by Alexia Adams
Kat laughed. “So I noticed. You’re going to have to repeat them because I lost count after the eighteenth one.” Two minutes together and the years apart slid away. They were back to sisters, teasing each other.
“I’m still the same,” Natalya replied, her smile contagious. “I always want to know everything. I’ll put Ekaterina down for her nap first so she doesn’t disturb us. Can you make some tea?”
“Of course.” Kat filled the kettle and put it on the old propane stove. While she waited for the water to boil, she tiptoed over to the bedroom she and Natalya had shared that one happy summer. The tiny space had been transformed into a room fit for a princess. Her sister sat on the bed, stroking Ekaterina’s hair and singing a soft lullaby. A lump re-formed in Kat’s throat, and she moved away before the crying started again. This was a happy reunion. She’d shed enough tears in the past twelve years to fill an ocean, she didn’t need to add any more.
The tea was ready when Natalya returned to the room and sank into a wooden chair by the table. She rubbed her swollen belly, a look of pure bliss on her face. “I’m so happy, Katya. I have everything I’ve ever wanted in life and now to know you’re alive and with a good man. At least, I assume he’s good. He certainly looks like he’s in love with you.”
“He’s good,” was all Kat managed to say. No point shattering her sister’s illusions about Wolfe’s emotional connection to her. She poured the tea then took Natalya’s hand across the table.
“How did you go from being a principal dancer in one of the world’s greatest ballet companies to living in a dacha with a man who looks like he fells trees simply by leaning on them?”
Natalya heaved a sigh and took a sip of her tea. “The Bolshoi wanted to bring a different dynamic to the performances, so they hired an edgy new choreographer. We worked long hours together, often alone, and after a few months, we ended up in bed. Then I discovered I was pregnant. I told him, and he got furious and insisted I get rid of the baby. The new performance had already been put on the playbill and booked on a twenty-city, ten-month international tour. There was no way I would be able to perform while pregnant, and I’d been the only one able to master the steps of the principal female dancer. If I pulled out, the Bolshoi would lose hundreds of thousands, if not millions, in sales. But I didn’t want to abort my baby. I talked to Mother and she slapped me across the face for even thinking about going through with the pregnancy.”
“Natalya, I’m so sorry. You must have been devastated.” Kat clenched her hand in her lap, anger at her mother coursing through her veins once more. Irina had been willing to sacrifice her grandchild to her ambition.
“I was. I felt so alone. I didn’t know what to do. Mother had control of my money until I turned twenty-five. It’d been a while since I’d had a letter from you and she told me you’d died of a drug overdose. Papa, too, had passed since our last correspondence and I had no other family to take me in.”
Kat took a sip of her tea before she could speak, even after the warm liquid her voice was raw. “How could she do that? Lie to you about me?”
“Because she only thinks of herself. I was her ticket to a luxury lifestyle. If I gave up ballet she’d have to get a job. Turns out she just got a rich, married lover instead.”
Kat shook her head. “I wondered how she afforded that luxury apartment.”
“She’s some oligarch’s mistress.”
And Irina had the nerve to call Kat a prostitute.
“So with no money and nowhere to go, how did you leave Moscow?”
“I met Alexei and he turned my world around. I pretended to have the abortion to buy us some time to make plans, but it didn’t take long before I couldn’t hide my pregnancy. In the meantime, I helped one of the other dancers learn my steps. Then one day I sent a letter of resignation to the Bolshoi, and another one to mother, and Alexei and I left the city. We went first to St. Petersburg, just in case Mother had lied about your death. Your letters always came from different parts of Russia and the return addresses were never the same so I couldn’t write to you.”
“I had to leave the country, so I had the letters to you smuggled in by various contacts and then they’d forward your reply on to me. I couldn’t risk the government connecting who I am now with the woman I’d left behind.”
Natalya nodded. “I thought it was something like that, but I hoped you also kept in touch with Valentina. So I left a letter for you with her in case she heard from you. I knew anything you wrote to me at the Bolshoi would just be destroyed. When I told her about the baby, Valentina lent the dacha to Alexei and me.”
