Page 93 of Dangerous Temptation
It was insular and protective, but it was driving Elena out of her mind.
At least at the manor they could go outside. She’d gone on long walks and had felt the air on her face. She’d smelled the flowers and had swept her fingers through the lake’s cold water. Even switching between the lake house and the manor had offered a change of scenery.
Here, she felt like Rapunzel in her ivory tower. Her knight in shining armour might be with her, but it wasn’t the fairytale that it seemed.
She tried begging, and she tried rationalising. Alex just wouldn’t hear of it.
‘The bankruptcy decision for Wolfe Financial is still too volatile,’ he told her. ‘The press is still looking into you.’
And they were. They just weren’t finding anything – much like when they’d tried to find anything a year and a half before.
Only Caroline Woodward wasn’t giving up. She’d taken some heat for her romantic relationships, but that had just made her more dogged in her determination. Alex had promised she wouldn’t be a problem any more, but not even his lawyers could fight the freedom of the press. The reporter was coming after them like a hyena after fresh meat.
Last night, she’d interviewed Candace. The talk had been full of supposition, lies and venom. It hadn’t been pretty, and Alex had been pacing around the room by the end. His lawyers probably didn’t get much sleep.
Elena’s patience was waning. The two of them couldn’t bury their heads in the sand. It wasn’t helping. It was only making the media wonder why they wouldn’t face them. Were they plotting something new? What were they trying to hide?
After nine days of it, she couldn’t take it any more.
She sat cross-legged in an easy chair in the office Alex had set up for her. A three-drawer desk with a reading lamp sat unused across the way. Her laptop was open on the table at her side, but she hadn’t touched it for nearly half an hour. Its screensaver was spinning random shapes.
She watched the blue oval turn into a yellow square. ‘I don’t what to do any more,’ she confessed into her phone. ‘I’m going stir-crazy, Mom.’
‘Can’t you just run down to the corner shop? Maybe grab a cappuccino?’
‘Caroline Woodward would be there within minutes asking her nasty questions.’
‘Don’t you have security people?’
‘We have lots of people. If I wanted a cappuccino, any of them would go get one for me. It defeats the purpose.’
‘Oh, honey.’ Her mother sighed. ‘I hate to say it, but –’
‘Please don’t say I told you so.’
‘I wasn’t going to.’ In the background, a beater whirred. ‘Hard as it may be to believe, I was about to say, “Maybe he’s right.”’
Elena cocked her head, certain she’d heard incorrectly. ‘What?’
‘I know. Listen, I wasn’t happy about you getting involved with him, but you had to go back to the city eventually to finish your degree. I can’t say I’m unhappy that he’s there, protecting you.Especiallyafter what happened at the zoo. Honey, that was scary for everyone.’
‘But I feel smothered.’ Trapped. She was beginning to understand what he felt like when his claustrophobia kicked in. They had an entire floor to stroll around in, yet she craved her freedom. She wanted to buy a hotdog from a vendor on a street corner. She wanted to feel the chilly air whip down the streets as if they were wind tunnels.
Even the crummy drizzle outside today would be refreshing.
‘He cares about you, Elena. I can see it in the photographs inPeopleand the stories onEntertainment Tonight.’
‘I know he does, but he’s afraid of what might be lurking around every corner. I just can’t say that to him.’ The big bad wolf wasn’t supposed to be afraid of anything. ‘I’m worried about him,’ she confessed. ‘He’s not meant to be held back like this.’ She watched the shapes spin and morph as they bounced off the corners of the laptop’s screen. They weren’t able to escape either; they just kept spinning round and round. ‘Neither am I.’
‘I understand,’ Yvonne said. ‘His intentions are good, but the results are not.’
‘He’s not doing well, either.’ Elena was quick to defend him. ‘I can see how it’s wearing on him, but he feels a responsibility to his company now that he’s returned. He’s as stuck as I am.’
‘Have you told him how you feel?’
She sighed. She’d tried, and he did understand. He just wasn’t willing to compromise. ‘He’s stubborn.’
‘Have you tried getting him out?’
