The Mediterranean Billionaire's Blackmail Bargain (7 page)

Alicia was beginning to feel more than a little confused. And more and more hot and bothered. ‘Yes, but what does all this have to do with me?'

Dante said nothing and reached into his jacket pocket to pull out a folded newspaper. Alicia immediately recognized the red top of the tabloid. Her stomach fell. This could only mean one thing. Dante leaned across and put the paper down in front of her. It took a minute for the picture and headline to sink in.

Even though this was exactly what she'd set out to orchestrate, albeit not with her involvement to such a degree, the reality was shocking, invasive,
awful.
It also made a dark memory surface uncomfortably.

‘Oh, my god,' she finally breathed.

‘My thoughts entirely. The photographer must have had a smaller digital camera because my security guard confiscated his other one.'

Alicia lifted stricken eyes to Dante. How could she say
sorry
again? She couldn't. She stood up, agitated. She'd rushed off, chasing this man for a crime he hadn't committed and she was no better off for all her efforts. If anything, things were worse.

‘I…don't know what to say.' She stood behind her chair, the offending picture still in her eyeline, and all she could remember was the feel of his mouth on hers, his strong, lean, taut body as he'd lifted her off her feet. Her insides liquefied.

He looked up at her steadily and she had a prickling sensation across the back of her neck. She had a feeling that she wasn't going to like what was coming.

‘You could do the right thing and say yes when I ask you to come back to Lake Como with me today and be my hostess for the duration of the meetings.'

Alicia's hands gripped the back of the seat. ‘I'm…excuse me?'

‘I said—'

‘I heard you,' she said shakily and came back around the chair to sit down. ‘Why on earth would you want me to do that?'

He glanced at the newspaper. ‘Because, thanks to your little mercy dash and dramatics, we're now apparently an item.' His mouth twisted with obvious distaste. ‘While I've never cared about how I might appear in the media, unfortunately at this moment it is a necessary evil. Buchanen comes from a conservative background; he's a family man and has often made reference to the fact that out of all the particpants, I'm the only one who isn't. In an effort to allay his fears we've encouraged all those involved in the negotiations to bring their families along for the last two weeks if they should so choose.'

A mocking glint lit his dark eyes, making him look rakish and dangerous. ‘He's skittish at the moment, very aware of how his every move is being scrutinised. The world's media is watching us with great interest to see if we can pull this merger off, not to mention every other construction consortium in the world…The presence of wives, children will help deflect the heat and hopefully reassure Buchanen.'

In an instant that mocking look had gone and he was coldly grim. ‘If he pulled out, needless to say the merger would be null and void. Millions that have already been invested would be down the drain and no one else would touch us with a bargepole. As
we're
so inconveniently splashed across the tabloids, you are going to accompany me, be my hostess and put Buchanen's fears of being associated with a playboy to rest.'

He had clearly jumped from asking her to telling her. Alicia was too bewildered to even get angry at his arrogant tone. ‘Yes…but even if I did go, wouldn't that almost be worse? I'm not your wife.'

He shook his head and refrained from saying,
No, because I'm never photographed with the same woman twice…
That thought caught him up uncomfortably short for a split second.

‘No, because I've never involved a woman in any business dealings before, so he and the press would see this as tantamount to an engagement. The media will bay for my blood if I don't turn up with you now, not to mention what it might do to Buchanen's judgement.'

Alicia gasped, ‘You don't expect…'

He smiled and it was cruel. ‘Oh I don't think that'll be necessary. Your presence will be enough to keep them happy and assure them that I'm not irredeemable. At least until the ink is dry on the contract.'

Alicia twisted her hands in her lap. She'd gone pale. Dante didn't like how her reluctance was making him feel. She looked at him then and that act of vulnerability was back.

‘What about that…that woman?' The image of the woman on the steps of the hotel the other night was seared on to her memory, the disparity between them huge to her now and she didn't want him to know she'd seen them. ‘The woman the men mentioned…'

Dante frowned for a second and then a look of disdain came over his perfect features. ‘She is gone, not in my life.'

Alicia shuddered inwardly at how callously dismissive he was. Panic tinged her voice. ‘I can't do it. I couldn't go. I have to stay and take care of Melanie.' Her eyes beseeched him. Surely he wouldn't be that ruthless, that cruel? ‘Can't you see? You saw for yourself how weak she is. As it is, I have to go out now and find enough work so that we can pay for her care…If we don't…'

She looked genuinely distraught and it threw Dante for a second. She wasn't looking at him; she'd gone inwards to a place of anxiety that he could only imagine. It had been so long since he'd had to worry about the mundanity of making ends meet, but the sting of it had never faded and he could see it in Alicia now. But he'd anticipated this.

He stood up and leant against the fake fireplace, his hand in his pocket. Alicia looked up and then stood too, hating his easy dominance.

‘Signore D'Aquanni, please believe me when I say how sorry I am that I mistook you…and that we've ended up in the papers…'

‘You owe me,' he said quietly.

Her head snapped back. ‘I
owe
you? Maybe your business meetings should be about human relations, because if you can't see that I need to be with my sick pregnant sister, then—'

‘Paolo is going to be with her.'

Alicia stopped in mid-rant. ‘What?'

