Chapter One #3
They all spotted her at the same time. A slight figure with tumbling blonde hair who was lustily singing as she made her way past the door, a fleeting figure not glancing in their direction because the room was slightly set to the side.
She was clearly expecting no one to be there and so no one was there.
Alessandro felt the taste of pure, electric shock and complete bewilderment.
But he was the first to break the stunned silence and before his brain could totally engage, it could already smell the danger.
He exited the sitting room at lightning speed, catching up with the mystery singing woman as she headed off in the direction of the kitchen.
He could see the little buds in her ears.
She was in a world of her own. Music blaring from upstairs while she sang along to whatever she was listening to on her headphones.
Had his house suddenly turned into a club?
Would he head upstairs to find a rave going on while whoever this was strolled around, doing her own thing, for all the world as though his house belonged to her?
She was about to be brutally wrenched from whatever world she was in, Alessandro thought grimly.
He had no idea who the woman was, but he was very keenly aware of the trio of onlookers now poised by the door with avid interest and he had lots of ideas on how a random woman making herself at home in his chalet was going to go down.
Leading the pack on the accusation front would be his ex-wife, but the lawyers, always so impassive as they were paid to be, were there as well, drawing conclusions they couldn’t afford to draw. Could things be worse?
Alessandro reached out.
She was wearing loose clothes that looked enormous on her slender frame. A soft jumper that stopped at the waist and some very baggy jogging bottoms with the elasticated waistband rolled so that a slither of skin was visible.
He could feel the slimness of her body as he tugged her towards him. He made sure to provide a barrier between himself and his audience of three and he was glad he had because the look of utter astonishment on her face as she took him in was priceless.
Her eyes opened wide, her mouth parted and she inhaled sharply while fumbling to yank the little buds out of her ears.
‘Don’t say anything,’ Alessandro said in a low, commanding voice. ‘Tell me your name.’
Up close and personal, there was something about her that made him feel a little unbalanced and he put that down to the shock of finding her in his house in the first place.
Her hair was very fair, vanilla blonde, and very long and very unruly.
Her eyes were huge, almond-shaped and brown, the same chocolate brown as her eyebrows and her long, curling eyelashes, and her mouth was soft and perfectly defined.
She smelled of something clean and floral and, with absolutely not a scrap of make-up, her skin was satin smooth.
He scowled at an unwanted physical reaction, which was so out of character for him.
‘You tell me yours first,’ she hissed right back at him, trying her best to peer round his shoulders.
He was having none of that and fortunately he was broad enough to block her from the inquisitive eyes behind them, but time wasn’t on his side.
‘All you need to know is that I own the villa in which you’re trespassing.’
‘You do?’
‘Name. Now. What is it?’
In return the fiery blonde shot him a simmering, hostile look under her lashes but there was enough sudden wariness there to alert him to the fact that he had the upper hand and thank God for that.
He shuddered to think what a field day his ex was going to have with this situation.
She would grasp whatever ammunition she could and wield it against him like a claw hammer and Flora would be caught in the middle.
He was going to have to wing it.
Trespassing.
Georgie quailed inside. Of course, she couldn’t possibly know for sure whether this complete stranger was telling the truth or not, but she was getting the distinct impression that this was a guy who didn’t do a lot of larking around.
His deep, dark eyes were coldly intent as they roved over her face. Her heart was slamming against her ribcage, a combination of intense apprehension, nerves and…
An awareness that was darkly, shockingly sexual.
He was the most beautiful man she had ever seen in her entire life. Tall, dark and handsome on steroids didn’t begin to sum it up.
His features were perfectly chiselled, his raven-black hair was cropped short and he had a mouth that could drive any woman to distraction.
She had to peel her eyes away from that way too sexy mouth, away from him, as she frantically tried to gather herself and rescue some semblance of self-control. As much as a trespasser could have, was what she thought faintly.
But his hand was burning with the force of a branding iron through her jumper and she was finding it hard to get any words out as their eyes continued to tangle in electrifying silence.
Eventually, she managed to croak her name.
‘Listen to me carefully,’ he said, leaning towards her so that she could feel his breath against her face. ‘You’re going to follow my lead. Understood?’
‘Or else what?’ Georgie did her best to maintain a robust veneer, very much aware that she was half this guy’s size, although what could he do to her?
There were other people around. She’d just about managed to glimpse them although he was so broad that there was no chance of her seeing who those people actually were.
‘Or else you’ll discover that trespassing on a billionaire’s property carries some hefty penalties. Let’s talk jail.’
‘Are you trying to scare me?’ Georgie gasped.
‘I already admire the way you can read a situation. Are you going to do as I say? No questions asked?’
‘Do I have a choice?’
But instead of feeling intimidated or scared, she was curious and breathless.
Something about this guy was crazily thrilling even though in a situation like this, with anyone else, she would have been livid, whether she was trespassing or not.
She very much had never been in favour of the macho types and this guy was Mr Macho personified.
‘Wait. What’s your name?’
‘Alessandro. Alessandro Barbieri.’
Before she could pepper him with any more questions, he was turning around although, instead of letting her go, his hand loosened on her arm and drifted to her waist.
A light, semi-possessive hold that made her blood fizz in her veins.
