she had eventually turned into and mortification made her skin tingle.

‘Then I’ll text you our timings and get my driver to collect you...’

They were pulling up outside her house and Alexa felt physically and emotionally drained. She was gripping the door handle before the car had even pulled to a stop.

‘Till tomorrow...’ he directed at her as she flipped open the door to step out.

Alexa turned and watched helplessly as the car pulled away. A week in New York, where thankfully their time together would be limited, but then would come their engagement party, and then, in short order, a wedding.

By then she would have to make sure that she...

That she was in control...

CHAPTER SIX

ALEXA KNEW WHAT to expect in New York. She had been there several times before and had always loved the buzz of the city that literally never slept.

She met Theo at the check-in desk at the airport, where he was waiting for her, chatting to the woman who had checked him in, who was trying to ignore the fact that there were two other people impatiently waiting in the queue behind him.

‘Is that all you’ve brought with you?’ were his opening words as he strolled towards Alexa, who had joined the back of the queue.

Unlike every other woman he had ever travelled with, Alexa had made absolutely no concession to the fact that they would be travelling first class and he liked that. She was in a pair of loose culottes and a T-shirt, with a cardigan lightly draped over her shoulders and flat ballet shoes. There wasn’t a scrap of colour in her outfit, and she had braided her long, untamed hair into a neat French plait which hung over one shoulder.

‘I have enough for a week—although you haven’t mentioned just how long I will be expected to stay.’

In response to that incendiary way of phrasing her question, Theo slung his arm over her shoulder and felt her tense.

‘What are you doing?’ Alexa squeaked as the line shuffled forward.

‘I’m getting you in the mood.’

‘In the mood for what?’

‘For being my adoring fiancée... And in answer to your question about how long we will be staying...my plans are fluid.’

‘What do you mean...?’ she asked, hopeful that his ‘fluid’ plans might entail a reduction in the time they would end up spending in the city. ‘Might we be there for less than a week...?’

Alexa looked up at him, eyes wide, and he shot her a half-smile before lowering his head and kissing her—a delicate kiss that feathered over her lips with just the lightest touch from his tongue. He pulled back and turned to the woman who had checked him in.

‘Newly engaged,’ he explained, giving Alexa a little squeeze so that she was pulled against him.

‘How romantic.’ The woman eyed Alexa with a look that shrieked, Lucky you, how did you manage that...? ‘When is the big day?’

She fiddled on her computer, checking her in and ticketing her bag at the same time.

‘Not soon enough,’ Theo answered on Alexa’s behalf. ‘The engagement ring is in the process of being altered. Who knows...? We might tie the knot even before the diamond is on your finger—mightn’t we, my darling?’

His low, throaty husk made her blood heat and she stared at the woman with a glassy smile.

‘Maybe not,’ she said gently. ‘I don’t think my mother would stand for that. She’s a stickler for tradition,’ Alexa expanded chirpily, ‘and by tradition I mean taking her time over the wedding arrangements! None of this crazy sprinting up the aisle!’

But then the sooner they tied the knot, the sooner they would untie it. It wasn’t a case of delaying something in the hope that it might disappear altogether if the delay was long enough. No such luck.

‘Speaking of diamonds...’ Theo told her as they headed towards the first class lounge and away from the chaos of the tax-free shopping area, which was packed.

‘Were we speaking of diamonds?’ Alexa used the pretence of stopping to peer into one of the shop windows to disengage herself from his embrace.

‘I’ve brought something for you...’

He left that teaser hanging in the air as they reached the lounge and were waved through towards a couple of cosy chairs, with a table in front of them on which a few business magazines were fanned out.

‘Have you? Alexa looked at him suspiciously. ‘What?’

Theo laughed and crossed his legs. ‘When are you going to stop fighting me? I’ve never met anyone with more of an appetite for arguing.’

‘As I’ve told you before—you’re the only one I argue with.’

‘Sign of a vibrant, lively relationship...’

‘It’s a sign of two people who don’t get along,’ Alexa corrected him. ‘Which is probably why you’ve never argued with any of the women you’ve been out with. And I’m sure they’ve all been vibrant, lively relationships!’

Theo cocked his head to one side and appeared to give her statement a great deal of serious thought.

‘Yes,’ he agreed eventually, ‘I suppose there’s been a certain amount of liveliness in the women I’ve dated...’

