The Arrangement .(5)

How he managed to convince himself he was doing her a favor was beyond her.

“There has to be another way.”

“There is. Get your brother to dig himself out of the hole he’s dug for himself.”

He knew there was nowhere else for them to turn. She’d basically told him that, and her presence in his office was a clear indication they lacked other options. He had to know he was the last person she would ever seek assistance from if there were another avenue to pursue to resolve Xander’s financial problem.

“There’s nothing I can do to change your mind?”

“Nothing,” he said with finality.

He was not going to let her back her way out of the corner into which he’d squeezed her. His expectant dark eyes remained focused on her face.

“Then I have no choice,” Alexa said. There was obvious resignation in her voice. She finally accepted he wouldn’t budge. It was his way or nothing.

She tried not to think about what she was agreeing to. To return to the mansion and live as Leonardo’s wife again was difficult to accept. Most women would love the life of luxury she had lived, but she hated it. She hated the mansion, which she viewed as nothing more than a gilded cage.

Although she couldn’t tell her brother what she planned to do, she hoped he appreciated the sacrifice she made in coming here in the first place.

“Then we have a deal.”

His voice was filled with the satisfaction of a man who’d gotten the upper hand. Alexa watched Leonardo walk over to a file cabinet, unlock it, and pull out a large checkbook. He moved back to the desk and flipped to a blank check.

“What should I tell people when they ask—about our reconciliation?”

“Tell them we decided to try again. People love the idea of a reunion  .”

He didn’t seem particularly interested in the conversation or the explanations that would be required of them.

He leaned over the desk, his long, dark fingers gliding along the page as he wrote out the sum. With each stroke of the pen, Alexa felt as if a noose were tightening around her neck. Once she took the money, she was as good as his.

“How do I know you’ll keep your word?” she asked. Although she’d never known Leonardo to renege on a promise, she had to be sure. It would be so easy for him to put a stop payment on the check and endanger her brother’s future and make her into a liar. “Should there be some kind of contract?”

His fingers paused in the midst of endorsing the check.

“If anyone should ask for a contract, it’s me,” he said. He finished his name and then lifted his eyes from the book. “I’ve never had a problem with keeping my word. You, on the other hand”—he straightened, staring her down—“can’t be trusted. Till death do us part. Remember that? You didn’t exactly stick to your side of the deal, now did you?”

She should have just kept her mouth shut. Take the money and run.

“I had good reason,” she said defensively.

“Is that right? What reason was that?”

It was foolish to engage in verbal sparring with Leo, but Alexa found she couldn’t resist. She needed to answer his mocking questions, even if it didn’t matter to him. “Our marriage wasn’t what it should be. If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll agree neither of us got what we wanted out of it.”

She didn’t waver from his piercing appraisal, though it took monumental strength to maintain eye contact with him. He was used to making his opponents cower, but that particular intimidation tactic wouldn’t work today.

She’d had four months to rebuild her self-esteem, and she’d had plenty of time to brace herself for this meeting with him once she and Xander decided it was a necessity.

“Was it because I was working hard making millions of dollars to maintain our lifestyle and make sure you had the security most women could only dream of? Or was it because you could no longer go gallivanting around town with your friends, flitting from party to party because suddenly you had to behave like a wife instead of a woman with no responsibilities?”

His words couldn’t have been farther from the truth. She’d never gallivanted in her life. She was the opposite of a social butterfly and resented that he made the few times she went out with her friends sound as if she were some kind of immature party girl. When she’d ventured out, it was because he was unavailable to join her. She spent more evenings out and about as his wife than she ever did as a single woman. There was always some party, charity function, or business dinner that required his presence.

If she didn’t need the money so badly, she would tell him exactly what she thought of him, his hard work, and his erroneous claims about her social life.