Dangerous Alliance

CHAPTER TWO

FOR an instant Leanne was robbed of the power of speech, then the colour drained from her face, leaving it pale.

‘I don’t find that suggestion very amusing,’ she said at last.

Dimitri’s eyes never left hers, their dark depths faintly brooding, and she had the instinctive feeling that he had already weighed all the angles and was intent on playing a manipulative game.

‘I’m perfectly serious.’

The breath seemed suddenly locked in her throat, and she swallowed compulsively in the need to regain her voice. ‘Why?’

‘Paige is concerned for your future,’ he offered, noting the faint wariness which was apparent.

Logic vied with rationale, then mingled with a degree of angry resentment. ‘I’ve lived an independent life for more than four years. My future is secure, and afterwards...’ She trailed to a halt, then forced herself to continue. ‘I’ll simply return to the Coast.’

‘Where you’ll become an easy prey for fortune hunters,’ Dimitri accorded indolently.

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ she denied at once. ‘This house, everything, will revert to you.’

‘The house, yes. However, there are annuities you will inherit from a number of Kostakidas-affiliated corporations. There’s also an apartment in Athens, a home in Switzerland, and a villa in France. Jewellery, stocks, shares. Gifts Yanis bestowed on Paige during his lifetime. All of which will become yours.’ He paused slightly, watching her expressive features carefully as the effect of his words sank in. ‘Added together, their worth totals several million.’

It was almost impossible to comprehend, for, although she’d known her late stepfather’s personal wealth had been measured in millions, she’d had no idea of its extent. It wasn’t something she or Paige had ever discussed.

‘Yanis gifted me the Gold Coast apartment, and the beauty clinic,’ she said at once, perturbed beyond rational thought. ‘I don’t want or need anything else.’

‘Those weren’t my father’s wishes. Nor,’ he added quietly, ‘are they mine.’

‘I’ll contest Paige’s will in your favour,’ she declared vehemently.

‘Impossible. That eventuality has already been foreseen and legally negated.’

‘It can all accumulate and be held in trust.’

His smile held a tinge of cynicism. ‘Idealistic, Leanne, but scarcely practical.’ He regarded her carefully. ‘Paige and Yanis nurtured the hope that we might eventually become romantically attached, and it would give Paige peace of mind to believe that their fondest wish has eventuated. As it is, she’s consumed with anxiety over the men who will beat a path to your door, professing undying love in order to enjoy a free meal-ticket for life.’

Her eyes widened, their blue depths darkening measurably as she wrestled with a desire to please her mother and the fear that she’d never emerge from such subterfuge unscathed.

‘I’m no longer fifteen, and I do possess a degree of common sense. I don’t think I need a protector.’ Not you, she added silently. Dear lord, never you.

‘We’re discussing Paige,’ he reminded her, with velvet softness.

‘I don’t want to deceive her,’ she offered slowly.

‘Yet you love her very much,’ he pursued, and she shivered inwardly. ‘Enough to enter into a pretence that will make her happy, and ensure her peace of mind?’

‘What do you want, Dimitri? My unequivocal agreement to enact a lie?’

His eyes hardened fractionally, and his mouth curved to form a wry smile. ‘Will it prove so difficult given the limited time-span?’

She closed her eyes, then slowly opened them. ‘You know how to twist the knife, don’t you?’ she countered with a trace of bitterness.

His gaze didn’t falter as he reached for his glass. ‘Will you have some fruit, or would you prefer coffee?’

How could he sit there and switch so calmly from something of such personal magnitude to a mundane selection over lunch? Even as she contemplated the silent query, the answer followed. Dimitri was an astute businessman, well-versed in the cut and thrust utilised by power-brokers all over the world. He clinched deals worth millions, dealt with hardliners in the financial arena, and undoubtedly annihilated lesser minions on a day-to-day basis. Against such a formidable force, what chance did she have?

