Lexi did not share his amusement; she was flustered and furious, and the last thing she needed was his intimidating presence looming over her in the bathroom. She glared at him; it was positively wicked how attractive Jake looked, she thought bitterly. Some time in the past few hours he had changed into a pair of brief white shorts, and sleeveless white T-shirt. His long, muscular limbs, bronzed by the sun, were enough to make her heart flutter. ‘I expect privacy in the bathroom. Surely that isn’t too much to ask?’ she demanded furiously.
‘You’re obviously feeling better. You have your temper back.’
‘I wasn’t ill, I fell asleep.’ She tried to explain her absence from lunch before he could ask.
‘I know; I called in earlier and you looked so peaceful that I put a cover over you and left. See how kind I can be when you please me,’ Jake prompted with a knowing reminiscent curve to his hard mouth.
So it had been Jake! Somehow it did not fit her image of the ruthless man who had burst back into her life so suddenly. ‘Thank you...’ she muttered reluctantly. ‘But if you don’t mind I’d like to get dressed.’
‘Don’t let me stop you.’ And in an exaggerated gesture he flung open the bathroom door. ‘After you.’
It was hard to look dignified wrapped in a bath sheet with a towel round one’s hair, but Lexi gave it her best shot and marched past him with her head held high, while silently mumbling, ‘Arrogant swine’ under her breath.
‘I thought you might be hungry, so I had Maria prepare a tray, a few sandwiches and a pot of coffee.’
Lexi didn’t want to acknowledge his thoughtfulness. ‘You needn’t have bothered; I’m not hungry,’ she denied and, walking across the room, she sat down on the button-backed chair, casually eyeing the food set before her on the occasional table. ‘You’re enough to make any woman lose her appetite,’ she added for good measure, but just at that moment her tummy gave a very loud rumble.
Jake tossed back his dark head and burst out laughing, and Lexi’s lips began to twitch and, before she could help it, a chuckle escaped her. She looked up at Jake standing a few feet away and, as blue eyes caught violet in shared humour, the laughter stopped. Lexi could not break the contact, and for a long moment something precious seemed to simmer in the air between them.
Jake looked away first. ‘Eat, Lexi, and meet me downstairs in half an hour,’ he commanded gruffly and, turning on his heel, walked out.
Twenty minutes later, the food long gone, Lexi’s lips pursed thoughtfully as she surveyed her reflection. She looked slightly better, she thought; her eyes were no longer red-rimmed but the dark circles beneath betrayed the stress of the last twenty-four hours. She had chosen a soft cotton sleeveless shirtwaister in mint-green from he
r limited but classic wardrobe, surprised to find everything she possessed had been neatly put away, probably by Maria, including her shoes, neatly lined up in the rack at the bottom of the wardrobe. She had picked a pair of comfortable espadrilles in matching green; a trip to the chest of drawers alongside the dressing-table and she had found her underwear. Now, as she brushed her hair back into a neat ponytail, fastening it with a plain green slide, she knew she could not put off much longer going downstairs, and Jake...
She need not have worried... Lexi carried the tray that had held her snack down the grand staircase and, presuming the kitchen was at the back of the house, made her way through the hall to the door at the rear. Opening it, she walked into a huge light and airy room. A large antique pine dresser on one wall, stacked with blue delft china, caught her eye; in the centre of the room was a solid square pine table surrounded with ladder-backed chairs, and beyond the table a dividing bench to the kitchen proper. Maria, hearing Lexi enter, dashed across to meet her and take the tray from her.
‘Signora, please you should not have bothered. It is my job to collect the tray, cook everything... What will Signor Taylor say?’
Lexi smiled at the older woman’s worried frown. ‘Don’t worry, Maria; I am quite capable of looking after myself.’
‘But it is my job,’ Maria said firmly, and she placed the tray on the bench.
Lexi caught the housekeeper’s disapproving look and sighed inwardly. Not a very good start, she thought hopelessly, missing lunch and upsetting the housekeeper. ‘Sorry,’ she apologised. ‘But if you tell me where I can find Mr Taylor, I’ll get out of your way.’
‘Signor Taylor left fifteen minutes ago. He will be back for dinner at eight. Do you wish to eat in the dining-room or outside, signora?’
So much for his instruction to meet him in thirty minutes; obviously something more important had caught his attention—probably Lorraine. Lexi sighed and glanced out of the window, the fierce heat of the sun did not seem to have diminished since the morning. ‘Outside, thank you, Maria.’ Anyway, it would be less intimate to eat outside, she told herself and, turning, left the room.
