“Xander, it’s delightful to see you again.” The older man of about sixty greeted Xander with a firm handshake. “It has been a year or two, I believe.”
“Yes, indeed it has, Pepe. This is my friend, Indi, who will be accompanying us today.” Xander gave the man a sincere smile, relishing the fuzzy feeling he gained from introducing Indi to people of his acquaintance. He had never been serious enough about a woman before to feel the need to introduce them to his business acquaintances, but her presence made him strangely content with the idea.
“Enchanted,” Pepe replied, kissing Indi on either side of her face in greeting.
“So, have you simply come to taste our wine this time, Xander, or maybe you’re prepared to make an offer a tired old man can no longer refuse?” Pepe smiled as he placed a friendly pat on Xander’s back.
Although the deal they discussed fell through last time, Xander had shared many pleasant meals with Pepe and his family. He chuckled and replied, “Well, maybe both.”
Indi looked on as they chatted some more, but he could not tell what she was thinking. As Pepe led the way into the winery, Xander placed a hand on the small of Indi’s back, guiding her to walk in front of him slightly, and leaving Adam and Hayden to remain by the vehicle. For the next hour, Indi was shown each stage of the process of winemaking before they finally entered a cellar where previous years’ vintages were stacked high.
“How long have you been making wine here?” Indi asked Pepe as she stared in awe at the vast number of bottles.
“My family has been doing this for nearly ninety years. My grandfather started it from scratch, then my uncle, father and me. Unfortunately, my sons have no interest in taking it over, so I’m going to sell it, so I don’t have to work so hard for what is remaining of my life.”
“It is sad that something so beautiful will have to leave your family,” she said, looking out over the green expanse of grapevines monopolising the horizon. “My own family had to do something similar when my grandfather died. He owned a successful horse-breeding ranch in America, which had been in our family for generations, but his beneficiaries weren’t interested in taking it on, so it had to be sold.”
Xander raised an eyebrow at this revelation, not realising her family was anything but English. He made a mental note to ask her about it later. Regardless of his initial intention not to share many details of his life back home with Indi, they had grown much closer than he ever imagined, and she already knew the vague background to his relationship with his father. She was so easy to open up to that he had not given it a second thought when he began divulging more of his private life than he normally would.
Pepe nodded, knowingly. “Come; let me allow you to taste the latest selection of wine.” He took them to a section of the cellar without any racking up on the wall. Instead, small oak barrels lay on their sides with short taps at the front of them. One of Pepe’s staff was already waiting with several different bottles of varying colours of wine and some glasses for them.
Xander gestured for Indi to take a seat at the table while Pepe instructed his assistant to pour some tasters for them to start sampling. They started with one of the whites from the previous year before moving on to rose, and then red wine, which she preferred.
“I actually like this best,” said Indi in her finest Italian as she held the remnants to her nose once again. “I think I taste vanilla and perhaps some type of cherry?”
“Si,” Pepe responded. “Con un suggerimento di moka.”
“What kind of blend? I think I can get a differing taste?” Xander joined in with his less than perfect Italian.
“This is a best reserve, so half Cabernet Sauvignon and half Shiraz, mostly.”
They whiled away the rest of the afternoon discussing some of the historical places they had already visited with the additional insight of a native Sicilian point of view.
As Xander reminisced with Pepe, he enjoyed the way Indi flushed quite often at the mere mention of their private night tour of the Valley of the Temples whenever he caught her eye. Xander had paid for them to have exclusive access to the place, and they had managed to slip away from both bodyguards and their guide long enough for him to sink his cock inside her tight core. The little summer dresses she wore drove him crazy most days; she made him feel like a horny teenager, considering the amount of times he had acted on his constant craving of endless quickies with her wherever the mood took.
Indi must have been having the same thoughts as him, because as soon as Pepe was called away by one of his staff, leaving them quite alone in this part of the cellar, she ran her hands underneath his T-shirt and over his stomach in just the way he liked, and then they headed down south.
“I don’t think I can wait any longer to be inside you, baby,” Xander groaned. Turning her so that she was facing away from him, he manoeuvred her over one of the large barrels in the darkest corner, which his eyes had sought out at such short notice.
Lifting the flared skirt of the dress, he ran his hands over her exposed butt, kneading the flesh tenderly before slapping each cheek. Running a finger along the cleft of her sex where her thong material rested, he could feel her wet arousal against the tip. “Oh, Indi, forever ready for me to have my wicked way with you,” he murmured as he leaned against her back and pressed his mouth to her ear gently while unzipping his shorts eagerly and pulling his erection free.
Xander knew they would not have long before someone came to find them, so brushing Indi’s thong to one side, he slipped inside her in one powerful thrust and began pounding fully into her core. Normally, he preferred to savour his moments buried within her, but his strong need for her at this moment drove him into a fast rhythm from the very start. Closing his eyes, he gave himself up to the building rippling of ecstasy shuddering from his head to his toes. He blocked out everything except her ragged pants of breath and quietened murmurs of pleasure.
