‘She had your father,’ Evie put in, perhaps trying to imply he needn’t have taken so much on himself.
Dimitri shook his head. ‘Grief broke him. He was not the same father after that and in the years that followed, he wanted little to do with the baby girl who had stolen his wife. Anna-Maria was a double disappointment to him. His beloved wife had died for a daughter. Sons are everything in Kuban.’ He drew a deep breath. ‘Anna-Maria was mine, always. Even now, the relationship she has with my father is tenuous.’ Beautiful, wild Anna-Maria was constantly testing their father’s patience. It had been a difficult decision to leave her for this last journey but she’d assured him she’d be fine. She was nearly eighteen, hardly a child, and she’d known how much he needed this.
‘I’m sorry,’ Evie breathed, and in those words he heard more than bland empathy. She was sorry for a twelve-year-old boy who’d lost his mother and his father that day, for a boy who’d taken on more than what was fair to ask, who continued to take on unfair burdens in exchange for his own freedom. Evie understood him. ‘Thank you for telling me.’
‘Now you know,’ Dimitri said, wanting to be sure she’d heard the warning in the tale, the reminder as to why he could offer her nothing that would last no matter how much he might want to.
They’d reached the edge of the gardens where the lights of the house took over. In a few more steps they’d be out of the darkness. Evie turned and wrapped her arms about his neck. ‘Yes, now I know.’ Her tongue flicked across her lips, her eyes dropping to his mouth. ‘Dimitri, I would never ask for more than you could give. I would never do anything to diminish you, to make you less than you are. I understand what we can have.’
‘And what is that?’ He was almost afraid to ask, but more afraid to never have the answer.
‘Everything. We can have everything. For a short time. And it will be better than having nothing for ever.’
He wasn’t going to resist. This temptation was too much. The only question that remained was, when?
Chapter Eighteen
Her mother was waiting for her when Evie returned, in her room none the less, which never boded well. She sat on the edge of Evie’s bed and rose when she entered, beginning to pace. Her mother was worked up about something. ‘Evie dear, I thought we could talk before bed.’ That went without saying. Evie hadn’t missed the wringing of hands in her mother’s lap. Ever since she was a little girl, her mother had always come to her room when there was a serious matter to discuss.
Tonight, though, Evie didn’t want to talk. She wanted to think. Dinner seemed a lifetime ago—the observatory and all that had transpired in that short period embodied the present. In that short span everything had changed. Her choices, her direction had become clear. She had made her decisions. ‘I’m a little tired.’ Evie feigned a yawn. Perhaps her mother could be put off. ‘We can discuss the party over breakfast tomorrow.’ Hopefully, the party was all her mother had on her mind. Surely, she and Dimitri hadn’t been gone long enough on their walk to raise any suspicions?
‘I don’t want to talk about the party.’ Her mother gestured to the pink-striped bench at Evie’s vanity. ‘Sit down. I want to talk about the Prince. And you.’ Hopes quashed. There was an edge of panic in her mother’s voice and, this time, Evie couldn’t quite discount her mother’s worry as manufactured. Her mother was rather gifted at making mountains out of proverbial mole hills. Evie couldn’t say that was the case tonight.
It was too bad her mother had chosen this evening to be intuitive. She should have remembered her mother’s intuition was nearly infallible, even if it was couched in flighty worries that were often overblown. Evie sat. She had no choice really. She should have seen it coming. It had been like this when Diana and her earl had been courting.
Her mother pulled out the hair pins from Evie’s coiffure to keep her nervous hands busy. Evie could never remember her mother sitting still for long. Her mother picked up the hairbrush, pulling it through her hair in long, gentle strokes. ‘You have such beautiful hair, Evie. Maybe the prettiest hair of all my girls.’ Evie let her prevaricate. It felt nice to have her mother brush her hair, it made her feel young, before the world had become complicated.
