Page 19 of The Tycoon’s Affair: Tempted By Desire

Alexio struggled against the shock. This information was not pleasant, but it hardly condemned Sidonie.

His friend continued, ‘When her mother was released they moved to another part of the country to avoid the scandal and Miss Fitzgerald’s father’s business started to boom.

Sidonie went to one of the best local schools, had a pony.

..the works. Her mother was a regular on the social scene.

..designer clothes and jewellery. They managed to keep her past a secret for the most part.

When the property market collapsed so did her father’s business and they lost everything. ’

Alexio was feeling increasingly uncomfortable. ‘Demetrius, is that it? I think I’ve heard enough.’

‘Well, not quite. I think you should hear the rest. After Mr Fitzgerald died his wife went back to Paris to move in with her younger sister.’

‘Demetrius—’

The man butted in. ‘Alexio, I did some more digging via some colleagues in Paris and you need to hear this... Sidonie’s mother persuaded her sister to take out a mortgage on a flat her husband had bought and paid for years before.

She also maxed out credit cards in her sister’s name.

She died leaving the woman in so much debt that she’ll never recover. ’

Alexio felt angry now and gritted out, ‘What does this have to do with Sidonie?’

‘You met her when she was on her way home from Paris?’

‘Yes,’ Alexio agreed curtly, regretting having ever involved his friend like this.

‘She’d just signed an agreement to accept responsibility for all those debts on her aunt’s behalf.

Now, let me ask you this—has she given any hint at all that she’s a woman with a huge financial burden on her shoulders?

If not,’ his friend went on heavily, ‘you have to ask yourself why she’s acting as if nothing is wrong. ’

When Sidonie woke again she was alone in the bed and for some reason her belly went into a ball of tension. Something was wrong. She could feel it.

She lifted her head and looked around. No sign of Alexio. Maybe he’d gone for a swim? He was a powerful swimmer and liked the sea as opposed to the pool.

Muscles protesting pleasurably as she sat up, Sidonie got out of bed and went to the bathroom, tying her hair up so that it wouldn’t get wet in the shower.

When she came out again she rubbed her body dry with a towel and looked at the vast array of clothes hanging in the walk-in wardrobe. Something bitter struck her again to think of his other women, but Sidonie shoved it down. She didn’t have the right to feel jealous, possessive.

She found some shorts and a green halterneck top and stuck them on and then went to find Alexio, still with that odd feeling of foreboding in her belly.

Before she could leave the bedroom, though, she heard the sound of her phone ringing.

She kept it on mainly in case Tante Josephine was looking for her, and when she located it at the bottom of her bag she saw that it was her aunt.

Expecting nothing more than her aunt wanting to chat, Sidonie sat on the edge of the bed and answered warmly in French. Her smile faded in an instant, though, when all she could hear were racking sobs from the other end of the phone.

Instantly Sidonie stood up. ‘Tante Josephine, what is it? Please try to stop crying...’

Eventually her aunt was able to calm down enough to start talking, after Sidonie had encouraged her to breathe slowly. Her aunt was prone to panic attacks and Sidonie didn’t want one to happen before she could find out what was wrong.

Through fits and starts it transpired that someone on her vacances had heard about Tante Josephine’s financial woes and put the fear of God into her by telling her all sorts of horror stories about repossessions and jail sentences for not paying debts. No wonder her aunt was hysterical.

But no matter what Sidonie said it didn’t seem to have any effect.

Her aunt was working herself up into another bout of hysterics.

Desperate, Sidonie racked her brains for what she could say that might calm her down.

Tante Josephine didn’t understand nuances, and Sidonie knew that if she tried to placate her with reassurances that the debts were now in her name it would have no effect.

Her aunt still believed the debts were hers.

Her aunt only understood right now —and right now, she was panicking. Sidonie knew that in her aunt’s mind the threat was as real as if gendarmes had just turned up to arrest her.

Tante Josephine needed to hear something concrete, even if it was a white lie. ‘Okay, look, Jojo—are you listening to me? I need you to listen because I’m going to tell you why you don’t have to worry about a thing.’

To Sidonie’s relief her aunt stopped crying abruptly at the use of the nickname that had come about when, as a toddler, Sidonie hadn’t been able to pronounce Josephine. She hiccuped softly. Sidonie’s heart ached for this poor, sweet and innocent woman who did not deserve this stress.

‘Jojo, everything is going to be fine...I promise you.’

Unbeknownst to Sidonie, who stood facing away from the view and the open terrace doors, a tall dark shape had approached and stopped.

‘But Sidonie... how ?’

Sidonie could hear the hysteria approaching again and cursed the distance between them. ‘I’m not going to let you go through this alone, Jojo, do you hear me? Didn’t I promise to do everything in my power to get us out of this mess?’

Her aunt sniffled and Sidonie pressed on, seizing the advantage, knowing how fragile her aunt was mentally.

‘You don’t have to worry about a thing because I’ve...’

Sidonie faltered. She’d been about to say she had everything in hand, but she knew that would sound vague to her aunt, so she mentally crossed her fingers, squeezed her eyes shut and said, ‘I’ve met someone, Jojo.

