His Last Chance at Redemption (8 page)

He boarded his yacht and his captain and two engineers were waiting to give him a personal tour. When that was done, he headed to his private office to work.

Only his mind wouldn’t focus and by nightfall he had given up. Tomorrow he would have up to thirty guests enjoying a weekend on-board and he would need to be in top form for the meetings he had planned.

Even though it was late, he decided to stop by the pool deck for a drink. It was empty, the bar closed and most of the sun
loungers packed away for the night. He took a seat in a deckchair under the awning, out of sight of the prying lens of any roving paparazzi that had got wind he was on-board, and enjoyed the peaceful sound of the sea slapping against the sides of the nearby vessels and the distant rumble of city traffic.

He heard a door behind him slide open and presumed it was a steward come to see if he wanted something to drink. Then he heard the soft sound of flip-flops crossing the deck and knew it wasn’t a staff member. He watched Lexi Somers stroll to the railing and gaze out over the harbour and back towards Athens.

There wasn’t anything overtly sexual about her in hot pink leggings and a jade-green oversized shirt but he couldn’t take his eyes off her. She had been getting under his skin since the moment he had met her. But he couldn’t for the life of him understand the attraction. She didn’t appear to be like any other woman he’d met before. She was beautiful but didn’t flaunt it, she seemed intelligent and switched on and yet she played children’s games with ease and enthusiasm. And she spoke her mind—a quality he had never admired in a woman before.

In some ways she reminded him of the way his mother had been with Sasha—gentle and loving. Although Leo knew that his mother must have cared for him too, he knew that she had never approved of him. Where Sasha had been gentle, he had been rough. Where Sasha had been passive, he had been aggressive. He remembered that too often she had told him he was just like his father and she hadn’t meant it as a compliment.

He returned his attention to Lexi Somers, who looked almost lost as she gazed out over the water, and he wondered if she was thinking about Paris. About her Parisian lover. Missing him, even.

‘Unless your intention is to be on the cover of the morning paper tomorrow, I suggest you stand back from the railing.’

‘Oh.’ She jumped at the sound of his voice and squinted
to where he sat in the semi-darkness, the deck lit only by a few well-spaced down-lights.

‘I didn’t see you sitting back there in the dark.’

Leo crossed one foot over his opposite knee, his hands clasped behind his head as he slouched a little further into his deckchair. ‘So it seems.’

‘I was trying to see if I could see the Parthenon at night. I hear it’s beautiful.’

‘All you’ll see is camera flashes going off if you’re not careful. Or is that what you want?’

‘Oh, yes, that would be great,’ she scoffed. ‘As you can see, I’ve dressed for the occasion.’

Leo reluctantly ran his eyes over her. She looked more than fine to him. ‘They won’t know who you are anyway. And since I wasn’t standing beside you they’re unlikely to dig. Most likely they’ll assume you’re staff. Except if you wander around in that red bikini you had on today. I don’t usually let my staff dress like that when they’re working.’

‘Lucky I’m not staff.’

‘Your choice,’ he said, reminding her of her wish not to be paid for the weekend. Which still irked him. If he was paying her the lines of their relationship would be clearer and he wouldn’t always be thinking of crossing them.

She narrowed her eyes as she walked towards him. ‘I didn’t see you by the pool earlier today.’

‘I was on the bridge.’

‘Spying?’

‘Going over the itinerary with my captain,’ he advised curtly.

‘I was teasing,’ she informed him and Leo felt his teeth gnash together at her amused expression.

She wandered over and stood beside his table. ‘Ty loves the water. In summer we get out buckets and let the kids play with water in the sandpit and he’s first in line. He also loves to run. I don’t know if you noticed but when he gets going he’s—’

‘What’s that you’re holding?’

She glanced at the white plastic object in her hand. ‘A monitor.’

Leo frowned, immediately suspicious. ‘For what?’

‘Ty. It was one of the things I requested on the list I put together this morning.’

‘What’s it for?’

‘If he wakes up and cries out I’ll hear him. It’s a bit like a walkie-talkie but it only transmits signals one way.’

‘You can’t be available to him day and night,’ he said somewhat churlishly.

