Intercepting a warm smile from Ysabelle, Miah went over to talk as best she could to Alexander’s grandmother. The grizzled bearded man by her side revealed that he was a retired professor living in Ysabelle’s village and he translated to enable the two women to communicate. Miah was surprised to find that she was confiding in Ysabelle about her parents’ separation.Alexander joined them and spoke at length to his grandmother before closing a hand over Miah ’s and guiding her onto the dance floor. She glanced up at his lean, breathtakingly handsome face and her heart thumped heavily in her eardrums. She felt so vulnerable, so unsure of what to do next, for the passion they had shared had wrecked the framework of their relationship and she had no idea what would replace it.‘We’re leaving,’ Alexander explained only when she questioned why they were leaving the function room and by a side door. ‘Ysabelle’s right. You look exhausted…like a little white ghost, angil moy…’PINK colour swa
‘Whether I like it or not is irrelevant!’ Miah argued wildly.‘How can it be?’ Alexander urged, turning her round to face him. ‘It’s the icing on the cake for both of us. But you should have warned me that I would be your first lover. If I’d known I would have been more patient and I might have hurt you less.’Miah wanted the tiled floor to open up and swallow her. She snatched at her bodice before it could tumble lower and expose her bare breasts. Her hands were trembling, for she was remembering that wild passion when his impatience had only been matched by her eagerness and the pain had drowned in the hot sweet tide of pleasure. Her face burning, she stepped back from him. ‘I’m fine,’ she said flatly.Alexander dealt her a flashing smile of such intrinsic charisma that her gaze stayed glued to him. ‘We’ll eat together in an hour.’Relieved by his departure and wrung out by the day’s events, Miah shed her dress in the bedroom and finally sank into the bath with a heartfelt sigh o
Struggling to appear unaware of that lengthy all-male scrutiny, Miah asked herself what she was doing sitting on his bed. Was that being standoffish? More businesslike in her approach? Discouraging? Shame sat like a lump of lead in her stomach but she didn’t budge. Without warning the prospect of keeping her distance from him and restoring platonic limits had all the appeal of a heavy rainstorm on her horizon.‘I like that you’re completely sober,’ Alexander commented.‘I learned to leave my glass full and everyone stopped pushing more drinks in my direction,’ she confided with a comical expression.Charmed by that cheeky smile, Alexander switched off his phone, tossed it aside, and reached for her with purposeful hands. She came up on her knees, and he knotted one hand in the heavy fall of her golden hair and slowly, sexily ravished her mouth while he pushed the wrap and the straps of her nightie down off her slim shoulders. As the garments fell to her knees, he captured her breasts
WHAT are you doing?’ Alexander demanded as Miah slid soundlessly off the side of the bed like a wraith trying to avoid detection. In almost the same movement she reached for her discarded nightdress.Miah ’s upper lip was damp with perspiration. She had broken out in a literal cold sweat. Why would Alexander lie? Nor had there been anything teasing about his voice or manner. Indeed he’d had been terrifyingly matter-of-fact when he mentioned putting back the time frame for a while. A baby? She was to give him a baby as part of the contract? He had to be out of his mind!She pulled on her nightie with shaking hands, for the nakedness of intimacy seemed more wrong than ever now that she was being forced to confront the reality that to protect her sister she had deceived him. Was it possible that Mirabella could have set out to deceive her as well? It was after midnight and Miah was incredibly tired. There were no bright ideas in her mind to inspire her and no magical escape hatch in sig
‘According to what you’ve told me your sister used your name from the outset in this scam,’ Alexander reminded her very drily. ‘Obviously there was no way that she could ever have planned to marry me when she was masquerading under your name! That would have been a legal impossibility.’In receipt of that shrewd and contemptuous assurance, Miah dealt him a fuming appraisal, infuriated by his insinuations. Just then she was in the grip of shock and it was beyond her capability to compute that fact and doubt her sister’s intentions when her own actions had always been powered by family loyalty. ‘You’ve said enough—’Alexander flung open the communicating door to her bedroom in a blunt invitation for her to leave. ‘I’ve only just begun.’‘What are you going to do…now that you know?’ Miah asked nervously.‘I’m not about to be the loser in this scenario,’ Alexander drawled, smooth as silk. ‘Be assured of that. I may well prosecute you and your sister for fraud.’Miah twisted her hands t
And now she knew that it was a job she could never, ever fulfil. Alexander had been willing to pay a fortune for a discreet woman, willing to give him a child and then walk away without any hassle. What did that say about him? Her soft mouth trembled and she dug her fingers tightly into her palms. Not a guy who thought much of a woman’s maternal instincts or even of a child’s need for a mother. Not a guy who thought much of women as decent people full stop, she reckoned painfully. And all she had done was give him even more justification for his cynical attitude towards her sex!Her eyes stung with tears and she blinked rapidly and sniffed, furious that her emotions were still out of her control. But she really did feel wretched and ashamed at what she had let herself get involved in. She was thinking about the man who had impassively admitted putting his alcoholic mother to bed every night as a child. Even his loving grandmother had not managed to alter Alexander’s bleak view of fami
‘How?’‘I want you in my bed whenever I want you, and with no more nonsense about not wanting to be with me.’ Alexander lifted his arrogant dark head high, his glittering golden eyes hurling a challenge. ‘If I’m not going to get a child out of this arrangement, that will be my compensation.’Aquamarine eyes wide with alarm at that bold demand, Miah was wildly aware of the burning heat of his sensual scan of her body and she slowly turned a painful pink shade.‘And that is not negotiable in any way,’ Alexander intoned soft and low. ‘I will only let you go free if you return that money.’Miah sent him an anguished look. ‘I couldn’t just go on sleeping with you as though nothing has happened!’Alexander shrugged a broad shoulder in a show of outrageous nonchalance. ‘I think you’ll find you can, just like you did yesterday when you were the only one of us aware of the deception,’ he reminded her with a sardonic curl to his handsome mouth. ‘I’m leaving for London in an hour but you’re st
Suddenly, without a warning, Miah and Alexander had another vision as their eyes met, they knew it was them ... .in the past…standing outside Shaina’s room. “Are you Miah Del Ponce?” There was a stranger standing outside Shaina’s room. She sensed he had been lurking there for some time. Miah had scanned him, of course, that was as natural to her as breathing, and she had known he was waiting to talk with her.“The doctors here are quite remarkable,” she said softly. “Don’t you think it is much more likely they healed the child if her cancer is in remission? I go and read to the children often, but I cannot heal them, much as I would like to. Have you seen them on the cancer ward? They are so beautiful and brave. It’s rather heartbreaking. Perhaps you should visit them. The story would have tremendous human interest, don’t you think?”She buried the subtle compulsion in her suggestion carefully. The reporter shook his head as if to clear it. “I have to get the story.” She nodded gentl