single chairs and a sofa, as well as a bed and nursery furniture.
Placing the baby down into the cot, she gently covered him, lingering long enough to see that he was asleep before moving back into the bedroom.
Defiance emanated from every pore in her body as she retrieved her nightwear from her bag. A shower would surely ease some of her tension, she decided as she made her way into the luxuriously fitted bathroom. Afterwards she’d beard Aleksi in the kitchen and reaffirm her determination for entirely separate sleeping quarters for herself and Georg.
It was heaven to stand beneath the jet of pulsating hot water, and she took her time before using one of several large fluffy bathtowels to dry the excess moisture from her body. Her toilette completed, she slipped on a nightgown and added a matching robe.
There were bottles to sterilise and formula to make up in case Georg should wake through the night, and, collecting the necessary carry-bag, she went in search of the kitchen.
She found it off a passageway on the opposite side of the lounge, and she studiously ignored the tall dark-haired man in the process of pouring black aromatic coffee from a percolator into one of two cups set out on the servery.
Luxuriously spacious, the kitchen was a delight featuring the latest in electronic equipment, and in normal circumstances she would have expressed pleasure in its design.
‘I’m sure you’ll find whatever you need in the cupboards,’ Aleksi drawled as he added sugar and a splash of whisky.
‘Thank you.’ Her words were stilted and barely polite as she set about her task.
‘A married couple come in daily to maintain the house and grounds,’ he informed her matter-of-factly. ‘And a catering firm is hired whenever I entertain.’
‘With such splendid organisation, you hardly need a wife,’ she retorted, impossibly angry with him—and herself, for imagining he might permit a celibate cohabitation.
‘Don’t sulk, Alyse,’ he derided drily, and she rounded on him with ill-concealed fury.
‘I am not sulking! I’m simply too damned angry to be bothered conducting any sort of civilised conversation with you!’ With tense movements she put the newly made formula in the refrigerator.
‘The bedroom arrangement stays,’ Aleksi declared with hard inflexibility, and her eyes became brilliant blue pools as she stood looking at him, refusing to be intimidated by his powerful height and sheer indomitable strength.
‘All hell will freeze over before I’ll willingly share any bed you happen to occupy!’
A faint smile tugged the edges of his mouth, and the expression in his eyes was wholly cynical. ‘Why not have some coffee?’ he queried mildly, and Alyse was so incensed by his imperturbable calm that she refused just for the sheer hell of opposing him.
‘I’d prefer water.’
He shrugged and drained the contents of his cup. ‘I’ll be out most of tomorrow, checking progress on a number of sites, consulting with project managers. I’ve written down the name and phone number of a highly reputable babysitter in case you need to go out, and I’ll leave a set of keys for the house and the car, together with some money in case there’s anything you need.’
‘I have money of my own,’ she declared fiercely, and saw one eyebrow lift in silent quizzical query.
‘Call it a housekeeping allowance,’ Aleksi insisted as he leaned against the servery. ‘And don’t argue,’ he warned with dangerous softness.
Without a further word she turned and filled a glass with chilled water, then drank it. With head held high she crossed the kitchen, her expression one of icy aloofness. ‘I’m going to bed.’ It was after eleven, and she was weary almost beyond belief.
‘I’ll show you how to operate the security system,’ he insisted, straightening to his full height.
Five minutes later she entered the master suite, aware that he followed in her wake. Her back was rigid with silent anger as she made her way through to the sitting-room, and once there she flung off her robe, slid into bed, closed her eyes and determinedly shut out the muted sound of the shower operating in the en suite bathroom.
Much to her annoyance she remained awake long after the adjoining bedroom light was extinguished, and lay staring into the darkness, incredibly aware of Aleksi’s proximity.
She hated him, she denounced in angry silence. Hated him. Why, he had to be the most damnable man she’d ever had the misfortune to meet. Indomitable, inflexible, impossible!
She must have slept, for she came sharply awake feeling totally disorientated and unsure of her whereabouts for a brief few seconds before memory surfaced, and she lay still, willing conscious recognition for the sound which had alerted her subconscious mind.
Georg? Perhaps he was unsettled after the long flight and restless in new surroundings.
Slipping cautiously out of bed, she trod silently across the room to the cot, her eyes adjusting to the reflection of the low-burning nightlight as she anxiously inspected his still form.
Wide eyes stared at her with unblinking solemnity, and Alyse shook her head in smiling admonition. With practised ease she changed his nappy, then covered him, only to hear him emit a whimpering cry.
Within seconds it became an unrelenting wail, and, quickly flinging on a wrap, she picked him up, murmuring softly as she cradled him.
‘Problems?’
Alyse turned in startled surprise at the sound of Aleksi’s voice so close behind her. ‘He’s only very recently started missing a late-night feed,’ she told him quietly. ‘I think the flight may have unsettled him.’
‘Give him to me while you heat his bottle.’
‘I can easily take him into the kitchen, then you won’t be disturbed.’
‘Go and do it, Alyse,’ drawled Aleksi, calmly lifting Georg from out of her arms.
Her chin tilted fractionally as she met his unequivocal gaze, then just as she was about to argue the baby began to cry in earnest and, defeated, she stepped past Aleksi and made her way from the bedroom, fumbling occasionally as she searched for elusive light switches.
The tap emitted hot water at a single touch. Boiling hot, she discovered, biting her lips hard against a shocked curse as she withdrew her scalded hand. Ignoring the stinging pain, she warmed a bottle of prepared formula, then hurried back to the bedroom.
Aleksi was sitting on the edge of the bed cradling the tiny infant, and Alyse experienced a shaft of elemental jealousy at his complete absorption.
She wanted to snatch Georg out of his arms and retreat from the implied intimacy of the lamplit room with its large bed and the dynamic man who seemed to dominate it without any effort at all.
‘I’ll take him now,’ she declared firmly, and her hand brushed his as she retrieved the baby, sending an electric charge through her veins.
Sheer dislike, she dismissed as she tended to Georg’s needs, and on the edge of sleep she took heart in the fact that she would
