Jacqueline Baird - Mediterranean Tycoons

‘If you’re sure, Lisa.’ The expression on Jed’s young face was incredibly grave. ‘But promise me when you get home you will explain to your husband the truth—that we’re friends, nothing more.’

Lisa felt overwhelmingly protective of this man she had met for the first time today. She knew Jed had not a cynical or nasty thought in his head, money didn’t interest him, only people, and he would never understand a ruthless predator of a man like Alex.

‘Of course I will, Jed, and don’t worry. Alex and I will be laughing about this by dinnertime.’ Forcing a brilliant smile to her lips, she tightened her fingers around his calloused palm. ‘Now, come on, cowboy, you can watch the horse riders on Rotten Row and tell me how they compare to Montana.’

At six in the evening, Jed helped her onto the train. She turned and leant out of the window, and brushed a gentle kiss on his tanned brow. ‘Till the next time, Jed.’

His brilliant blue eyes glistened with something remarkably like tears. ‘I’ve had a wonderful afternoon, Lisa. Never mind the rocky start. Know that I will always be there for you.’ The guard sounded his whistle and the train moved off… Lisa waved until the platform was out of sight.

LISA stepped reluctantly out of her BMW just as the heavens opened. She walked up the stone steps to the front door to her home and got thoroughly soaked in the process. Great! Just great… That was all she needed.

It was only her promise to Jed to explain their relationship to Alex that had brought her back to Stoneborough tonight. Was she destined to be a fool all her life where Alex was concerned? She had forgiven his escapades with Margot and Nigel. She had even convinced herself he loved her. But his behaviour with Jed had finally shown her the truth. Alex did not love her.

How and why he had followed her today, she had no idea. But he was not talking his way out of this latest episode, she vowed silently. Much as she loved him, she had no intention of being a doormat for any man. Her pride would not let her. With her dress plastered to her body by the rain, she pushed open the front door and walked into the hall. She didn’t see Alex until he spoke.

‘I’m amazed you had the nerve to come back. Like living dangerously, do you?’

Her head lifted, he was striding towards her, wearing the same black pants and shirt he had donned for golf that morning. He looked incredibly sexy, and a wayward leap of her pulse told her she was not immune to him. But whatever game Alex had been playing today it certainly had not been golf…

Dropping her purse on the hall table, she shrugged. ‘I live here, and I need to change.’ A confrontation with Alex was inevitable, but not yet. Because she knew if she did confront him now, her anger would get the better of her and she would say something she might regret. Brushing past him, she headed for the stairs, but he was faster than her and blocked her way.

‘Don’t you walk away from me!’ he bit.

That was the last straw for Lisa. No way was any man going to talk to her like that, especially not an arrogant devil like Alex. She flung her head back, her blue eyes spitting fury. ‘Get out of my way, you great brute, you Neanderthal numbskull,’ she raged, swiping at him but missing, as he caught her flailing hand.

‘A Neanderthal? A brute, am I? You dare to call me names?’ An expression of cold derision tautened his handsome face. ‘This from a woman who has spent the afternoon in the arms of her toyboy.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous! Jed is not a toyboy; he’s a year older than me,’ she snapped.

‘And that makes your betrayal all right?’ Alex enquired silkily.

‘Betrayal?’ she threw back, her eyes warring angrily with his. ‘That’s rich, coming from you. I went to meet an old friend, and what happens? You appear like some demented dervish, knock him flat, and whirl off. And I am in the wrong? Oh please…’

‘What kind of fool do you take me for?’ Alex rasped.

‘The kind of sneaky, devious fool who spies on his wife because he thinks everyone’s morals are as low as his own,’ Lisa shot back hotly. ‘The kind who conveniently forgets to retrieve the key of his apartment from his mistress.’ She was on a roll and could not stop; she was so incensed by the injustice of Alex’s attitude. ‘The kind of man who thinks the only relationship between a man and a woman must be carnal.’

His hand released hers to snake around her waist and bend her back over his arm before she had a chance to move. He captured her mouth in a ravishing kiss. His mouth searched, teased and tormented with a devastating thoroughness, until she whimpered in despair at her own frailty and lifted her hands to cling to his broad shoulders.

‘What happened Lisa?’ he demanded softly, his mouth close to her lips and brushing sensuously over their swollen fullness. ‘Tell me?’ He kissed her eyelids and the small curve of her ear, and her hands with a will of their own slid from his shoulders to his nape, twining in his silky black hair. His kiss, his caresses plunged her into a sensual sea of need, which overrode all her good intentions.

His dark head lifted. ‘No answer?’ Lisa stared up at him in frustrated desire, not able to trust herself to respond.

‘After cyber sex with your boyfriend, the physical reality a bit of a letdown was it?’ Alex demanded mockingly. ‘The young man not quite as experienced in the flesh, as you would have liked?’

The import of his words hit her like blows to the heart. She could not believe he could be so cruel. She stared at him. His dark eyes were as cold and hard as a block of ice. Her hands fell from his shoulders, her fingers curling into her palms, her nails digging into her flesh as she fought to control the agony of frustrated desire. What was it about him that made him irresistible to her? While she was tormented by aching passion, he was as contained and remote as Antarctica. A frozen waste—a very apt description of their marriage.

‘You’re disgusting,’ Lisa said in a raw voice, but, worse, she disgusted herself.

His arm fell from her waist and he stepped back. ‘Liar.’ His smile mocked her, his narrow-eyed gaze triumphant. ‘I could take you now…’

Lisa went red, then white. It was one insult too many. She stared at him with bitter, hostile eyes. Tall, dark and strikingly handsome, but she must have been mad to imagine she had loved him. He didn’t deserve to be loved.

‘You’re a stunningly sexy woman, Lisa, but I have never taken another man’s leavings and I am not going to start now. I may have married you, but that is easily remedied.’ He cast her one long, derisory glance. ‘Pack your bags. I want you out of here within the hour. Anything you leave can be sent on to Stratford. My lawyer will be in touch next week. Personally, I never want to set eyes on you again.’ Spinning on his heel, he crossed the hall into his study, slamming the door behind him.

Shock held her rigid. She squeezed her eyes tightly closed. Alex was throwing her out. The arrogance, the sheer hypocrisy of the man took the breath from her body. For a second rage engulfed her. She took a step towards the study, and then stopped. Alex was not about to listen to anything she had to say, and, in all honesty, she no longer had any desire to explain about Jed.

Alex did not love her, and never would. He was not capable of the emotion. Let him think she had betrayed him with Jed. He would anyway. This way at least she kept her pride. He would never know how much she loved him.

Several weeks later Lisa sat at her desk, fingering the pile of mail the office junior had just delivered. The recent past had taken its toll on her fresh-faced beauty: Her golden tan had faded, and deep purple shadows framed her large blue eyes.