‘The Prince has eyes for you, I think.’ Her mother’s eyes met hers in the mirror. ‘He couldn’t stop looking at you tonight. Of course, you looked very lovely. Your gown matched your hair perfectly. I thought, my daughter is Demeter.’ She smiled and spread Evie’s hair out along her shoulders. ‘You looked like the goddess of the harvest. It was easy to see why the Prince was so taken with you.’ She paused here to pick up the brush again. ‘And you? Are you taken with the Prince? He’s a very handsome, well-mannered man.’ What to say to that? She was more than taken with him. ‘Taken’ seemed an inadequate word.
‘I think he’s a man who is easy to like wherever he goes.’ Evie strove for a diplomatic answer.
‘Wherever he goes. Quite right. We are lucky to know him for a short time. He’s well travelled, a very worldly man. I can’t imagine Little Westbury could hold his attention for long.’ Despite her tendency to exaggerate situations, her mother had a shrewd underbelly when it came to husbands and wives. She’d known just how to help Diana with her earl and tonight Evie heard all of her mother’s messages in the simple words: that she couldn’t expect to hold the Prince’s attention. Well, Evie had already beaten her to that conclusion. Moreover, she didn’t want to hold that attention, not when it meant ruining him. She’d meant it tonight when she’d said she would never seek to diminish him. Trapping Dimitri into a life here in Little Westbury would diminish him. The honourable man she knew, the brave man she knew, would be destroyed if he couldn’t return home and fulfil his duties.
‘Andrew asked your father for permission to call on you formally tonight.’ There was cheerful wariness in her mother’s voice as if her mother didn’t quite believe her dismissal of the Prince’s interest as generic attention. ‘Isn’t that wonderful?’ She smiled. ‘Maybe Andrew is worried the Prince is stealing a march on him. I say it’s about time Andrew realised what a catch you are.’
Evie carefully schooled her features. ‘What did Father say?’ This would have been wonderful news three months ago, perhaps even three weeks ago. Now, it was merely uncomfortable. Her infatuation with Andrew seemed a girlish flight of fancy against the backdrop of what she shared with Dimitri, of what she faced with Dimitri. That girl would have leapt at the merest attention from Andrew. And sold herself short in the process, she saw that now. She could not imagine having the discussions with him that she had with Dimitri, of doing the things with him she’d done with Dimitri.
‘Your father says it is for you to decide.’ Her mother watched her expectantly, waiting for her answer. ‘Isn’t it what you want?’
‘I’m not so sure it is what I want,’ Evie replied coolly, trying to give nothing alarming away. She didn’t think she looked different. Perhaps there was no way to tell what she’d been up to with Dimitri.
Her mother’s eyes sharpened. ‘Is that because of the Prince? Is he what you think you want?’ Evie braced herself. The conversation had circled back to what her mother had really wanted to discuss.
‘I know you girls think I’m a worrier and maybe I am. But, I’m not stupid, Evie. I know when a man wants a woman. I noticed how long you were gone to look at the stars.’ She fluttered a hand. ‘I’m not even sure I want to think about why you were so late tonight. Perhaps it’s best not to. That way I don’t have to ask your father to take action.’
She placed her hands on Evie’s shoulders. ‘Evie, you might think you are infatuated with the Prince, maybe you might even fancy yourself in love with him. But think about what it means, if it means anything. If he loves you too, where does this lead? Would you really want to marry the Prince? You wouldn’t expect him to stay here. He can’t possibly stay. It would mean leaving your home, your fami
ly, likely never seeing us again, your sisters, your nieces and nephews to come, living in a place where you don’t even speak the language. It would mean giving up everything for him. Evie, I want you to understand that marriage is not all love and romance. It is the work of a lifetime and that work is more easily done when there are commonalities to build on. Hot kisses and passion don’t last. Your father is occasionally annoyed with Andrew, but he’s one of us, Andrew knows this place...’
Evie didn’t listen to the rest of the argument. It wasn’t unlike the arguments she’d once made with herself. But those arguments had already been beaten. She simply didn’t want him, didn’t think he’d suit her after all. Her mother would be rather shocked to know that Evie took hope from her warning about all that needed considering. In that warning was the answer. Dimitri couldn’t stay. But she could go. If he took her to Kuban with him, he could return, fulfil his duty to his sister and not have to sacrifice his personal happiness.
