Russian's Ruthless Demand

by Michelle Conder

  Lukas paused before taking it, a strange feeling his life was about to change and not necessarily for the better. Then he enfolded her fine-boned hand in his and wondered why it was he couldn’t shake the desire to have her in his bed.

  ‘How soon can you be ready to fly out to St Petersburg?’

  She blinked. ‘Now?’

  ‘You were the one who told me my time line was optimistic.’

  ‘Yes, well, I need a shower first.’ She got up from the sofa, collected her bag and stopped. ‘Oh, no.’

  Distracted by her legs, Lukas flicked her an annoyed glance. ‘Oh, no—what?’

  ‘Oh, no, I just remembered whose hotel I’m in.’ She crinkled her nose. ‘Couldn’t you have stayed somewhere else?’

  ‘My PA booked the hotel. I quite like it.’

  She looked less than impressed with his response and he was surprised to find that his mind was still on sex and now sex in the shower. A pointless endeavour when he had no intention of confusing his professional interest in her with a personal one. ‘Go. I’ll pick you up in an hour.’

  ‘Before I do.’ She turned back from the door and Lukas gritted his teeth. ‘What’s the temperature in St Petersburg?’

  ‘Cold.’ Just like him.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  HE WASN’T JOKING, Eleanore thought as she stood in the open doorway of Lukas’s private plane and looked down on the snow-covered tarmac.

  But cold wasn’t exactly the word she would use. No, she’d tend more toward the word freezing. Maybe frigid. Or arctic...

  She huddled further into her puffer jacket that did little to stop the cold from seeping through to the business suit she’d changed into prior to landing. She noticed that Lukas seemed impervious to the weather. Well, he would, she supposed; he’d grown up here and he had that big black cloak thingy on his wide shoulders again.

  ‘You weren’t being flippant when you said it would be cold,’ she murmured, feeling as if all the air was being punched out of her lungs every time she took a breath.

  He turned to her. ‘I thought a New Yorker would be used to the cold.’

  ‘So did I.’ She shivered and zipped her normally adequate jacket right up to her chin. ‘But this is something else altogether. How cold is it?’

  ‘About minus twenty-seven.’

  ‘Oh, good grief.’

  Glad when they reached the warmth of Lukas’s limousine she slid gratefully into the soft seats and let out a relieved sigh when he pulled the door closed.

  Lukas, of course, seemed to find her condition utterly amusing and Eleanore kept her eyes glued to the scenery outside the window as the car carried them into town, all her senses riveted to the wide streets and beautiful ornate buildings, some capped with the famed gold onion domes renowned throughout Russia. It was like a winter wonderland.

  A group of skaters caught her attention. ‘What are those people ice skating on? The sidewalks?’

  ‘Mostly the canals. St Petersburg is built on a network of islands and the water freezes solid in winter. I take it you like ice skating.’

  ‘Not at all.’ She grimaced and shook her head. ‘Sport was never my thing. Olivia is sensational at it though.’

  ‘And Olivia is?’

  ‘My other sister. She’s an actress.’

  ‘A talented family.’

  Eleanore glanced outside the window again because while she knew she was good at her job she was not in either of her sisters’ league.

  Not wanting to brood over things she couldn’t change she let herself become lost in the retail sector that flashed past her window as they neared the centre of town. Some of the brand names she recognised as coming from any cosmopolitan city, but others bore exotic Russian names that were impossible for her to pronounce.

  Pedestrians dotted the sidewalks clad in long thick coats with their collars turned up and enormous hats on their heads. ‘I had no idea St Petersburg was so beautiful,’ she said, awed by the graceful, wintery landscape.

  ‘It’s deceptive,’ Lukas said curtly. ‘And it’s far from a winter wonderland, believe me.’

  He sounded so emphatic she cut her gaze back to his but he was staring down at his phone.

  The view outside his window caught her attention and she gasped in delight as she took in the famous Palace Square.

  Lukas looked up. ‘You know it?’

