“Your life. My life. Our life together.”
“What makes you so sure I was thinking about us? Or that I was thinking at all, for that matter?”
His smile was grim. “As much as you may want to deny it, I know you, pethi mou. You often spend your first waking moments lost in thought and what is of more importance to you at the moment than the future of the baby you carry?”
“You assume that future has to include you.”
“You know it does. Married or not, lovers or enemies, whatever relationship you and I share, I will have a part in my son’s life.”
She didn’t balk at the implacability in his voice. She hadn’t meant to imply otherwise. Her wording had been unfortunate. “I didn’t mean that. I will not withhold your child from you.”
“No matter how much you despise me?” His voice was bleak and his face expressionless.
She stared at him. Could he honestly believe she despised him after the way she had responded to him last night? “I don’t despise you.”
“But you no longer love me.”
To answer would require a lie, so she sidestepped. “Did you have plans for today?”
“Yes.”
“Then, I guess we’d better get up.”
He smiled wickedly down at her. “Not necessarily.”
“But…”
“My plans today are to woo you. I think here,” he said, indicating the bed, “is where I am at my best.”
She didn’t know what she would have said because at that precise moment, the phone rang. Giving her a last lascivious look that made her giggle despite her heavy thoughts, he turned to answer the bedside phone.
Was he really going to woo her? The thought was tantalizing. She remembered his two-month-long pursuit before he’d seduced her into bed and talked her into moving in with him. They had been heady days. Living with him had been pretty wonderful too, but a wooing…well, it sounded nice.
“Alexandra.”#p#分页标题#e#
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.