‘Chilled water,’ Leanne indicated, viewing him with circumspection as he took the carafe and refilled her glass.

‘Tell me about the beauty clinic,’ he encouraged with apparent interest, and she suffered his appraisal with unblinking solemnity, all too aware of what he saw, for it was an image she knew in detail.

Pale, fine-textured skin, a delicate bone-structure, a wide, generous mouth framing even white teeth, a nondescript nose, wide-spaced deep blue eyes, and shoulder-length natural ash-blonde hair.

‘It’s successful,’ she dismissed with a negligible shrug. ‘Women like to look good, and most are prepared to spend money in the name of beauty.’

‘Merely for self-gratification?’

‘Of course. And pleasing a man.’ She could recall instantly the features of several socialites who devoted much of their morning hours on a regular basis to one beauty treatment or another. Aromatherapy, a facial, brow and lash-tinting, massage, waxing, manicure and pedicure, to mention a few. When that failed to revive the passage of nature satisfactorily, they resorted to the skill of cosmetic surgery. Chasing elusive beauty and maintaining it was an expensive pastime, and Leanne was a skilled beautician, dedicated to her craft.

Dimitri reached forward and extracted a peach from the fruit bowl which he proceeded to peel and stone before offering her a segment. ‘No?’

The need to be free of his disturbing presence was overwhelming, and she excused herself from the table.

‘I’ll be caught up in the city for most of the afternoon,’ he revealed as she got to her feet. ‘Be ready at six. We’ll visit Paige, then go on somewhere for dinner.’

Leanne was unable to resist the query. ‘Won’t Shanna object?’

His gaze was remarkably level. ‘Shanna has nothing to do with my taking you to dinner.’

‘You could always drop me home, then meet her later.’

‘This conversation is going nowhere, Leanne,’ Dimitri drawled hatefully.

‘In that case, I’ll give Eleni a hand clearing the table, unpack, then visit Paige,’ she returned with the utmost politeness, and his husky laughter made her want to lash out in anger. Except that such an action would invoke his temper, and she’d already insulted him. To do so again on the same day would be the height of folly.

* * *

It was almost two-thirty when Leanne entered her mother’s suite and her heart contracted as Paige complimented gently, ‘Darling, you look so well.’

What could she say in return? It was difficult, much more difficult than she’d envisaged, and she simply pulled a chair close to the bed and sat holding Paige’s hand.

‘Dimitri is very fond of you,’ Paige offered huskily. Perhaps medication had eased her pain, for she didn’t seem to be under quite so much strain. ‘Anything you need, he’ll advise and guide you. He’s given me his word.’

Leanne wanted to cry, and her vision began to shimmer with the onset of tears. Oh, dear God, she agonised, help me.

‘Yanis loved you so much, almost as much as I do. He adored having you as his daughter.’

‘He was a wonderful man.’

‘Yes,’ Paige agreed simply. ‘As is his son.’

No. The single negation was a silent scream which seemed to reverberate inside her brain. Don’t do this to me. She longed to say that Dimitri had been the embodiment of her fantasy hero, as seen through the eyes of a teenage child. Her problem was in discovering he had feet of clay.

‘Everything I have will be yours. Property, jewellery,’ Paige continued after a long pause. ‘It amounts to a very sizeable inheritance, darling.’

Leanne felt her chest tighten with emotional pain, and her throat began to constrict as she attempted to gain some control over her turbulent emotions. ‘I don’t think I want to talk about it. It hurts too much,’ she whispered.

‘But I’m not afraid. Really,’ Paige assured her gently, her eyes a soft blue without any hint of fear. ‘My beloved Yanis will be there. And I don’t want you to be sad.’ Her eyes misted, and her lips curved into a soft, tremulous smile. ‘If I could have one wish, it would be to see you happily settled with a man who will love and care for you. Marriage,’ she continued quietly, and her fingers stroked Leanne’s hand with an absent, abstracted movement. ‘And children.’

