His Last Chance at Redemption. Michelle Conder

The reproach in her voice was unmistakable.

      Not just for him, Leo thought.

      ‘He seems very comfortable with you,’ he said.

      ‘I’ve looked after him almost every weekday for two years. It’s only natural he feels comfortable with me.’

      Leo felt movement behind him and turned to see Danny standing in the door of his home office. ‘Dmitri is on the phone.’

      ‘Right.’ Due to the delay in collecting Ty, Leo still had work to wrap up. But first he needed to sort the problem of Ty and the nanny. ‘You take him to bed,’ he instructed Lexi. ‘And then—’

      ‘Please.’

      Leo blinked at her quiet reprimand.

      He thought about telling her that if she interrupted him one more time with that gorgeous mouth he’d do something they’d both regret but found himself in the unique position of needing somebody else more than they needed him. A situation he did not like at all. He had to get rid of her and the sooner the better. ‘Please, Miss Somers, would you be so kind as to take my son to his bed?’

      He could tell she wasn’t fooled by his mocking tone, but that was okay. He knew she’d do it. Ever since she had told Ty that this ‘nice’ man was taking them on an adventure and had made it sound as if it could rival Disney World he knew she was a soft touch under her no-nonsense exterior—a weakness he was ruthless enough to exploit.

      ‘Which room is his?’ she muttered.

      ‘This way.’ Leo hadn’t thought about which of his spare rooms to give Ty, but they were both the same so he chose the first one he came to.

      He opened the door and inhaled vanilla as Lexi moved past him and looked around the room, a frown marring her smooth forehead.

      King-sized bed, bedside tables, French windows leading to an outside balcony, private bathroom. What was there to frown about? Except maybe the absence of a cot. Chort vozmi. He hadn’t thought of that.

      ‘Are they locked?’ She nodded towards the French windows and spoke softly as the toddler was almost asleep in her arms, something Leo was glad about because he couldn’t look at Ty without remembering his brother, Sasha.

      ‘Of course,’ he said, but he walked over and rattled the handles anyway.

      ‘He really has never been here before has he?’ she said, almost to herself.

      ‘I told you that.’

      ‘Yes, but I don’t think I wanted to believe you.’ ‘I don’t lie.’

      She cast him a fathomless look. ‘Can I have some more pillows?’

      ‘Why?’

      ‘Because he’ll feel more secure if he’s surrounded by pillows. This bed is too big for him.’

      Leo opened the inbuilt wardrobe and pulled out three spare pillows and placed them on the end of the bed. ‘Anything else?’

      ‘Pyjamas.’

      He glanced at Ty’s jeans and T-shirt. ‘Can’t he sleep in what he’s got on?’

      ‘Do you sleep in jeans?’

      Her sharp rebuke both surprised and irritated him.

      ‘Are you trying to find out what I sleep in, Miss Somers?’ he asked, wondering if her eyes flashed golden when she was aroused as they did when she was angered.

      He expected her to snap at him but instead she smiled sweetly. ‘I already know. It’s called a coffin.’

      Leo blinked, astounded at her unexpected sassiness and then she surprised him again by shushing him. ‘Just go.’ She waved him away with her free hand as if he were an annoying insect. ‘I’ll take care of this.’

      Leo left, not sure whether to be bemused or outraged at her temerity.

      Lexi fixed the bed so that Ty wouldn’t fall out of it and then sat beside him while he fell into a deep sleep.

      Then she picked up her phone and called Aimee in case she hadn’t left for her boyfriend’s house and was worried as to why she hadn’t returned to their shared apartment. When Lexi told her who Ty’s father was she could almost see Aimee slap her forehead.

      ‘I knew I recognised him. Oh, my God. I didn’t know he had a son.’

      ‘What do you know about him?’ Lexi found herself asking without actually meaning to. Because really she already knew any information Aimee could impart would just be more nails in the coffin she had accused him of sleeping in. Her lips twitched now at the remembered surprise on his face when she’d said that. Clearly people didn’t tell him when he was being overbearing and arrogant often enough.

      ‘He’s mega wealthy. And I mean mega.’ Aimee added with emphasis. ‘Russian. Has been in the papers all week because he helped rescue two of his workers from a massive construction accident in Dubai. Remember, I told you about it.’

      ‘Mmm,’ Lexi said noncommittally. She had a vague recollection but the problems with their second centre had been taking up a lot of her head space lately.

      ‘He also changes his girlfriends as often as he changes his underwear and is supposed to be fantastic in bed. Hubba hubba.’

      ‘And which magazine did that little titbit come out of?’ Lexi asked, thinking that it was most likely true.

      ‘I can’t remember. Anyway, what’s he like?’

      ‘Arrogant, rude, obnoxious.’ Chiselled, gorgeous and utterly male, a little voice taunted.

      Which she promptly ignored. She’d met Leo Aleksandrov’s type before. Oh, not with the mega-wealthy tag, but arrogant men who viewed permanent relationships the way they viewed dental hygiene—sometimes required, but not necessarily so.

      Her father had been one of those: a professional golfer who had never married her mother despite having two children with her, and who had then left them all to take up with his mistress. And Brandon had been no better. At the time they’d met he’d been a charismatic, well-connected university jock who had pursued her and convinced her he was falling for her, all in the name of sport.

      Finding out that she had been played like so many other girls he had gone after had made her feel ill, as had his complaint that she had not only been too serious, but that she had been below average in bed. Of course she hadn’t believed him, but it hadn’t stopped her confidence from taking a heavy knock. So heavy, in fact, she hadn’t dated seriously since.

      Suddenly an image of Simon popped into her mind and she groaned. She couldn’t do it. She wasn’t ready to get serious with anyone yet. Maybe she never would be and that might not be a bad thing. She had good friends, a growing business …

      Lexi realised Aimee was still talking about Leo and felt rude for being so caught up in her own thoughts she hadn’t been paying attention. ‘I’m sorry, Aim, I haven’t been listening but I don’t want to talk about this man any more. He’s too irritating for words.’

      ‘Irritating or irresistible?’ her friend joked.

      ‘I’m not going to dignify that with an answer,’ she said, ignoring her brain’s contradictory messages about him. ‘But don’t tell anyone about Ty being his son. I’m not sure what’s going on yet, but I would hate Ty to get hurt in any way.’

      She rang off and let herself out of the room, leaving the bedroom door slightly ajar in order to listen out for Ty.

      She walked down the wide carpeted hallway, taking in the astounding dimensions of the sleekly designed penthouse apartment she was in. So this was how the other half lived!

      It was like being in another world. The whole apartment looked as if it had come straight out of some modern architecture magazine, with not a rumpled doily