  ‘Who doesn’t know it?’ She felt a grin split across her face. ‘It’s considered an architectural masterpiece with its smooth corners and the way it’s framed by the jade Winter Palace on one side and the General Staff Building on the other. And look, there’s the double arch with the famous winged Goddess of Victory. You know that was a symbol of Russia’s defeat of Napoleon? Oh, sorry.’ She stopped when she noticed that he was staring at her as if she were an idiot. ‘Of course you know all this. You grew up here.’

  Lukas shook his head slowly. Her enthusiasm was infectious but it was clear by her wide-eyed wonder that she had never experienced the darker side of life. ‘I know the Palace Square is right beside one of our main train stations that has heating all night long and that the winged goddess is a great meeting spot for certain...transactions.’

  ‘Oh?’ Her curious gaze returned to his. ‘Do tell.’

  Her eyes glowed with an inner fire that was mesmerising. An inner fire he did not want to think about or feed. ‘Maybe another time.’

  Like never.

  ‘I look forward to it,’ she said eagerly. ‘One of the things I love about new places is the history that is reflected through the buildings. It’s one of the reasons I took architecture in school. And I love hearing about a city from a local’s point of view. You can learn so much. How do you pronounce the name on that building over there?’

  Lukas told her and Eleanore shook her head. Languages had never been her forte but they intrigued her all the same. And so far she hadn’t had any time to learn this one.

  Deciding to look up the basics on the internet she nearly fainted when she saw the length of the word for hello. ‘Is this right?’ she asked Lukas, turning her iPad toward him. ‘Is this really hello?’

  He looked faintly amused at her outburst. ‘Da. Yes. But you don’t have to worry about learning the language. Most of my employees speak English.’

  ‘I’m not worried, but it’s polite to greet someone in their own language.’

  He considered her for longer than was comfortable and she struggled not to squirm under the weight of his striking gaze. She found it much easier to think when she wasn’t looking at him. Or at least to think about things that didn’t involve what he would look like without any clothes on.

  ‘Zdravstvuyte is hello. Dasvidaniya is goodbye and spasibo is thank you.’

  Determined not to find him at all attractive Eleanore ignored the glint of humour in his eyes.

  Attractiveness was only mind over matter anyway.

  ‘Informative,’ she muttered, repeating the words in her head a few times before making a note on how to pronounce them on her iPad, which was when she remembered the list of questions she’d made during the flight. She pulled them up. ‘You know now might be a good time to talk about the budget.’

  ‘Big,’ he said.

  Holding his gaze she willed her cheeks not to redden as her mind went in an entirely inappropriate direction with that word.

  ‘Right.’ She moved to the next item on her list. ‘And your target demographic?’

  ‘Couples.’

  She raised an eyebrow. ‘Just couples? That seems a bit limiting.’

  Lukas shrugged. ‘The hotel isn’t large enough to accommodate a varied market and it’s my experience that you’re better to focus on one area and do it well before expanding to incorporate other markets.’

  Forced to agree with his
assessment she made some notes and mulled over his comments. ‘So you want romantic.’

  ‘Sexy.’

  She looked up. ‘Excuse me?’

  ‘Sex, Eleanore. I want the hotel to be elegant and stylish and I want it to ooze sex appeal. You do know what I’m talking about, don’t you, Miss Harrington?’

  Eleanore hated the sardonic gleam in his eye. Of course she knew what it was. She was unfortunately looking at it right now.

  So much for mind over matter.

  Deciding to ignore his taunt, and her own spiraling thoughts, she strove for professionalism. ‘The hotel has to be about more than that.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Why?’ Was he being obtuse to push her buttons? ‘Because relationships are about more than sex.’

  ‘They are?’

  Determined to ignore the mocking glint in his eye she pushed on. ‘You know they are. They’re about intimacy and friendship and fun.’

  ‘Fun?’ His frown spoke volumes and she recalled his reputation for short-term affairs. ‘Surely you’re not going to tell me you’ve never had fun with a woman?’

