by Sarah Morgan
‘I was shopping for the baby.’
‘You left the house without telling anyone.’
‘I didn’t know I was supposed to tell anyone. You told me I could go shopping.’
His jaw tensed. ‘I assumed you would have called your driver.’
Millie blinked. ‘I have a driver?’
‘Of course.’
‘But I didn’t want to go in the car. I wanted to walk,’ she muttered. ‘All the books say that babies like fresh air. And I needed the fresh air too. I wanted to think.’
‘You didn’t appear to be doing much thinking when you walked out of the shop without paying,’ he said caustically, and she flushed.
‘I walked out because I saw you. You flustered me.’
‘I flustered you?’ His eyes gleamed with sardonic humour. ‘Exactly what made you “flustered”?’
‘You did. Flustering everyone around you is what you do best.’
Leandro removed his tie and leaned back in his seat, a faint smile touching his mouth. ‘I can see that I have a grossly inflated opinion of myself. So far, in our new spirit of honesty, I’ve discovered that I’m scary, intimidating and that I fluster you. I’m beginning to understand why you left. Who in their right mind would stay married to such an ogre?’
Remembering the circumstances of her departure, Millie glanced sideways at him only to find him watching her—reading her with almost embarrassing ease.
‘Our problems started before that day,’ he observed softly, and she didn’t deny it.
‘Our problems started the day I married you.’
‘No. Our honeymoon was wonderful. The day we returned from our honeymoon. And I’m still trying to work out why.’ A muscle flickered in his jaw. ‘Did I change?’
‘Yes.’ Millie frowned. ‘Or perhaps you didn’t. Perhaps you were just being you. I just didn’t know you that well. Once you were back in working mode, our relationship took a back seat to your business.’
‘Just for the record, were there any parts of my behaviour that met with your approval?’
‘I like the fact that you’re confident.’
‘Confidence is acceptable?’
She ignored the irony in his tone. ‘As long as you’re not so confident you make me feel like a waste of space.’ Seeing one of his eyebrows lift, she gave an awkward shrug. ‘When I can see you grinding your teeth and thinking, idiot, just because someone isn’t as quick or as decisive as you, I don’t like it.’ Millie hesitated, naturally honest. ‘But I can see why I annoyed you. I had no idea how to behave in your world.’
‘You make it sound as if we are occupying parallel universes.’ Leandro’s lazy drawl was in direct contrast to his sharp, assessing gaze. ‘I was under the impression that my world, as you call it, comes something close to female nirvana. You had access to unlimited funds and a lifestyle most people dream about.’
‘Well, that’s the thing about dreams, isn’t it? They don’t always turn out so well in reality. All the money in the world didn’t save our marriage, did it?’ Millie found it hard to think about that time. She turned to stare out of the window, trying not to think of how ecstatically happy she’d been. ‘It wasn’t real, was it? Those early days when we first met—it was like living in a bubble. We got married in a hurry without thinking through what we both wanted.’
‘I knew what I wanted. I thought you did, too.’
‘I suppose I didn’t know what it was all going to involve.’
‘Did it occur to you to talk to me about how you were feeling?’
‘When?’ Millie looked at him. ‘You were always working. And when you weren’t—well, you weren’t that approachable. You were stern—’
‘And intimidating—yes, I got that message.’ Leandro seemed unusually tense. ‘Just for the record, I had no idea you found me intimidating,’ he said gruffly. ‘Is that why you scurried out of the shop like a fugitive when you saw me arrive?’
‘Partly. I wasn’t expecting to see you.’
‘You need notice?’
Millie touched her jeans self-consciously. ‘I would have dressed up.’
His gaze slid down her body. ‘You have fantastic legs. You look sexy in those jeans.’
Her heart danced. ‘I—I thought you’d prefer me in a dress.’ And she didn’t wear dresses any more.
‘You look sexy in everything. And nothing.’ His velvety remark brought a blush to her cheeks and she felt slightly sick because she knew something that he didn’t.