She spent the next half-hour exploring her new home. In any other circumstances she would have found the place delightful. An elegant dining-room opened out on to a sunny patio, and the kitchen at one side of the house. A morning-room and what she presumed was Jake’s study led out to the terrace at the front of the house, as did the extravagantly furnished salon, the imposing entrance-hall bracketed between them. The salon opened on two sides to the terraces. Strolling through the tall French windows, she found herself at the other side of the house. She walked on the edge of the terrace and, looking over, gasped. On the next level down was a free-shaped swimming-pool, the clear water sparkling in the late afternoon sun. She toyed with the idea of going for a swim, but she had no intention of allowing Jake to catch her in her bikini; she was far too vulnerable to his masculine charms, though it infuriated her to have to admit it.
Instead she wandered down the stone steps to the pool, and on down through half a dozen progressively narrower terraces cascading with flowers and vines, the warm, sweet smell of a variety of plants filling the air, and beyond the boundary wall the magnificent backdrop of the sea, and islands. It was a little bit of paradise, Lexi mused, casually leaning against the wall, her eyes skimming the perfect view. But to her, short of diving off the cliff, it was a prison...
Restlessly she turned and slowly began walking back up towards the house. How long did Jake intend to keep her here? He was a businessman based in the city of London, it didn’t make sense, but ruefully she admitted that nothing in the past twenty-four hours had made much sense. His demanding she return to him and his desire for a child were a puzzle she could not fathom. Jake had hardly been ecstatic the one time she had been pregnant; only weeks after her pregnancy had been confirmed, suddenly he had needed to work in London—pressure of business, he had told Lexi. That was a laugh. Pressure from his mistress, more like, as Lexi had so suddenly and painfully discovered.
Lexi would never forget the first meal she had shared with Jake and Lorraine after losing her baby, and the other woman’s callous comment, ‘You wouldn’t have much time for a child just now...it might be a blessing in disguise.’ With hindsight Lexi realised what Lorraine had been getting at. Jake must have already decided to end their marriage, and was just waiting for a convenient time to tell his poor little wife. A child would have been a complication Jake didn’t need. It made Lexi’s blood boil to think of the pair of them still together five years later almost to the day, and once more wrecking her life.
She stopped as she reached the edge of the swimming-pool, and closed her eyes, clasping her hands in front of her as though in prayer. Why, why, why hadn’t Jake gone ahead with the divorce she had heard him and Lorraine plotting all those years ago? Her violet eyes fluttered open and she stared down into the sparkling blue water as if it would give her the answer she sought... It could only be money...
Lexi, as far as she knew, was still a silent partner in his business. Maybe he was frightened that if she divorced him he would lose half his business, yet she had tried to reassure him on that point last night. But he insisted on believing she was mercenary. Lorraine had once tried to convince Jake Lexi was a gold-digger before they were married, and obviously now Jake believed her. It appeared the other woman had overplayed her hand. The very reason Lorraine had given for Jake not marrying Lexi in the first place was now preventing Jake from divorcing Lexi... It would be laughable if it wasn’t so tragic. God, her heart cried, wasn’t it enough that she had lost her beloved baby, given Jake and Lorraine a clear field; what had she done to deserve their continued persecution?
Bending down at the edge of the pool, she ran her hand through the cool water and brushed it over her hot forehead. It must be financial, it was the only motive that made sense. But there was something else, she was sure of it. Male ego. Pride maybe. Jake didn’t like the idea of Lexi finding someone else.
But was it that simple? She didn’t know. The Jake who had stormed back into her life was vastly different from the man she had married. She could see it in his eyes, hear it in the scathing comments he voiced, and feel it in the almost palpable hatred that flared between them. Sadly for her, passion flared between them with the same if not greater force and to her constant shame she was incapable of withstanding the force of Jake’s desire. No, not desire! Lust...and that self-knowledge was the most shaming of all.
Straightening, she glanced at the ring on her finger, once a symbol of eternal love, or so she had thought, now a cold band of possession, nothing more. Sadly she took the last few steps to the house.
She walked back into the salon and, collapsing on an over-stuffed sofa, she glanced around. Very elegant, the furniture, a mixture of antique and modern Italian, was complemented by a selection of exquisite porcelain and bronze statuettes, a huge ornate marble fireplace with a magnificently carved over-mirror, everything in the best taste.