‘Somebody has to be.’

Leo ignored the shaft of guilt that speared his gut and made a mental note to ask his housekeeper to organise someone to assist her during Ty’s sleep time.

Just then a steward came out and asked if they would like drinks and Lexi surprised him by ordering a chamomile tea.

‘It’s very calming. You should try some.’

‘Are you suggesting I’m not calm?’

She tilted her head and her long hair spilled over one shoulder. ‘I don’t think I’ll answer that lest we start an argument.’

‘You’re here. That’s almost guaranteed to start one.’

She smiled. ‘Now
you’re
teasing.’ Her eyes sparkled as she tried not to laugh at him again.

He wasn’t, but he decided to let it ride. Sitting out on his deck on a moonlit night with a beautiful woman he did not want to be attracted to was not conducive to bringing out his sense of humour.

‘I tried to find you earlier tonight.’

‘Why?’

She gripped the back of the deckchair in front of her. ‘I wanted to ask you if you would like to read Ty a bedtime story.’

‘I was in a meeting,’ he said, his voice sharper than he intended.

She tilted her head as she considered his answer. ‘Would you have done it if you hadn’t been in a meeting?’

He was shocked when she called his bluff.

‘No.’

He could see that his curt reply had surprised her and he was glad. Don’t ask questions,
moya milaya,
that you don’t want answers to.

‘Why not?’ she asked softly.

Did the woman never give up? Did she somehow expect him to open up and spill his guts all because she had asked an insightful question in a nice voice?

Leo leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, annoyed with himself and her. ‘You really want to know?’

She stepped forward, drawn in. ‘If you want to tell me.’

‘Take a seat.’ He indicated the deckchair next to his, his voice low.

She looked from him to the chair and back, a shade warily, and Leo felt some primitive thrill of a bygone age rise up inside himself. The lure was set and she just had to take two more steps and then he’d trap her and tell her to mind her own business. That he would not discuss his relationship with his son with her or anyone else. He might even kiss her as well. Just to find out if she really did taste as good as his recall said she did.

She hesitated beside the chair, but he could tell she hadn’t taken the bait. More was the pity. ‘There’s always tomorrow night.’

He raised a mocking eyebrow. ‘To take a seat?’

Her eyes flashed. ‘To read him a story.’

‘Alas, I’m all out of fairy tales, angel.’

She pursed her lips at the pet name he’d given her and he cocked his head as he considered her. ‘Is that why you became a childcare worker? You like fairy tales.’

‘I like children. They’re honest and pure.’

Like her? He leant back in his chair. ‘Could it be that you prefer dealing with children more than adults?’

‘Of course not.’

‘Of course yes!’ He gave an unrepentant grin at her fervent denial, enjoying himself all of a sudden.

Something her next sharp words ground into dust.

‘Do you have any intention of spending time with your son this weekend?’

‘I didn’t think you wanted an argument,’ he sneered.

‘I don’t. I just think it’s important.’

‘You’re not here to orchestrate a family reunion, Miss Somers, so stop trying.’

Her eyes glittered angrily in the low light. ‘You would have to be a family in the first place for me to be able to do that,’ she blazed back at him.

Fortunately the steward arrived with their beverages and eased the tension that had hardened the air between them. He could feel Lexi watching him but he ignored her and picked up his bottle of mineral water, lamenting the fact that he had given up alcohol seventeen years ago and wishing it was a full bottle of Stolichnaya instead.

‘I don’t understand you,’ she said, breaking the silence once the steward was safely out of earshot. ‘You grew up in what sounds like a wonderful family and yet you treat Ty as if he doesn’t exist.’

Leo observed her with a level of calmness he was far from feeling. ‘I won’t discuss my relationship with my son with you, Miss Somers,’ he said through clenched teeth, ‘so stop prying.’ She pulled the chair out opposite him and Leo felt as if a rock had settled in his stomach. She had an uncanny knack of making him feel guilty about Ty but she didn’t know the truth behind his decision. She didn’t know what he was capable of and for a split second he considered telling her. Which was madness! He never talked about himself. Ever.

And he sure as hell wouldn’t be telling Lexi Somers about it either.