‘What were you doing in the shop, anyway?’
‘Looking for you.’
‘Why not just wait for me in the house?’
Leandro drew in a breath. ‘I had no reason to believe you’d be returning to the house.’
‘You thought I’d run?’
‘Yes.’ He was characteristically direct. ‘Do you blame me? It’s what you did the last time. It’s understandable that I’d be concerned that you won’t do it again. Maybe it’s time I introduced a little gentle bondage into our relationship,’ he said softly. ‘You were so innocent when I met you, I never did introduce you to the possibilities of velvet handcuffs. They might come in useful.’
A disturbingly erotic vision played across her brain and Millie felt the slow burn of awareness inside her. Everything she knew about sex, she’d learned from him. And he was a master. ‘I’m not innocent any more. You took care of that.’
‘We’d barely begun, agape mou.’ Leandro relaxed in his seat, a dangerous smile playing around his mouth. ‘But things will be different this time. This time we’re going to talk.’ He studied her, his dark eyes resting on her curling hair and then sliding to her faded jeans and her scuffed trainers. ‘Today you look exactly the way you looked when I first met you.’
That bad?
Millie opened her mouth to apologise and then stopped herself. She’d spent a year trying to accept the way she was and she wasn’t going to let him undo all that good work. She wasn’t going to let being with him hammer holes in her confidence.
Self-conscious, she lifted a hand to her hair and then let it drop because she knew that it was going to take far more than a few tweaks of her fingers to turn her into a svelte groomed version of herself. She didn’t need a mirror to know that her hair was curling wildly, falling past her shoulders in ecstatic disarray, as if relieved to have been given a break from her endless attempts to tame it.
It was a good job he worked so hard, she thought, biting back a hysterical laugh. It had taken her almost an entire day to tame her hair into the sleek, groomed look, apply her makeup, choose the right outfit.
‘I’m dressed like this because I was shopping with the baby,’ she said defensively. ‘I wasn’t expecting to see you.’
‘It’s lucky for you I found you…’ Leandro stroked his fingers down the back of her neck ‘…or you’d currently be trying to talk your way out of shoplifting charges.’
‘How did you find me?’
‘My security team have inserted a tracking device into Costas’s pram.’
‘They what?’ Millie looked at him in astonishment. ‘Are you mad?’
‘No, I’m security conscious. Which is more than you are.’ Leandro’s mouth tightened. ‘Maledizione, do you ever think, Millie? You are my wife. And you’re walking around the streets pushing this baby in his pram. This baby with whom the whole world appears obsessed.’
‘They’re waiting for you to admit or deny that you’re the father.’ Her gaze settled on his but he held that gaze, as if challenging her to doubt him.
‘Then they’re going to be waiting a long time because I will never feel obliged to explain myself to strangers. I’m surprised you left the house with him. Why weren’t you mobbed by journalists?’
‘Because I sent the new nanny out earlier with a decoy pram.’
‘A decoy pram?’
‘Yes. After you left I rang the agency and they sent someone round straight away. I really liked her. We talked about the problem and decide
d that it wasn’t fair for Costas to be housebound because of these people. So I suggested she leave the house with a doll in a pram. That’s what she did. And she walked fast and kept her head down, like someone with something to hide. And they all followed her. Poor girl.’ Still feeling guilty about that, Millie pulled a face. ‘But I think she’ll be all right. She’s very down-toearth.’
Leandro leaned his head back and laughed. ‘I’ve definitely underestimated you. Nevertheless, it has to stop. There are people out there who would use you and the baby to get to me.’
Millie felt as though her stomach had been dropped off the side of a cliff. ‘They’d kidnap the baby?’
‘I don’t want to frighten you. I receive threats occasionally—it comes with the territory,’ he said carefully, ‘and it’s the job of my security team to work with the police to assess the risk. From now on I want you to take basic precautions.’
Instinctively, Millie put a hand on Costas’s car seat and looked nervously out of the window.
