Alexa was still engaged in playing with the phone and, although she tensed at her sister’s question, she did not lift her head for several seconds. Blue-green eyes scornful, she looked over at Alissa. ‘Think about what you’re saying. How are you planning to pretend to be his wife without ever sharing a bedroom with him?’
That angle hadn’t occurred to Alissa and she compressed her lips in dismay. ‘I didn’t realise that the job entailed carrying on the pretence that we were a couple behind closed doors.’
‘You can’t be that naïve. He must have a lot of staff and he wants everyone to think it’s the real deal, not just a select few. Of course what happens behind those closed doors would be your choice entirely.’
Alissa’s rigid expression of disapproval had eased a little. ‘So there was no prior assumption that there would be…er…intimacy of that nature?’
‘Of course not. What do you think I am?’ Alexa demanded sharply. ‘But put a young and attractive man and woman in the same room and nature tends to take its course, if you know what I mean.’
The trouble was that Alissa genuinely didn’t know, for she had as yet no experience to equal her twin’s.
‘You can’t still be a virgin!’ Alexa exclaimed, interpreting her sister’s embarrassment with a look of disbelief.
In a defensive movement, Alissa threw back her slim shoulders. ‘Why shouldn’t I be?’ she asked with quiet conviction. ‘I just haven’t met the right person yet and I’m not ashamed of that.’
‘Sometimes I just can’t believe we’re twins. We are so different!’ Alexa carolled in frustration. ‘Why do you make sex such a big deal? Is it any wonder you’re still on your own? A guy has to tick every box on your checklist to get anywhere near you. This exchange is just not going to work.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I’m the one who was picked to be Sergei’s wife and it looks like I’m the only one of us capable of carrying it off,’ Alexa breathed flatly. ‘Since we can’t repay the money, I’ll have to get an abortion.’
In horror, Alissa leapt to her feet. ‘I won’t let you do that!’
‘We only have two options,’ her twin reminded her doggedly. ‘You marry him in my place so that we can keep the money, or I terminate this pregnancy and stick to the contract—’
‘I said I would do it,’ Alissa retorted, unnerved by her twin’s mood, for she knew how impulsive her sister could be and she was very much afraid that Alexa might still press on with her idea of a termination.
‘But you’re baulking at every little thing!’ Alexa flung angrily at her.
‘I don’t call sharing a bedroom with a guy I hardly know a “little” thing…’
‘That’s right, go ahead and make me feel like a total slut just because I wouldn’t have made a big fuss about it when he’s so gorgeous! All right, I’ve had a lot of men in my life and you haven’t, but do you have to be so superior and smug about it?’
‘I’m not superior or smug,’ Alissa protested in dismay. ‘Anything but!’
‘Well, you’d better make your mind up fast. Do you want to help Mum or not?’ Alexa demanded coldly.
And did she also want to be an aunt to the baby that her sister was carrying? Alissa added inwardly. She had met the baby’s father, Harry, only that day when he’d arrived to take both young women out for lunch. Alissa had liked him very much and was satisfied that he genuinely loved her wilful twin. Right now, Alexa, however, was less easy to read or predict. Her sister was all over the place emotionally, one moment sentimental about her approaching motherhood and marriage, the next feeling threatened by the awareness that her freedom would be curtailed. Alissa could see the manner in which her twin was still retaining a possessive grip on the ridiculously expensive phone. She also knew how easily tempted her sister was by luxury goods. More than once Alexa’s love of designer labels had got her into serious debt. Alissa also fully understood that, confronted by that outrageous diamond-studded phone, Alexa was wondering if she had made a serious mistake when she had surrendered the chance to marr
y a billionaire, regardless of how brief and fake the alliance was to be.
Alissa was determined to stay with the solution that promised her sister the best chance of happiness and she rammed down a lid on all her own reservations and breathed in deep. ‘I want to help Mum more than anything. I’ll go ahead with it, whatever it costs.’
Chapter Three
ONLY a few hours after that conversation, Sergei snatched up a towel and strode out of the wet room where he had cooled his hot blood under a long cold shower. He snatched up a towel. It was four in the morning and he had barely slept. He had tossed and turned, as overheated and hungry for a woman as a sexstarved teenage boy. He was not amused by that reality and he was bewildered and frustrated by the sexual intensity Alissa Bartlett had fired in him.
A brooding frown stamped on his lean strong features, he logged onto his notebook PC and brought up the photo of his bride-to-be. It was a source of irritation that the woman in the picture somehow contrived both to look like Alissa and yet not like her. In the flesh, her face was softer, rounder, her eyes brighter, her smile full of appeal. How were those differences possible? Obviously it was an old photo, taken when she was thinner, and it wasn’t a flattering representation.
Desire, however, did not blind Sergei to more obvious facts. In every way, he reflected grimly, Alissa Bartlett had proved to be much more of an unknown quantity than he’d expected. She had demonstrated quirky autonomous traits that made him distinctly uneasy. He had thought the marriage plan was pure perfection with every detail settled in advance of the ceremony and the margin for error reduced to almost nothing. He had believed she was a safe choice. But when he endeavoured to slot that defiant little blonde, who had danced with another man, into his game plan he saw dangerous ripples spreading as though a large boulder had suddenly been pitched into still water. Gut instinct now warned him that Alissa was a bad bet, more likely to give him trouble than a smooth and successful conclusion.
He should bail out now, Sergei acknowledged grittily. Unfortunately he found her hugely attractive and that advantage would be almost impossible to find elsewhere. An overlong procession of greedy, cunning lovers had made Sergei exceedingly choosy about the women he took to his bed. It was ironic that even though Alissa had infuriated him she had also ignited a stronger level of pure driven lust in him than he had experienced in over a decade.
Alissa had also resurrected his appetite for risk. So what if he was taking a chance on her? He pictured her in her little black dress, firm breasts rising above the scooped neckline in a tantalisingly voluptuous display as she spun on the dance floor, revealing glimpses of her slender thighs. His body reacted with maddening enthusiasm to the image. He had liked that dress but it would have shocked Yelena. The outfit had been too revealing for anything other than private consumption. He would have to take her shopping to ensure that she acquired more sedate clothing, while also ensuring that some day soon she would put on that dress especially for him so that he could strip it off and enjoy the delights of the body that lay underneath.
If he was so hot to taste this forbidden fruit he had to take the risk of marrying her. Such powerful desire demanded and deserved satisfaction. He was willing to sacrifice his freedom and marry to please his grandmother, but he saw no reason why he shouldn’t make every effort to ensure it was, at least, a pleasurable and entertaining experience.
Alissa wakened with a start when her shoulder was roughly shaken. A phone was ringing and she sat up on the sofa, where she had spent a most uncomfortable night, and looked woozily at Alexa, who was extending her diamond-studded phone.