Her mother hugged her one last time. ‘All I’m saying, Evie, is that when the time comes for a decision, I want you to be sure what you feel is real.’
* * *
‘Is it real?’ The man turned the spearhead over in his hand, squinting in the dim light of the tavern’s back room. Andrew didn’t particularly care for the unsavoury meeting places that came with selling to the black market.
‘Absolutely,’ Andrew replied with confidence. Dimitri could at least be relied upon for that. ‘It’s a Roman spearhead, circa ad43.’ He’d rather enjoyed carrying it around in his pocket last night. knowing that he would encounter Dimitri. Dimitri had been none the wiser. The Prince had sat there, ogling Evie and persuading her to plan the party, unaware that a few of his precious spearheads were on their way to new owners, men who had private collections of military hardware throughout the ages and who were willing to pay good money to add to those collections.
Maybe it was petty revenge, but Andrew was heartily sick of the Prince these days, especially since the Prince was stealing Evie. He did wonder how present tense the stealing was. Perhaps Dimitri had already stolen her. Evie was looking ‘lush’ these days. She seemed less mousy, her figure more bountiful, her hair vibrant instead of glaring. It wasn’t that he wanted her, he still didn’t feel she had any potential for him as a bride, but he absolutely despised the idea of losing Evie Milham, a nobody, to Dimitri. And, he needed her to keep drawing for him, to see things his way when it came to the future of the site.
He was getting impatient. His client was taking for ever to decide. Andrew reached for the spearheads. ‘If you don’t want them, I have other buyers.’
The man glared. ‘I didn’t say I didn’t want them. All right. How much? They had better be for real or I’ll come after you and cut you off at the knees.’
* * *
The thief was real. Dimitri blew out a breath and surveyed the case containing the spearheads. There was good news and bad news. Bad news: the thief had struck again. Five spearheads were gone. Good news: the spearheads were fake. But he would have preferred to have been wrong, would have preferred his trap remain unsprung. Now he had to consider who among them might be willing to steal from him and he didn’t like the relatively short list of possibilities.
Dimitri strode towards his pavilion. A few of his crew called to him to join them for dinner, but he was not fit for company tonight. He’d be better off eating alone. This was not how he’d wanted to end his day. Taking assessment of the theft also meant he’d missed Evie. She was gone already and he hadn’t been able to speak with her. He would write a few long-overdue letters and then return to work at the site if he was restless. There was always something to be done. He would stay busy and hopefully put this black mood behind him. No good could come of it. Dimitri pulled back the entrance flap and stepped inside, giving his eyes a moment to adjust to the darker interior.
He blinked. Once. Twice. The cares of his world started to slip away as he realized what lay before him. There was champagne, caviar and cold smoked salmon on the low table before his divan, but that was not what had him blinking. Evie was on the divan, dressed in his robe, her long chestnut hair falling over her shoulder in a thick silken skein, her body artfully arranged on the furniture, a sensual Botticelli.
‘What is all this?’ He could guess. He could hope. Something finally was going right today.
She rose and offered him a flute of champagne. ‘Welcome to your seduction, Dimitri Petrovich.’ Ah. Now he knew the answer to last night’s burning question.
His mouth was dry with surprise, overwhelming want left him nearly speechless. The robe wasn’t belted. His arid mouth was a desert now. Evie took a step forward, her eyes on him, her gaze confident. She licked her lips and gave a shrug, letting the robe slip down one shoulder, tantalising in its reveal of bare skin. ‘When is now, Dimitri.’
Yes, he thought. When is now. He wanted her, wanted to bury himself in her until he was lost, until his cares were no more. The noble soul in him wanted to protest one last time, but the best he could do was ‘Evie, are you sure?’
Her hands cupped his face, hushing him with the brush of her mouth over his lips. ‘We settled this last night. I don’t need promises, Dimitri, I don’t need a commitment.’ She kissed his throat. ‘I don’t need any of that. I just need you for however long that can be.’