Grandchildren you’ll never have the pleasure of seeing, Leanne said silently. It wasn’t fair. Paige would have made a wonderful grandmother.

Leanne was aware that any moment now she’d burst into tears. ‘I am happy,’ she said quickly. Too quickly. Paige’s illness and level of medication hadn’t diminished her perceptiveness in any way.

‘Are you, darling?’

Unable to find any adequate words that wouldn’t sound defensive, Leanne offered a shaky smile and launched into an amusing anecdote about something that had happened at the clinic. Then she left Paige to rest for an hour, and returned briefly with some of her mother’s favourite roses as well as some fresh fruit in the hope of tempting her appetite.

It was almost five when she arrived home, and after alerting Eleni that she was back she moved swiftly upstairs, shed her clothes, donned a swimsuit and then made her way down to the pool.

Perhaps if she set herself a rigorous number of lengths she would be able to dispel the haunting image of her mother’s pale features and the infinite sadness beneath her gentle smile.

It didn’t work; nor did attempting to focus her thoughts elsewhere. Consequently she was feeling infinitely fragile when she descended the stairs a few minutes before six.

Dimitri was in the lounge, a tall glass of chilled water in one hand, and his dark eyes speared hers as she entered the room.

‘A cool drink?’ He indicated a crystal water-pitcher liberally filled with ice-cubes and decorated with sliced lemon and sprigs of mint.

‘Please.’

He took a glass and filled it, then handed it to her, his expression musingly speculative as she carefully avoided touching his fingers.

He looked what he was: a well-educated man, well-versed in the analysis of humankind and aware of the limits of his control. It was a mantle he wore with uncontrived ease, and she felt a thousand light-years removed from his particular brand of sophistication. Which was crazy, especially as she’d been privy to an elevated lifestyle during the past ten years, and could converse knowledgeably on a variety of subjects.

It was Dimitri himself who unsettled her, for his degree of sensuality was a heady, potent entity she constantly fought against, aware that if she were ever to lose her inner battle the results would be totally cataclysmic.

He subjected her to an thorough appraisal, then let his gaze rest thoughtfully on the contoured pink fullness of her mouth.

‘When you’ve finished, we’ll leave.’

In the car he slotted a cassette into the stereo system and concentrated on negotiating the early evening traffic. Leanne conjured up a number of conversational subjects to pursue, only to discard each one, and she sat quietly as the sleek, powerful vehicle ate up the distance.

Paige had already eaten, and she brightened as Leanne preceded Dimitri into the room.

‘You look lovely, darling,’ Paige complimented her gently. ‘That shade of blue does wonderful things for your eyes.’ Her gaze shifted to the man at her daughter’s side. ‘Don’t you think so?’

‘Stunning,’ Dimnitri agreed as he crossed to the bed and brushed his lips against Paige’s temple. ‘How are you feeling?’

There was such a depth of affectionate concern in his voice that Leanne’s body quivered slightly, and she was conscious that her voice sounded a little too bright as she greeted her mother, then sank into a chair which Dimitri had pulled close to the bed.

He merely stood close behind her. Much too close. She was conscious of him with every muscle in her body, every nerve-end, and it was all she could do not to visibly jump when his hand came to rest on her shoulder.

Paige noticed the implied intimacy, and smiled. ‘Where are you going for dinner?’

He named a restaurant that was not only ruinously expensive, but well-known for its fine cuisine.

Paige’s eyes took on a luminous sheen. ‘Is it a celebration of some kind?’

‘Not quite,’ Dimitri drawled, and Leanne felt his fingers tighten slightly over the fine bones at the edge of her collarbone. ‘I’m hopeful that the combination of an excellent vintage wine and superb food will persuade Leanne to accept my proposal.’

The air became trapped in her lungs, impeding her breathing, and she could have sworn that the beat of her heart stopped before it went racing into overdrive. Words froze in her throat as he curved his free hand round the sensitive arch of her nape.

