To her utter confusion, his face closed up. ‘I am not prepared to deal with that question at this present moment,’ he said abruptly, and got up, his whole demeanour so grimly inflexible that she panicked.
‘But, Alex!’ she choked, jumping up to grab hold of his sleeve as he went to walk away from her. ‘I need you to deal with it right now!’
‘No,’ he said, shook his arm free from her grasp then grimly walked away.
The rest of the long flight was achieved in an atmosphere of severely suppressed tension—suppressed because Suzanna was so clearly delighted with the whole wretched business that it would have been cruel to spoil it for her.
But it wasn’t easy, and Mia retreated behind a cloak of cool repudiation where no one could reach her, except Suzanna.
They landed in Skiathos in the full heat of mid-afternoon, and Mia broke out in a cold sweat which didn’t leave her until they were safely off the airport confines and driving away.
At every turn she had been expecting to see a group of officials bearing down on them to detain them—by order of her father.
But—no. She found herself safely ensconced in the passenger seat of the silver Mercedes, with Alex behind the wheel and Leon and Carol crushed into the back seat, with an excited Suzanna sitting between them.
The child chatted and bounced and asked question after question that, thankfully, the others answered because Mia couldn’t lift her mood to fit the little girl’s.
She felt shut off, bricked in behind a wall of anger, stress and a terrible sense of betrayal. She had begun to let herself like these people—to trust them even, which was no mean feat for someone who had learned a long time ago that trusting anyone was a terrible weakness.
Suzanna trusted them—Mia’s eyes began to water. Suzanna was opening up like a blossoming flower to the warmth of their affection!
The car turned in through familiar gates and swept down the driveway to pull to a halt outside the front veranda.
Car doors opened, and they all climbed out. The sun was hot, the sea was blue and the white-painted walls of the house stood framed by the dense greens of the hillside behind.
‘Is this going to be my new home?’ Suzanna trilled in breathless wonder. ‘Is it truly—is it?’
Mia spun to face Alex across the gleaming bonnet of the Mercedes. ‘If you hurt her with this, I will never forgive you!’ she said thickly, then turned to run into the house.
CHAPTER TEN
ALEX caught Mia in the hall, one hand curling around her slender wrist while the other clamped itself to her waist.
‘Let go of me!’ she protested.
His grip only tightened as he guided her—almost frog-marched her—up the stairs and into her bedroom. The door shut with the aid of his foot. Then he was tugging her round until she was facing him, his arms anchoring her there while she glared through a mist of bright, angry tears into his set face.
‘I am not going to let anyone hurt Suzanna!’ he blasted at her furiously. ‘I am not doing this to hurt you!’
‘Then why are you doing it?’ she spat right back at him.
‘I told you!’ he rasped. ‘I am pulling out of my deal with your father!’
‘But why?’ she repeated. ‘Why, Alex, why?’
He let out a string of rasping profanities, frustration and anger blazing out of his eyes. ‘Because of this!’ he muttered, and caught her mouth with a kiss that knocked her senseless.
When he eventually let her up again for air she could barely stand up straight.
‘I want you, I want our child and I want Suzanna more than I want my island!’ he growled fiercely. ‘Does that answer your question?’
Answer it? It virtually consumed it! He wanted her, really wanted her that badly?
Her face went white, her eyelashes flickering as she started to tremble. Her deeply inbred sense of caution stopped her from believing what he was actually trying to tell her. What his eyes were telling her as they blazed passionately down at her. What her own senses were pleading with her to believe!
‘Don’t faint on me!’ she heard him mutter, and suddenly she was being lifted into his arms. ‘Why is it,’ he rasped as he strode towards the bed, ‘that you either pass out or take my head off whenever I try to hold a meaningful conversation with you!’
He sat her down on the edge of the bed.