“What happened?”
I shrug as casually as I can. “Nothing happened. We had dinner, afterwards he took me to a party, then he gave me a lift home.”
My mother sags with relief. “Good. That’s good. You didn’t go through with it.”
“No, Mom,” I say quietly, “but I’m going to spend the weekend with him in London.”
My mother’s jaw drops in shock. “What?”
“He invited me to go with him and I said yes.”
“But…”
“But nothing, Mom. It’s just a weekend away. It’s something everyone my age does all the time.”
Mom presses her lips together. “You hardly know the man.”
“Yes, it will be the perfect time to get to know him then, wouldn’t it?”
A sound of defeat escapes her. “What about the $50,000?”
“I’ll call Catherine on Monday and arrange to return it.” I don’t tell her about my plan to borrow the money from Konstantin. A) she won’t like the idea. B) Konstantin might say no to me. I will only tell her if he agrees to give it to me.
“Yes, yes, you must return it.”
I nod. “How’s Maddy?”
“She’s fine. She went to bed about an hour ago. Do you want a mug of hot chocolate?”
“Nah, I’m bushed. I’m off to bed. Someone is coming to pick me up at 8.00 am in the morning.”
“Raine,” my mother calls, a frown on her face. “Can you trust him?”
My answer is immediate and comes from somewhere deep inside me. “Yes. I can trust him.”
My mother nods, but her forehead is still creased in a frown. “But are you sure it is a good idea to go away with him so soon?”
I smile at her. “It may be a terrible idea, but it’s called living, Mom. Taking risks and going for it.”
My mother looks at me sadly. “There was a time I thought like that. It is a beautiful feeling. The whole world was my oyster. Everything was possible. Everything was a wonderful adventure. It’s sad when that feeling goes. I don’t mean to smother you, honey. You go. Go and have a wonderful time.”
I walk up to her and hug her. “I love you, Mom.”
“I love you too, honey. I love you too,” she whispers in my ear. “You go on to London and have the best time of your life. You deserve it. You’re a good daughter, Raine. A very good daughter and I don’t want you to ruin your life because you’re trying to save Maddy.”
“I’m not ruining my life, Mom. I want to go to London.”
She searches my eyes. “With him?”
“With him.”
She nods. “Okay, but I’ll miss you like mad though.”
“It’s only the weekend, Mom.”
“Yes, yes. I guess you’re all grown up now.”
I smile. “Don’t tell me you just noticed.”
She smiles back. “I’ve been pretending not to notice.”
“Don’t worry about me, Mom. I’ll be fine.”
“I know. Off you go to bed, then,” she says with a resigned sigh.
Raine
I can’t sleep to start with. I keep thinking of the expression on his face as he fingered me in the car. Just thinking about what he had done to me and the way he did it, makes me so horny I have to masturbate.
But unlike the long-lasting explosion of a climax in the back of his car, this one is a quick, light burst that leaves me unsatisfied and craving more. I long to feel his cock moving inside me. The weird thing is I have never lusted after a man the way I am wanting him. Eventually, I go to sleep with these thoughts and dream that he has caught me switching the painting. His eyes are cold and furious. I’m so horrified I wake up in a cold sweat. For a long time, I lie in bed, staring at the ceiling, my heart beating fast.
It’s okay, Raine, change of plan, remember, you’re not switching the painting anymore. You’re just going to ask for a soft loan.
When my heartbeat slows down, I try to go back to sleep, but can’t even though it has been a long and stressful day and I should be exhausted. I’m too excited about my trip to London. I toss and turn for ages until I give up trying to sleep, and reach for my phone instead. I begin finding out everything I can about the ancient city of London. I make notes about the places I want to visit, and it is the early hours of the morning when I finally fall asleep.
