by Lynne Graham
‘Where are we?’ Alissa queried, peering through the salon windows at the picturesque harbour when the yacht dropped anchor late afternoon.
‘It’s a surprise. Are you sure you’re well enough to go ashore?’ Sergei prompted.
‘I’m great…’ Alissa executed a twirl, golden hair rippling in the sunlight, her purple sundress splaying round her slim figure. She was making a real effort to hide her tension and the growing fear that her only option was to walk out on Sergei before he realised that she had already conceived his child. Even he had admitted that he did not want that to happen without a legal agreement in place between them. And yet, in spite of those anxieties, Alissa was also experiencing an inner glow of awe and pleasure when she thought about the baby growing inside her womb.
They disembarked from the yacht at the busy marina where a Turkish customs officer stamped their passports and a four-wheel-drive awaited them.
‘I had no idea we would be visiting Turkey,’ she told Sergei as the vehicle hurtled through busy noisy streets before climbing into the lush green hills studded with villas.
‘Didn’t it occur to you that we weren’t that far away from the Aegean coast?’
‘No, geography was never my strong point. Sergei, where on earth are we going?’ she demanded, desperate to know what the surprise was.
‘To see your sister and her husband,’ Sergei revealed.
Alissa, who had already considered and dismissed that possibility, spluttered, ‘You can’t be serious!’
‘I’ve got to meet Alexa some time. Why not now?’
‘But she’s pregnant,’ Alissa protested vehemently. ‘She mustn’t be upset.’
Sergei gave her a surprised glance. ‘She’s not pregnant any more. I assumed your mother would have told you but perhaps she doesn’t know yet either?’
Alissa stared at him in consternation. ‘Alexa’s lost her baby—how did you find that out?’
‘Harry told me. Your mother gave me his number and I’ve spoken to him a couple of times to arrange this meeting. Your sister doesn’t know we’re coming. Alexa’s been what Harry calls…temperamental and I think he’s hoping that seeing you will improve her mood.’
Outside a smart white villa with a glorious view of the marina and the sparkling Aegean waters far below, Alissa climbed out. She was as taut as a bowstring. The sun was warm on her shoulders and, with her heart heavy at the news that her sister had lost her baby, she was keen to see Alexa and offer what comfort she could. ‘You can’t say anything about that contract or the money,’ Alissa warned Sergei anxiously. ‘Promise me you won’t say anything because Harry knows nothing about the whole business.’
Sergei nodded acquiescence with an inhuman cool that made Alissa even more suspicious and on the alert. He had breathed fire like a dragon over Alexa’s deception, yet now he was being calm and non committal. A stockily built attractive man with fair hair, Harry ushered them out to a shaded terrace where Alexa was reclining on a lounger. Her twin gave them a stunned appraisal and then she leapt up with a delighted smile. ‘Alissa…I don’t believe it!’
Alissa managed to say how sorry she was about the baby in an undertone before Alexa switched her attention straight to Sergei. Alissa watched as her twin relaxed into surprisingly copious giggles when Sergei said something droll and her tension began to evaporate. In turn she made an effort to talk to Harry.
‘How has she been?’ she asked.
‘This is the brightest I’ve seen her,’ Harry revealed. ‘I hoped that seeing you would do the trick. I know how close you girls are.’
But Alissa could only be disturbed by the reflection that times had changed and she no longer felt so close to her twin. Although she felt as though too much water and too much hurt had gone under the bridge, her strongest urge was still a wish to ease her sister’s pain over the loss of her baby. She had also decided that she would not mention her own pregnancy in case it proved too distressing a reminder for Alexa of the child she had miscarried.
Chapter Ten
ALEXA wasted no time in curving a managing arm round Alissa to march her indoors for a private chat. ‘If we’re heading out on the town tonight I need to get changed.’
‘Sergei says the yacht club down at the marina isn’t that fancy.’
‘Don’t you know that the yacht club is the place to be seen? It’s where all the rich yachties and celebrities hang out. They’re calling Bodrum the new St Tropez,’ Alexa informed her drily. ‘My goodness, you’ve been putting on the weight, haven’t you?’