‘And no arguments,’ Alexa persisted, drawn to prolong the conversation and prove a point. ‘I can’t imagine any of your supermodels arguing with you.’

‘It’s true.’ Theo threw his hand up in a gesture that implied rueful but graceful defeat. ‘I don’t like argumentative women.’

‘So it’s a good thing that we don’t have to like one another, isn’t it?’

She had felt just the merest flash of hurt—because who enjoyed being told that they weren’t liked? Especially when his job of pretending that he did indeed like and fancy her was so polished and so convincing. And especially when she had grudgingly been forced to concede that she had become just another member of the long list of women who found him physically compelling.

Who wanted to fancy a guy who didn’t even like them?

Theo didn’t bother to get involved further in a conversation he knew wouldn’t end up going anywhere, because he was pretty sure that when it came to arguments there was a mighty one brewing like a storm just over the horizon.

It would certainly pay to broach that thorny subject as soon as possible and get it out of the way. Give her the duration of the flight to assimilate and accept.

He grunted something that might have been anything when it came to a response and Alexa banked down a sigh of frustration.

‘What is it that you’ve brought me?’ she reminded him briskly.

‘I’ll show you when we’re on the plane,’ Theo said, because there could be no available exit door when they were twenty thousand miles up in the air. ‘Your bag looks heavy. What have you got in it? Heavy club for beating me over the head?’

‘I’m glad you think this is funny,’ Alexa told him coldly.

Theo’s lips thinned. ‘Lighten up, Alexa. Do you take everything in life so seriously?’

‘This isn’t just any little thing.’

‘As I’ve said to you on a number of occasions, it’s inevitable—so why don’t you just kick back? Or is that something you don’t quite know how to do?’

He watched the slow colour crawl into her face. Hard-working, diligent, involved in the caring profession, pointedly making sure to avoid things she considered frivolous... In her own way, it was a statement of rebellion against her privileged background. She had bucked the tide of every other woman in her social circle, who would have settled into a life of pampered predictability and been married by the age of twenty-one to someone not very different from themselves.

The people he had met where she volunteered her services were all very nice indeed, but none of them had struck him as a bundle of fun.

So did she ever kick back?

‘I kick back.’ Alexa heard defiance in her voice.

‘Who with? I haven’t met the people you used to work with...what were they like?’

‘Lots of fun,’ she told him edgily. ‘But you’d probably think they were dull as dishwater.’

‘Why?’

‘Because they’re not the sort of people who think that “fun” is all about nightclubs and being in the public eye.’

‘And have you? Ever?’

‘Have I ever what?’

They were having a perfectly normal conversation, but Alexa still felt as though she was trying to find a foothold on thin ice. Maybe because when she was in his company, try as she might, she never seemed to feel normal.

‘Thought nightclubs and being in the public eye are fun? Scrap the being in the public eye. No one in their right mind considers that fun.’

Although, if he were to be honest, most of the women he had dated in the past had basked in the glare of paparazzi flashbulbs.

‘I’m not a nightclub type of person,’ Alexa muttered, wondering how the conversation had managed to get here. ‘When I meet up with friends we all prefer to go to places where we can actually hear ourselves think.’

Theo had a vision of a group of earnest individuals, solving the problems of the world over cups of espresso. She was positively the last sort of person he would ever have been drawn to normally. Frankly, he had little use for people who solved the world’s problems over cups of coffee. If the problem was too big to solve, then why waste time talking about it? And if it was solvable then why not just get out there and solve it? Cut out the middle man, which came in the form of pointless discussion.

On the other hand he had watched her in that shelter place of hers—had seen her interaction with the people there and for a fleeting instant had actually caught himself thinking of the supermodels who had graced his arm in the past with a certain amount of distaste.

‘And those friends would be your colleagues at work?’

‘I’ve kept in touch with a couple of school friends,’ she admitted. Both were married, and one was the proud mother of a baby boy. ‘Why are we talking about this anyway?’

She heard the announcement of their flight over the Tannoy. Travelling first class, she knew they would be the last to board the plane, and sure enough, after a brisk ten-minute walk, they were taking their very comfortable seats in the first class section.

‘Books,’ she said, and Theo shot her a quizzical look as he made himself comfortable.

Flutes of champagne were brought to them and he sipped the drink while he continued to look at her, waiting for an explanation.

