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Di CESARE PREGNANT MISTRESS - Chapter 15
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‘Meeting a lonely widower who also happens to be a hugely wealthy landowner must have been like finding gold at the end of the rainbow,’ he murmured, his lip curling contemptuously.
For a moment the room actually swayed beneath Stephanie’s feet, and she gripped the door frame to steady herself. ‘I don’t believe this.’ She said again, her voice shaking with emotion. ‘My relationship—my friendship with James is completely innocent. He doesn’t have romantic feelings for me, and I have certainly never tried to encourage anything like that.’
‘So why does he regularly travel to London to see you? He told Jennifer his visits are business-related, but he stepped down from his position as chief executive at athe Grainger’s store when Lilly first became ill. He has no reason to make trips to the city every Friday—apart from to meet you for lunch. Was it during one of those meetings that you persuaded him to buy you the diamond necklace?’ he queried scathingly.
‘I didn’t persuade him to buy me anything.’ Stephanie defended herself furiously, but she could not deny that she did meet James on Fridays, and she crossed her arms defensively in front of her.
On one occasion they’d had lunch at a restaurant near to the hospital and for once had had quite a bit to drink—Dutch courage, James had said a shade grimly—before his appointment with the consultant who’d had the results of his tests. But once his cancer had been confirmed he had started an immediate course of chemotherapy that made him feel sick to eat.
For a few seconds she contemplated telling Alexander the real reason for James’s visits to London. Alexander was his friend. Would it be wrong to tell him the truth—as long as he swore to keep the news from Luciana and Jennifer? But it was not her secret to tell. James was adamant that he did not want anyone to know about his illness—perhaps because he wanted to come to terms with it privately. She had promised James she would say nothing, and she could not betray his trust.
Alexander was watching her intently, ‘Nothing to say, bella?’ He queried silkily.
‘My meetings with James are none of your business,’ she muttered, feeling a pain like a knife being inserted between her ribs when Alexander’s mouth curled in disgust. ‘But obviously there were occasions when James wanted to discuss Luciana and Liam’s flat.’
‘Jennifer said the flat was finished weeks ago,’
Jennifer said….suddenly a lot of things made sense—in a twisted sort of way, Stephanie thought numbly. James’s younger daughter was a spoilt and self-obsessed young woman, but surely she couldn’t really believe that her father was involved with his interior designer?
‘What concerns me more,’ Alexander continued, ‘is that James has invested a considerable amount of money in Spectrum Development and Design—against the advice of his accountant. I understand that your brother’s company was close to bankruptcy, and I assume you persuaded James to bail him out. It doesn’t sound like the wise sort of business decisions I’d expect from James,’ Alexander added harshly.
His own father had been revered for his sharp business brain, but his obsession with Monica had made him careless, and he had been blind to the sharks circling ever closer until the House of Di Cesare had been on the verge of collapse. He would not allow James to follow the same destructive path.
Stephanie was staring at him with wide, stunned eyes. ‘What money?’ She demanded shakily. ‘I don’t know about any investment, and I’ve certainly never asked James to put money into Spectrum. The company isn’t facing bankruptcy. Daniel would have told me,’ she said desperately, when Alexander gave her scathing look.
‘Two months ago the bank was ready to retract its support unless Spectrum repaid its debts,’ Alexander said coldly. ‘Curiously enough, the figure owed matched the amount of James’s investment.’
‘But I didn’t know anything about it—‘Stephanie broke off, her mind whirling. Spectrum was Daniel’s company, and she was simply one of his employees. But he was also her brother—he wouldn’t have kept something as serious as the threat of bankruptcy from her, would he? She wondered sickly, And how had James become involved?
She stared at Alexander and saw the contempt etched onto his hard features. It was clear that he really believed she was money-hungry and had latched onto James, and the realisation made her want to crawl away and hide.
Another thought struck her. ‘You say James is your friend—but if you really believe he has developed romantic feelings for me, why did you arrange for him to find us together? Didn’t you think he might be upset?’
‘Sometimes it is necessary to be cruel to be kind,’ Alexander informed her, with such haughty arrogance that Stephanie forgot her misery and trembled with rage. ‘I felt it was better for James to realise what kind of woman you are now than to be disillusioned later.’
‘And what kind of woman am I?’ She whispered, her throat hurting as if she had swallowed glass.
‘A gold-digger,’ Alexander replied flatly. ‘Before you knew who I was, you couldn’t even be bothered to look at me. But the moment you learned I was a billionaire you abandoned James and fell into my arms. I’m not sure what last night was about,’ he went on relentlessly, ignoring her muffled gasp at his decimation of her character, ‘but I imagine it was to whet my appetite and inflame my desire for you.’
He moved suddenly, taking her by surprise as he snaked his arm around her waist, gripping her chin with his other hand to tilt her face to his. ‘I have to admit, your tactics were successful,’ he said, in a low voice that throbbed with a mixture of sexual hunger and self-disgust. ‘I still want you, Stephanie, and although I’m sure you’II deny it, you want me too.’