‘Do you think so?’ Alissa, who had not stepped on a set of scales in many weeks, gave her figure an anxious inspection in the mirror and belatedly noticed the way her breasts seemed to swell even in the comparatively modest neckline she was wearing today. She wondered whether the chocolate or the baby was responsible. ‘Sergei likes curves,’ she heard herself say defensively.
‘Oh, men always say that when you ask them,’ Alexa retorted with derision. ‘But when they dump you, they always go off with someone half your size! So, tell me, what’s it like being married to Sergei?’
Alissa perched on the edge of the bed while her twin rifled through a packed wardrobe in search of an outfit. At that leading question she went pink. She did not want to incite her sister’s scorn by launching into a panoply of praise that might even include the recent development of Sergei hurling his clothes in the direction of a chair instead of the floor. ‘It’s easier than I expected,’ she breathed stiltedly. ‘But I’m more concerned about you—when did the miscarriage happen?’
‘When did the…miscarriage happen?’ Alexa repeated, turning to stare at her sister with a frown of bemusement. ‘Don’t be silly, Allie. That story was only for Harry’s benefit. There never was a baby. I was sure you would have worked that out for yourself by now.’
Alissa stared back at the slim blonde woman in stunned disbelief, for Harry had not been the only person affected by that inexcusable pretence. Alexa had even used the threat of an abortion to pressure Alissa into taking her place as Sergei’s wife. ‘Never? You were never pregnant? I’m sorry, I find that very hard to believe after some of the things you said to me.’
‘It suited me to pretend I was pregnant,’ Alexa told her defiantly. ‘And the worse thing about all this is that now even Harry suspects that I was lying all along.’
‘My word, does he?’
‘After a shotgun wedding, what man wouldn’t be suspicious? I told him I had had a very early miscarriage that didn’t require medical attention, but I’m not sure he’s convinced.’
Alissa was sincerely appalled at the ease with which Alexa had lied and misled even her own family, behaviour that did not appear to have awakened her twin to either guilt or regret. ‘Why on earth did you get us all involved in your lies? How could you have wept in front of me and told me how much you longed to marry Harry and have his baby when there never was a baby?’ she gasped in condemnation.
‘For the money, of course!’ Alexa gave her a look of scorn. ‘You do ask crazy questions sometimes. Once I found out I’d have to get pregnant to fulfil that contract with Sergei, I knew there was no way I could ever face going through with it and that I would have to hand over the opportunity to you. I mean, even the thought of ruining my figure with a pregnancy turns my stomach!’
Listening to that frank confession, Alissa only contrived to hang onto her temper with the greatest difficulty. A fierce and bitter sense of betrayal gripped her at the knowledge that she could so easily have been taken in by the twin she loved and had trusted. Until Alexa had admitted the fact, Alissa had had no idea that her sister was revolted by the very concept of pregnancy. ‘So all that stuff about you being pregnant was simply a lie to pressure me into marrying Sergei in your place?’
‘As I said, I handed the opportunity to you, and haven’t you done well out of it?’ Alexa flung back without shame while she treated Alissa’s appearance to a deeply envious appraisal. ‘I did you a favour. A gorgeous guy
with a yacht the size of the Titanic? A huge diamond on your finger? He never stops spending money on you—obviously you’re doing something right. You’ve been shopping until you drop round the Greek islands with the paps dogging your every move—be honest, you’re living the life most women would kill to have!’
‘But I don’t want Sergei because he’s rich!’ Alissa yelled back at her sister in a positive passion of angry distaste. ‘I want him for the man he is, not for what he has. I’d want him even if he was broke!’
‘I don’t believe it…you’ve actually been stupid enough to fall in love with a guy who chose to employ a woman to marry him.’ Alexa studied her with disdainful amusement. ‘Are you insane? As far as he’s concerned you’re not a real wife, you’re just the hired help!’
