Lisa stared up at him, appalled. What he said was true, but at the time her mother had just been diagnosed as terminally ill. The offer had been refused and banished from their minds. But he was right, damn him! Yet she was still convinced that if he had really wanted her to know he would have come straight out and told her. ‘Very plausible, but I don’t believe you,’ she countered with a disdainful shake of her head. ‘I know everything.’
‘Not everything.’ His sensual mouth twisted in the shadow of a smile. ‘You are so young, so impulsive, Lisa, but life is rarely black and white, as I have told you before.’ His long fingers kneaded her shoulders.
But Lisa wasn’t fooled. He used his powerful masculine sensuality as a weapon to control her. Call me an idiot, why don’t you? she thought furiously, incensed anew by his superior, patronising air.
‘Please spare me your platitudes. I know you have already bought thirty five per cent of the company. But understand this: I will do my damnedest to make sure that that is all you get.’ Lisa let fly with all the pent-up fury of the last week. ‘You disgust me. You are the most devious, despicable man I have ever had the misfortune to meet, and my sincerest wish is that I never have to set eyes on you again.’ And with one great effort she pushed him away.
‘Believe me, Lisa. I would never hurt you,’ Alex said softly.
‘Trying to take over my company is not supposed to hurt?’ She eyed him bitterly. In his own way, Alex probably saw nothing wrong in what he had done. He was a businessman first, last and always.
‘I am not trying to take over anything. I have bought out the other shareholders, that is all,’ he asserted.
‘That is impossible.’ She knew he had bought the Lee shares, but Harold’s? Never! ‘I don’t believe you.’ Her stormy blue eyes clashed with his. ‘You’re lying. Harold would never sell without consulting me.’ She saw a flash of what looked like pity in his dark gaze, and a peculiar sense of foreboding rose up inside her.
‘I’m sorry to disappoint you, Lisa. Andrew Scott, my London manager, completed the deal last Tuesday. But it was for your own good.’
Nothing was more calculated to stiffen Lisa’s backbone than her most hated phrase in the English language: For your own good. Invariably, it meant the exact opposite. ‘And how did you persuade Harold to betray me?’ she asked flatly.
‘I didn’t have to; he loves you. Apparently you convinced him it was time to move on.’
With a rising sense of inevitability, she cleared her throat, determined to go down fighting. ‘Now you’re going to tell me it’s for my own good that Lawson Designer Glass will be razed to the ground to make way for some poxy redevelopment,’ she prompted sarcastically. ‘Well, it won’t work; I still have overall control.’ She was lying, but she was banking on Alex not knowing that.
His firm mouth quirked at the corners. ‘Actually you do not have a majority; the Hospice sold their shares yesterday.’
Shock held her rigid. Her anguished eyes roamed over his arrogant dark head. ‘Oh, God!’ Lisa exclaimed. Alex now owned fifty-three percent of Lawson’s. He had done it. Bought her company from under her. ‘You really are the devil! You used sex to blind me, while robbing me blind.’ How could she have fallen in love with a man so lacking in any moral fibre? A man who had played on her innocence of the male sex to manipulate her into marriage and, cruellest of all, to rob her of her birthright. Easily, she thought sadly. She had recognised the dark power of his personality the moment she had met him. But love had blinded her to the ruthlessness inherent in the man.
‘I seem to recall, not so long ago, your body welcoming mine with an eagerness you could not hide. Far from being the devil, I am your guardian angel,’ Alex offered tautly, his narrowed eyes colliding with hers. ‘I bought the shares so you could keep your company.’
A harsh laugh escaped her. ‘Excuse me, but it was already mine,’ she reminded him bitterly, ignoring his crack about sex.
‘If I had not bought the shares, somebody else would have done.’ Alex shrugged. ‘Solomos International is an incredibly wealthy company, Lisa. We invest in many and varied projects all over the world. Do you really think it matters to me if we have one more site?’ he said, exasperation lacing his tone. ‘In fact, I have decided to cut back on my workload since meeting you.’ He glanced at her lovely proud face, and something very like compassion moved in his dark eyes. ‘I know it’s not your fault you ended up in the position you have, Lisa. Grief can do funny things and make fools of us all. It was an admirable gesture in memory of your mother to donate those shares, but it did put your business in a vulnerable position. You’re an intelligent woman, but you are very young and lack experience. Have you any idea how quickly you would have been out on your ear if any other firm had bought into your company?’ Not waiting for an answer, he added, ‘You were a sitting duck when you made that gift to the hospice.’
