Olivia pulled a bright pink Post-it from her clutch, scribbled her number and slid it toward Mike. A fierce pounding began behind Alex’s right eye. “Why don’t you give her a call in a few days? She would love to hear from you.”
Alexander pursed his mouth, and wrapped his arm around Olivia’s shoulders. And instantly felt her stiffen beneath his touch. Her hair was pulled back into a tight plait, and his fingers itched to tug it free and sink into it. He still couldn’t stop sliding the pad of his thumb over her bare skin, though, perversely enjoying the right to touch her.
She was still angry with him over their discussion about Vincent. But there was nothing he could say to make her feel better. Except his absolute belief in what she said. But Vincent still hadn’t gotten back to him. He knew, in a corner of his heart that didn’t look at facts and figures, that she was telling the truth. Yet he couldn’t bring himself to say the words, could barely admit to himself that...
Of all the damned things, when had he started thinking with his heart again?
Cursing himself for what was surely becoming more than a momentary madness, he pulled his hand back. What was wrong with him?
His iPhone buzzed. Seeing Carlos’s face on the small screen, he excused himself and walked into the twinkling Paris night. He knew from Carlos’s brief emails and Kim’s continuing silence that it was not going to be good news.
Carlos didn’t mince words. “Kim is married, Alex. I waited to inform you until I could verify the authenticity of what I discovered and I have. I have a copy of their original marriage certificate. And even though she had filed for divorce several times, the man she married never signed it. Their marriage is valid under law. From what I gathered, she...is staying with him.”
Fisting his hands, Alexander let out a curse that resonated around him. Fury ran rampant through him as every word Kim had ever said to him flashed in his mind. The veneer of perfection, the unblemished reputation...he had bought it all.
He stood frozen, his anger swirling around him, pounding through his blood. The depth of her lies and deception blazed a tidal wave through his gut.
He had trusted her with everything, and she had done what?
Risked exposing them both to a huge scandal. She had even put Emily’s custody at risk. Everything he had worked for could have been jeopardized.
For a moment, all he could think of was to punch the nearest wall, to give into his baser impulses for once. To let every control mechanism he had developed go to hell.
“Alexander?”
Olivia.
He uncurled his fingers and counted to ten, trying to regain control over himself. Her scent, familiar yet arousing, fluttered through him as she neared him. Her fingers clamped over his wrist, she pulled him toward her while her anxious gaze searched his. “Is everything okay?”
Perverse laughter choked up his throat as he gazed into her beautiful eyes, the haze of anger and something else lifting from his eyes. It was a moment he would never forget in his life.
The woman he had thought perfection personified hadn’t had the decency to tell him the truth that could have plunged him into the biggest scandal of his life—on the scale of his own parents’ indignities and into committing bigamy whereas the woman he had mocked and insulted, whose very irreverence had grated on him, had stood by him, again and again, concern lighting up her gaze.
So much for his absolute arrogant belief in his judgment, for his carefully thought-out plans.
His gaze fell to Olivia, to the stubborn tilt of her mouth and his hands tightened around her waist. Pure, scorching emotion, something he didn’t want to analyze, engulfed him. “You’re not going out with him,” he said stiffly, nodding in Mike’s direction.
“Watch me,” she threw back challengingly. “And anyway, who died and made you lord and master of me?”
It was like striking a spark to dry cinder. Without hesitation, without second thought, Alexander dipped his head and kissed her. He swallowed her protest, the taste of her lips, the warmth from her body, what he had once considered a trivial temptation that was beneath him, stole through him, rooting him once again back to his sanity.
Only when she opened his eyes did he see the shadows of hurt in her gaze. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, her mouth a bitter slant.
He stood frozen, watching her as she walked back to their table. What the hell was he doing, kissing her like that? Especially now.
He needed to consult his lawyers with regards to Kim, he needed to sort out the mess his life had become. With the judge agreeing to an initial custody hearing, and now with Kim’s announcement, he needed Olivia to continue the pretense as his wife more than ever.