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Those debts were a drop in the ocean for him, But she was still concerned enough to make a case for paying him back. The thought of just letting him pay off debts her mother had been responsible for made Sidonie feel faintly ill.
But after last night—surely something had shifted between them? Maybe something of what they’d had before hadn’t been irretrievably lost...?
Sidonie’s heart beat fast at that. Maybe the lines of communication could be a little more open now. Surely he would respect her desire to pay him back?
When Sidonie went in search of Alexio and found him reading a newspaper at the breakfast table she had a smile on her face. It soon faded, though, when he looked at her with a cool expression, his face unreadable.
‘Good morning.’
‘Morning...’ she said faintly, wondering if this clean-shaven epitome of elegance in a dark suit and shirt was the same man who had driven her to the brink of her endurance three times last night. Now she didn’t feel so bad about leaving his bed. The sense of rawness and vulnerability was back with a vengeance.
The housekeeper who worked for a few hours every day, preparing meals and cleaning the apartment, bustled in with breakfast for Sidonie and she sat down silently. The doctor had recommended a diet full of nutrients to help her get back on her feet but she couldn’t stomach anything now. She felt a little sick.
‘Okay?’ Alexio’s question was cool.
Sidonie nodded and avoided his eye, picking at the food. It was as if nothing had happened.
He finished his coffee and put his paper down. ‘We should talk...’ he said.
Sidonie gave up pretending to try and eat and pushed her plate away slightly. She looked at him and wished she could block out the images from the previous night. The way he’d looked so intense... And she wished she could block out her feelings too, but it seemed as if now she’d admitted how she felt to herself she’d opened a dam.
‘Talk about what?’
Alexio looked serious. ‘About us...where we go from here.’
Something went cold inside Sidonie. She’d imagined a conversation like this, but not with Alexio sounding as if he was about to discuss profits and losses. Foolishly she’d imagined something altogether more passionate.
In her silence, he clarified, ‘We can’t go on in this state of limbo... You’re feeling better. I have to get back to work. We need to figure out the logistics.’
Limbo. Was that what he thought last night had been about? While Sidonie had been realising how much she loved him?
She slid out of her chair and stood up. Alexio stood too, instantly dwarfing her. She moved back.
‘I don’t think I’m quite getting your meaning.’
His hands curled around the back of his chair. ‘What I’m talking about is where we’ll live—how we will proceed. I’ll have to buy a new house, of course. The apartment isn’t suitable for a baby... Or maybe you want to be here? Near to your aunt?’
Sidonie’s mouth had fallen open at the way he’d laid everything out so starkly. There was no emotion involved. She recovered her wits and felt anger rising at his cool arrogance.
‘This baby is not logistics—it’s a baby. Our daughter.’
Those words pricked her heart. She put her hands on her belly, the by now nearly constant fluttering comforting her.
‘I don’t expect us to proceed anywhere. I do expect me to go on with my life, though.’
Alexio looked every inch the powerful tycoon in that moment. ‘This isn’t up to you, Sidonie. You will allow me to provide for you and the baby.’
Sidonie cursed herself for ever having cast him in the role of benign benefactor. Emotions bubbled over. Enough for the both of them.
‘Her name is Belle. Not the baby. And I stupidly thought that after last night something had changed...that—’ She stopped and cursed herself silently. She’d said too much.
Alexio looked disgusted. ‘Our daughter is not going to be called Belle—what kind of a name is that?’
Sidonie replied faintly, ‘It’s Tante Josephine’s favourite name.’
She felt dazed at how naïve she’d been. Again. Nothing had changed.
That green gaze narrowed on her. ‘You thought what had changed?’