“And you’re really happy?” Kat asked as her sister finished both her recital and her tea.
“Completely. I love it here. The air is clean, and Ekaterina can play outside and eat good food and be anything she wants. Alexei is going to expand the cottage so there’ll be enough room for all our babies.” She rubbed her belly once more, and a stab of jealousy pierced Kat’s heart. The first time she’d ever been envious of her sister.
“I’m glad it’s worked out for you, but if there ever comes a time when you want more or need to leave, then I can help. I have a great job and make more money than I can spend. I can send you some…” Her sister was already shaking her head.
“We won’t need it. Alexei, he’s amazing. He looks after me so good, Katya. I couldn’t ask for a better man.”
“You deserve him.”
Natalya’s smile dimmed. “I don’t. I ruined your life. I don’t know how you can even sit across from me and wish me well. Don’t you hate me?”
“Never. How could you think that? We’re sisters. I’ll always love you.”
“But because of me, mother ripped apart our family and you ended up on the street.”
“It was mother and her ambition, not you. I was sad to lose my sister, but I never blamed your talent.” Kat reached across and stilled Natalya’s hand where it plucked at the tablecloth. “Do you know what happened to Papa?” As much as Kat hated that he’d lost himself in drink, he’d been as much a victim of their mother’s aspirations as anyone.
“He passed out drunk in a snowstorm and died of hypothermia. I made sure he had a proper burial, but Mother refused to allow any mention of him in the press. She didn’t want our name sullied by what she considered his failure.”
Kat wiped a tear away before it could fall. “At least he’s at peace.”
Natalya’s smile was watery but she squeezed Kat’s hand. “Let’s talk about happier things. Tell me about your life, your man. I feel like I’ve seen his face before. Where did you meet?”
She was saved from answering by the return of the men with two large fish, still wriggling in the net. Without missing a beat, Natalya took the fish from her husband and then turned to Kat. “Why don’t you show your husband around while Alexei and I get supper ready?” Natalya spoke in English so Wolfe could understand.
Husband? Had Wolfe’s face just paled? When had she given her sister the impression that they were married? Kat had only provided Wolfe’s name in introduction, not quite sure how to define their relationship anymore. We were fake lovers then became actual lovers while knowing it would never last. The reality was too harsh to say out loud in the cottage filled with love.
Besides, it was already five o’clock. They should head back to either Moscow or St. Petersburg. Driving on these roads in the dark was a recipe for disaster. But she couldn’t quite bring herself to say good-bye. Her chest burned at the thought of leaving her sister so soon after their reunion. There had to be a way for them to communicate so that even if Kat had to change her identity in the future, they could still keep in touch.
She opened her mouth to say they had to leave when Wolfe’s arms wrapped around her from behind. His lips were against her neck when he said, “I’ve accepted Alexei’s invitation to stay the night. Seems we’re going to have part of our honeymoon under the stars.”
Honeymoon? Valentina must have put hallucinogenic mushrooms
in the soup. That was the only explanation for the look on Wolfe’s face.
A fluttery sensation invaded her chest, and she couldn’t hold back her own smile, despite knowing this was madness. She was falling for a man whose ambition rivaled that of her mother’s. Stay with him much longer, and she might as well hand him the power to destroy her.
Her sister had been found. Now she had to discover who was sabotaging Wolfe’s company and get the hell out of his life before she lost herself completely.
Bozhe moi. Was it already too late?
…
If he had his sketchpad with him, he’d draw Kat at this very moment. Her face glowed with happiness. The firelight danced over her features, caressing her cheeks, her lips, the line of her jaw that he loved to trace with kisses. Her little niece was snuggled on her chest, fast asleep, while Kat stroked her hair. This was a woman meant to be a mother. The thought should scare the shit out of him. Why didn’t it?
God, she was incredible—one minute a fierce cyber security expert, then an intense lover, next a devoted aunt. It would take a lifetime to discover all her facets.