  ‘I’m not going to tell you anything,’ he grated, clearly annoyed with her. ‘Other than what I already have.’

  Eleanore mentally rolled her eyes and then forgot about Lukas as her attention was snagged by something outside the window. ‘Is that a horse and cart?’

  Lukas followed her line of sight. ‘A sleigh.’

  ‘Oh!’ She laughed. ‘Of course, that’s what I meant.’

  ‘I take it that excites you as well?’

  The way he looked at her made her cheeks redden again. ‘Yes, it does. I’ve never seen a real one before.’ She watched the polished black sleigh with a couple snuggled up together in the back, a brightly coloured blanket thrown over their knees. The driver wore a big Russian hat and heavily embroidered jacket and with the graceful buildings iced with snow in the background the whole storybook scene was like something out of a Tolstoy novel.

  She sighed. ‘Now that, my friend, is romantic.’

  His eyes fixed on her face in an inscrutable expression. ‘But hardly sexy.’

  The air between them stretched tight for the longest time until finally Lukas broke the searing connection by returning his attention to his phone.

  Annoyed that she had once again been caught up in his animal magnetism while he had been completely unaffected Eleanore glanced back at the glossy sleigh passing a group of ice skaters. Romance was sexy and she’d prove it to him if it was the last thing she did.

  * * *

  ‘No.’

  Eleanore frowned as Lukas strode into the cavernous foyer of his office building and headed for the bank of shiny elevators. He hadn’t even heard the whole of her idea yet and already he’d dismissed it.

  She wished he’d slow down. Even if she wasn’t wearing heels she would need to take two steps to his one. And if he went slower it would give her time to take in the sheer wonder of his building. Steel, glass, mirror-finished dark floors, curves and angles. It was a feat of engineering elegance and she just wanted to stop and stare.

  They stepped into a waiting lift and Lukas swiped his keycard across the security pad. A few more corporate heads joined them but Eleanore barely noticed. ‘You haven’t even heard all my ideas yet.’

  ‘I don’t have to. And I have already said that I want this hotel to be elegant and revolutionary and sexy, not some sort of fun park.’

  Eleanore let out a long sigh. He was going to be as impossible to work with as she had first thought. ‘I’m not intending to turn it into a fun park, but let’s face it, if people are coming to Russia in the dead of winter they’re going to want to do more than sit by the fire and drink vodka.’

  ‘Yes, they’re going to want to have sex.’

  Eleanore briefly closed her eyes, determined to maintain a level of professionalism with him she usually had no trouble attaining. ‘Didn’t you say your target audience was couples?’

  ‘Yes, and they’re going to want to have lots of sex.’

  Suddenly becoming conscious of their rapt audience Eleanore lowered her voice. ‘They’ll want lots of romance too, and sleigh rides and huskies pulling sleds are definitely romantic. And very Russian. And really, at some point your couples are going to get sick of all that bed time together and want to find something else to do.’

  ‘If they get sick of all that bed time,’ he murmured provocatively, ‘then they’re not doing it very well.’

  ‘Maybe you should offer lessons,’ she suggested tartly.

  A smile flickered at one corner of his mouth and his eyes held hers. ‘Maybe I should.’

  Eleanore’s breath caught and she deliberately cast her eyes around the small elevator at the frozen expressions on the other occupants’ faces. She smiled at the woman beside her. ‘Dasvida—oh, I mean zstraduetye.’ Even though she covered her slip she barely got a nod from the woman, or anyone else. Probably they were all as shocked by the topic of their conversation as she was.

  The lift seemed to stop at every floor in the building but finally it was blessedly empty and she turned back to Lukas. ‘You’ve certainly given those people something to talk about at the water cooler later on. You do realise everyone was staring at you when you mentioned sex.’

  ‘On the contrary, everyone was staring at you because you were challenging me.’

  ‘Why? Don’t people usually challenge you?’

  Not like she did. Which wasn’t the most comfortable of realisations. It made him feel as if the balance of power in his carefully constructed world was somehow under threat. An illogical thought because the petite woman beside him was about as dangerous as a daisy. ‘No.’