‘And you shot me down.’ But it was slowly dawning on her that there was an awful lot of truth in what Alex said. Had she made a terrible mistake?
‘The hell I did,’ he said savagely, reaching out and grabbing her shoulders. ‘I saved it for you.’
‘Oh, so how do you work that out, pray?’ she enquired sarcastically.
Alex’s hands tightened for a moment on her shoulders, and then he released her, the expression on his handsome face bleak. ‘Trust me, Lisa; you don’t need to know.’
‘But I don’t trust you,’ she said bluntly. ‘Not any more.’
He stared hard at her for long, tense seconds, the line of his jaw taut. She thought she saw a flicker of something like pain in his black eyes, but she must have imagined it, because he turned and walked away, to stand looking out of the window. He came back round to face her. ‘You’d better sit down; you are not going to like this,’ he said curtly, and indicated the small satin-covered sofa that rested against the wall with a wave of his hand.
Her first thought was to refuse, but something in his expression made her hesitate to defy him. With a nervous tug on the belt of her robe, she crossed to the sofa and sat down. She tilted her chin, her eyes cold as they met his. ‘So fire away. But try for the truth this time.’
His dark eyes flared briefly with anger at her slur on his honesty, and then he sighed. ‘A year ago Xela Properties—one of my companies as you so rightly said—was approached by a broker with an investment opportunity. Lawson’s Designer Glass was ripe to be taken over and the site developed more profitably.’ He glanced down at Lisa. ‘But then you know all this.’
‘There was no mention of redevelopment in the offer my mother received,’ Lisa snapped.
Alex simply arched one dark brow sardonically. ‘No one shows all his cards to his opponent.’
Lisa frowned. Her mother had been dying at the time, and that made it somehow worse. She looked back at Alex; was he the sort of man to prey on a dying woman?
He read her mind. ‘No. I did not know.’ He began pacing the floor in front of her. ‘Andy Scott investigated the feasibility of the deal, and approached me for permission to proceed, which, after visiting the site, I gave. The offer was turned down. The whole project was shelved and would have stayed that way.’
‘And that was when you decided to use more devious means, like marrying the owner,’ she cut in, hurting from the way he had tricked her.
‘Don’t be ridiculous, Lisa, I did not even know you then,’ Alex snapped. ‘And I could buy and sell your company a million times over. I certainly did not marry you to persuade you into parting with it.’
Put like that, it did make her fears seem a bit groundless, but it did not alter the fact she had overheard him plotting with Nigel. ‘So you say,’ she mumbled, still not prepared to believe him.
He stared down at her for a moment, his dark eyes cold and angry. Then he renewed his pacing. ‘I walked into the bar of a hotel in Statford-upon-Avon and I saw a beautiful elegant blonde with legs to die for. Then I saw her two companions—older, shorter, fatter and dark—nothing like t
he girl. I concluded they must be her sugar daddies.’
Lisa gasped in outrage. ‘You’ve got a nerve, especially with your record with women.’ Then she remembered his dismissive glance at the time and realised why.
‘Yes, cynical of me, I know, but true. Then Nigel, your stepbrother, introduced himself to me, claiming Andy Scott as mutual acquaintance. I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you, Lisa,’ he said with unaccustomed gentleness, ‘but Nigel was the commercial property broker who first brought Andy Scott’s attention to Lawson Designer Glass.’
‘How could he?’ Lisa whispered to herself. But, knowing Nigel, she believed it.
Alex heard her. ‘Quite easily, I’m afraid. I know you consider him family. But he couldn’t wait to inform me I was missing out on a great deal. He suggested I raise the offer and it would be second time lucky. He could guarantee delivering Harold Watson’s thirteen per cent—and if I wasn’t interested, he told me, he had another company lined up that was. I wasn’t particularly keen. The Lawson family was still left with fifty-two per cent—not a very viable proposition for Xela Properties.’
