Starstruck (Fusion #1) (6 page)

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.

“My grandfather is an Marquis. He didn’t approve of my
mother’s social-climbing ways, so he cut off my father when he married her
against his wishes,” Indi began. “Despite that, my grandparents still
maintained a relationship with me and my sisters. Trusts were set up to pay for
our education and other things as we grew. Our parents couldn’t access any of
the monies, so they relinquished custody before we were ten. When not away at
school, we lived with either our grandparents or our uncle and aunt. Last year,
after my eighteenth birthday, I gained access to more of my trust, so my parents
hired some lowlife to harass me until I gave into their demands.”

Xander could feel his eyes growing larger as Indi progressed
with the narrative of her past.

She continued, “Then everything started to spiral; the
police became involved, endless CPS paperwork and a court case. They found the
lowlife guilty of harassment, but they couldn’t prove my parents had hired him.
Yet they managed to charge them both with lesser offences. He got a suspended
sentence, but she was put in prison with an additional non-contact order in
place.”

“So, they are still roaming free, and all that is protecting
you from them giving it another try is some flimsy court order?” Xander
remarked. “People break them every day. I should know as I’ve had to bring
enough of them against crazy fans over the years. Please let me give you the
name of someone who can make sure you’re safe.”

Indi gave him a look of horror. “You mean like a bodyguard? I
seriously don’t need one of those. I can go back to leading a perfectly quiet
life once the dust settles.”

Xander sighed. He knew that he did not have any right to
push his wishes on her, but seeing how traumatised Freya had been from her own
case of harassment, he wanted to protect Indi. Standing up, he pulled one of
the chairs on her side of the table closer to where she was seated. Clutching
at her hand again, he gave her a begging look, which he hoped would work.
“Please, Indi, just talk to him. There are plenty of less invasive options than
a constant bodyguard, but I seriously want to stress how much I would feel more
at ease if you had some layer of protection.”

Indi pouted. As her eyes stared back at him, Xander could
see a varying flicker of emotions flash through the greenness.

“Okay, I’m willing to talk to the guy once,” she gave in.

“Thank you.” Xander blew out a breath of relief.

After this holiday was over, he knew he would not be able to
see Indi again until he and his siblings had sorted the trust board mess. Until
then he needed to know she would be safe.

***

With only a week remaining until Indi flew back to England,
Xander decided to surprise her by arranging a first-class cabin on a night
train to Florence, leaving that evening.  He thought she would enjoy
viewing the sculptures and paintings in the Accademia and Uffizi Gallery, given
her interest in art, as well as the summer music festival in Scandicci. His
bodyguards would accompany them and take a nearby cabin.

Xander had simply told Indi to pack a bag with enough items
to clothe her for the next five days, and some comfortable shoes, but nothing
more than.  The two of them were being picked up in an hour’s time by a
taxi that would drop them at Siracusa train station.

He was just leaving the villa to collect Indi when the face
of David, his head of security, appeared on his mobile screen. Xander had avoided
speaking to him directly since meeting Indi nearly two weeks earlier, knowing
the man would go on about the security risk of having a holiday fling with
someone he hardly knew. Xander was not ready to confess his deeper dreams of
being with Indi long-term to anyone but her.

Her light, unassuming manner had drawn out more secrets about
his life than he thought he would have dared tell her.  He told her his
private thoughts that he never shared with anyone else, along with silly
stories from his childhood and carefree days with his friends before the band
made it. Indi treated him as simply Xander, the person, rather than Xander
Keats, the rock star, allowing her to break through the walls that he’d surrounded
himself with for years.   

He could not get enough of her. Even in front of his
security team, he did not hold back from the occasional handholding or
kiss.  Such actions from a guy who had never believed in public displays
of affection, combined with his other out-of-character behaviour, was what had
gotten back to David.

“Are you sure you should be getting involved with a woman
who might turn around and sell her story of your holiday romance to the
tabloids as soon as it is over?” David judged harshly, after having had to
deal with too many kiss-and-tell stories in his client’s past.

Xander had earned himself the reputation for being
cold-hearted when it came to women; the revelations of his mother’s affairs had
truly scarred him. Yes, he would wine and dine them, even romance them with
flowers and chocolates, but once the sexual act had been fulfilled, he just
moved on to the next.  He could not bear to let anyone come too close emotionally
in case he ended up being hurt by them as deeply as his mother had.

Xander bit his tongue to stop himself from making an unkind retort. 
He understood that David was only trying to make sure he considered all his
options, especially since he was not used to him actually allowing himself to
care for a woman in the long-term.

“She’s not that kind of person! She clearly has money of her
own to be renting such a large villa herself.  She knows I’m rich, but
hasn’t asked anything about me.  She’ll not let me pay for her at all when
we go out,” Xander replied smoothly.

“Do you know anything about her, so that we can perhaps get
her investigated, so at least I know what I’m dealing with if the case arises?”

“Just that her name is Indi. One of her grandfathers has a
title, and the other owned a successful horse-breeding ranch in America.” 

He knew David was only doing what he would ordinarily do if
Xander let someone new into his life, but it still made him feel dirty and
unworthy now that Indi had entrusted him with what her parents had put her through.
“Whatever you find, I don’t want to know about it, unless it’s really
crucial.”  Xander spoke firmly, knowing that he was already half in love
with Indi, and he had started conjuring up scenarios that once his obligation
to Caitlin was out of the way, he would seek her out and introduce her properly
to his life.