‘You asked me what I had in my bag. Books. So that I have something to do on the flight over.’

Theo smiled slowly at her and wondered whether her definition of kicking back might involve having some fun on a long-haul flight...

He’d done that once—a long time ago—and had since come to the conclusion that planes were inappropriate when it came to certain activities for a man as big as he was.

Although private planes certainly redefined the options...

His thoughts veered off and he held her gaze steadily. ‘Books...?’ he murmured. ‘Let me guess... Non-fiction for the serious reader?’

‘Wrong,’ Alexa told him triumphantly. ‘Romance and crime! Holiday reading...’

‘So you’re thinking of this as a holiday?’ He was quick to pick up her stray remark, although he didn’t add to that as their champagne was gathered up by a flight attendant and then, mere seconds later, the plane began its ascent. ‘Excellent,’ he continued heartily, once they were airborne. ‘Big improvement on your lack of enthusiasm! A holiday spirit is just the thing.’

It wouldn’t last, but he enjoyed watching the way she blushed at the slightest provocation.

He was almost tempted to swing the conversation back to her mission to read books so that he could ask her whether she had ever done anything more adventurous on a plane...with a man...

She might explode with embarrassment.

‘I won’t be working.’ Alexa rushed into hasty explanation. ‘So while I wouldn’t call it a holiday in the strict sense of the word...’

‘Too much detail, Alexa. Let’s stick to the holiday spirit theme. But before you dive into one of your books...’ Theo sighed and allowed a telling silence to gather momentum until she chewed her lip with sudden anxiety.

‘What?’

‘There’s been a slight change of plan...’

Sudden scenarios flashed through Alexa’s head in Technicolor glory. Change of plan? But they were still en route to New York...

But what if New York for a few days was going to expand into other cities across the globe for an indefinite period of time?

What if her one small suitcase with a few essentials ended up being five large trunks to cater for a change of plan...?

What if he was going to surprise her with an impromptu wedding so that the baying nosy press could be satisfied?

What if...? What if...? What if...?

The single certainty she had was that she knew she wasn’t going to like his change of plan.

He was looking at her with the expression of someone who truly regretted having to say what they were about to say—except Theo De Angelis was immune to any feelings of true regret about anything. Of that she was very sure.

‘The hotel we were booked into...’

Alexa exhaled a sigh of silent relief, because hotels could always be changed at the last minute—especially when money was no object. And maybe there wouldn’t be a penthouse suite available. In which case they would end up sleeping in separate rooms on separate floors. Fingers crossed...

‘Don’t worry about it,’ she told him kindly. ‘It’s a great hotel, but there are loads of other hotels in Manhattan if for some reason they’ve double-booked the suite...’

‘Double-booked the suite?’ Theo laughed shortly. ‘Colin Clark wouldn’t dare do anything of the sort. I’m a frequent enough guest for him to know which side his bread is buttered. Not only have I used that suite on a number of occasions, I have frequently rented it for members of my staff and have held several conferences at the hotel. No... I’m a valued and cherished customer—as I’ve been told in the past. And as a valued and cherished customer, I know that suite will always be available for my use.’

‘Then what’s the change of plan?’

‘Brace yourself...’

They were briefly interrupted by yet more drinks, and a menu which Alexa didn’t even look at.

‘My brother is going to be in that part of the world...’

‘Your brother? Daniel?’

‘Special detour before he buys his toy,’ Theo informed her drily. ‘So that he can meet the radiant bride-to-be...’

‘But he knows that— Well, there won’t be any need for us to pretend around him, will there?’

Alexa had banked on exploring the art galleries on her own during the day and getting through the evenings as best she could. The pressure to be loved-up would not be nearly so intense as it had been at home, because who in New York really cared?

With Theo’s brother on the scene she would have to resign herself to a little more than mere polite conversation with people she had no intention of ever seeing again. But no matter. In truth, she was curious about his brother—curious to see whether it really was possible for two alpha males to be brothers...

She shrugged and rested back, half closing her eyes. Strangely, she could still see Theo’s lean, dynamic face, even though her eyes were closed.

His image was imprinted on her retina with the force of a branding iron. No good fighting it. Sooner or later, once she became accustomed to the inconvenience of fancying the man, indifference would begin to trickle in, and before she knew it she would be able to look at him without a flicker of emotion. He would be just someone she’d happened to share space with for a short period of time—much to her mother’s joy and delight.