‘But if that’s true, if you really did think like that, why did you go behind my back and buy the shares?’ Lisa asked quietly.
He stopped pacing and stood in front of her, a deep tide of colour darkening his handsome face. ‘Because Nigel pointed you out on that night in Stratford as the owner and was quite effusive about your…’ he hesitated. ‘…character, shall we say, and the relationship between you. He suggested a man of my experience should have no trouble talking you round.’ He had the grace to look ashamed for a second. ‘I would like to think my intentions were noble at the time. It was immediately apparent to me that Nigel was a rogue. I could barely remember the deal he was talking about. I had to ring Andy later that night to refresh my memory. But, to be honest, at the time I simply saw a beautiful girl, who was not the freeloader I had first thought, and jumped at the chance of an introduction.’
Flattering though it was to be called beautiful, Lisa wasn’t fooled, and, leaping to her feet, she cried, ‘I was right all along. You and Nigel are in it together!’ Spinning on her heel, she stormed past him.
‘Stop.’ His hand caught her arm and pulled her around. ‘Don’t you dare walk away from me.’ His hard, angry eyes roamed over her face. ‘You are going to hear me out, even if I have to pin you to the bed to do it. So make your choice.’ Suddenly she was very conscious of his large tanned body. His robe hung open to the waist, revealing his broad hairy chest, and when she glanced up at his angry face he met her look with hard, mocking eyes.
‘All right,’ she muttered, and sat down on the sofa. But this time Alex sat down beside her.
He caught her hands in his. ‘To prevent you lashing out,’ he said grimly, ‘I have had enough of your histrionics.’
He continued as if he had never stopped. ‘When you agreed to marry me, your company was the last thing on my mind. But I did tell Andy Scott to keep a wary eye out for any developments, and also to watch Nigel Watson. I did not trust the man. You were shortly to be my wife, and I naturally wanted to protect your interests.’
‘Don’t you mean your own?’ she sneered.
‘No, damn it, I don’t! The third day of our honeymoon I received a fax from Andy Scott. He had some disturbing news. Nigel had approached another property company with the proposed deal, and they were interested enough to put in a bid for the Lee shares. I instructed Andy to string Nigel along with the promise of a finder’s fee, and put in a counter-bid for Lee’s shares, whatever it cost. That only left Harold’s. Then, last Thursday, Andy made the amazing discovery you had given some shares to the hospice. I had no choice but to buy them.’
‘You could have told me straight away,’ Lisa said fiercely. ‘I could have bought the shares myself. But, no, you had to be in control. I am telling you now, I will fight you every inch of the way if you try to close Lawson’s down.’
Alex shook his head, frustrated as well as angry. ‘For heaven sake, Lisa, we were on our honeymoon. I would have to have been the most insensitive man on the planet to have worried you with business at such a time. And I do not want to close Lawson’s down. I might wish it had never existed, the trouble it has caused,’ he opined dryly, ‘but in fact you should be thanking me for saving it.’
‘You don’t want to demolish the place?’ she queried, lifting wary blue eyes to his.
‘I still think in the long term redevelopment is the best way forward, but I am perfectly happy for you to run the business as you like. I bought the majority share simply to protect you. You’re my wife, and if it suits you to work I won’t deprive you of the privilege. I meant to tell you last weekend, after checking the state of affairs with Andy on Thursday. But with the fiascos that night and the rest of the weekend turned into somehow I never got round to it. Perhaps because whenever I look at you I forget everything but this.’ Alex wrapped an arm around her shoulders and his dark head bent towards her.
‘No!’ Lisa put a restraining hand on his bare chest. ‘I am not going to be diverted by sex. Not again,’ she said, quickly appalled at her own weakness. ‘You see, Alex, I know you are lying. I overheard you and Nigel last Thursday in this very apartment. I heard you telling him he could invest in your development.’ She still burned at the memory, and the tone of her voice reflected her feelings. ‘The slimy rat. And you’re no better.’
‘I thought you loved your stepbrother. You told me you did.’ Alex jerked back, his arm falling from her shoulder, his voice hard and accusing.
