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“The phone is for you. It is your sister.”
Alexandra crawled across the bed and took the phone from Dimitri’s outstretched hand. “Madeleine?”
“Yes. It’s me. How are things going with you-know-who?” Madeleine sounded nervous.
“Don’t ask.”
“That bad, huh?”
Bad? No. More like foolish. Falling into bed with Dimitri the first time around hadn’t been her smartest move, but doing it this time, when their future was unsettled and she was still dealing with the effects of his betrayal was outright stupidity. “We’ve got a lot to discuss, that’s all.”
“Did he show you proof he didn’t marry that Greek girl?”
“Yes.”
“That’s good anyway. Hunter said he would. Maybe he’s not a complete swine.”
“Hunter or Dimitri?” she asked facetiously.
“Both,” was her sister’s surprising and emphatic reply.
“Is everything all right, chérie?”
“Well…”
“Madeleine…” she said in a voice she had used since childhood to encourage her sister to fess up.
“It’s all Hunter’s fault!”
Hunter, the man who went to any lengths to make her sister happy? Alexandra had a hard time believing he’d done anything to hurt Madeleine. “What’s all his fault?”
“He had a business contact invite Dimitri to the party…on purpose!”
Pure shock traveled through Alexandra. “What?”
“He said he was worried about you. He didn’t think you were adjusting to life without Dimitri very well and wanted to know if there was a chance for you two. Hunter made discreet inquiries and found out Dimitri had been searching for Xandra Fortune since a couple of days after you landed in New York. Remember that time he suggested you call Dimitri and try to work it out?”
She remembered. It had been a week after the ultrasound. “I told him I’d rather move in with Mama.”
Madeleine laughed, albeit stiltedly. “He didn’t know you thought Dimitri was married and he couldn’t figure out why you wouldn’t at least give the father of your baby one more chance.”
“So he decided to take the choice out of my hands?” she asked, feeling both outraged and outclassed. Hunter had been right and she and Dimitri did need to work out their future, whatever that might be. Still…“Save me from arrogant men.”
“I slept in the guest room,” Madeleine said with a certain amount of satisfaction.
Evidently Hunter didn’t know how to pick a lock.
“I’m sorry, Maddy. I don’t want you and Hunter arguing because of me.”
“He could have told me his plans. I might even have gone along if he told me Dimitri wasn’t really married.”
“Maddy!”
“Well, Hunter was right about one thing. You were wilting without Dimitri. You sound more alive this morning than you have in the past three months.”
Alexandra didn’t know how to respond to that bit of truth, so she changed the subject. “Is that all you called about?”
“Actually, no…” She was back to sounding nervous.
What more could there be?
“Mother flew in on an early morning flight and she wanted to know where you were and I didn’t want to tell her, but then Hunter came in. And just like a man, he didn’t realize he’d be starting World War III and told her you were staying at a hotel with Dimitri. Mother fainted and I screamed at Hunter and now he’s not speaking to me…” At this point Madeleine’s voice broke.
“Oh, chérie. I don’t want my problems to become yours.”
Madeleine gave a watery laugh. “That’s so like you. You took care of mother and me when Daddy died and tolerated Mama’s disapproval. But when it comes time to lean on someone else, you feel guilty, for Heaven’s sake!”
“I got myself into this mess. No one else should have to pay the price for my stupidity.”
Dimitri stiffened beside her.
“Well, Mama’s on her way over to get you out of it!”
She couldn’t have heard right. “But…”
“She threatened to swoon again like some Victorian maiden, but the thing is, she looked pale as death…so I told her what hotel Dimitri was staying in and your room number.”
Madeleine started crying and saying she was sorry over and over again. Her argument with Hunter and having their mother descend on her had clearly taken its toll.
“Calm down, Maddy. It will be fine. She’s my mother, of course I don’t mind you telling her where I am,” Alexandra said, lying through her teeth.
“But the newspapers. They’re awful. I don’t know how you’re going to handle it.”
Newspapers? “What are you talking about, Maddy?”
“You don’t know?” Madeleine started crying again. “It’s just terrible and after all you’ve been through already.”
Knowing she wasn’t going to get another coherent word out of her sister, Alexandra did her best to calm Madeleine before hanging up the phone. She turned to face Dimitri. “My mother is on her way over.”
Dimitri’s brow rose. “So I gathered.”
“She’s on the warpath, though Mother’s version of warfare is quite genteel.” That had never stopped Alexandra from feeling like she’d been through the meat grinder after one of her mother’s lectures though.
“She is your mother. Her greatest concern is for your welfare,” he said with absolute confidence.
She just laughed, although the sound was a hollow one. “Mama’s highest priority is the dignity attached to the Dupree name. Appearance is everything and my staying in your suite doesn’t look right no matter how you wrap it up and tie it with a pretty little bow.”
He was silent for several seconds, his regard so intent, she felt heat rush into her cheeks. “What?” she finally demanded.
“I am shocked at my own naiveté. I believed the whole Xandra Fortune image. A French fashion model, an orphan, a woman of the world with a sophisticated outlook on life, a woman who had no sense of family responsibility because she’d never had one.”
“And?” Honestly, some times talking to him was like going through a maze blindfolded and tipsy from too much wine. What was his point? And what did all this have to do with the impending visit from her mother?
He shook his head as if clearing it. “Many things did not fit the image if I had but looked at them.”
“You were interested in an uncomplicated relationship with a worldly model. You saw what you wanted to see.”
“This is true.” He reached out and touched her cheek in an oddly affectionate gesture. “It is also true I saw what you wanted me to see, hmm?”
She couldn’t deny it. She had considered telling him the truth of her background so many times, but self-protection had kept her silent. And then there had been the fear that he would lose interest in the real Alexandra Dupree. It had been a big enough shock that a man like Dimitri could find her Xandra Fortune persona desirable.
“Well, you know what they say…You don’t usually know people as well as you think you do.” She could admit now that both she and Dimitri were guilty of that truth.
“But you made it a point to prevent me from knowing you.”
That wasn’t strictly true. “You knew me, the woman. I only hid the trappings of my life as Alexandra Dupree.”
“And gave me a false set of realities to replace them.”
“In a way, you are a lot like my mother. You only see the surface. You only want the surface,” she declared.
He tugged her into his arms and brushed his warm hand over the slope of her breast. Her nipple, still sensitive from their loving the night before, went erect immediately.
“It is true I like this surface.” His smile was pure seduction, but then he went serious. “It is not all I desire, however. I want all of you and I will have all of you.”
The possessive determination in the words made her shiver. She had the awful feeling he didn’t just mean marriage. He wanted her mind and her emotions. It was there in his eyes and he would settle for nothing less.
“Madeleine said something about a newspaper, but wouldn’t give me the details. I think you’d better look into it. Someone may have seen us together and is now speculating on who the billionaire’s pregnant companion is.”
He didn’t look worried. “After we shower I will make a phone call.”
She nodded and tried to pull away. “Mother’s already left Madeleine’s. She’ll be here in less than thirty minutes unless she hits traffic. We need to get showered and dressed.”
He stopped her from hopping out of bed. “Things have changed for us, have they not?”
