to his house, and a few moments later drew to a halt outside the front door.
He strove for something to say, something that would reassure her.
‘Katie, I realise this wedding is hardly the fairy-tale romance that you probably would have wanted,’ he said quietly. ‘But I promise I will look after you—I will always be there for you.’
‘I’ve told you, Alexi. I don’t need looking after.’ She swallowed hard and tried to make her voice sound light. ‘But our baby will. And I want him or her to have everything that I didn’t—and I’m not talking financially, now.’
‘I realise that.’
For a second they sat in silence. Katie ached for him to reach out to her, to just take her hand even—but he didn’t. And she told herself that it was for the best. Her emotions were too raw right now, and she might have said something really stupid—might have poured out her feelings for him and ruined everything!
She had to keep strong. As Alexi had said, this wasn’t a fairy-tale romance, it was a business arrangement.
Nothing more.
CHAPTER TWELVE
‘WOULD you print out two copies of that document and send one up to Alexi’s office so he can look at it later, please?’ Katie asked her secretary as she tidied away some files that were cluttering up her desk.
‘Is he in today?’ Petra asked.
‘Yes, his plane gets in at about two-thirty and he’s going to come straight here.’ As she said the words Katie felt a little thrill of anticipation. She hadn’t seen Alexi for nearly four days; he’d been in New York on business, and she had missed him so much.
She glanced at her watch. It was twelve-thirty. She’d always sworn that she would never get hooked on a man to the point where she counted the hours and the minutes when they were apart, but that was exactly what she was doing.
Part of her was even tempted to head down to the airport to meet him. Now that really would be crazy! She was supposed to be playing it cool, she reminded herself—keeping an emotional distance. Throwing her arms around him at the airport was not recommended. He’d be running in the opposite direction in no time.
She pushed her chair back from the desk as Petra left the room, and then went to stand by the window.
The last few weeks since their wedding had passed in a bit of a blur. It had been decided that she would work from the Athens office and reside at Alexi’s house in the countryside. And she liked the arrangement. It was better than being in Alexi’s flat in London. She had lived there for a week when they had returned from honeymoon, and she hadn’t enjoyed it. That flat belonged to Alexi’s bachelor lifestyle. It was in every sense a single guy’s domain. The modern, austere furnishings—the black satin sheets—all belonged to a time that Katie didn’t want to even think about never mind be faced with on a daily basis.
Sometimes when she’d come in from work in the evenings there had been messages on the answer machine from old girlfriends, asking him if he was free for dinner or the theatre.
At first she had erased them in a fit of pique, but then later she had left them for when Alexi got home—usually a couple of hours later than her—just to see what he would say about them.
She needn’t have worried. He’d deleted them without even listening to the complete message, and that had made her feel better—but it was disconcerting to know that women were still chasing after him even though it had been well-publicised that he was now married.
Working from the Athens office had been her idea. She needed to travel to London every few weeks, but the majority of her work could be done from here. And Alexi seemed happy to be based back in Greece. He’d already made it clear that when the baby was born he wanted Greece to be their home anyway. So he was pleased to start the arrangement immediately.
She loved being at the house on the coast. Despite its associations with his past marriage, she found she liked its tranquillity, liked the fact that Alexi wanted her to put her own stamp on it. It was the family home she’d never had, and she was enjoying buying things for it, planning a nursery. And when Alexi was away sometimes she saw his sisters or his parents and she felt that she was somewhere safe—somewhere she was loved. Even if that love didn’t come from her husband.
She frowned now as that thought returned like a black cloud on her sunny horizon. She wasn’t going to dwell on that, she told herself fiercely.
Instead she glanced again at her watch and wondered what Alexi would say when she told him that she had bought herself a car.
He’d left a limousine at her disposal, but she’d found it strange, having someone waiting for her all the time. It wasn’t her—she liked doing her own thing, driving herself. So yesterday she’d gone out and bought herself a secondhand car. And this morning she had driven herself along the scenic coast road to work and she’d enjoyed the experience.
The phone rang on her desk and she walked over to snatch it up. ‘Hi, it’s me.’ Alexi’s velvet tones sent an immediate shiver of excitement down her spine.
‘Where are you ringing from? I thought you’d still be in the air.’
‘There’s been a technical hitch. I’m in Paris.’
‘Paris?’ She frowned.
‘Afraid so. There’s a problem at the office here, so I’ve had to stop off and sort it out.’
‘I see.’ Katie tried to swallow down her disappointment. ‘So when do you think you’ll get back?’
‘I’m not sure. It might be tomorrow now.’
‘I suppose it can’t be helped.’ Katie tried to sound upbeat and wondered if she had overdone it, because her voice sounded far too bright—he was going to guess that she was upset if she wasn’t careful. ‘Hey, guess what?’ She changed the subject abruptly.
‘What?’
‘I’ve bought a car.’
‘You have?’ He sounded surprised. ‘If you wanted a car you should have said. I’d have come with you and bought you one.’
‘Thanks, Alexi, but I can buy my own. And it was a spur of the moment thing, anyway—I was passing a garage forecourt in that little village—you know the one down the road from your parents’ house?—and I saw it, and thought it was just what I needed.’
‘Well, I hope it’s OK. The roads are dodgy around there. I really would have preferred it if you’d waited a while until you knew them better—’
‘Alexi, it’s fine. Really.’ She cut across him briskly.
‘I’ll check it out when I get home.’ He sounded resigned. ‘How’s Junior?’
It was the question he asked every day when he rang. It was all he was really bothered about, and it was probably the real reason behind his concern for her on the roads—but that was fine. Because at least he cared about their child, and when he or she was born there would be an even stronger bond between them.
‘Everything