And now she could see exactly who was there with him. Three people, although her eyes were immediately drawn to the striking woman poised in the hall, hand on hip, beautiful face puckered in a mixture of rage and confusion.
She was dressed for winter on the slopes in just the sort of outfit Georgie recommended her pupils never, ever wear.
Soft cream cashmere rollneck, skintight leggings and leather boots.
Her dark hair was tailored into a sharp, shoulder-length bob and her sultry sexiness was emphasised by a liberal dose of make-up.
From ruby-red lipstick to grey eye shadow and the most perfectly manicured nails imaginable, she was the essence of physical perfection.
Perfection or not, if this was a skiing holiday, then Georgie hoped she’d brought some more sensible kit with her.
The two guys hovering slightly behind couldn’t have been more ordinary compared to the man with his hand on her waist and the woman who was presumably his other half.
In which case, why was his hand still on her waist?
Suddenly mortified, Georgie shifted a little, which resulted in his hand tightening.
‘This is Georgie…’
Georgie smiled stiffly, bewildered.
‘Georgie, this is Sophia, my ex-wife.’
The pressure on her waist tightened. Georgie had no idea what was happening but, alert to her status of trespasser who could get in a whole heap of trouble, she kept smiling politely and hoping that things would get clearer than mud.
‘What is a woman doing here?’
‘She’s surprised me with a visit.’
He looked down at her and Georgie, in turn, looked up and up and up at him.
His dark eyes were pseudo tender, not fooling her for a second that his thoughts were anything like tender because the tacit warning in their dark depths was unmissable. At least to her.
‘Haven’t you, my darling? Surprised me with a visit and what a glorious surprise.’
Georgie could have got lost in the sexy, husky timbre of his voice.
‘She has a key to the chalet? Since when do you give women keys to your houses?’
We’re supposed to be an item… For whatever mysterious reason, Georgie knew that she had been suddenly thrust into some kind of role that she was expected to play. She also knew that the deck wasn’t stacked in her favour when it came to having a choice in the matter.
He’d mentioned jail.
She watched the way he half turned towards the shrill voice before resting his eyes on her and, in that instant, Georgie read something, felt something. Resignation…was that it? Or maybe the patience of a long-suffering man who had reached a point of desperate measures.
She couldn’t put her finger on any of the feelings that raced through her, but she did know, with some weird but very definite sixth sense, that he was a fair guy even though he’d had no trouble in blackmailing her into doing what he wanted.
She wondered how that made sense.
‘Since when does he give a woman keys to his chalet? Since now!’ Georgie trilled, sidestepping Alessandro as she reached into her pocket to dangle the house keys in front of her.
The expression on the other woman’s face was priceless. A combination of utter astonishment and utter rage.
If they were no longer involved with one another, then why was she livid at the thought of another woman having the keys to a chalet?
Her busy speculation had managed to banish every shred of nerves or anxious foreboding of where, exactly, she would be left after this little charade. She wasn’t expecting what came next.
She should have been.
She should have felt the slide of his hand on her waist, been aware of the way he lowered himself towards her and then the low whisper when he thanked her.
Maybe deep down she knew that he was going to kiss her but there was no way that she had prepared herself for the shock of it.
His cool lips touching hers, a kiss that was feathery light and yet felt impossibly intimate.
Caught up in the moment, she felt every rational thought leave her head in a whoosh and she leaned into him, reaching up on tiptoe to curve into his body and feeling the hard muscularity of it with devastating sensual awareness.
She could have stayed there for ever, oblivious to an audience of three, but common sense and a gut realisation that she needed to protect herself from this sort of crazy, visceral reaction to a complete stranger made her tug back, horrified at herself and her weakness.
How could she? Hadn’t she learned anything at all? Didn’t she know how important it was to protect herself and her vulnerable heart? How vital to actually count to ten before you flung yourself into situations that weren’t based on reality? Had she completely lost her senses?
He released her just like that.
‘We can continue this conversation in a while, Sophia,’ he threw over his shoulder as he began guiding her away from his ex-wife, hand still on her, making sure, she thought, that she didn’t bolt.
‘I hadn’t expected Georgie to have come here to surprise me.
For the first time and hopefully not the last.’ He turned to Georgie with a sexy, wolfish smile.
‘Don’t think this surprise visit hasn’t made my day. It has.’
Georgie thought that lying had never sounded so seductive.
‘So,’ he continued to his ex and her companions, ‘you’ll understand if I excuse myself for an hour or so just to play catch-up?
It’s been the better part of a very long fortnight without one another.
Henry… Miguel…can I trust you to get through some of the preliminaries before I head back down?
Ensure that Sophia fully understands everything that will be signed and the ramifications if they aren’t.
’ He looked once again at Georgie. ‘Can I leave you for a short while this evening, my darling? To wrap up a few thorny and much overdue issues? Trust me, I’ll be sure to make it up to you later. ’
‘Er…’
The smile he flashed her was wicked, sexy, devastating and left no room for debate because he began urging her up the very staircase she had earlier descended without a care in the world.
The further up the stairs they climbed, the more his hand on her waist lost that loving touch and by the time they hit the top of the impressive staircase and were out of earshot, it had dropped abruptly to his side.
‘Right,’ he grated, stepping back and looking at her with forbidding cool, ‘what the hell are you doing in my house?’