The alarm wakes me up, but I find myself instantly awake and buzzing with excitement. Quickly, I pack a small suitcase, filling it with my best clothes and my sexiest underwear, then I go to have breakfast. Mom is in her room getting ready to go to work, and Maddy is sitting at the kitchen table flicking through her cellphone. Her hair is still patchy on top of her head. She looks up when I enter our small kitchen.
“How was the date last night?” she asks, her eyes bright with curiosity.
“It was fine. How do you feel this morning?” I reply as I reach for a bowl in the cupboard.
“Fine? That’s all I get.”
“We had dinner, then he took me to a party and brought me straight back here.”
“Hey, hey, back up, back up. He took you to a party?”
I take the seat opposite her and pour cereal into my bowl without looking at her. I feel sad for her. It’s been years she has not been strong. The last party she went to is when she was fourteen or fifteen. Her teenage years where she should be out partying and having fun are passing away. All she ever does is stare into her phone for hours and hours. It is as if she has been sucked into a digital world. Even all her friends are digital avatars and they in turn know only her avatar. I pour milk over my cereal and look up at her.
“We didn’t stay long. There was a woman there who tried to kill herself. It was quite dramatic. We left soon after.”
She leans forward. “You went to a party where a woman tried to kill herself?” Wow! How?”
“She was going to jump off the edge of the roof of the building.”
“What stopped her?”
“Konstantin pulled her off the ledge.”
She raises her eyebrows and looks impressed. “Knight in shining armor in a billionaire’s suit, huh?”
I shrug and put a mouthful of cereal in my mouth.
“She must be really brave. That’s not how I would do it if I had to.”
I stop chewing and swallow hard. The rough edges of the cornflakes scratch the insides of my throat. Then I look around in the direction of my mother’s room, but her door is still shut. “Jesus, Maddy, don’t say things like that,” I whisper fiercely. “You’re freaking me out.”
“I don’t want to freak you out, but it’s true that life would be so much better for you and Mom if I were not here, wouldn’t it?”
I grasp her thin wrist tightly. “Stop. Right. There. I won’t hear another word of that nonsense. Now close your eyes.” She doesn’t obey and I raise my voice firmly. “Close your freaking eyes.”
She closes her eyes.
“Now pretend I am no longer in the world, in this apartment.” I give it a few seconds, then I ask, “What do you see?”
She opens her eyes and looks at me sadly. “It is horrible.”
I stare at her intently, then tuck her pale hair behind her ear. “Exactly. We are blood, the three of us, we are a family, one inseparable unit, Maddy. If any one of us is gone, it would be an insufferable, intolerable, unspeakable loss. Do you understand?”
She nods.
“We will find a way to cure you. One way or another we’ll get you back to health. So no more defeatist crazy talk, okay?”
She nods. “Okay.”
I let go of her. I have grasped her so hard, my fingers have left white fingerprints. I have no appetite, but I put another spoon of cereal into my mouth and chew it, even though it feels like sawdust in my mouth.
“Raine?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you really think I’m going to get better?”
I smile at her. “Yes, I really, really do.”
She smiles back at me. “Good. Because I�
��d love to go to a real party.”
“You will. I promise.”
“I believe you.”
“By the way, I’m going away for the weekend,” I say casually.
“Where to?”
“London.”
“London!” she screams. “London, England?”
“Yes, London, England.”
“How?”
“I’m going with Konstantin.”
Her jaw drops. “What?”
I nod. “Don’t tell Mom, but it’s just a dirty weekend.”
She gasps with shock. “I can’t believe this. You? You’re going for a dirty weekend?”
I pretend to be offended. “Why? You don’t think any man would want to take me away for a dirty weekend?”
“Don’t be such a dork. You know you’re stunning. It’s just you’re always working. You never stop to have fun.”
“Well, I’m doing that this weekend,” I say firmly.
“How are you going to tell Mom?”
“She already knows.”
Her eyes widen. “What did she say?”
“She said go and have a good time.”
“Mom said that?” she asks incredulously.
I grin. “She sure did.”