The reminder sobered Alissa as nothing else could have done, because while such words were unwelcome she recognised the truth of them in her heart. Falling for Sergei had always been a major no-no and yet she had foolishly done it. Common sense had gone out of the window the first night she’d met him. And while Sergei’s forecast that she would fall in love with the game of football was still being challenged by the effort it took for her to stay awake until the end of a match, she had fallen head over heels for him almost straight away.
‘And I could take Sergei off you again in five minutes,’ Alexa forecast with a patronising smile. ‘After all, if he finds you attractive, he’ll find me positively irresistible! Would you like me to give you a demonstration?’
‘I don’t think you’re likely to get very far with Sergei until you return that money you accepted on false pretences,’ Alissa said gently, anything but amused by her twin’s nasty wounding assurance that Sergei would go for her more sophisticated charms the first chance he got.
‘Watch me—I’ll make it well worth his while to let me keep the cash. Don’t you know how to please a man yet? It all starts and ends in the bedroom,’ Alexa murmured suggestively, smiling with satisfaction at her reflection as she posed and preened in front of the mirror so that the brief silver dress she wore flashed into quicksilver folds against her long slender legs.
‘That’s not funny, Alexa,’ Alissa said tightly.
‘It wasn’t meant to be. If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t even be with Sergei. Don’t forget that,’ Alexa reminded her viciously.
When she was in such a mood there was never any talking to Alexa, and Alissa was grateful to get back downstairs again where the two men were chatting on the terrace. Alissa plonked herself down next to Sergei. She was feeling threatened enough by Alexa that she would throw herself bodily onto Sergei’s lap in a very public demonstration of affection if he just gave her the smallest sign of encouragement. Hyper-aware of his every move, she was agonisingly conscious of the way he stared at her sister when the silver-clad blonde made her entrance.
‘What do you think of Alexa?’ Alissa asked, despising herself utterly for sinking low enough to pose that question to Sergei as soon as she was alone with him.
They were driving back to the marina with her sister and Harry following in their own vehicle. Dark eyes narrowing, Sergei drawled, ‘She’s very different from you—amazingly different considering that you’re identical twins.’
It was not a response that Alissa could find any comfort in receiving. In her experience she had always been labelled the plumper, plainer twin, who lacked the fun, girly, sexy sparkle of the sibling ten minutes her junior. Being more clever and more popular with her own sex had never felt like a consolation when she was aware that nine out of ten men preferred girly sparkle and sexiness.
Alissa tried very hard not to be put in the shade during the evening that followed. Hugely conscious that she was carrying Sergei’s child and worrying about that reality along with her very uncertain future as his wife, she discovered that stress knocked any sparkle she might have had right out of her. Long before then, however, she was being wounded by Alexa’s behaviour, for her sister was flirting outrageously with Sergei.
Sergei had no need to do anything. Alexa switched on like a high-powered searchlight and focused all her attention on him. While Harry was clearly becoming more and more annoyed by his wife’s provocative behaviour, Alissa was wondering unhappily if Sergei was already convinced that he had ended up with the wrong twin. Listening to the repartee zipping back and forth between them, she could tell that Sergei was very much accustomed to women like her sister. Indeed she had the hideous suspicion that if Alexa was to ask him to choose outright between them, Alexa could have walked right out of the club with Sergei, unconcerned at deserting either her sister or her new husband.
‘Are you sure you don’t want anything else?’ Sergei prompted Alissa, who had asked yet again for a mineral water.
‘Alissa’s always preaching temperance at parties!’ Alexa giggled, waving her sex-on-the-beach cocktail round like a fashion statement.
‘I’m just not in the mood for alcohol.’
‘Alissa has been unwell,’ Sergei commented, brilliant dark eyes locked to Alexa’s shimmering smile of indifference.
‘Oh, dear, what a drag for you on your honeymoon!’ Alissa exclaimed, all her sympathy angled in Sergei’s direction.
The level of her discomfiture and tension was making Alissa feel horribly dizzy and nauseous again and she took refuge in the cloakroom. Was she a drag? She could not credit that her twin was making a play for Sergei right before her eyes, and Harry’s. Sitting watching it from the sidelines was a uniquely painful and sobering experience, Alissa conceded wretchedly. Sergei had done nothing to shoot down Alexa’s pretensions and Alissa could see that he found Alexa both attractive and entertaining. Suddenly she asked herself why she was tolerating her situation as a powerless bystander.
