Chapter 59

‘How?’

‘I want you in my bed whenever I want you, and with no more nonsense about not wanting to be with me.’ Alexander lifted his arrogant dark head high, his glittering golden eyes hurling a challenge. ‘If I’m not going to get a child out of this arrangement, that will be my compensation.’

Aquamarine eyes wide with alarm at that bold demand, Miah  was wildly aware of the burning heat of his sensual scan of her body and she slowly turned a painful pink shade.

‘And that is not negotiable in any way,’ Alexander intoned soft and low. ‘I will only let you go free if you return that money.’

Miah  sent him an anguished look. ‘I couldn’t just go on sleeping with you as though nothing has happened!’

Alexander shrugged a broad shoulder in a show of outrageous nonchalance. ‘I think you’ll find you can, just like you did yesterday when you were the only one of us aware of the deception,’ he reminded her with a sardonic curl to his handsome mouth. ‘I’m leaving for London in an hour but you’re staying here.’

‘Why?’

‘I’m giving you three days to decide what your next move will be. And if you’re staying on my terms, I expect you in my bed waiting for me when I get back, milaya moya.’

Incensed by that cutting little speech, Miah  took a hasty step forward.

Alexander reached for her in almost the same movement. He hauled her bodily into his arms and tasted her parted lips with a hot, driving hunger that took her by shock and storm. She shivered against his unyielding masculine contours, her straining breasts crushed by his powerful torso, a firestorm of response flaring like a shameless fever in her pelvis and leaving her legs weak.

‘I think that after you’ve considered your position you’ll make it a honeymoon to remember, angil moy,’ Alexander breathed in a tone of strong satisfaction.

Her fingers crept up to touch her tingling swollen mouth. ‘A honeymoon?’ she echoed blankly.

‘On my yacht, where we’ll have perfect privacy. Smile,’ Alexander urged with sudden raw impatience, exasperated by her lack of enthusiasm. ‘Giving you a choice between a prison sentence and my bed is very generous of me, more generous than you deserve.’

And Miah  saw that he did indeed believe that her apparent wrongdoing fully excused him for using the most unscrupulous tactics against her. She also knew better than to call Alexander’s bluff. He wasn’t joking. He wasn’t making empty threats. He would be within his rights if he made an official complaint to the police through his lawyers. She pictured her pregnant sister being arrested and charged, closely followed by herself. As the prime instigator, Mirabella might well receive the heavier punishment, but what consolation would that be to either of them? The same cold fear infiltrated Miah  again. She had to persuade her sister to return the money she had received for signing that contract.

‘Why did you want a baby? Just to make Ysabelle happy?’ she asked Alexander on impulse as she turned to leave the room.

Alexander glanced at her in surprise. ‘That was my main motivation when I first came up with the idea,’ he admitted. ‘But I do genuinely like children and I would like a worthy cause to work for, other than myself.’

Miah  went upstairs and phoned her sister again. When she received no response she called her mother instead and found herself having to talk at length about her wedding and the guest lists for the London party her mother was eagerly planning before she could ask how to get in touch with her twin.

‘That could be a problem,’ Jessa Baker replied ruefully. ‘Henry and Mirabella are staying in a Turkish villa and she told me not to expect her to ring.’

That night Miah  lay in bed thinking about Alexander, who wanted a family of his own even though he wouldn’t admit it in those terms. A worthy cause to work for, other than myself. In the darkness she blinked back tears and wondered what on earth she was going to do and whether it would be possible for her to go on sharing a bed with Alexander without getting emotionally involved. She was convinced that eventually he would wake up to the awareness she was really nothing that special and his desire for her would die.

For the first time she was remembering that Alexander and his lawyers had chosen Mirabella to be his wife, not Mirabella’s more ordinary twin sister. Mirabella was the sophisticated, witty twin, the one the men always went for in Miah ’s experience. How long would it be before Alexander suspected that he had been short-changed in the most basic way of all with a woman who could not equal his original choice? It was a very long time before Miah  got any sleep…

‘SO WHAT’S all the fuss about?’ Mirabella demanded sulkily down the phone.

After a wait of almost thirty-six hours for a return call in response to her many messages, Miah  was so relieved to hear her twin’s voice on the line that she felt momentarily dizzy and sank down heavily on the side of the bed while she spoke to her. ‘For goodness’ sake! Alexander has found out what we did.’

‘I should have known you couldn’t keep your mouth shut.’

‘That had nothing to do with it! How could you not tell me that having a baby was part of that contract?’ Miah  snapped back, angry disgust girding every syllable of her response. ‘You must have known I would never agree to anything so outrageous.’

‘You said you’d do anything to help Mum. And obviously you could have taken contraceptive pills to make sure it didn’t happen.’

Miah  felt a surge of disbelief at that suggestion. ‘How could you let me marry Alexander on false pretences? It was a rotten thing to do! It wasn’t fair to me and it wasn’t fair to him either!’

‘Since when did being fair to Alexander become an ambition of yours?’ Mirabella demanded. ‘Are you trying to make brownie points at my expense?’

‘You’re just not taking this seriously, are you?’ Miah  censured tightly. ‘Alexander is very angry and he is threatening to have us both prosecuted for fraud. What you did was illegal, Mirabella…’

Mirabella giggled. ‘He’s never going to go public with a story like this! Can you imagine how embarrassing that would be for him?’

‘I think you should know that Alexander doesn’t embarrass easily,’ Miah  inserted sharply.

‘He’s just trying to scare you when he makes a threat about prosecuting us, Miah . He doesn’t mean it.’

Miah  realised then that the belief that Alexander would never risk the story of that contract getting into the newspapers had always been her sister’s insurance policy against retribution. ‘You’re wrong. He’s deadly serious and he wants his money back.’

‘Well, he’s got no hope of that!’

‘Mirabella, I now know that you got a huge amount of money for signing that contract. You landed me into this situation and you can get me out of it again. You have to sell that car and return as much of the rest of that money as you can put together to Alexander’s lawyers in London.’

‘Or what?’ Mirabella sniped.