by Lucy Monroe
“Alexandra.”
She looked up from her blind contemplation of his naked back. “Hmm?”
“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?”
“Because we had sex?”
He leaned down and kissed her on the tip of her nose. “Because we have once again established an area of our relationship that is nothing but beautiful.”
“I won’t let you seduce me into marriage,” she said vehemently.
“Are you sure about that?” he asked, his wandering hands now wreaking havoc with her breathing.
She didn’t answer and he laughed, pulling her from the bed toward the shower. “Come, we will bathe together and save time.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
ALEXANDRA had been worried Dimitri would try to make love to her in the shower again, but he was as good as his word. They were dressed in record time and Dimitri was on the phone to his assistant when a gentle rat-a-tat-tat sounded on the door.
“Mother,” she breathed.
Dimitri turned from the phone and gave her a sharp look. He cut the connection abruptly and crossed the room to open the door. Cecelia Dupree stood on the other side, looking fragile and quite lovely in her pale pink Moschino suit.
“You must be Xandra’s mother,” Dimitri said as he led Cecelia through the door.
Alexandra had to stifle a groan at his slip of the tongue. Her mother’s face pinched and she swung on Alexandra, for once forgetting the social niceties. “So, this is what you do when you’re living high as Xandra Fortune. Have you no sense of decorum at all? You’re in New York now, where you are known as Alexandra Dupree. What do you think New Orleans society will say when they discover you’ve spent the night with some foreigner in his hotel room?” she asked in an outraged voice. “Think of your sister. The scandal could adversely affect Hunter’s business dealings.”
“I sincerely doubt Hunter’s business associates care one way or the other about the behavior of Madeleine’s pregnant sister, as for New Orleans society…I’m not taking out an ad in the paper. Why should anyone back home know?” Or care, she asked herself silently. Her mother lived in such a rarified milieu, she didn’t know how ninety percent of the world thought and functioned.
“You are a Dupree,” her mother said as if that should explain it all. “Yet, by the look of this,” she said, waving a newspaper in Alexandra’s face, “you have completely forgotten that fact. How could you allow this sort of information to become public knowledge?”
Alexandra put her hand out toward Cecelia. “May I see, Mama? The accused has a right to know the charges.”
Cecelia flung the paper toward Alexandra with an absolutely surprising lack of restraint. When Alexandra saw the headline and pictures, she understood why. One picture was of her and Dimitri leaving the restaurant they’d had lunch in yesterday. The other was of her and Dimitri yelling at each other at Chez Renée. The headline read, “Greek Tycoon and Lover Reunite: Does Petronides Now Believe the Baby is His?”
With a sense of impending dread, Alexandra read the article. She was named as the famous French model Xandra Fortune and the quiet living Alexandra Dupree. The writer speculated as to the reason for her dual personas and the effect her pregnancy had had on Dimitri’s scuffed plans to marry Phoebe Leonides. Dimitri’s denial that he was the father was quoted, apparently having been overheard by the enterprising photographer or someone who’d been with him.
The writer went on to say it appeared Dimitri now accepted his role as father and ended the article with a pithy comment regarding a possible marriage between them.
Alexandra felt sick and she made a mad dash for the bathroom. When she finished retching, Dimitri was there with a cold wet washcloth for her face and a glass of water to rinse her mouth. When she was done, he swung her into his arms and carried her back into the main room of the suite. He set her gently on the cream colored sofa.
“I’m going to order some food, all right moro mou?”
She couldn’t take it in. She couldn’t even look at her mother, knowing how furious and disappointed in her Cecelia was bound to be. She’d spent years living two lives to protect her mother from embarrassment and possible scandal, only to have it all torn apart with one sleazy newspaper article. “Dimitri, they know…Everyone knows about us, about the baby, about Xandra Fortune.”
He laid his finger against her lips. “Shh. All will be well. You must trust me. Now what do you want to eat?”
“Dry toast and maybe a little fruit.”
He shook his head, his expression wry. “That is not sufficient sustenance for you and the baby. I will order your dry toast, fruit and some food besides, I think.”
“Why ask me if you plan to do what you want anyway?” she asked petulantly, glad to focus on something less volatile and damaging than the newspaper article.
He chuckled. “Perhaps because I like to hear your voice?”
Her mother gave a most unladylike snort, reminding both Dimitri and Alexandra she was there.