Every nerve ending was alive with feeling. Faster, harder, deeper he plunged as his bare cock was consumed by her quivering inner muscles tightening around him, causing his pleasure to intensify, pulling him over the edge of the height of orgasm as he spurted his seed into her. “Baby, fuck, baby,” he groaned, muffling his sounds in the small of her back as he collapsed against her, utterly spent of energy.
Fucking her with the danger of being caught thoroughly turned him on, especially the bonus of not having to wear a condom, which sometimes hindered his sensitivity. Xander had never gone bare with any other woman before, and he loved it; loved the idea of sharing new experiences with only her. It did not matter if they made a kid either. That would certainly stuff up his father’s plan to pass off his child as Xander’s rather than his own, so he could avoid yet another expensive divorce.
When Xander had first agreed to the engagement, he had done it out of some strange sense of family loyalty, even though his father had never showed any towards him. The way in which the man would only consider Caitlin made Xander suspicious that there was more to this sham marriage than he was being told, so he paid for someone separate from the band and family security to put surveillance on them. This brought to light the real reason for John Keats pushing Caitlin upon him. He obviously thought that with Xander away travelling, Caitlin would remain at the family house, enabling them to continue their affair, under the guise of her being his daughter in law. That was where the photos came in.
“I can’t believe we just did that,” Indi whispered, her eyes glazed over and looking like she’d just had a good seeing to.
Xander felt a surge of unadulterated satisfaction mixed with a stronger, almost unfamiliar emotion that it was him who had made her look that way. “Woman, you look far too sexy in this kind of dress. They drive me crazy, and when I get you back to the villa I’m gonna spend all night long showing you repeatedly how much,” he promised huskily, giving her one last lingering kiss before they both pulled their disarranged clothing back into a semblance of order.
“Do I look okay?” Indi c
hecked as they walked back into the brighter side of the cellar, where they had been left by Pepe and his assistant.
“You’re asking the wrong guy, baby. I think you look perfect all the time.” Xander ran a hand over her arse and laughed. He could not believe he felt this happy and unhindered. Just being around Indi’s vibrancy brought out a more relaxed side to him, and he felt that he would gladly marry her today, regardless of knowing hardly anything about her.
“Xander!” she cried out, slapping him on his chest playfully just as the vineyard’s owner came back into view.
“Apologies, I’m sorry to have been gone for so long,” Pepe told them. “Let’s adjourn to the house to go through the finer details of the price.”
At the invitation of his assistant, Indi left them to negotiate in private while she was shown around the vines that stretched along the property for as far as the eye could see.
***
Later, with an agreement reached, Xander declined Pepe’s offer to stay for dinner, as he wanted to head back to the villa to go over some business before continuing his bedroom entertainment with Indi. He just could not get enough of her.
“Are you staying at your own place tonight?” Indi enquired as Hayden drove the car up the narrow lane leading to their villas.
“No, why would you think that, honey?” Xander frowned at her question. He thought she understood that he wanted to spend every possible moment in her company.
“You mentioned you had some business you needed to catch up with.”
“I just need to grab my laptop and then I can do whatever needs doing at your place, unless, of course, you want some quiet without me?” He gazed at her, trying to gauge her facial expression. Was she bored of spending all her time with him? His heart constricted in pain at such an idea.
“No, I like having you around,” she admitted quietly. Glancing over at Adam and Hayden, who were standing at the front of the car, she reddened from her confession.
“Good, because I like being around you, too.” Xander leaned over and gave Indi a quick kiss of reassurance before manoeuvring out of the back seat of the car. Adam, meanwhile, had opened the door on Indi’s side. Once the luggage had been unloaded, the three men headed into their own villa, leaving Indi to make her own way to hers.
When Xander arrived at her villa a few minutes later after letting himself through the gate into the back patio, she was already folding up her clothing from the trip in laundry area of the large open-planned kitchen/diner space
“I shouldn’t have to make more than a couple of calls and send a few emails then I’m all yours for the evening,” he explained, setting up his laptop on the dining-room table.
“Of course,” she replied. “I’m going to do some washing and start dinner anyhow.”
A while later Xander was pacing up and down on the terrace outside as he chatted on his mobile with Livvie, discussing the details of the deal with Pepe. The business was a pet project that he had helped her to fund initially. All the wines from the vineyards had exclusivity in the wine cellars of the Keats hotels and it had become a lucrative sideline for them both.
“Have you been purposefully ignoring Caitlin’s messages while you’ve been there?” Livvie asked once their business discussion concluded.
“Yes, why do you ask?” Xander frowned down the phone at his sister, not wanting to discuss the woman.
“Caitlin tried to grill me about your whereabouts. She seems to be getting close to guessing your locality, and I think you not replying to her messages irritated her to the point that she might consider flying out to confront you,” Livvie warned.
“She’d better not!” Xander clenched his fist. Can’t that woman leave me alone for even a couple of weeks? “What makes her even think I’m here, unless someone has opened their big mouth and told her?”
