Husband on Trust(46)

‘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.

‘I bought the shares for you, and only you. I don’t give a damn about Lawson’s, except as it affects you. You’re my wife, my partner, and if you had shown a little more trust in me, talked to me, you could have spared us both a lot of unpleasantness,’ Alex declared, with a disturbing intensity in his voice that left Lisa in no doubt he was telling the truth.

‘I’m sorry, but it’s not that easy to trust a husband when you think he’s plotting behind your back, and then you’re confronted in the apartment you share by an almost naked ex-mistress all in the same night,’ Lisa retorted dryly. She believed his explanation; she had to. Alex was the majority stockholder now, whether she liked it or not, and did that matter if he was prepared to let her run the company as she wished? More than that, she loved him, and eventually she might persuade her cynical husband to fall in love with her.

‘Okay, so there were mistakes on both sides,’ Alex conceded. ‘Mine being I should not have brought you back to this apartment in the first place. I know you don’t like it.’

Lisa had to smile. ‘Oh I don’t know.’ Placing a hand in the open vee of his robe, she felt his hot satin skin beneath her fingers. ‘I seem to remember our wedding night was not that bad.’ Rising up on her toes, she pressed her lips to his; his arms tightened around her and he took over the kiss with a passionate thoroughness that had her melting in his arms.

Suddenly Alex pulled back, his hands falling from her waist. ‘No, Lisa, I am not going to give you the chance again to accuse me of manipulating you with sex.’

‘I wasn’t going to,’ she teased, suddenly feeling lighthearted.

‘Good, then get dressed. We are leaving. We have to learn to communicate better and here is not the place to do it. Too many bad memories,’ Alex insisted.

‘I’ll send you an E-mail from my laptop. Is that communication enough for you? Though I do remember overhearing you tell Nigel something about your lap.’

Alex stiffened, and she watched with laughter in her eyes as his brow furrowed and he tried to remember, then he disconcerted her completely by roaring with laughter. Sweeping her up in his arms, he carried her to the bed.

‘You’re right. Who needs to talk when we have this?’ And, with a wolfish smile, he dropped her on the bed. Falling down beside her, he deftly eased her out of her robe, shed his own, and drew her in to the hard heat of him. Lisa trembled violently, and wondered how she had ever been dumb enough to even consider forgoing such pleasure.