of tightly coiled strength apparent, and a prickle of apprehension feathered the surface of her skin.
‘Flamboyant reluctance?’ Aleksi queried with deceptive mildness. ‘You choose to be recorded for posterity in a manner that will doubtless raise questions from our son, ten—fifteen years from now?’
Her lips parted to say that ten years down the track she would no longer be his wife. In fact, the requisite two would be two too many! Except that no sound escaped as she snapped her mouth firmly closed. ‘I’ll agree to a cream linen suit, matching accessories and a floral bouquet,’ she told him.
‘Adequate,’ he drawled. ‘But not precisely what I had in mind.’
‘Well, isn’t that just too damned bad?’ Alyse snapped with scant attempt at politeness. ‘Perhaps you’ve decided to compound the farce with formal tails and an elegant striped silk cravat?’
‘Are you usually so quarrelsome, or is your behaviour merely an attempt to oppose me?’
Her eyes flashed pure crystalline sapphire. ‘Oh, both. I’m no timid little dove.’
A lazy smile broadened the generous curve of his mouth. ‘Even the wildest bird can be trained to enjoy captivity.’
A surge of anger rose to the surface, bringing a tinge of pink to her cheeks and sharpening her features. ‘That’s precisely the type of sexist remark I’d expect you to make!’ She looked at him with increasing hostility. ‘If you’ve finished your coffee, I’d like to leave.’
‘So early, Alyse?’ he mocked as he signalled the waiter to bring their bill. ‘You’ve no desire to go on to a nightclub?’
‘What would be the point? We’re at daggers drawn now!’ She tempered the remark with a totally false smile that almost felled the waiter, but didn’t fool Aleksi in the slightest.
‘We’ll doubtless shatter every romantic illusion your babysitter possesses if I return you before the witching hour of midnight,’ he remarked.
‘As there’s nothing in the least romantic about our alliance, it hardly matters, does it?’ She stood to her feet and preceded him from the restaurant, uncaring that he followed close behind.
In the car she sat in silence, conscious of the faint swish of tyres on the wet bitumen. There was movement everywhere, people walking, colourful flashes of neon as the large vehicle purred through the city streets, and she became fascinated by the reflection caught in the still waters of the Swan River as they headed west towards Peppermint Grove.
‘I’ll arrange for a chauffeured limousine to collect you at ten-thirty on Thursday morning,’ Aleksi declared as he brought the car to a halt in her driveway. ‘You have the phone number of my hotel if you need to contact me.’
Polite, distant, and totally businesslike. It was almost as if he was deliberately playing an extremely shrewd game with every single manoeuvre carefully planned, Alyse brooded, aware of a chill shiver that owed nothing to the cool midwinter temperature.
‘I doubt if there’ll be the necessity,’ she declared as she reached for the door-clasp, only to catch her breath in startled surprise as he slid out from behind the wheel and walked round to open her door.
Moving swiftly from the passenger seat, she stood still, unsure of his intention, her movements momentarily suspended as she prepared for a rapid flight into the safety of the house. If he dared to kiss her, she’d hit him!
His faint mocking smile was almost her undoing, and she drew a deep steadying breath before issuing a stilted, ‘Goodnight.’
Without so much as a backward glance she walked to the front door, put her key in the lock, then closed the door carefully behind her.
Inside was warmth and light, the endearing familiarity of a home where there were no shadows, no insecurity.
Summoning a smile as she moved into the lounge, she checked with the babysitter and paid her before looking in on Georg, then she simply locked up and prepared for bed.
THE CIVIL CEREMONY was incredibly brief, and only the fleeting appearance of Hugh Mannering provided a familiar face as Alyse affixed ‘Stefanos’ after ‘Alyse’ on the marriage certificate.
There were photographs, several of them taken by a professional, followed by lunch in the elegant dining-room of an inner city hotel.
Their appearance attracted circumspect interest. Her pencil-slim skirt with a long-line jacket in pale cream linen and matching accessories portrayed designer elegance, while Aleksi’s impeccably tailored silver-grey suit merely accentuated his magnetic masculine appeal. Together, they scarcely presented the image of loving newlyweds, and she wondered a trifle wryly if they looked married.
Food was the last thing on her mind, and she ate mechanically, totally unappreciative of the superb seafood starter or the equally splendid lobster thermidor that followed. Even the champagne, Dom Perignon, suffered the sacrilege of being sipped seemingly without taste, and she declined both dessert and the cheeseboard in favour of strong aromatic black coffee.
Conversation between them verged on the banal, and Alyse heaved a mental sigh of relief when Aleksi indicated that they should leave if they were to keep their appointment with Hugh Mannering and the Department of Social Services.
‘We’ll take a taxi,’ he said as they stepped out on to the pavement.
Within minutes he managed to hail one, and Alyse sat in silence, her gaze caught by the twin fitted rings adorning her left hand. The prismatic facets of a large solitaire diamond sparked blue and green fire in a brilliant burst from reflected sunlight, providing a perfect setting for its matching diamond-set wedding-ring.
‘They suit you.’
Alyse glanced towards the owner of that drawling voice, and met his gaze without any difficulty at all. ‘A simple gold band would have been sufficient,’ she acknowledged with utter seriousness.
‘No, it wouldn’t.’ There was an edge of mockery apparent, and she summoned up a dazzling smile.
‘I forgot the image factor.’
He deigned not to comment, and it was something of a relief when the taxi cruised to a halt outside the building housing the solicitor’s offices.
Fifty minutes later they summoned yet another taxi and instructed the driver to take them to the Family Services Department.
Bureaucratic red tape had a tendency to be time-consuming, with appointments rarely running to schedule, and today appeared no different. Consequently it was late afternoon before they emerged into the cool winter sunlight.
‘A celebratory drink?’
There was a wealth of satisfaction in knowing that the initial legalities surrounding Georg’s pending adoption were now officially in place, and Alyse found herself tilting her head as she met Aleksi’s penetrating gaze. Quite without reason she found herself feeling slightly breathless, and desperately in need of a few hours away from his disturbing presence.
‘There
