Ruthless Magnate, Convenient Wife

rgei informed her smoothly. ‘You assure me that that is out of the question, but tight corners have a habit of pushing back the boundaries of what people find acceptable—’

‘Nothing you could do or say would persuade me to give up my own child!’ Alissa snapped back at him with not an ounce of hesitation.

‘I will make you an offer, then. If the money is returned in full and you agree to maintain the marriage for at least a year, I will put all thought of contacting the police on hold for the moment.’

Return the money? Of course he would want the money back, a little voice cried inside her head. She shifted position uneasily. ‘From what I understand, a fair proportion of it has already been spent—’

‘From what you understand?’ Sergei repeated very drily. ‘Are you trying to tell me that you don’t have access to that money?’

‘Alexa has it, but obviously I’ll speak to her.’

Sergei surveyed his bride with burning disbelief. ‘Your sister set up the scam, took the money and left you to deliver on the contract and face the music? And you let her do that to you? Evidently I got the dim twin, rather than the cunning, greedy one!’

Highs spots of colour burnished Alissa’s cheeks. ‘It wasn’t like that. I’ll admit that Alexa can be reckless and extravagant but she’s not a thief—why won’t you listen to me?’

‘You’ve yet to say anything that either makes sense or is of interest to me.’

‘There was no scam!’ Alissa proclaimed in fierce protest.

‘Then what was it? Where’s my money? Or alternatively where’s the woman I believed had signed a binding contract with me?’ he countered harshly. ‘Your sister used your name, backed out last minute and took off with the cash. You’re the only hostage I’ve got. Isn’t it time that you stopped disclaiming all responsibility and accept that you’re in this up to your throat?’

In receipt of that blistering advice, Alissa swallowed hard and painfully. A tension headache was tightening like a band of steel round her brow. ‘I’ll try to get the money back—’

‘I don’t want “try”, I want will,’ Sergei emphasised. ‘And don’t try selling anything I’ve given you to pay me back with my own money.’

Alissa stiffened even more at that warning. ‘I wouldn’t do that. I know you probably won’t believe me but I’m not a dishonest person.’

Sergei subjected her to an astringent appraisal. He was wondering if it was possible that her sister had duped her as easily as she had evidently duped his lawyers. He could see that Alissa was still in shock. He could see that she hadn’t slept well. He could see that she was trembling and upset. His angular jaw line clenched and he averted his attention from her slight figure. He would have no pity for anyone who cheated him. She was in shock because she was being called to account and distressed because she feared punishment. And naturally she would want to awaken his sympathy.

Sergei straightened to his full commanding height. ‘Do not doubt that I am prepared to bring the police into this.’

‘I don’t doubt it. But you did say that you wanted me to agree to stay as your wife for the next year,’ she reminded him anxiously.

‘I refuse to upset Yelena with the immediate breakdown of our marriage,’ Sergei said coldly.

‘Okay…I’ll stay,’ Alissa mumbled, feeling that it was the least she could do in the circumstances.

‘My priorities have changed, though.’ Sergei studied the faithful fit of her sweater over the swell of her rounded breasts before raising his darkly appreciative gaze to the wide soft fullness of her mouth. Desire was already roaring through him like a hurricane force and he marvelled at the reality that he wanted her as fiercely now as he had wanted her before he had consummated their marriage. He was amazed by her continuing pull on his libido.

‘How?’

‘I want you in my bed whenever I want you, and with no more nonsense about not wanting to be with me.’ Sergei lifted his arrogant dark head high, his glittering golden eyes hurling a challenge. ‘If I’m not going to get a child out of this arrangement, that will be my compensation.’

Aquamarine eyes wide with alarm at that bold demand, Alissa was wildly aware of the burning heat of his sensual scan of her body and she slowly turned a painful pink shade.

‘And that is not negotiable in any way,’ Sergei intoned soft and low. ‘I will only let you go free if you return that money.’

Alissa sent him an anguished look. ‘I couldn’t just go on sleeping with you as though nothing has happened!’

Sergei shrugged a broad shoulder in a show of outrageous nonchalance. ‘I think you’ll find you can, just like you did yesterday when you were the only one of us aware of the deception,’ he reminded her with a sardonic curl to his handsome mouth. ‘I’m leaving for London in an hour but you’re staying here.’

‘Why?’

‘I’m giving you three days to decide what your next move will be. And if you’re staying on my terms, I expect you in my bed waiting for me when I get back, milaya moya.’

Incensed by that cutting little speech, Alissa took a hasty step forward.

Sergei reached for her in almost the same movement. He hauled her bodily into his arms and tasted her parted lips with a hot, driving hunger that took her by shock and storm. She shivered against his unyielding masculine contours, her straining breasts crushed by his powerful torso, a firestorm of response flaring like a shameless fever in her pelvis and leaving her legs weak.