Raine
I am driven directly to the airport. Once there, his secretary, Mrs. Berkman, a dark-haired, bespectacled woman in her thirties is waiting for me. She gives me an efficient smile and takes me into the lounge where I find Konstantin working on his laptop. His green-gold eyes sweep over me in a way that makes my stomach clench inside.
“Hello,” I murmur, as his secretary wheels away my small suitcase.
He nods. “We are leaving in ten minutes. Want some coffee or juice?”
I shake my head.
“Have a seat. I just need to finish this.”
“Sure,” I say, dropping into the seat opposite him. While he types with lightning speed onto his keyboard, I watch him surreptitiously. His eyelashes are too long for a man. They sweep over his cheeks in a way that is adorable. And when he types his mouth moves slightly. I watch those sensuous lips and feel a flutter in my belly. Suddenly, he snaps his laptop shut and turns those gorgeous eyes up to me.
“Done. The rest of the weekend is for fun and games,” he drawls with a wolfish smile.
I swallow hard and cannot find one suitable reply in my head to that announcement. “Good,” I finally croak.
His secretary comes back to ask if we are ready to board. To my surprise flying private is a whole different ball game to flying commercial. There are virtually no checks save the quick scan of our passports. We are whisked aboard a medium-sized plane where everyone we meet addresses us by name and is smiling and super polite.
Inside it is luxurious, but subtle. No gold trim or any kind of ostentatiousness that I expected a nouveau riche Russian billionaire to have installed. Instead, it is simply a comfortable mode of fussless transport for a man who guards his privacy jealously.
I settle into my cream seat just as an air-hostess comes bearing a tray with tall flutes filled with champagne. Well, that’s one thing I’ve never had. Champagne in the morning. I take a glass. Another hostess comes to place a small vase of flowers on the little table between us.
“To a great trip,” Konstantin toasts tilting his glass up to me.
Sunlight slants in through the window and falls on his eyes, making the green appear like translucent glass and the flecks trapped inside them like bits of gold. I take a deep breath. Something about him affects me like no other man ever has.
“To a great trip,” I echo softly, and take a sip of the chilled bubbles. They explode on my tongue and fizz down my throat. I have to be careful or I will get very drunk very quickly and make a fool of myself. I am in a strange environment with a man I am deeply attracted to, but cannot fathom. I put the glass back on the table.
“Have you been to London before?” he asks leaning back, looking as if he doesn’t have a care in the world.
“No. I’ve never left the States.”
He smiles. “Then you will love London.”
“Yes, I know I will. I spent all night learning about it.”
“Any place you want to visit?”
“I have a whole list, but I do realize one weekend won’t be enough so I’m prepared to cut my whole list down to just the Dungeon at the Tower of London and a trip around London on one of those open-top red busses.”
“Don’t you want to shop?”
“Er… no.”
He frowns, his eyes full of curiosity. “Why not?”
I shift uncomfortably. “I kinda already have everything I want.”
He stares at me as if I have suddenly grown a horn or never met a woman who has told him she already has everything she wants.
“What do you mean?”
I decide to be brutally honest. Especially, since I intend to ask him for a loan. “To be perfectly honest, I am saving up for something important to me so I’ll skip the shopping trip, thanks.”
His eyes never leave me. “I’m going to pay for your shopping trip.”
“Oh!” I exclaim in surprise. I never expected that of him, but I won’t take up his offer since I would much rather have the loan instead. “Uh, that’s very, very kind of you. Thank you, Konstantin, but there won’t be enough time anyway.”
His eyelids come down over his eyes as if he is deliberately veiling them so I can’t tell what he is thinking. Then he raises them again. “I will arrange for you to shop with one of my assistants. She will take you to Knightsbridge and Bond Street for a few hours tomorrow afternoon.”
“It’s not necessary—” I begin to say, but he cuts me off.
A glimmer of mischief comes into his eyes. “You only say that because you’ve never been to London. It is absolutely necessary to shop when you are there.”