You bastard, she longed to cry out at him. An angry denial rushed to her lips, then died as she caught sight of her mother’s expression.

Joy, pure joyous relief intermingled with a happiness so vivid it lit her features and turned them into something so incredibly beautiful that it brought any verbal negation that Leanne might have uttered to a halt.

As Dimitri had known it would. Just as he knew she wouldn’t have the heart to do anything other than go to her mother’s outstretched arms and accept the loving embrace, share her tears, then watch with a sense of stunned disbelief as Dimitri extracted a slim pouch and slid a large, pear-shaped diamond on to the appropriate finger of her left hand.

‘You didn’t breathe a word this afternoon,’ Paige said huskily.

‘Quite simply because I had no idea of Dimitri’s intention,’ Leanne responded with a calm she was far from feeling. The ring felt heavy, and she barely resisted the temptation to tear it from her finger.

‘Yanis would have been so happy. As I am.’ Her mother’s words were faintly breathy, emotion-filled, and somehow Leanne managed a suitable response.

Presenting the façade of a newly engaged fiancée took all her acting ability, and it was a minor miracle that she managed to emerge almost forty minutes later from Paige’s suite without having resorted to histrionics.

Leanne was silent all the way to the car, and she didn’t utter a word as he reversed out of the car park and eased the vehicle on to the main thoroughfare, then her tightly controlled anger erupted in a heated flow of words designed to blister his hateful hide.

‘How dare you?’

‘Pre-empt your decision? It was a foregone conclusion, knowing the depth of your love for Paige.’

‘That doesn’t give you the right—’

‘I care for Paige very much. Enough to give her pleasure for what limited time she has left. Surely we can put aside our own differences long enough to perpetuate an illusion?’

‘That isn’t the point!’

‘What is the point, Leanne? Your resentment, your anger? Surely the focus should be Paige herself?’

She was too incensed to accede to his dictum, and she flung furiously, ‘I don’t want to have dinner with you.’

‘I’ve made a reservation, and we both need to eat. Why not share a meal together?’

‘Because I’m so mad, I’ll probably pick up the soup plate and tip the contents over your head!’

‘I shall consider myself forewarned.’

‘Or the salad,’ she muttered direly as he pulled into a car park adjacent to one of Toorak’s well-known restaurants.

The ring was an alien manacle, and she slid it off, ready to hand it to him the instant he cut the ignition.

‘Leave it on,’ Dimitri ordered as she thrust it at him.

‘Why?’

‘It stays on, Leanne.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous. It’s far too valuable, and too—’ She had been going to say beautiful, because the stone in its setting was exquisite. ‘Everyone will notice.’

‘Precisely,’ he conceded with dry cynicism, and her eyes widened in shocked disbelief.

‘You mean to go public with this?’

‘Paige has a phone beside her bed,’ he enlightened her. ‘Her weakened state doesn’t prevent her from making calls.’ He viewed Leanne’s dawning horror with musing cynicism. ‘It will take only one friend to spread the news and within a matter of days it will have circulated among the social set.’

‘You really mean to go through with this pretence openly?’

‘Of course. It has to be seen to succeed.’

‘Define succeed, Dimitri,’ she insisted, aware that the whole thing was rapidly getting out of hand. Like a snowball accumulating in size as it gained momentum and assumed the very real threat of becoming an avalanche.

‘A formal announcement in the Press tomorrow.’

‘You mean you’ve actually gone that far?’ Her voice rose. ‘You damned egotistical, proprietorial bastard!’

‘Watch your unwary tongue,’ he warned silkily.

‘Forgive me,’ Leanne flung with unaccustomed sarcasm. ‘I wasn’t aware I shouldn’t put up any resistance to a scheme I’m not happy with—or,’ she added vengefully, ‘dare to upbraid you for taking charge without my sanction.’

‘Come and eat.’

‘I don’t want to eat, and I especially don’t want to eat with you.’