‘He will be fine.’ Leandro leaned his head against the seat and closed his eyes, apparently undisturbed by the serious topic of the discussion. ‘The car is bulletproof and my chauffeur is an expert in defensive driving.’
‘What? You think someone’s going to shoot at us? This gets worse and worse.’ Millie was rigid on the edge of her seat, wondering how he could relax there with his eyes shut. ‘And you think we live in the same world? Where I come from I don’t need an armed guard to go to the supermarket.’
He didn’t open his eyes. ‘If going to the supermarket forms a high point in your day, I will arrange for them to open early for you. That way you can shop without a security hassle.’
Millie gave a choked laugh. ‘You mean I can have first pick of the food.’
‘If that’s what you want. I would have thought scouring the shelves of the supermarket is an overrated pastime,’ he murmured, ‘but I’ve never claimed to understand women. From now on I want you to discuss your itinerary with Angelo and he will do whatever needs to be done to ensure your safety.’
‘Who is Angelo?’
‘The security guard that my team has selected for you. He’s ex-special forces.’
‘So he’s going to abseil down the side of the house every morning in a black ski mask and bring me breakfast in bed?’ Her caustic remark drew a wolfish smile from him and his eyes finally opened, like a predator who has discovered that there is something worth waking up for.
‘No, agape mou. If he goes anywhere near your bedroom, he’s fired. When you’re naked between the sheets, I’ll do the protecting.’
Trapped by the molten sexuality in his dark eyes, Millie felt her heart pound and her stomach tumble. Breathless, she dragged her eyes from his, only to find her gaze trapped by the hint of dark body hair visible at the base of his bronzed throat. Looking away from that had her noticing the width of his shoulders and in the end she just closed her eyes because the only way not to want him was not to look. And even then the delicious curl of awareness that warmed her belly didn’t fade. Help, she thought desperately. Leandro possessed monumental sex appeal, and he knew it.
‘Leandro.’ Her voice was a croak of denial. ‘It’s been a year…’
‘I know exactly how long it’s been,’ he purred softly, and Millie glanced at him and then immediately looked away, shaken by the look of sexual intent in his eyes.
‘I don’t know why you want me back,’ she muttered, and he gave a soft laugh.
‘You’re my wife, Millie. And I expect my wife to stand by my side, no matter what.’
No matter what.
What was that supposed to mean? That she was supposed to overlook his affairs? Was that what he was saying?
Her stomach churned and the sick feeling rushed towards her, the same feeling she’d had when she’d seen him with her sister.
He was expecting her to spend a lifetime overlooking the fact that he had other women. Looking the other way while he took another woman to his bed. And she knew that every time she thought he was with someone else, a little piece of her would die.
Millie stared straight ahead, her expression blank.
What self-respecting woman would say yes to those terms?
CHAPTER SIX
‘I’M JUST not like that. He might be my husband, but that doesn’t give him the right to walk all over me. I’m not going to let him hurt me a second time.’ Millie stuffed baby clothes into a holdall. ‘That would make me stupid, wouldn’t it?’
The baby cooed and kicked his legs.
‘We’re just wrong for each other. Why can’t he see that? There’s no point in me trying to talk to him about this because he’s good with words and I’m not. With any luck he won’t follow me. He didn’t follow me the first time and I can’t believe he wants a baby cramping his lifestyle.’ Millie thought about the actress and then wished she hadn’t. ‘It isn’t easy being married to a man every woman in the world wants. Unless you’re the woman every man in the world wants. And I’m not.’ Dwelling on that dismal thought, she closed the bag.
‘“I expect my wife to stand by my side no matter what.” Obviously I’m expected to watch while he smiles at models and actresses.’ She stowed the bag under the cot out of sight. ‘Well, I can’t do that. I’ve spent a year trying to get over him. I’m not putting myself through that again.’
‘What are you not putting yourself through again?’ Leandro stood in the doorway and Millie jumped.