It would break my heart to spend money on shopping when I can put it aside for Maddy instead, but I realize it would be churlish to keep arguing. I will make him understand later so I smile graciously and say, “All right. I will look forward to it. Thank you. It is very kind of you.”
“It will be my pleasure,” he murmurs.
I take a sip of champagne. “Will we go directly to your house?”
“We’ll spend tonight at the Claridges, and leave for my house in the country in Berkshire tomorrow afternoon after you’re done with your shopping and sightseeing.”
“Is that where your horses are stabled?”
“Yes.”
I look out of the window. The sky is blue and full of fluffy clouds. I feel as if I am in a dream. A couple of hours ago, I was sitting in our tiny apartment eating cereal with Maddy while my mother got ready to go to her dead-end job where she works her fingers to the bone for slave wages. And now here I am drinking champagne on a private plane on my way to London! I turn to look at Konstantin. He seems as relaxed as a cat in a spot of sunshine as he sits there watching me.
His life seems impossibly glamorous. He flies to London for the weekend, pays for women to shop in Knightsbridge and Bond Street, stays in expensive hotels even though he owns a mansion in Ascot, which is less than an hour away. I know because I researched him and his home online.
The air-hostess comes back, her pretty face lit up with a broad smile and carrying a tray artistically arranged with brightly colored morsels of food. The food looks fresh and appetizing, nothing like the overcooked, limp fare in a compartmentalized plastic tray I was given the other time I was on a plane. Square plates are placed in front of us. Together with real silver cutlery and crisp linen napkins.
Our glasses are refilled, then the girls withdraw.
“Go for it,” Konstantin offers.
I choose a glistening cherry tomato tartlet and slip it into my mouth. The pastry is buttery and the filling is deliciously sweet-sour.
“Mmm… nice,” I say, picking a tiny smoked salmon bagel next.
Of course, it too is divine. Very soon my glass is completely e
mpty, the tray is nearly empty, and I’m feeling drowsy and a bit more than slightly tipsy. Not surprising since I hardly slept last night and drinking champagne in the morning is not something I am used to.
“Why don’t you sleep for a bit,” Konstantin suggests, as he stands and puts my seat into a reclining position. It actually becomes completely horizontal. He covers my body with a silky duvet.
“Thanks,” I mumble, snuggling into the soft material.
“No problem,” he drawls, closing the shutter of the windows next to me. Then he moves away from me.
Cocooned in that wonderful bed high in the sky I drift off.
Raine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weRHyjj34ZE
Whenever, Wherever
I sleep for five hours. I turn my head and see that Konstantin is also sleeping a bit further down the cabin. Very quietly, I get out of bed and tip toe towards him. In the gloom he appears softer, perhaps even vulnerable. All that distance he deliberately puts between him and the world is gone. I remember again the little thing the Countess had slipped into his hand. He hides secrets. Then there is the painting, what he supposedly stole from someone else. I suddenly wonder what the truth of that scenario really is.
That is the reason he does not allow the world to get close to him.
Seeing him like this makes the butterflies flutter in my belly.
I want him. I really want him. My fingers itch to reach out and touch him. But of course, I don’t. Instead, I take two steps back.
Suddenly, he opens his eyes and looks directly at me. And just like that I am frozen. I cannot move a muscle. It is as if I am hypnotized. I stare at him, taking him in, unable to tear my eyes away from his.
The darkness around us feels like a blanket that I want to pull even tighter around me. And in the midst of it all is his gaze… shrouded in mystery and a haunting depth that makes my heart jitter to a stop in my chest.
“Do you think about it as much as I do?” he suddenly asks, his gaze searing and unblinking.
I know exactly what he is talking about, I can feel the arousal dampening my sex, but I feign ignorance, a nervous smile trembling on my lips.
The Russian Billionaire: A Romantic Suspense Novel Page 6