“Are you sure you’ll be okay sleeping outside?” Natalya asked for the tenth time. Her English was much better than her husband’s. Wolfe had enjoyed fishing with Alexei and with their mix of English and Russian, they’d managed to communicate fine. Besides, what needed to be said? They were both fascinated by the Smirnova sisters. That gave them a common bond no words needed to express.
“We’ll be fine,” Wolfe assured his hostess. The cottage only had two bedrooms, and there was no way he was going to turf a heavily pregnant woman, or a small child, out of their beds. So a hammock had been strung up between two trees, covered in blankets and a mosquito net. It was to be their love nest. He also hadn’t felt the need to correct the assumption that he and Kat were married. If it made her sister happy to think Kat was settled in a relationship as well, he was all for it, especially when it meant he got to sleep with her under the stars.
“I hope you have a good night,” Alexei said as he took the sleeping Ekaterina from Kat’s arms. After another round of hugs and kisses, the small family went into the cottage.
Kat moved from her chair to sit on Wolfe’s lap. They shared the last of the vodka Alexei had found in the back of the cupboard and stared into the firelight. While they’d walked around the lake, Kat had told him Natalya’s story. The Smirnova sisters were strong, but even diamonds had their breaking point. He’d already seen cracks in Kat’s self-sufficiency.
“Let’s try out this hammock,” he said. “How much do you want to wager that one or both of us ends up on the ground before morning?”
Kat’s soft laugh warmed him. “I’m not taking that bet.” She stopped when she got to their bed. “I’m pretty sure when you hired me to sort out your computers, you never imagined you’d be sleeping on some nylon netting in a bug-infested Russian forest.”
“It’s a dream come true,” he replied. Truth was, this adventure with Kat was just what he needed. He’d become so cynical about love and relationships that it had begun to show in his work. Proof that love really did exist and could conquer mountains would help him design more romantic jewelry.
More than that, though, was the glow on Kat’s face. The restlessness he’d come to sense in her had disappeared, replaced with a quiet contentment. He would have slept on the ground rather than drag her away from her sister.
Kat pushed him onto the hammock, and he had to hang on or be flipped out the other side. When it swung back toward her, he grabbed her waist and pulled her on with him. Her laughter rang out over the still lake, and he kissed her so she didn’t wake Ekaterina. He should get a medal for his consideration. His hand sneaked up under Kat’s shirt, unfastening her bra. Caressing her breasts, hearing her sharply indrawn breath, was his reward.
In deference to their unstable bed, their normally frenzied passion was replaced by slow, sensual caresses. That only lasted so long, however, before the need to be inside her overwhelmed him. The tick-tick-tick of knowing their time together had a fast approaching limit had become louder in the past two days. He lay on the bottom while Kat straddled him, trying to keep the hammock from swinging wildly and dumping them out. As she rode him, the moon came out from behind some clouds, illuminating her body in an ethereal white light. Okay, maybe this is how he’d draw her. If he didn’t know better, he would think the look on her face was one of love.
Where was the shrieking abort signal that usually clawed at his soul when relationships threatened to get serious? Instead, a stupid smile contorted his face into what he could only imagine was a picture worthy of a mushy greeting card.
They climaxed within seconds of each other and after their heart rates had returned to normal, he shifted Kat so she lay next to him, staring up at the night sky. She pulled a soft cotton blanket up around them, and they snuggled together. Another cloud obscured the moon, letting the stars blaze in its absence.
“This is your dream, isn’t it?” Wolfe whispered, not wanting to disturb the quiet of the night. An owl hooted in the distance as if to tell them to hush.
“What? Lying in a hammock at night looking at the stars after making love with an amazing man? Pretty much.”
“I meant, what your sister has: a family—one baby on the hip, another in her belly—a pretty house, and a man at her side.” He’d seen the longing in Kat’s face as she’d watched Natalya and Alexei.
“Yes.” He could hear the barely concealed emotion in her voice. “But don’t worry, Remy. I’m not about to get pregnant and try to trap you in marriage. You are free to pursue your ambition. I won’t get in the way.”