‘B-being chased by j-journalists,’ she stammered. Her heart thumping, smothered with guilt, she scooped Costas up in her arms and then faced Leandro.
He was dressed in black jeans and a casual shirt and he looked every bit as sexy as he did in a suit.
No wonder she hadn’t been able to hold him, she thought miserably. He was stunning.
She’d be doing him a favour by leaving.
He didn’t want her and he didn’t want a baby.
He wanted a life.
Clearly undisturbed by her emotional turbulence, Costas fell asleep on her shoulder and Leandro gave a faint smile.
‘Someone is tired. Put him to bed and come and eat. We need to make plans.’
It obviously hadn’t occurred to him that she might refuse.
Faced with no alternative, Millie followed him to the dining room, but she was too nervous to eat and too nervous to talk. Pushing the food around her plate, her mind explored the safest route and means of transport.
Leandro lounged across from her, relaxed and watchful, as if he was trying to get inside her head.
Millie was frantically searching for reasons not to share his bed when a member of staff approached him and delivered a message.
His mouth tightening, Leandro stood up and dropped his napkin on the table. ‘I apologise. This is one call I have to take. After this there will be no more, I promise.’
‘Don’t worry about it. I’ll go and check on Costas.’
Almost weak with relief, Millie seized on the excuse to go and hide away with the baby. Maybe she should leave now, except that it was too late in the day and the trains would soon stop running.
No, it had to be tomorrow. But early.
Exhausted after the events of the past few days, she lay down on the bed in Costas’s room and immediately fell asleep.
Leandro opened the door of the baby’s room, his mouth tightening as he saw Millie asleep on the bed. Her hair was loose and tangled, her cheeks prettily flushed and her body curled up, very much like the baby who slept in the cot next to her.
She was avoiding sex again, he thought grimly. The obvious reason was that she hadn’t forgiven him for his ‘affair’ with her sister, but Leandro knew that their problems went much deeper than that. She’d been avoiding sex long before the ‘pool incident’ as he now called it.
But whatever the reason, in the end she’d walked out. To him, that was an unpardonable sin that nothing could excuse.
Cold fingers of the past slid over his shoulder and he
shrugged them away, refusing to dwell anywhere other than the present. That was what he did, wasn’t it? He moved forwards. Always, he moved forwards.
Was that why he was so angry with Millie? Because her actions had forced him to remember a time that he’d tried to forget?
His disappointment in her was as fresh today as it had been a year ago.
Disappointment in her, or himself?
Was it his pride that was damaged? Because he’d got her wrong? He’d seen something in her that hadn’t been there. On the day of their wedding she’d told him how much she wanted babies and he’d congratulated himself on finding the perfect wife and mother.
He’d thought she was a woman who would stand and fight. Instead, she’d walked out at the first opportunity.
Acknowledging that failure in his judgement hadn’t grown any easier over the past year, Leandro mused as he left the nursery and walked towards his own suite of rooms.
So why had he insisted that she stay? Was he a masochist?
No. But his expectations of his wife had been seriously modified.
He’d give the child a home, he’d promised himself that he’d do that.
And as for his wife—well, he’d long ago learned how to lust without love, so that shouldn’t be a problem.
Swearing in Greek, he yanked his shirt off and strode into the bathroom. Given that Millie had chosen to sleep with the baby, a cold shower was the only solution.
‘Life won’t be as fancy with me,’ Millie told Costas as she strapped him in the car seat inside the taxi. ‘None of this mood-altering lighting system, comfort cooling and underfloor heating. If your feet are cold, you wear socks, OK? It’s a simple life, but I can promise I won’t ever leave you. I know I left him, but that was different. I’ll explain it to you when you’re older.’ It was still dark outside and she’d slipped out through the garden, careful to avoid any journalists who might still be camped at the front of the house. ‘I’ve been renting a little flat in a village near the coast. I think you’ll like it.’
She saw the taxi driver glance in his mirror and coloured. He probably thought she was mad, talking to a baby.