He closed and opened his eyes, his patience apparently paper-thin. “What prompted you to come back? Did Greta promise to save you from the big, bad wolf? Did Leo and Massimo tell you they would protect you from the devious man you’d entangled yourself with?”
“I don’t need anyone to fight my battles,” Alex snapped, a fresh thread of anger thankfully drowning out the lust that was useless right now, that would only distract her from what she needed to do. “I have found myself in a situation where I… I—”
“You what?”
“I need you,” she said, going for defiance but it ended up being an entreaty.
As if she’d woven a magic spell into the air, the very chemistry of the room changed. Like that first moment on Bali when their eyes had met, a real connection arced between them.
A pure electric charge that had nothing to do with revenge and all its twisted consequences. The luminous gray of his eyes flared into something dangerously feral and her pulse spiked.
God, was she really getting a thrill because she could still provoke this reaction from him? When would her stupid heart and her foolish body learn that he wasn’t hers? That for all the pleasure he’d woven with his skillful caresses, he’d had an ultimate goal all the while?
“You need me for what, bella? I made the mistake of trusting you blindly once. I will not do it again.”
The sheer arrogance of the words broke their connection. Alex laughed. “It’s like you stole the very words from my script.” She shook her head. If his gaze wasn’t already drilling holes in her skin, she’d have smacked herself on the head. God, she needed him, yes, but for a good reason.
Not to dissolve into an overheated puddle at his feet.
“I need the appearance of this marriage,” she announced clearly this time, tilting her chin up, holding his gaze. “That’s why I returned.”
His gaze irate, his jaw tight, he just stared at her.
“My mother and stepfather—” she swallowed the lump in her throat “—died in an accident two weeks ago.” She didn’t wait for him to offer a sentiment. If he showed any sympathy or touched her, her grief would come bursting out and she’d lose control of herself. And this situation. Never again was she going to depend on him. “I flew here straight from the funeral in San Francisco.
“My stepfather left a huge fortune to my half brother, Charlie. He’s only seven and already his paternal uncles are fighting over who gets to take control of him. Just so they can control his fortune.”
She blinked and turned away for a moment, trying to hold back the threat of tears.
“I’m sorry you’ve been dealing with such horrific news,” he said, his voice coming close behind her. The scent of him was a tempting invitation, offering the illusion of an escape from her worries. “You didn’t have to take it on alone, Alessandra.”
The tenderness in his voice beckoned her, and it took all her strength to not fall into his embrace. To not let herself drown in grief. To not let his strong arms hold her through this pain.
She turned back to face him. “I kinda had to,” she said vehemently, rejecting whatever comfort he was offering. “I’ve always dealt with life alone.”
His mouth opened and closed, frustration etched onto his features. Long fingers pushed through his hair, sudden energy brimming from his demeanor. “Alessandra, I miscalculated how much what I—”
“I want to take custody of him,” she said, cutting off his words. It was too late for apologies anyway. “I want to raise Charlie. I want to give him the kind of loving family life he deserves, the security I always yearned for as a child.
“Knowing how my stepfather’s brothers are already fighting over him, as if he were a piece of meat, I can’t give him up to them. I refuse to.”
She looked up at him to realize she had his full attention. Thankful that he hadn’t interrupted her again, she went on. “I’ve spoken to a firm of family lawyers that comes highly recommended. I’ve been informed in no uncertain terms that it’s extremely unlikely I’d get custody of him with my current ‘lifestyle.’
“I’m single, as far as anyone else knows. I travel around the world with no stability or roots. I’ve been in the media spotlight a lot of late, creating controversy, and my breakup with Javier was messy and all over the news. In short, Charlie’s uncles plan to use every morsel ever printed against me, even the smallest things I did ten years ago, to prove me an unfit guardian for him.
“So that’s where you come in,” she finished.
“Where?” His voice was whip sharp, his gaze cutting to her with a withering contempt that should’ve reduced her to a heap of smoking ash. “All I’ve heard so far is that you came back to me only because you were forced to do so. That something terribly tragic had to happen to make you show up here today. That your wedding vows still mean less than nothing to you.
“So where exactly do I come into this situation, bella. Spell it out for me.”
Her behavior, so neatly summarized in his stinging words, made shame burn in her chest. But she buried it deep. She was never again going to project what she wanted to see in his eyes, what she wanted him to feel for her onto him. Never again.
“I’d already made a decision to quit modeling even before this happened. I plan to prove that I can be a steady, secure presence in Charlie’s life, however long it takes. I plan to take the battle for custody to the courts and win it.
“It’s just a matter of finishing up existing contracts, setting up a permanent residence somewhere and settling down to a less chaotic lifestyle. With my husband, so that I can prove to