Dimitri turned to Cecelia. “I understand your concern and will do everything in my power to mitigate it, but I will not allow you to harangue your daughter. She is in too fragile a state right now.”
“How dare you?” her mother demanded.
“Can I order anything for you?” Dimitri asked, ignoring her mother’s outraged question.
Apparently realizing when she was faced with a will stronger than her own, Cecelia subsided. She took a seat in one of the armchairs opposite the couch, her expression dour. “Tea might settle my nerves.”
“Then I shall order you some without delay.”
He went to the phone to do so, but kept his body toward them as if he were watching her mother to make sure she said nothing to upset Alexandra. His concern felt nice and Alexandra had to admit she was glad she wasn’t alone to face her mother’s recriminations. When he finished making the order, Dimitri returned to sit next to Alexandra on the smallish sofa. He took her hand and squeezed it reassuringly then turned the full force of his charm on her mother.
“Mrs. Dupree, allow me to introduce myself. I am Dimitri Petronides.” His smile would have melted stone. He stood and leaned toward Cecelia, extending his hand. “It is an honor to meet the mother of the woman I intend to marry.”
Alexandra sucked in air so fast she choked on it while her mother’s “just sucked on a lemon” look turned to calculated charm in the space of a single heartbeat. Cecelia patted her perfectly coiffed ash-blond hair and smiled at Dimitri.
“Please, you must call me Cecelia. Marriage will be just the thing to alleviate the scandal. I’m so glad you’d already thought of it. Alexandra’s been so impetuous these past six years and I declare the last three months have been the worst.”
Alexandra gritted her teeth at her mother’s digs. “I haven’t agreed to marry him.”
Cecilia dismissed Alexandra’s words with a wave of her hand. “Of course you will, dear. Now let’s start making plans. It will have to be a quiet affair if there’s any hope of avoiding more scandal.”
Alexandra hadn’t told her mother anything about Dimitri, including the details of their breakup. But she doubted it would have made any difference in the older woman’s current outlook. In Cecelia Dupree’s mind, babies came after marriage. Therefore, to preserve appearances, Alexandra had to be married.
“This isn’t the Middle A
ges, Mother. You cannot give my hand in marriage to a man without my permission.” She turned her head to meet Dimitri’s eyes. “And you can’t take it.”
“Alexandra, is that reporter correct? Is this man the father of your child?”
Alexandra’s vocal chords froze. An affirmative answer would be her downfall with her mother.
“Yes,” Dimitri said when Alexandra refused to.
“Then there can be no question that you will marry him.”
“On the contrary.” Alexandra didn’t like the feeling of pressure emanating from both her mother and Dimitri. “I’m perfectly capable of having this baby alone. If that upsets you, I’m sorry.”
She was proud of her little speech until her mother’s eyes filled with tears. “Wasn’t six years spent worried someone would discover my daughter’s lifestyle enough a cross to bear? Now everyone knows.” She sniffed and Alexandra felt a tug on her own emotions even though she suspected the tears were a tool as well used as her mother’s Southern charm. “Now you balk at making things right. Think of the baby,” was Cecelia last emotive appeal.
“You say lifestyle like my being a model was the same as selling my favors to the highest bidder.” Alexandra was more comfortable on the familiar ground of arguing her career choice rather than her current predicament.
Her mother shuddered. “How can you say such a thing? To even imply…” Clearly words failed her and two tears spilled over to trail down her powdered cheeks.
Alexandra felt the familiar sense of failure well up in her. “I’m sorry, Mother. I shouldn’t have said it.”
Her mother dabbed at her eyes with a perfectly white, lace trimmed handkerchief and simply shook her head in mute disapproval.
Knowing there would be nothing accomplished by sticking with the current subject, Alexandra asked, “What are you doing in New York, Mother?”
The paper with the damaging story had only come out that morning, not enough time for her mother to have made the trip from New Orleans unless she had already planned it.
Her mother sniffed and turned appealing eyes to Dimitri. “I’d come north to try and talk some sense into Alexandra, to mend fences before Christmas. A family should spend the holidays together, don’t you think? But she’s been so stubborn about her unfortunate circumstance, refusing to do anything practical to diminish the scandal. And here she is again, refusing to marry you. Is it any wonder I’m almost ill with my worries?”