‘You haven’t answered my question.’
‘Because it’s none of your business!’ she exclaimed hotly.
His penetrating gaze held hers but his body relaxed as if her answer had been predictable. Then he made her teeth clench even harder when he smiled knowingly. ‘I’ll send you and your lover first class next weekend.’
Lexi’s eyebrows hit her hairline. ‘You’ll send?’ she repeated indignantly. Just who did this man think he was?
‘Pay. Organise.’ He blew out a frustrated breath. ‘Stop getting caught up on semantics.’
‘Mr Aleksandrov, I—’
‘I have to go to Greece for the weekend. I need somebody I can trust to take care of Ty.’
‘You want me to go to Greece with you? For the long weekend?’
Lexi wasn’t even prepared to go into the next room with him, let alone another country!
‘No. I was taking Mrs Parsons to Greece because she is an unknown entity for both myself and Ty, and I felt it was better to have her close by. You, on the other hand, are not an unknown entity. You have looked after my son for two years and you will be perfectly fine to take care of him here, in London. And, as I said—’ he paused, regarding her calmly ‘—I’ll pay you. Well.’
‘Is money your answer to everything?’ Lexi snapped.
‘Not everything, no.’
Her lips compressed at his sensually mocking smile.
‘How much?’ he asked with quiet confidence.
Lexi tried not to be intimidated by his size and understated force of will. Hadn’t he realised that she wasn’t the type of person who could be bought? Or was he the type of person who paid off everyone in order to get his own way? She wouldn’t be at all surprised to find out that he was. ‘You mean I can name my price?’ she asked sweetly, as if she might actually be considering his offer.
‘What’s the number?’ he demanded curtly, his smile flattening as if her answer had displeased him, though why that should be the case she hadn’t a clue.
Lexi paused. Would he pay any figure? For a minute she was tempted to find out but she didn’t play these types of games and it would give her more satisfaction to put him—and his open bank account—in their rightful place.
‘The number is that there is no number. You don’t deserve my help. Goodbye.’
Lexi didn’t look at him as she picked up her bag and dropped her mobile phone inside. She was about to stride out of the door with her head held high when Leo’s quiet voice stopped her.
‘I might not. But Ty does.’
Lexi turned and stared at him incredulously. ‘Are you trying to emotionally blackmail me now?’
‘If it means you’ll stay, yes.’
Lexi couldn’t believe the gall of the man. Had he no shame?
‘You get a girl pregnant and then don’t even have the decency to get to know your own flesh and blood and now you’ll do whatever it takes to have someone you don’t even know take care of him. What kind of a man are you?’
He jammed his hands onto his hips and glared at her. ‘Don’t pass judgement on things you don’t understand.’
‘Oh, I understand all right,’ Lexi fumed. ‘I understand that your lifestyle is so precious you rejected an innocent child. Well, that’s something you should have thought about before you got Amanda Weston pregnant, not after.’
‘This has nothing to do with my lifestyle and everything to do with Ty’s well-being.’
‘And just how do you figure that?’
A muscle ticked in his jaw. ‘I don’t have to explain myself to you but I did not reject my son.’
‘Oh? What would you call it?’
‘Since he was born I have paid for every single thing he needs and I have six monthly reports carried out to ensure that he is safe and well cared for.’
‘Reports that failed to inform you that his mother travels so often that his grandmother was his main carer until her death a fortnight ago.’
He had the grace to look uncomfortable, pulling at the collar on his shirt in a telling movement.
‘And,’ he continued, as if she hadn’t spoken, ‘I fully intend to have a relationship with him when he’s older.’
Of all the …
‘Older and less work?’ she scoffed. ‘He needs you now. A boy looks to his father as he grows up to figure out what it means to be a man. What kind of a man will he grow up to be with an absent father who never cared enough to spend time with him?’ Lexi stopped, aware that her impassioned speech was about to get out of hand. But damn it, that was exactly what had happened to her brother, Joe, who had become lost and angry in his teenage years, even though Lexi and her mother had done their best to shield him from feeling rejected by his father.
‘By all means say what you think, Miss Somers.’
Lexi shook her head. ‘I don’t believe in wasting time on empty words.’
‘Rare for your sex, I have to say.’
‘Oh—’ Lexi shook her head ‘—I’ll add chauvinist to your list of personal attributes, shall I?’
‘I meant it as a compliment.’
‘That’s even worse!’
He leaned his hip against the edge of the sofa and cocked his head. ‘Will I like any of the other things on your list?’
Lexi shot him a fulminating glare, feeling a little spent after her tirade. ‘What do you think?’
He laughed and Lexi felt a tug of awareness low in her pelvis as he studied her, his casual stance and insolent regard making her aware of her femininity—her womanliness—in a way she hated. Making her think of sex—of all things!
She swallowed heavily and his eyes dropped to her throat and Lexi nearly raised her hand to cover it. What was he thinking about? Heat crept up her neck and she was afraid she might know.
‘I think you’re a woman with exacting standards that not many men manage to live up to.’
Lexi blinked. ‘I think you’d fail to live up to most people’s standards,’ she retorted, stung a little by his assessment of her.
‘You’d be surprised.’
‘I’m not talking about the hundreds of women you go through like disposable razors.’
He smiled at that. ‘Neither was I. And for your information, I use an electric.’
‘Well, you didn’t use it today,’ she said hotly and then wished she hadn’t when a sexy smile crossed his face. Damn. Now he probably thought she liked his stubble. Wanted to touch it, even. Huh! As if.
She tightened her hold on her bag, aware that the conversation was taking a dangerous turn. ‘This is irrelevant.’
‘I agree.’ He pushed off from the sofa and sat down on it, his arms spread wide along the back like a sultan surveying his kingdom. ‘So tell me, what is it going to take to get you to agree to take care of Ty this weekend?’
‘Surely you have someone else who can help you out. A girlfriend, perhaps?’
‘Is that your way of asking if I’m available, Miss Somers?’
Lexi glared at him. ‘That’s my way of asking if you have someone else to help you