He shouldn’t allow it. She was offering him carte blanche. It was a decadent offer; an offer no sane man would turn down. ‘Evie, a gentleman would never—’
Her interruption was swift, a hard, silencing kiss. Her hands steadied his face as she drew back, her voice a fierce, private whisper for him alone. ‘Then don’t be a gentleman. Don’t be a prince. Just be a man. My man.’ It was all he really wanted to be in those minutes—just hers—and he could feel logic slipping away, replaced by something headier, stronger and undeniable where doing what he wanted made sense.
‘I am going to lose this argument, aren’t I?’ He could hear the desire in his voice, feel the beginnings of a smile on his lips.
‘Yes, absolutely.’ Evie gave his neckcloth a tug to make it clear. ‘If you’re lucky, you’ll lose more than that.’ Yes, he could see that, starting with his clothes and quite possibly ending with his mind.
Chapter Nineteen
She was out of her mind and it felt wonderful! For her, for him. He was well aware she was undressing her first man. Her pupils were wide with desire, her jaw set to stubborn. She wanted this, she wasn’t going to give herself an inch, not a single chance to back down from her choice. And he wasn’t either. He was enjoying this, enjoying her far too much now that the seduction was underway. How long had it been since he’d been a woman’s first anything? How long had it been since he’d let sex be making love? Had he ever allowed it to be that? Today it would be and the consequences be damned.
He held still, letting her fingers work the knot of his red workman’s neckcloth; he let her tug the shirttails out of the waistband of his trousers. He felt her hands falter, unsure what came next, unsure how to execute it. Dimitri did not let her hesitate, did not give her an excuse to stop. They would both be disappointed if she did. ‘Allow me.’ He grabbed his shirt by the hem and pulled it over his head in one swift movement, gratified when Evie inhaled sharply.
‘You’ve seen my chest before.’ Dimitri gave a low laugh.
‘I think I could see your chest a thousand times and still be amazed.’ Evie’s honesty made him rock hard. He knew she meant it. Discovering her beauty seemed an endless, infinite exploration for him. There was always more to see, more that caught his eye. ‘I had no idea a man could be so beautifully made.’
‘There’s more to do than look, Evie.’ He raised her hand and placed it on his chest, his eyes never leaving hers. She had touched him before, but never like this. There’d been pleasure given beneath his robe, but there’d been no time for exploration, for revelling,
only pleasure. Today there would be time for both.
‘Touch me, Evie.’ That’s when he knew: Evie was an instinctive master of the seduction game. In the short time it had taken to remove only some of his clothing, she’d managed to make him a partner in this seduction. He’d become complicit in the very thing he’d resisted for so long.
She took the invitation, almost reverently, tracing a circle around one flat nipple, a coy smile on her lips. ‘You’re like an atlas, all planes and ridges.’ Her voice was quiet, her hand starting to move. His body was taut, savouring her touch, his mind already racing ahead to what else she might touch. ‘I think you might be a map of Kuban itself. This is your famous river that gives the country its name.’ Her finger drew a line down the centre of his chest, stopping at the ridges of his abdomen. ‘Perhaps these are the Caucasus, the mountain ridges of your kingdom.’ She splayed her hand over the flat of his stomach. ‘The Steppes.’
‘Travel south. There is more,’ Dimitri murmured, warming to her game. His hands lingered at the waist of his trousers. ‘My “country”, as you put it, is bigger than that.’
Evie cast him a dramatically sly look, eyes dancing. ‘Bigger than this?’ She might be untried, but she was not timid, not with him, and it pleased him inordinately when she took the initiative and flicked open the flies of his trousers, running a hand inside, tracing his length through his smalls. ‘Very disappointing.’ She sighed. ‘I thought for sure you were a man who forwent smalls.’ She shook her head in mock disapproval and issued the most provocative command he’d experienced to date. ‘Take off everything.’
AWAKENING THE SHY MISS Page 15