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Alicia was expecting a photo of her in her new bikini, and even Antonia had suggested she might like to go for a swim. Besides, Basa wasn’t arriving until this evening so how would he even know?
Fifteen minutes later she had completed maybe a dozen or so languid lengths of the pool and was floating in the shallow end, her eyes closed against a sun that was gratifyingly brighter than the one at home. From the house, she heard a door open and the sound of footsteps—it would be Antonia, coming to find out if she wanted anything.
Not wanting to look as though she was taking any of this for granted, she forced her eyes open and swam over to the edge of the pool...and froze. Breathing out shakily, she squinted into the sunlight at a man she recognised only too well.
Except it couldn’t be him, she thought, her heart doing a series of violent backflips. He wasn’t supposed to be here until this evening.
But, whether he was supposed to be there or not, it was Basa, standing at the top of the steps leading down to the terrace, his dark eyes hidden beneath a pair of sunglasses, his dark suit incongruous among the loungers and sunlight.
For a moment he didn’t move, and then to the loud and irregular accompaniment of her heartbeat, he made his way slowly down the steps to the pool.
She stared up at him mutely as he came to a halt in front of her upturned face.
‘So,’ he said, in a voice that stopped the breath in her throat, ‘I see you’ve already made yourself at home. Having fun?’
* * *
Basa gazed down at Mimi, his eyes narrowing as he slipped off his sunglasses.
Walking into the house, he’d been talking on the phone to his PA and had simply mouthed a greeting to Antonia and gone straight up to his rooms. He had a headache that was threatening to split his skull in two, and he was tired after a night spent in transit and on his laptop. Still talking, he’d been in the process of loosening his tie when he’d glanced out of the window to the terrace below.
Instantly his brain had dropped into neutral and he’d begun spouting gibberish—much to the confusion of his assistant.
He’d hung up and, without pausing to consider the consequences, strode back downstairs, past his startled housekeeper and out onto the sunlit terrace.
Normally on a day like this he would have taken a dip himself, but the fact that Mimi was in the pool and therefore depriving him of that pleasure seemed to justify the anger boiling in his chest.
An anger that was doubly vexing because Mimi’s near-naked presence in his pool was down to his own impulsive and unthinking behaviour.
His chest tightened. Ever since he’d walked out of that restaurant he’d been questioning his logic, his motives—hell, even his sanity—in arranging this weekend with her. But, confronted by Alicia’s stubborn attachment to the woman now in his swimming pool, and by the memory of what had so nearly happened at his sister’s birthday party, he’d acted with uncharacteristic rashness.
Firstly by suggesting that Mimi film the wedding and then by insisting that she come to Argentina.
Ostensibly, both were based on clear and infallible reasoning.
Mimi would be less visible behind a camera than in front of it, and by demanding that she came this weekend he was putting their relationship on a more formal footing. He wasn’t her boss, exactly, but he wanted to make it clear that she was answerable to him. That way there could be no blurring of lines when it came to how they interacted with one another.
His heart began to beat faster.
But that was only a part of why he wanted her here. That night in Fairbourne his hunger for her had blinded him to what lay beneath that beautiful creamy skin. Now, though, he knew her true character, and he wanted her to know that he was in full possession of the facts and her charms no longer held any attraction for him.
He’d fully expected his first meeting with Mimi at his home to prove him correct. By rights he should be standing here feeling immensely satisfied at having summoned her across an ocean, his body stone-cold.
Unfortunately the ache in his groin suggested that hope might have been a little premature.
Gazing down at Mimi, devastating in a black and white striped bikini, he felt his breathing unravel, and wished he’d had the sense to keep his sunglasses on.
‘I’m just taking a dip...’
Her blue eyes were watching him warily, and that together with the fact that her bikini-clad body was making him feel like some idiot in his suit only seemed to increase his irritation.
‘Yes, you are,’ he said softly.
‘Antonia said it would be okay.’ She frowned. ‘I thought you weren’t going to be here until later?’
‘Oh, I see. So this is a case of while the cat’s away?’
