What now? Mia wondered, raising very wary eyes to see the most exquisite vision of blonde loveliness, dressed in tight faded jeans and a skinny white top, appear at the top of the stairway in front of her.
Very tall and incredibly slender, she had the bluest pair of eyes Mia had ever encountered but what was most disconcerting was that those eyes were smiling at her warmly—genuinely warmly.
‘Hi,’ she said pleasantly. Then, before Mia could answer, she went on, ‘Oh, good grief, but you look dreadful! What’s the matter with you, Alex?’ She frowned at him. ‘Trailing a pregnant woman all over the world, as if she’s some piece of baggage! How is your sister?’ she asked Mia, without waiting for Alex to answer either. ‘Is she very poorly? Mia, isn’t it?’ She smiled that warm smile again. ‘I’m Carol,’ she announced. ‘The lucky one because I got the nicer brother. You drew the short straw, I’m afraid, when you got Alex.’
‘Mia is exhausted,’ Alex interrupted rather irritably. ‘She doesn’t need all your crazy chatter right now. She needs her bed.’
‘Oh, sorry,’ Carol said, sounding rather disconcerted by his curt tone. ‘This way, Mia. Gosh, you look done in. Will you let me help you? You can lean on me, if you want to. I don’t mind.’
‘I can manage, thank you,’ Mia answered quietly.
‘Yes. Right.’ Carol nodded, and after a short pause, when she glanced from one brother to the other, she turned and began to lead the way up the stairs while Mia followed, having to draw on the very last dregs of her stamina.
She was shown into a prettily decorated bedroom, with blue walls and apricot furnishings. There was a connecting bathroom, where Carol took it upon herself to run Mia a bath while all Mia could do was lower herself onto the side of the bed and wilt.
By the time Carol came back into the bedroom Mia knew all about Leon, the great love of Carol’s life. How they met, where they met and where he had proposed to her. She now knew that they had been married for two years but were not going to start a family yet because Leon had insisted that his children were born in Greece and they couldn’t go and live in Greece until the new hotel they had just bought and were refurbishing here in London was finished up and running.
‘The bath’s ready,’ Carol announced. ‘All you have to do is get undressed and sink into it. I’ll be back in half an hour to make sure you’re all right …’
Silence. At last a blessed, beautiful silence fell upon the room at her exit. Mia remained where she was for a few precious minutes and simply let that silence flow all around her, then made herself get up and trail her weary body into the bathroom.
By the time she had hauled herself in and out of the bath again she was so utterly worn out that she had to sit down on the bathroom stool to recover. Hell, she thought as her head began to swim, a quick shower would have been more sensible in your condition. You really should have known that!
‘How are you doing in there?’
Carol was back already, Mia noted wryly.
‘One moment,’ she called back, hurriedly donning the short white silk slip-style nightdress Carol had thoughtfully hung behind the bathroom door for her. She ran a quick brush through her hair and, on a deep fortifying breath, let herself out of the bathroom.
‘Wow!’ the other woman gasped. ‘Look at all that hair! You’re gorgeous, aren’t you? No wonder Alex has been walking around looking as though he doesn’t know what’s hit him! I hope my figure looks as good as yours does with a bump stuck on the front of it. Here, get into bed. You’ll be more comfortable there …’
Without a word, Mia did as she was told. A tray landed across her lap. Her pillows were fluffed up.
‘Now …’ Standing back to view her ministrations, Carol frowned and then smiled when she realised she was frowning, as though she was trying very hard to make Mia feel wanted. ‘I’m going to leave you—Alex’s orders.’ She grimaced. ‘He’s frightened I’ll say something I shouldn’t—like I think its disgraceful the way he’s been treating you, no matter what the circumstances. See?’ She grinned. ‘I’ve said it anyway!’
Not that she seemed to care!
At last she disappeared. Mia wilted again, and in the next second her mind switched off. As if it had taken more than enough for one day and was refusing to accept any more, it dropped her into a slumber from which she didn’t even stir when the bedroom door opened again an hour later.
Alex stood on the threshold, staring at the way she had fallen asleep, half sitting up and with the untouched tray still lying across her lap.
With stealth he closed the door, then moved across the carpet to stand over her. She looked exhausted, even in sleep, the signs of stress evident in her washed-out face. Without disturbing her, he removed the tray and set it aside. Then, after another brief grim study of her, he turned and walked into the bathroom.
Ten minutes later he was back, showered, shaved and wrapped in a thin black cotton bathrobe. Silently he moved around the room, switching off several lamps Carol had left burning. Then, with the darkness enfolding him, he came back to the bed, removed the bathrobe and slid his unashamedly naked body into the bed beside her.
Still she did not so much as move a muscle. He lay there on his side and watched her for ages before—on a grimace that said he didn’t much fancy what he was about to do next—he leaned over her so he could slide an arm beneath her shoulders and lift her just enough to remove one of the pillows from behind her.
As he settled her back again in what he hoped was a more comfortable position her eyes flickered open, green homing directly onto guarded brown.
Mia blinked slowly, her sleep-sluggish mind taking its time to remember that it had been long months since she had woken to find him leaning over her in the darkness like this.
As she did remember, her eyes widened warily.
‘It’s OK,’ Alex said softly. ‘I was not about to seduce you while you were sleeping. I was simply trying to make you more comfortable.’
‘What are you doing here?’ she whispered, still staring owlishly into those rich, dark, slightly rueful eyes of his.
‘Carol’s idea,’ he said. ‘She naturally assumes we share a bed, and I was not up to one of her question-and-answer sessions, by informing her that we did not.’