Free Starstruck (Fusion #1) by Adalynn Quinn Page A

company.
    “You mentioned you had some business you needed to catch up with.”
    “I just need to grab my laptop and then I can do whatever
needs doing at your place, unless, of course, you want some quiet without me?”
He gazed at her, trying to gauge her facial expression. Was she bored of spending
all her time with him? His heart constricted in pain at such an idea.
    “No, I like having you around,” she admitted quietly. Glancing
over at Adam and Hayden, who were standing at the front of the car, she
reddened from her confession.
    “Good, because I like being around you, too.” Xander leaned
over and gave Indi a quick kiss of reassurance before manoeuvring out of the
back seat of the car. Adam, meanwhile, had opened the door on Indi’s
side.  Once the luggage had been unloaded, the three men headed into their
own villa, leaving Indi to make her own way to hers.
    When Xander arrived at her villa a few minutes later after
letting himself through the gate into the back patio, she was already folding
up her clothing from the trip in laundry area of the large open-planned
kitchen/diner space
    “I shouldn’t have to make more than a couple of calls and
send a few emails then I’m all yours for the evening,” he explained, setting up
his laptop on the dining-room table.
     “Of course,” she replied. “I’m going to do some washing and
start dinner anyhow.”
    A while later Xander was pacing up and down on the terrace outside
as he chatted on his mobile with Livvie, discussing the details of the deal
with Pepe.  The business was a pet project that he had helped her to fund initially.
All the wines from the vineyards had exclusivity in the wine cellars of the Keats
hotels and it had become a lucrative sideline for them both.
    “Have you been purposefully ignoring Caitlin’s messages
while you’ve been there?”  Livvie asked once their business discussion
concluded. 
    “Yes, why do you ask?”  Xander frowned down the phone
at his sister, not wanting to discuss the woman.
    “Caitlin tried to grill me about your whereabouts.  She
seems to be getting close to guessing your locality, and I think you not
replying to her messages irritated her to the point that she might consider
flying out to confront you,” Livvie warned.
    “She’d better not!”  Xander clenched his fist. 
Can’t
that woman leave me alone for even a couple of weeks?
  “What makes
her even think I’m here, unless someone has opened their big mouth and told
her?”
    “I’m not sure, but I told her nothing.  Do you think
Father would be cunning enough to divulge it?”
    “Maybe,” Xander considered. “He knows her showing up
unannounced would get under my skin. Well, if she comes, she comes, but I’m
getting to the point where they will push me into pulling the plug on their
scheme publicly, and then to hell with the consequences.” 
    His original plan had been to turn the tables on his
father’s dirty tactics, but discreetly to save the embarrassment of being
associated with his dealings. Now he was thinking that total public humiliation
was the only way to stop him once and for all. 
    “I wish you would do that anyway. I can’t bear knowing
you’re tying yourself to that woman just to stop him pressurising Freya and me
instead.”
    “Don’t worry. Whichever way I decide to handle this won’t reflect
back on you or Freya. The documents you sent me made compelling reading. I’ve
almost got enough information on his coercion cover-ups to back him into the
corner so that he never has the upper hand ever again.”
    “Is it really as bad as I thought?” Livvie asked.
    “Yes, he has clearly been getting away with it for years.
Once I get back we can discuss it with the guys, but I’ll recommend we push for
a vote of no confidence with the trust's board and put you in his place.”
    The board of trustees consisted of the five siblings, and their
uncle and aunt, along with several other distant relatives, none of whom