“I’m not sure, but I told her nothing. Do you think Father would be cunning enough to divulge it?”
“Maybe,” Xander considered. “He knows her showing up unannounced would get under my skin. Well, if she comes, she comes, but I’m getting to the point where they will push me into pulling the plug on their scheme publicly, and then to hell with the consequences.”
His original plan had been to turn the tables on his father’s dirty tactics, but discreetly to save the embarrassment of being associated with his dealings. Now he was thinking that total public humiliation was the only way to stop him once and for all.
“I wish you would do that anyway. I can’t bear knowing you’re tying yourself to that woman just to stop him pressurising Freya and me instead.”
“Don’t worry. Whichever way I decide to handle this won’t reflect back on you or Freya. The documents you sent me made compelling reading. I’ve almost got enough information on his coercion cover-ups to back him into the corner so that he never has the upper hand ever again.”
“Is it really as bad as I thought?” Livvie asked.
“Yes, he has clearly been getting away with it for years. Once I get back we can discuss it with the guys, but I’ll recommend we push for a vote of no confidence with the trust's board and put you in his place.”
The board of trustees consisted of the five siblings, and their uncle and aunt, along with several other distant relatives, none of whom overly trusted John Keats. There had already been recent suggestive undertones before this regarding someone else taking over the reins.
“Me?”
“Yes, you’re the only one qualified to lead. Noah, Milo and I are too tied up in record company obligations to run such a massive organisation full time. But you’re the one with the business degree and experience, so what is a few more companies on the side of the hotel?”
When the Keats Family Trust Constitution had been updated by their grandfather, only the direct descendants or their siblings of the current chairman could take over.
“I know that I could do it, but I’m scared,” she replied.
“Scary is good. It keeps the heart pumping and makes you feel alive. It will also keep you in good stead when making decisions, because if you get too cocky that is when you’re likely to make costly off-the-cuff mistakes.”
“Wow, that was kind of deep! Who are you, and what have you done with my brother?” Livvie joked.
“Hey, I can be deep occasionally. Why do you think I write award-winning lyrics?”
Livvie laughed. “Of course, how silly of me not to realise.”
Noticing Indi standing by the patio doors trying to get his attention, Xander placed his hand over the phone. “Sorry, finishing off now.”
“Look, I’ve got to go, but there’s one more thing,” he added, after double-checking that Indi was not in listening distance, “I won’t be contactable for a few days as I’m heading off to Florence tomorrow evening.”
“Are you taking this mystery woman I’ve heard about?”
Xander rolled his eyes. “I guess David has been opening his mouth?” The guy was head of the band’s security and his sister’s closest friend.
Livvie chuckled. “You know you can keep nothing secret from David for long. So what is she like?”
“Beautiful, intelligent, caring…” Everything Caitlin isn’t.
“Just be careful. If Caitlin gets a whiff of this before you can shut the agreement down, she’ll make your life hell before you’re ready.”
“Liv, she makes me so happy. It has never been like this with anyone, ever.”
Xander had kept his emotions under a tight reserve for the past twenty years, but just being with Indi for this short period had been like the opening of a dam when it came to feelings he had never felt so strongly. She made him feel alive; the woman was quickly becoming the mere air that helped him breathe.
“Just don’t rush into anything,” Livvie warned.
Heading back in from the terrace, Xander found Indi pouring him a large glass of the reserve-blend wine they had both enjoyed at the vineyard. She left it by his laptop. “You read my mind,” he said, taking a
sip as she disappeared into the kitchen.
“I opened it for purely selfish reasons,” she replied with a laugh from the other room. “Is everything okay back home? You seemed to be on the phone longer than usual.”
Xander pulled a face. “Just some family issues that I was going through with Liv,” he answered after a moment’s hesitation, swallowing down the bad taste at the back of his throat at not being able to tell the truth about Caitlin, and all the drama surrounding her.
Indi brought in two plates of food and placed them on the table. “Liv, as in Livvie, your sister, right?” she asked.
“Yes, she’s my only sibling who isn’t involved with the band. She works with my father, hence the issues.”
“I know we’ve danced around the subject of your animosity towards your father a lot, but if you want to talk about it properly I’m a good listener as my own parents are extremely dysfunctional as well.”
Xander smiled, taking a bite of food. “I’ll share if you will.”
Indi tilted her head slightly as her brows furrowed at this request. “What do you want to know?” She took a sip of wine from her glass.
“When I first approached you, that day over the wall, you seemed so… edgy. What happened?”
Indi looked uncomfortable. “You mean you don’t already know?”
“How could I know if you never told me before?”
“It was all over the papers for months, so I just presumed you already knew since you had never mentioned it.”
Xander grimaced, wondering if his instinct about that day had been right after all. “I haven’t been in the country for months to read any papers.” He pushed his plate to the side and reached for her hand across the table as he looked into her eyes, trying his damnedest to reassure her that it was safe to tell him.
Starstruck (Fusion #1) Page 6
