Bridal Bargains

A role he was much more familiar with. A role he wished he felt an ounce of enthusiasm for right now but he didn’t, which did not go down with his proud Greek ego very well.

Greek tycoon slain by a Titian-haired witch, he mentally wrote his own tabloid headline. Grimaced then braced his shoulders and went into his office, firmly closing that door behind him too.

Nell came drifting awake to the sound of rattling crockery. It reminded her so much of Thea Sophia that she lay there in smiling contentment, imagining herself to be on the island—until a lazy voice said, ‘I hope that smile means you’re dreaming about me.’

She opened her eyes to find Xander standing over her, looking lean and mean in his sharp business suit, and reality came crashing in. ‘Oh,’ she said. ‘We’re in London, aren’t we?’ Yawned and stretched then looked back at him. ‘What time is it?’

‘Refreshment time,’ he said lightly, turning away then turning back again with a tray in his hands.

Nell slithered up the pillows, dragged the sheet up to cover her breasts then yawned again, rubbed her eyes then swept her tumbled hair back from her face.

‘Didn’t know you did Room Service,’ she quipped as a tray arrived across her lap.

‘Anything for you, my love,’ he responded in the same light vein as he sat down on the bed and removed the cover from a plate of fluffy scrambled eggs piled on a bed of hot toast.

Nell glanced at the half-light seeping through the drawn curtains. ‘Is it morning already?’ she asked in surprise.

Xander smiled. ‘Not quite.’ He handed her a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. ‘You’ve been asleep for hours while I’ve been chairing the meeting from hell. If the world were flat I would be taking great pleasure in pushing one half of a room of ten off the end of it. Is that OK?’ he added questioningly as she sipped at the juice.

Nell nodded. ‘Lovely.’

He sent her another smile then forked up some scrambled egg. ‘Here, try this and tell me what you think.’

‘It’s only scrambled eggs,’ she derided as she took the forkful into her mouth.

‘Yes, but very special scrambled eggs, since they were prepared by my own gifted hands.’

‘You?’ Nell almost choked. ‘I didn’t think you knew what an egg looked like in its shell.’

‘Shame on you.’ He forked up another heap. ‘I am very self-proficient when I have to be. Drink some more juice.’

Nell frowned. ‘Why did you feel the need to be proficient at this particular moment?’

‘Because I decided to leave the ten squabbling in my boardroom and came in here to see you. You were out for the count. I noticed that you must not have woken up to get yourself something to eat and, since you haven’t had anything since you threw up on the motorway, I decided that it was time that you did. You can go back to sleep when you’ve eaten this …’

Another forkful was offered to her. Nell looked at his smooth, lean, totally implacable, super-relaxed face, said nothing and took the fork from him so that she could feed herself. For several minutes neither spoke while Nell ate and he seemed content to watch.

Then it came, the real reason he was sitting there looking at her like that. ‘Nell—what I said about your father—’

‘Is he still in Australia?’

‘Yes,’ he frowned. ‘You knew he’d committed himself to overseeing the whole project,’ he reminded her.

‘Yes.’ Her sigh was wistful and rather sad.

‘I want you to know that I gave you the wrong impression about your father’s involvement in our—’

‘Oh, I don’t think so,’ she said as she laid down the fork. ‘I think you made your point perfectly. You took me as assurance for your investment. We even have a contract that says so. You also saved me from a fate worse than death.’

A frown pulled his eyebrows together across the bridge of his nose. ‘I’ll rip the contract up if it will make you feel better.’

‘It’s so sweet of you to offer,’ she mocked him. ‘But the gesture would only have some weight behind it if you’d offered to do that before I got pregnant.’

‘I did offer once before, if you recall.’

‘On my birthday?’ She looked up at him. ‘Before my father had managed to scoop the Australian deal and put his business back on track? Bad timing, Xander,’ she said. ‘Not what you’re renowned for. You could have been asking to renegotiate yourself right out of the whole deal for all I knew. Still know,’ she added when he opened his mouth to deny it.

The fact that he was going to have to pull rabbits out of the proverbial hat to make her believe otherwise now held him silent while he took that on board.