‘You don’t want to demolish the place?’ she queried, lifting wary blue eyes to his.
‘I still think in the long term redevelopment is the best way forward, but I am perfectly happy for you to run the business as you like. I bought the majority share simply to protect you. You’re my wife, and if it suits you to work I won’t deprive you of the privilege. I meant to tell you last weekend, after checking the state of affairs with Andy on Thursday. But with the fiascos that night and the rest of the weekend turned into somehow I never got round to it. Perhaps because whenever I look at you I forget everything but this.’ Alex wrapped an arm around her shoulders and his dark head bent towards her.
‘No!’ Lisa put a restraining hand on his bare chest. ‘I am not going to be diverted by sex. Not again,’ she said, quickly appalled at her own weakness. ‘You see, Alex, I know you are lying. I overheard you and Nigel last Thursday in this very apartment. I heard you telling him he could invest in your development.’ She still burned at the memory, and the tone of her voice reflected her feelings. ‘The slimy rat. And you’re no better.’
‘I thought you loved your stepbrother. You told me you did.’ Alex jerked back, his arm falling from her shoulder, his voice hard and accusing.
‘You’ve got to be joking.’ Lisa stared at him in genuine astonishment. ‘I can’t stand the man. I wouldn’t give him the time of day if it weren’t for Harold, and the feeling is mutual. Ever since he made a pass at me when I was sixteen and I made my feelings plain.’
Alex sucked in a deep breath, his black eyes glittering with some fierce emotion. ‘I wish I had known that last week; I would have flattened the bastard.’ He shook his dark head in a gesture of utter disgust with himself, and, grasping her hands in his hands, he asked, ‘Why did you not tell me last Thursday what you had overheard? Am I such an ogre you could not talk to me?’
She shrugged wearily. ‘What difference does it make? I heard enough to know my husband and stepbrother were plotting behind my back.’
‘Exactly what did you hear, Lisa? I need to know.’ His voice was flat, devoid of any emotion, only the tightening of his hands on hers told her he was nowhere near as calm as he appeared.
She stared unwaveringly for a moment into his taut face. Her teeth worried at her bottom lip. She remembered every word, they were carved on her brain but she wasn’t sure she wanted to tell him.
‘Tell me, Lisa,’ he prompted curtly.
‘All right.’ And with complete honesty she told him. ‘I heard Nigel say that after three weeks with the ice amazon he didn’t blame you spending a night on your own. Then he asked you if the delectable Margot knew you were in town.’
‘It was Nigel who told Margot I was in town. She confessed as much before she left,’ Alex said flatly, and Lisa winced. She had misjudged him badly. ‘But I did not want to disillusion you about Nigel.’ He laced his fingers with hers, as if to give her some of his strength. ‘Go on.’
‘There was a comment about a computer nerd.’ It was Alex’s turn to wince. ‘Then he asked for your confirmation that the sale of Lawson’s would go through. You teased him about getting my shares for nothing. And finally you said Nigel would get what he wanted.’
‘What I actually said, Lisa, was that he would get his… And I did not mean it in a friendly way. But I was labouring under the impression you loved him like a brother, so I had to put up with him, while making sure he did not harm you. I was stringing him along that night because, thinking ahead, I realised if anything happened to Harold, Nigel would end up with a share in your business. There was no way I wanted Nigel to have anything to do with you, so I had to keep him sweet until I had done a dea
l with Harold.’
‘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.