..and he’s really, really rich. One of the richest men in the world.

And you won’t believe how we met—it was on a plane, and he owned the plane. ’

Immediately her aunt, who was always enthralled by stories like this, perked up. ‘Really, Sidonie? Truly? Is he your boyfriend?’

Sidonie opened her eyes. ‘Yes, he is. He’s crazy about me. And I’ve told him all about you and he’s promised to take care of everything.’

As much as Sidonie hated using Alexio like this, she knew it would resonate with her aunt, who was simplistically old-fashioned. After her father had bought the apartment for Tante Josephine she’d believed all men had the power to sweep in and make magic happen.

Her aunt’s voice quavered, but this time it sounded like relief. ‘Oh, Sidonie...I’m so happy... I was so worried—and then when Marcel told me those things and—’

Sidonie cut her off before she could work herself up again and behind her the tall, dark shadow melted away, unnoticed.

‘Jojo, don’t talk about this to anyone again—and if Marcel says anything just know that you have nothing to worry about.’

Sidonie felt awful, lying like this, but she knew that her physical presence would reassure her aunt when she got back to Paris. She could then tell her that something had happened with the ‘boyfriend’ . The idea was laughable. Alexio was no boyfriend.

‘Oh, Sidonie...is he handsome?’

Sidonie felt ashamed, but she was relieved to hear her aunt’s natural effervescence return—she loved stories about people meeting and falling in love.

Sidonie tried to gloss over the details about Alexio as much as possible, and before her aunt terminated the conversation she made sure to have a chat with one of the supervisors, to warn them that she was particularly vulnerable at the moment.

She castigated herself for not thinking of doing it before the holiday.

When she put her phone down she felt drained, but at least happier that Tante Josephine should be okay until the end of her holiday. The supervisor had promised to keep a close watch over her.

Sidonie turned round and her eyes widened when she saw the tall figure of Alexio, standing with his back to her at the railing of the terrace outside.

He was dressed in faded jeans and a T-shirt.

That feeling of foreboding was back but Sidonie tried to shake it off.

And also the sudden fear that he might have heard some of her conversation.

She padded out on bare feet and went to stand beside Alexio at the railing. He didn’t look at her. Sidonie forced her voice to be bright. ‘Hey, you...I was wondering where you’d got to.’

Alexio was trying to hold in the cold rage that had filled his belly when he’d overheard her poisonous words: ‘He’s crazy about me...he’ll take care of things...’

Here was the very unpalatable proof that his solicitor had been right to make Alexio question why Sidonie hadn’t told him about this before.

Forcing his voice to sound neutral, he asked, ‘Who were you on the phone to just now?’

He couldn’t look at her. His hands tightened on the railings.

Sidonie was evasive. ‘Er...just my aunt. She’s away at the moment, on holiday...’

Alexio felt a hard weight settle into his belly. Everything from the moment he’d met her unspooled like a bad film in his mind. All the little moments when she’d appeared shy, na?ve, mocked him now.

So this was how she was going to do it: she was going to bide her time, wait to catch him in a weak moment and then launch into her sob story, seducing money out of him.

And maybe even more. Maybe he’d be so weak by then he’d offer to buy her a place, set up her and her aunt completely? He felt dizzy at the thought.

He thought of how weak he’d felt in the aftermath of their lovemaking—how he’d blithely allowed himself to spill his guts, how he’d almost spilled more , telling her everything . How close he’d come to making a complete fool of himself.

Thank goodness he’d had the sense to investigate her. When he thought of how guilty he’d felt to have instigated such a thing, the conversation he’d heard just now taunted him. Where had his cynical shell gone?

Sidonie touched his arm. ‘What is it, Alexio? You’re scaring me.’

Alexio jerked his arm from her as if burnt and stepped back, finally looking at her. He saw her go pale and welcomed it. He couldn’t hide his disgust and despised the way his body reacted to seeing her in short shorts and that sexy halterneck top.

‘You really think I’m that stupid?’ he sneered.

Sidonie looked at him and blinked. He could see something like fear flash in her eyes.

‘What did you hear?’

Alexio felt murderous now, because her guilt was obvious.

‘Enough,’ he spat out. ‘Enough to know that you and your aunt think that you can use me to clear your debts.’

Sidonie just stood there, looking a little shell-shocked. No doubt because she’d been found out.

She said faintly, ‘You speak French.’

‘Of course I speak French—along with two or three other European languages.’

He was dismissive.

Sidonie’s eyes seemed to clear and she reached out with a hand that Alexio stepped back from. ‘You don’t understand. I didn’t mean a word of it. I was just saying what I could to reassure her—she was upset.’

Alexio could have laughed at her earnest expression, which was a travesty now that he knew everything was twisted and black and nothing had been real. He felt betrayed, and that made him even more incandescent with rage. He never let women get close enough to do this to him.

‘You expect me to believe a single word from the daughter of a criminal? You obviously learnt well from her—but not well enough. If you had had the decency to tell me about this—come to me and merely asked me for help—I might have given it. Instead you insisted on this elaborate charade. Maybe you got off on the drama?’