‘You’ve got to be joking.’ Lisa stared at him in genuine astonishment. ‘I can’t stand the man. I wouldn’t give him the time of day if it weren’t for Harold, and the feeling is mutual. Ever since he made a pass at me when I was sixteen and I made my feelings plain.’
Alex sucked in a deep breath, his black eyes glittering with some fierce emotion. ‘I wish I had known that last week; I would have flattened the bastard.’ He shook his dark head in a gesture of utter disgust with himself, and, grasping her hands in his hands, he asked, ‘Why did you not tell me last Thursday what you had overheard? Am I such an ogre you could not talk to me?’
She shrugged wearily. ‘What difference does it make? I heard enough to know my husband and stepbrother were plotting behind my back.’
‘Exactly what did you hear, Lisa? I need to know.’ His voice was flat, devoid of any emotion, only the tightening of his hands on hers told her he was nowhere near as calm as he appeared.
She stared unwaveringly for a moment into his taut face. Her teeth worried at her bottom lip. She remembered every word, they were carved on her brain but she wasn’t sure she wanted to tell him.
‘Tell me, Lisa,’ he prompted curtly.
‘All right.’ And with complete honesty she told him. ‘I heard Nigel say that after three weeks with the ice amazon he didn’t blame you spending a night on your own. Then he asked you if the delectable Margot knew you were in town.’
‘It was Nigel who told Margot I was in town. She confessed as much before she left,’ Alex said flatly, and Lisa winced. She had misjudged him badly. ‘But I did not want to disillusion you about Nigel.’ He laced his fingers with hers, as if to give her some of his strength. ‘Go on.’
‘There was a comment about a computer nerd.’ It was Alex’s turn to wince. ‘Then he asked for your confirmation that the sale of Lawson’s would go through. You teased him about getting my shares for nothing. And finally you said Nigel would get what he wanted.’
‘What I actually said, Lisa, was that he would get his… And I did not mean it in a friendly way. But I was labouring under the impression you loved him like a brother, so I had to put up with him, while making sure he did not harm you. I was stringing him along that night because, thinking ahead, I realised if anything happened to Harold, Nigel would end up with a share in your business. There was no way I wanted Nigel to have anything to do with you, so I had to keep him sweet until I had done a dea
l with Harold.’
‘You still could have told me. I never thought Harold would ever sell without consulting me first. Until you came along.’ She glared at him, but her heart wasn’t in it. What Alex said made sense.
‘Blood is thicker than water, Lisa. Harold is always going to be weak where his son is concerned, and I realised it that night when I spoke to Nigel. Suffice to say, after Nigel left the apartment I had a long talk to Harold.’
‘Yes, you said so at the time.’ Lisa knew that was true. Was it possible Alex was telling the truth and he really was not the villain she had painted him?
‘I believe I did. Just before you seduced me.’ He stopped, an arrested expression on his handsome face. ‘Now I understand,’ he declared, a sensual, reminiscent smile lighting his brown eyes. ‘Your sudden aggression in bed last week was more fury than a fever of passion?’ he queried softly, lifting their joined hands to his mouth and kissing her fingers.
‘Never mind that.’ She wasn’t going there for anything! ‘What did you say to Harold to get him to sell his shares?’
‘I promised to pay off Nigel’s debts.’
‘What!’ Lisa exclaimed. ‘Are you mad?’ She pulled her hands free and eyed her husband with stunned disbelief.
‘I am now,’ Alex said with wry amusement. ‘When I learn he laid a hand on you. But it is too late. It is done. Harold loves his son, and would do anything for him, though he is not entirely blind to Nigel’s faults. Harold and I agreed that the money I paid him for his shares would go into a trust to give Nigel an income from the interest. But Nigel can’t get his hands on the capital.’
‘And you did this for me?’ Lisa said, feeling her way through what felt like a minefield. ‘You bought the Lee shares first, to protect the company from a hostile bid set up by Nigel?’
Alex gave her a considering look. ‘No,’ he said and, rising to his feet, he stared fixedly down at her.
‘No? But—’ She raised confused blue eyes to his, and suddenly she felt the strong grip of Alex’s hands on her arms, pulling her up against his body.
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