Wouldn’t it be better to leave, bow back out of Sergei’s life before everything got even more complicated? After all, she was going to have to leave sooner rather than later, in any case. Once her pregnancy began to show, Sergei would feel cheated if she wasn’t prepared to hand her baby over to him. How could he feel any other way after that wretched contract? But she wouldn’t deny him access to his child; she wouldn’t use her baby as a weapon. No, not even if Sergei did take up with her sister!
Her tummy somersaulted at that horrible prospect, which she knew she would not be able to bear in longsuffering silence. Nor, she thought in anguish, would she ever be able to forgive Alexa for making a play for Sergei. Alexa knew that Alissa was in love with Sergei. Alissa was convinced that she would never, ever be able to forget the pain she had endured watching her sister charming Sergei before her very eyes.
Alissa made her mind up fast. Her passport was in her handbag. She would take a taxi to the nearest airport. Withdrawing a notebook and pen from her bag, she wrote Sergei a note, telling him that he was free and that it was better for them to part while they were still friends. Friends? Her soft mouth down-curved. She didn’t want to be his friend, but it sounded much better than telling him that working up the courage to leave him was the hardest thing she had ever done. For a moment she almost panicked about leaving Mattie and then she added a line to the note to let Sergei know that she really, really wanted the little dog brought back to the UK on his pet passport.
She gave the note to a waiter along with a tip, pointing out their table, and contrived to leave the club in the wake of the departure of a large party of noisy diners. She had noticed the taxi rank earlier and it wasn’t far to walk. She only had sterling notes in her purse but the driver said he was happy to accept them. It took a good forty-five minutes to reach her destination and for every minute of that time she was lost in memories of Sergei and fighting the inclination to go back.
How could she go back? What would be the point? With Sergei’s outlook, the news that she had conceived his child would be bad news and he would fight her for custody, she knew he would. On the other hand, perhaps if she stayed a little longer and talked to him she might be able to get through to him and persuade him that a happy, healthy
child ideally needed two parents. Unfortunately, after watching Sergei and Alexa together, Alissa couldn’t face that option. She had to get away for her own sanity, she told herself urgently.
Buying a ticket for a flight to London was straightforward, but she had quite a few hours to wait. She bought a soft drink and sat down in a café to drink it. She was so miserable she wanted to put her head down on the table and sob. Images of the ghastly dinner she had endured watching Alexa and Sergei interact kept on returning to haunt her. But hadn’t that always been her fear? That she was really second best and that if Sergei had ever got the choice, it would not have been her whom he chose? The proof of that humiliating conviction was tearing her apart. She did not think she would ever be able to look at her sister again. Didn’t Sergei appreciate that all Alexa really cared about was his wealth and what it could buy her? That she had the attention span of a flea when it came to men?
A shadow fell across the table surface and she lifted her head, pushing back her blonde hair from her warm brow with a weary hand. She froze when she realised that it was Sergei standing over her, dark eyes smouldering hot as a volcanic core, his lean, dark, handsome face set in angry lines.
‘Why did you follow me?’ she whispered fiercely. ‘It’s easier if you just let me go.’
‘But that’s the one thing I can’t do,’ Sergei revealed, thrusting back the chair opposite and dropping down into it with all the force of a forest tree crashing to the ground in a storm. ‘I can’t let you go.’
So tense that she was barely breathing, Alissa focused on him with a treacherous surge of pleasure. She had thought she might never see him again, or at least that the next time she laid eyes on him it might be in a courtroom months from now. Just those thoughts had made her feel deprived and she had started missing him the same second she’d left his side at the club.
‘You have to let me go. It’s time,’ she told him gruffly.
‘I told you I can’t do it,’ Sergei delivered in a roughened undertone. ‘If you try to walk away from me, I’ll lift you up and carry you out of here.’