‘Will he be working with you?’

‘Oh, no...’ Theo drawled. ‘My brother is as successful as I am, but his area of expertise is not mine.’

Alexa turned and looked at him. ‘You mean you wouldn’t think about buying a cruise ship as a toy?’

Theo grinned. ‘I’m more of a financial guy,’ he said. ‘I enjoy numbers. Daniel likes the leisure side of things. If he weren’t such a successful businessman in the leisure industry there’s a strong possibility he would be a beach bum somewhere hot.’

Alexa heard the warmth in Theo’s voice and realised that he was in exactly the same position as she was. A devoted child from a close-knit family, willing to make a ridiculously huge sacrifice for the sake of a parent or, in her case, parents.

It had been so much easier to pigeonhole him as a one-dimensional cardboard cut-out, and she was shaken at the tangent her thoughts had taken.

‘So he’ll be there? No big deal.’ She closed her eyes once more and tried to block out the silent fizz of electricity radiating from his body.

‘Indeed. He will be staying for a matter of just one night, but not, it would only be fair to tell you, at the hotel...’

‘That’s a shame.’ Alexa couldn’t stop herself from being just a tiny bit sarcastic. ‘You’d think that as you’re a valued and cherished customer, they would be able to rustle up a room for your brother.’

‘Oh, I’m sure they would—if I asked...’

Eyes still closed, Alexa allowed herself a smug little smile. ‘But you’d rather he stayed somewhere else? I guess, however close you might be to a sibling, there’s still always a part of you that doesn’t want them in your pocket...’

‘Not really where I was going with this conversation,’ Theo murmured. ‘And, before we get lost in a series of misunderstandings, you should know that Daniel will be staying exactly where we will be staying. It just isn’t going to be at the hotel, as originally planned...’

Alexa’s eyes flew open and she sat up and looked at him. ‘Okay... So...?’

‘So we’ll be going to The Hamptons instead,’ Theo told her bluntly. ‘Bob, a mutual friend of ours, has something of a mansion there, and I’ve been persuaded to take him up on his offer to accommodate us...’

‘What? Why? When did this happen?’

Theo waved his hand in a soothing manner and she only just resisted slapping it away.

Her thoughts were swirling all over the place. None of them were comfortable or pleasant. What was going to happen to her time out, browsing the art galleries, if she was closeted in a house out in The Hamptons? What was going to happen to the peace and quiet she knew she would need just to deal with the wretched man every evening?

She felt physically sick at the unfolding and newly altered scenario.

‘Got the call last night. Arrangements were sprung on me. What can a guy do?’

‘A guy could have picked up the telephone and called to let me know of the change of plan!’ Alexa snapped.

‘And risk you bailing on me? No chance. It would have looked very suspect indeed if my beloved fiancée couldn’t be bothered to meet her potential brother-in-law, her fiancé’s best friend and three top clients who will all be adjusting their schedules for flying visits to the Hamptons to sort out the deal I’m going across to nail...’

‘You’ve told all of them that we’re engaged...?’

‘It would have been peculiar to keep such momentous news to myself—and besides, who knows how far the news has already travelled? You would be surprised how small a world it is, with the internet and Facebook. It would have been downright discourteous for news of my engagement to reach their ears via a third party.’

‘I don’t have Facebook,’ Alexa muttered, feeling well and truly trapped.

‘Nor do I. But you can bet that we’re in a minority... Bob’s wife, Felicity, almost certainly is on Facebook—to keep in touch with their daughter in Australia.’

‘What am I going to do with myself all day for days on end in a house with people I’ve never met in my life before?’ Alexa was on the verge of undignified sobbing. ‘It’s just not fair that you couldn’t even be bothered to tell me until we were in the air...’

‘It will be fine,’ Theo said. ‘Although you might have to adjust your wardrobe a little bit...’

‘Meaning...?’

‘Those smart outfits might not be appropriate for a house visit.’

‘I just can’t believe you’ve done this to me.’

‘Let’s move on from that. It will be hot in The Hamptons. Outdoor eating is probably going to be the order of the day. Formal long dresses won’t work. There’s also a swimming pool, and I’m guessing that you didn’t pack any swimwear...’