‘I said,' Dante said patiently, ‘Paolo is going to be with her. My house in London is around the corner from Harley Street. Paolo will stay in London and work in the office here again. He will be five minutes from Melanie's side, and she will be near to all the possible amenities she could need. There is also a housekeeper who will make sure she doesn't have to lift a finger. And a nurse has been arranged for the first month to come daily and make sure Melanie's injuries are healing.'

‘But I'm a nurse. If anyone is qualified to look after her it's me—'

He cut in ruthlessly. ‘I thought you needed to work. How are you going to work and mind your sister? The nurse I've booked is eminently qualified, specialized in obstetrics and gyneacology.'

Alicia reeled. This was all organized already? She knew Paolo had made the initial appointment, but now this smacked of Dante's involvement. He had upped the ante spectacularly. How could it be this easy? Her vision cleared and she realized just how easy it could be. Her voice was hard and flat, eyes burning.

‘And I suppose this dream situation is available to Melanie if I comply with your wish that I should accompany you back to Italy today and play happy families at the conference.'

He shrugged negligently.

‘So, in effect, you are blackmailing me, Signore D'Aquanni. You're punishing me, and Melanie.'

He stood then, moving away from the fireplace, and his eyes became dark and hard. Wasn't this exactly what she wanted? ‘
You
are the one who is responsible for that lurid tabloid splash. And tell me, please, how is providing your sister with the medical care she needs, a luxurious roof over her head, someone to wait on her hand and foot, a punishment? Could you deny her that?'

‘Of course not,' Alicia almost wailed, everything in her rebelling against the pull to succumb, to give in. How could she even consider spending a minute more than necessary with this man?

‘Look, you don't have to do this. We…
I'll
look after us.' She thought feverishly. ‘Now that Paolo is here, he will be supporting Melanie too. We can find somewhere to live and with his wages…'

‘Dio!'
Dante spat out, incensed that she was intent on keeping up this charade of injured innocence. Didn't she know how futile it was? ‘Have you really counted the cost of what it would mean to live in the centre of London for up to four months, on top of the medical costs? Do you even know what this man charges?'

Alicia shook her head miserably. She was ashamed to admit that she'd been too scared to check it out properly yet. She'd known it would be astronomical.

He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to Alicia. She blanched when she saw the amount; it exceeded even her worst fears. And then it got worse.

‘That's just to cover the doctor's basic hourly fee per week for a month. It doesn't even go into any extra kind of care if she might need an operation, not to mention accommodation, food, travel expenses. The mounting costs of a normal pregnancy are considerable, not to mention one that needs constant surveillance.'

Alicia sat down again heavily and Dante sat down too at the end of the couch nearest her.

‘Paolo, the little fool,
believes
he is the father of Melanie's baby, wants to play happy families—'

Alicia's face felt like stone; she could feel her blood pressure rise. ‘You can believe what you want for now, but the day will come when you will be forced to face the fact that you are wrong.'

He didn't say anything for a moment and then answered grimly, ‘Women are adept in the art of obfuscation, manipulation. They were having an affair…he left. She obviously met someone else when he left, then saw her chance.'

‘He was sent—' Alicia started to speak furiously but he held up a hand.

‘All I'm saying is that I'm prepared to indulge them, for now.'

If it means I get you…

‘Paolo has agreed with me to wait until the baby is born and his paternity confirmed before getting married—that's if they still want to. Until that time they can consider themselves engaged and will have the chance to get used to living together. I think even you can see the benefits in that.'

Alicia didn't trust his reasonable tone for a second. She felt sick but also, conversely, had to acknowledge her own silent misgivings about how young Melanie was and also Paolo's apparent youth and idealistic zeal. She had an uncanny feeling that both she and Dante were guilty of having sheltered their siblings from the harsher truths of the world. And in truth she was somewhat surprised at his own prescience in this regard.

She thought of something then. ‘Why, when you knew it was Melanie, did you never mention Paolo? You
knew
that they'd been seeing each other.'

He stood again and paced back and forth with taut energy. He stopped and looked at her, hands on his hips. ‘Because when you arrived, screaming all sorts of accusations about my involvement, I realised that Melanie was trying to set
me
up. You didn't mention Paolo once. It's obvious that she'd figured she'd get more out of me, and that you had gone along with her…but then Paolo arrived like an eager puppy, only too ready to accept responsibility.'

Alicia's lips were bloodless. ‘That would be because she
told
him about the pregnancy and he came to be with her.' She shook her head. ‘It's frightening how cynical you are.'

‘Not cynical. Realistic, Alicia. That's why I came. I had to see for myself, make sure neither of you were planning on some big kind of tabloid kiss and tell.' His mouth twisted. ‘That photo and the speculation about us is just about salvageable. As you can appreciate, with the delicacy of the merger, it would have a very adverse effect for the media to be focused on me in any kind of negative way and they are going to be watching our every move. Now that Paolo is here I'm prepared to allow—
for now—
that it was a misunderstanding.'

‘That's big of you.'

She looked up at him then with defiance and yet a curious look of resignation. The image that came into Dante's head was of her asleep with her fists balled, ready to fight.

‘What if I don't go back to Italy with you?'

‘Do you really want to risk that? Paolo is under the impression that he is the one driving this great plan. But it's my house that they will be using, and ultimately my money that will be paying for Melanie's treatment and recuperation—something Paolo seems to be quite happy to ignore. Needless to say, at any moment, that could all be gone.'

‘And you would really do that? Just to get back at me, at Melanie?'