  ‘Well, that seems silly. Surely they don’t agree with everything you say.’

  Irritation at her persistence rode him hard. ‘If they don’t they table their concerns in the appropriate manner and then they’d better have a damned good reason for wasting my time with it.’

  Eleanore frowned up at him. ‘But how do you build on your ideas? How do you flesh them out?’

  ‘My ideas rarely need fleshing out. They just need executing.’

  ‘Oh, right. You and Stalin both.’

  Her soft mouth twitched with humour and Lukas wondered what she would do if he gave in to his body’s urges and leant forward and kissed her. Would she resist or would she melt like butter in the hot sun? He recalled her assertion moments ago that relationships were about more than sex. That they were about fun, and he was annoyed to realise that he couldn’t remember the last time he’d had fun. And fun with a woman? The type she was talking about. Did that even exist?

  Wanting to quash the unsettled feelings in the pit of his stomach he pointed his finger at her. ‘No sleigh rides, no huskies and sleds, and—’ the lift doors pinged open ‘—no reindeers with red noses either.’

  A mutinous scowl crossed her face and she raised her chin as she stalked out of the lift ahead of him. Something else people around him tended not to do. When she gasped in awe at the layout of his private sanctuary something deeply satisfying bloomed in his chest.

  ‘I love these plants. They’re gorgeous. And incredibly hard to grow.’

  Plants? What plants? Lukas ran his gaze around the room and saw a corner filled with green palm fronds. Had they always been there?

  ‘I love the use of the space as well and the angle of the windows. Is that because they have solar panels attached to the bottom?’ She strode over to peer outside.

  ‘Yes. I wanted the building to be self-sustaining.’

  She glanced over her shoulder at him. ‘This was your idea?’

  He didn’t like the amazement that flashed across her face as if somehow he was too base to consider environmental concerns. Especially when he’d commiss
ioned the solar panels before it had become trendy to do so. ‘It’s my building, who else’s would it be? Stalin’s?’

  Her mouth kicked up a little. ‘Well, as much as it pains me to admit it, I like it.’

  ‘I’m so very pleased to have your endorsement, Miss Harrington,’ he said sarcastically, irritated to find that actually he was. It wasn’t as if he sought out, or desired, anyone’s approval, let alone a woman who looked far too good in a pencil skirt.

  She smiled at something behind him and crossed the room. ‘Zdrasvustske.’

  Lukas grimaced at her appalling pronunciation and turned to see her holding her hand out to his PA. ‘I’m Eleanore Harrington.’

  His usually self-contained assistant, who saw herself more and more as a mother figure in his life the longer they worked together, seemed almost stunned to be faced with the exuberant Eleanore Harrington. ‘I’m Petra. Lukas’s PA.’

  ‘It’s nice to meet you, Petra.’

  His assistant cut her eyes to his, sparkling merrily. ‘Lukas, you have a mountain of work on your desk. I’ve been through most of your messages for this morning and prioritised them for you with notes attached. Also, your meeting schedule for tomorrow has been sent to your phone. Sorry it’s late. I was waiting to hear back from the bank before confirming it.’

  ‘Thank you, Petra. If you wouldn’t mind organising coffee. Miss Harrington has hers white with one sugar.’

  ‘Oh, that’s okay,’ Eleanore said quickly. ‘I don’t feel like coffee right now and you sound like you have a lot to catch up on.’

  Lukas frowned. Was he being dismissed? ‘When can I see the drawings you spent the whole flight working on?’ And why did he sound like a petulant child when he should have been glad she had so easily blocked him out during the long flight?

  She pulled a face. ‘They’re not ready for public consumption yet. I still need to walk around the site before I finalise anything. Didn’t you organise a site visit for this afternoon?’

  ‘Yes. My foreman will meet you there and tomorrow morning you will meet the rest of the team.’

  ‘Great. Then if you wouldn’t mind showing me where I’m to work I’ll go prepare for it.’