Except she already had. He hadn’t thought once about the royal commission since arriving in Russia.
Was he as vulnerable as his systems to recoding?
Chapter Twelve
Wolfe shifted his weight from one foot to the other and glanced at the doorway again. Kat was an hour late. Another ten minutes and he’d go and find her, drag her to the ballroom if necessary. They’d argued this morning about her coming to the party. She’d tried to spin him some tale about not wanting to distract him while he was working but he sensed there was some other reason for her reluctance to attend. His mind flashed back to her sudden disappearance at the ballet when she’d lied about hearing the intermission bell. Instinct told him there was a piece of her past she hadn’t revealed to him yet.
Her change in attitude puzzled him. It had all been fine until this morning. They’d returned to Moscow mid-afternoon yesterday after a tearful farewell between the sisters. But once back in the city, Kat had rebounded and given him a tour of Moscow, Russian style. They’d walked hand in hand through Gorky Park, ate dinner at a little café known only to the locals, and ended the night in a jazz bar. Well, the public portion of the night. Back in the hotel, they’d enjoyed two epic rounds of sex before they’d fallen into an exhausted sleep, glad to be in a bed that didn’t swing.
Then today as he’d reminded her about royal protocol when meeting the prince, she’d suddenly said she didn’t want to attend. He’d finally convinced her to come tonight, saying it would cause more speculation if she didn’t join him as everyone knew they’d traveled to Russia together. If he hadn’t been expected at meetings with various government ministers and the crown prince’s people, he’d have insisted on her telling him what was going on.
It was now after seven and the unveiling of the competitor’s jewelry pieces was due to start in less than half an hour. And Kat was supposed to wear his premium piece, the bicolor sapphire entwined in silver filigrees. If she didn’t show, he could kiss the whole thing good-bye. His stomach roiled.
Two men behind him began to murmur about the party now getting interesting and how they’d like to take that one home. Wolfe turned toward the door again, and nearly dropped his drink. Kat had shown him the dress she intended to wear and it had been very nice. The one she had on was spectacular. The dark blue satin fabric hugged her f
igure until it reached her knees then flared out. The neckline stood slightly off her shoulders in layers of fabric, revealing her creamy, soft skin. It set off the bicolor sapphire perfectly as it nestled at the top of her cleavage; the mounds of her breasts hugged the jewel.
Her eyes searched the room, and when she spotted him, a smile that could melt gold lit her face. His chest responded by tightening while his dick performed a happy dance in his trousers. Whatever was bothering her, it wasn’t about him. How was he going to let her go back to San Francisco when she’d found his saboteur? As she made her way over to him, every male eye in the room was on her.
Finally, she reached his side and kissed him on the cheek before whispering, “Sorry I’m late.”
“Everything okay?” he asked. His brain and cock were battling for blood supply.
“I hope so.”
He searched her face at the nervousness in her voice. “Kat—”
“Remington Wolfe, I have yet to meet your beautiful companion.” The crown prince’s accented voice pulled Wolfe back to the real reason they were there.
“Your Royal Highness, may I present Kat Smith. Kat, please greet His Royal Highness, Crown Prince Zayed al Hassan bin Adjmani.”
Kat dropped into a curtsy, giving the shorter crown prince a perfect view of the necklace, and probably a lot more. When she resumed her full height, the other man’s eyes were still on her chest. Wolfe forced his hands not to clench into fists. This is what he’d wanted, after all, for the prince to see his necklace in situ, nestled against the breasts of a beautiful woman, rather than displayed on a black velvet form with the rest of the collection.
“I see you are wearing my sapphire,” Adjmani said. Eventually, his gaze returned to Wolfe’s face. A shot of triumph flooded his veins at the look of adoration in the prince’s eyes.
“Just a replica, Your Royal Highness,” Kat replied, her voice once again as smooth and silky as her lingerie. “I’m sure you can imagine how beautiful the rest of your collection will look if set by Remington Wolfe.”