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‘So who looked after her?’
Lindsay brushed a speck of dust from her skirt. ‘I did.’
Alessio frowned. ‘You were seven years old. How could you possibly look after a baby?’
‘I’d been looking after myself for several years,’ Lindsay told him quietly. ‘I just included Ruby in everything I did. I did our washing. I cooked our meals. I hugged her when she cried. Fortunately my school was round the corner so I used to nip home in between lessons and at lunchtime.’
‘That explains why you worry about her so much. I often thought you behaved more like a mother than a sister.’
Lindsay rubbed the tips of her fingers over her forehead. ‘She actually started to call me Mum when she was about two, but I didn’t let her. I wanted her to know that I was her sister, not her Mum. I was too young to understand it all myself, but I think I knew instinctively that she had enough emotional problems without growing up thinking I was her mother.’ She looked at him and shrugged. ‘It was a mess. I probably didn’t handle it right—’
‘I think you are incredible,’ he said softly and Lindsay faltered, touched by his praise.
‘I don’t know. Ruby was left very traumatised by the whole thing and I was too young to know how to deal with that. My solution was to smother her in love, but that didn’t compensate for the damage done to her confidence and feeling of security. The divorce almost finished her off because Mum blamed her for the whole thing. If she hadn’t had Ruby—oh, you can imagine the sort of things she said.’
‘I don’t think I want to. And what about you, Lindsay? You’ve talked a lot about your sister and the effect it had on her.’ His voice was low. ‘What about the effect it had on you?’
For a moment she didn’t answer. Then she stirred. ‘Well, it made me interested in psychology. And it has taught me that passion isn’t a good basis for a marriage. But you already know that. You see that every day in your work.’
‘So you want a marriage without passion?’ His incredulous tone made her laugh.
‘No. No, I don’t want that. I’m far too greedy to settle for that.’ She met his gaze. ‘Which is why I’m turning down your invitation. But thank you.’ She smiled. ‘Thank you for asking.’
‘Greedy? What is it that you want?’
‘Oh—’ she leaned her head back against her seat, her expression wistful ‘—the whole dream. I want the passion, yes. But I also want a man who excites me in other ways—a man who is going to love me for who I am, who’ll stick with me when things get difficult and who will genuinely care about me.’ She glanced at him and shrugged, trying to laugh at herself. ‘And that, I suppose, is why I’m still single and likely to stay that way.’
‘Lindsay—’
She held up a hand because the whole thing was hard enough without him trying to persuade her. ‘Don’t say anything else. I don’t regret what happened between us, if that’s what you want to know. In the end you won, Alessio. I couldn’t resist you. But I’d do the whole thing again in a moment. You’ve changed the way I look at the past—made me understand things about myself that I didn’t really understand before.’ She frowned. ‘I can’t forgive Mum for the way she treated Ruby, but at least now I understand a little bit more about how passion can take over.’ She blinked several times. ‘I can see the runway lights. We’re about to land.’
It was over.
CHAPTER TEN
TWO weeks later, driven to the point of combustion by yet another wealthy, demanding client, Alessio strode out of the glass meeting room towards the lift.
What the hell was the matter with him?
He used to relish the mental stimulation of his job, but since his return from the Caribbean it had been nothing but a source of irritation.
His mobile phone buzzed and he lunged into his pocket and retrieved it, swiftly scanning the caller’s number. Realising that the call was from a Russian supermodel he’d been dating a few months earlier, he gritted his teeth, rejected the call and dropped the phone back in his pocket, appalled by the depth of his own disappointment.
What had he expected?
Lindsay Lockheart telling him she’d changed her mind about having an affair with him?
She didn’t want that, did she?
Clearly she wasn’t feeling anywhere near the depth of frustration that he was.
Loosening his tie with an impatient yank of his fingers, Alessio scowled as one of his team called his name and hurried up behind him.
Now what?
Hadn’t he made it clear that he wanted to be on his own?
Visibly nervous, the man stepped into the lift with him. ‘I assume from the questions you asked, that you’re not prepared to take the case?’