He was just about to return to his suite when she bent one knee up and rested her chin on it. ‘Do you ever do anything besides work?’

A myriad of answers formed in his head but they would be dangerous to play to. Because while intellectually he had already decided to ignore the chemistry between them, physically he had already started to respond to the hint of vanilla carried across to him on the warm evening air.

‘Sometimes,’ he said evenly.

‘Like what?’

Like sex
. His nostrils flared as the thought hardened his groin.
Right here and right now if she were willing
. He saw her eyes widen slightly and knew she had picked up on the direction of his thoughts. Maybe the fact that he was staring at her mouth wasn’t very subtle.

‘Looking for a demonstration, angel?’

The air between them became charged and he noticed her running her silver necklace between her fingers.

Oh, boy
.

In trying to find out more about him and how best to influence him into spending time with Ty, Lexi had inadvertently jumped into a minefield with a man who knew where all the loaded mines were.

He wasn’t trying to hide his sexual interest in her and she was shocked to see it. She had convinced herself that what had happened last night was because they had both been half asleep and that the chemistry she felt was entirely onesided, but perhaps that wasn’t the case. Or perhaps he was just bored and toying with her to avoid talking about himself. That would make more sense but, whatever it was, she
was just glad he hadn’t remembered his nightmare last night or what had followed.

It would also help if she could stop thinking about how well the man kissed and how hard his muscles had felt pressing her into the bed. God, he made her feel desperate for sex and already her body felt hotter, heavier. But she wasn’t any good at sexual banter and her cup clattered as she put it down. ‘I think I might go to bed,’ she said, inwardly grimacing at her gaucheness.

‘Scared, angel?’

‘Of?’ she asked carelessly, glancing everywhere but at him.

‘The way I make you feel, for one.’ His voice was a lazy purr.

‘Excuse me?’ She coughed out a laugh as if he’d just told her an implausible joke.

His smile said he didn’t believe her for a second and his stunning eyes glittered in the low light, laughing at her.

‘So tell me,’ he said in a way that put her even more on edge, ‘how did lover boy take your rejection last night?’

‘It wasn’t a rejection.’ She bristled at his arrogant confidence. Well, it was, she supposed, but it had nothing to do with him. ‘And his name is Simon.’

‘That wasn’t what I asked.’

‘I’m not telling you,’ she said, wishing now that she had headed for her room when the thought had first occurred to her.

‘It’s different when the boot’s on the other foot, isn’t it, angel?’

‘Stop calling me angel,’ Lexi fumed, feeling decidedly unsettled by his nettling. Especially when she conceded that
maybe
he had a point. If she wouldn’t answer his questions, why should he answer hers? ‘And of course he wasn’t happy, but he understood.’

It was one of the qualities that had initially drawn her to Simon. Calm, methodical, rational, dependable.

‘Understood what?’ Leo’s dark voice broke into her thoughts. ‘That he came second to me?’

Oh, what an ego!

‘That isn’t what happened at all,’ Lexi countered, uncomfortably aware that Simon would
always
come second to him if a woman had a choice.

‘No?’ He gave a wolfish smile.

‘No.’

‘So you told him what happened in my bed last night then?’ he asked silkily.

Lexi’s breath lodged in her throat. Damn it, he
had
remembered what had happened and had only been
toying
with her. How had she thought even for a second that a man like him would be interested in her as a woman?

‘Your list just got longer,’ she said smartly.

He disconcerted her by laughing. ‘Admit it, angel, you’re attracted to me.’

‘You’re wrong about that.’ She cleared her throat and nearly spilt her cup of tea.. ‘I would never be attracted to a man like you.’ It was a lie, but oh, she wished it wasn’t.

‘Trying to insult me to deflect how you feel isn’t very original,’ he said softly.

‘Neither is the size of your ego.’

Rather than be insulted, he laughed again. ‘I liked you in my bed,’ he said softly.

His lips curved into a lazy grin that made her stomach flip.

‘I was
not
in your bed,’ she insisted sharply, frustrated by her body’s automatic reaction to his suggestive tone. She had yet to find anything positive about this man and yet her body responded to his every move as if he was master of it. How could that happen when she didn’t even like him?