‘Nevertheless, you will.’

‘I refuse to sit at the same table and pretend. The food would choke me.’

‘Aren’t you being overly dramatic?’

‘Don’t patronise me, Dimitri,’ she said darkly.

‘You used to be such an obedient child,’ he relayed musingly.

‘What would you know?’ she flung. ‘You were rarely there.’

‘Did you want me to be?’

That was too close to the bone for comfort, and her eyes were startlingly clear in the subdued overhead lighting. ‘You were thirteen years my senior, more sophisticated, and a thousand light-years ahead of me. Besides, a teenage stepsister would have cramped your style.’

‘Yet there were occasions when I partnered you to several functions Paige and Yanis chose to attend,’ he alluded with deceptive mildness.

She remembered them well, each one etched permanently in her brain. Now she felt resentful that he’d adroitly defused the immediate situation by orchestrating a subtle shift from her heated anger.

‘This restaurant is one of your favourite haunts,’ she reminded him stoically, then added the rider, ‘What if Shanna is there?’

‘We’re all civilised adults,’ Dimitri returned smoothly.

‘This—this farce,’ she said in a tight voice, ‘is solely for Paige’s benefit. If you dare to act out the part of adoring fiancé anywhere else but at the hospi-tal—’

‘Difficult to confine our actions, when it will be news in a variety of papers tomorrow,’ he drawled.

‘I’ll never forgive you,’ she vowed with renewed vehemence.

‘Our first public appearance à deux is inevitable,’ he told her drily. ‘Besides, what excuse will you give Paige for a change in plan? That we couldn’t wait to be alone together?’

She barely restrained herself from hitting out at him, and angry resolve prompted her to reach for the door-catch. ‘Do you always use such devious tactics in a bid to achieve your objective?’

She didn’t wait to hear his answer, and slid out from the passenger seat, choosing to walk on ahead of him. A fruitless exercise, for she’d scarcely taken half a dozen steps before he reached her side.

The restaurant was one she’d frequented occasionally with Paige, and its elegant décor projected an ambience that was frequently sought by the city’s upper social echelons. Which was probably why Dimitri had selected it, she decided darkly as the maître d’ proffered an effusive greeting before leading them to a prominent table reserved, Leanne instantly surmised, for the chosen, favoured few.

Dimitri ordered champagne, Dom Pérignon, and at Leanne’s faintly raised eyebrow he merely smiled and asked the wine steward to fill her glass.

The lighting was subdued and attuned to intimate dining, but she felt as if she and Dimitri were the room’s central focus. The diamond on her finger flashed with a fiery brilliance from myriad facets, and she pushed her hand out of sight on her lap, supremely conscious of its significance.

The restaurant catered for leisurely dining, and she selected the soup de jour, followed it with a prawn starter, refused a main course, passed on dessert and opted against the cheeseboard. The serving of each course seemed to take an age, and by the time coffee was brought to the table she was seething with impatience to leave.

To attempt to maintain a polite façade almost killed her, yet inherent good manners wouldn’t permit a public display of anger.

And he knew, damn him, for he kept up a divertissement that was masterly, with an ease she could only admire but inwardly seethe at as he tempted her to try a morsel from his fork and refilled her flute with champagne.

The coffee was strong and aromatic, and she sipped it abstractedly, wishing only for the evening to conclude. She was tired, emotionally exhausted, and suffering the onset of a headache.

A predominate waft—wave, Leanne corrected wryly—of exotic perfume assailed her nostrils, and was immediately followed by the tinkling sound of a feminine voice.

‘Dimitri, what are you doing here? I understood you weren’t due back from Perth until next week.’

‘Shanna.’ Dimitri’s greeting was warm, but not effusive.

Courtesy ensured an acknowledgement of his companion. ‘Leanne.’ The brunette proffered a brilliant smile. ‘How are you? Are you down on holiday from the Coast?’

‘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.’