by Alexia Adams
“Is that all this was to you? A job?”
Her eyes narrowed slightly. “Of course. I told you I was very good at what I do.”
“But us…”
“Just an unexpected perk. Like free coffee.” She didn’t bat an eyelash.
“It was more to me.” The words were wrung from him.
“I’m sure once you get your hands on the prince’s gemstones you’ll forget I exist.”
He had to make her stay, at least for a few more hours. He needed time to work her out of his system. Or convince her to wait. “There are no flights to the States at this hour.”
“Actually, Liam is in Frankfurt. I’m taking a plane there then hitching a ride back to California with him. I like this traveling with billionaires.” She pulled her arm free of his grasp and strode into the hallway.
His heart pounded like it was going to burst. “Kat, wait.”
She stilled for a moment but didn’t turn. “What do you want, Wolfe?” Wolfe, not Remington or even better, Remy. He’d secretly been thrilled that she’d called him by his given name, like it was her code way of saying she was interested in him, and not his life of wealth and privilege.
He put all of his heart into the words. “I believe you.”
“Good to know. Do me one favor, okay?”
“Anything.”
“Pay my bill on time.”
The door clicked shut.
Chapter Fifteen
Discreet sprayers misted the air with water. It didn’t help. Despite the palm trees and bubbling fountains and shaded terraces, it was still hotter in early October than any place on earth had a right to be. He was being quintessentially English, complaining about the weather, but it kept him from dwelling on the real cause of his discomfort—six weeks without Kat. The pain and longing hadn’t lessened with time; it had only got more acute. Terminal even.
He’d been in Dubai for three days now, staying at the prince’s royal palace. A production room had been set up to Wolfe’s exacting standards. And the gemstones were beyond his wildest imaginings. The prince had only shown the competitors a fraction of his treasure. There was at least six solid months of work with just these stones.
Wolfe had also met with the prince’s brothers and two of his cousins who claimed to have similar collections. The man who set these jewels would be remembered forever. It was everything he’d always dreamed of. And nothing of what he wanted. The black hole that now resided in his soul had sucked in his need to be famous.
His mobile rang, pulling him from his dark thoughts.
“Have you called her yet?” Margaret-Mary’s question had become her standard greeting. Every. Single. Bloody. Day. How could a man forget and move on when he was constantly being reminded of what he’d lost? No, not lost. Allowed to walk away. Because if he’d been brave enough and smart enough to tell Kat he loved her, he was certain she wouldn’t have left.
“No.”
“Eejet.”
He couldn’t even argue with her assessment. “I preferred it when you were my assistant and showed me some respect.”
“You deserved it then. Now you’re just being a pigheaded fool.”
He bit back a sigh. He didn’t need to sound pathetic as well and add more fuel to Margaret-Mary’s fire. “Is there a reason, aside from disparaging me, for this call?”
“Yes. The marketing shots have finally come through for that advertising campaign you wanted with the women in the corsets. Shall I send them to you?”
No woman would ever compare to Kat in her lingerie wearing his jewels.
“I trust your taste. You approve them.”
His new chief operating officer’s laugh hit a raw spot. He rubbed his sternum with the heel of his hand as if that could relieve the pain.
“Reminds you too much of her, doesn’t it?”
He ignored that remark. “Anything else?”
They discussed business for a few more minutes. Margaret-Mary had done a brilliant job of covering most of Harry’s duties, and Wolfe had given more responsibility to a few of his other managers so she didn’t feel too overwhelmed. It was working. If only her constant reminders about Kat would stop.
“Call her,” Margaret-Mary said in farewell then promptly hung up.
He flung his phone onto the lounger and went back into his room. Dinner wasn’t for a couple hours yet, an elaborate affair with eight courses and entertainment. He’d have to sit, and smile, and ignore the emptiness inside him no food or drink could fill.
In the distance, he heard the crown prince’s favorite wife giggle. He knew what came after that. For God’s sake, couldn’t the man move his amorous activities inside? It rubbed salt on the open wound of Wolfe’s heart.
Work. He’d bury himself in his work and forget all about the gaping hole in his life. Until Margaret-Mary’s next call. He made his way down to the production room and opened the drawer with the rubies. But he couldn’t work with those. They reminded him too much of Kat’s made-up game of blind miner.
The sapphires were also a no-go stone at the moment; he considered them her jewel. Diamonds? She’d worn his diamonds when they’d gone to meet her mother. A horrid woman who had put her own ambition before the needs of her family. Kat had only ever come in last in the one place she should have felt the most loved and secure.
Had he done any different? Hadn’t he put his career, his ambition, before her, too? He was no better than her mother. And what had his ambition been about? Proving himself the best? At what? Putting rocks in metal. No matter how good he was, or how famous he became, his parents were gone; they weren’t going to remember to pick him up at school. He’d sold his chance at future happiness, trying to fix a problem from his past.
The real bicolor sapphire called to him and he held it up. A myriad of colors refracted from the stone, luring him into a multihued world of light. A world of love. He’d thought hundreds of times of resetting it from the prototype he’d presented at the competition. Then Kat’s comments about a man, holding his woman in a loving embrace while still allowing her to stand on her own, would fill his mind, and he’d put the stone down and move on to another piece.
Only one woman should wear this jewel. His Kat. His queen.
Wolfe locked up the gemstones and went in search of His Royal Highness.
…
Kat snuggled baby Marco under her chin. Liam and his wife, Lorelei, had invited her up to their house in Russian River for the weekend, claiming Kat needed to get away from the city and relax. What she needed was to forget about Wolfe and move on, but that wasn’t going to happen anytime this century, so a weekend away snuggling a baby was the next best thing. A long, long distant next best.
“Are you sure you’re all right with him?” Lorelei asked.
“We’re fine, aren’t we, sweetheart?” She rubbed her cheek against Marco’s downy-soft hair and breathed in his baby powder scent. Did her new nephew smell the same? According to a very brief email she’d received on the highly encrypted message board she’d set up, Natalya had given birth to a healthy baby boy five days after Kat had left Russia. She’d called him Grigori, after their father. Hopefully, he’d have a happier life than their dad.
Would Kat ever see little Grigori? Get to cuddle him and spoil him, as an only auntie should? Without the security of traveling with Wolfe, a return to Russia seemed impossible. Kat dropped a kiss on baby Marco’s head. Cherish what you have. It was her new motto.
Liam stepped out onto the terrace with four bottles of wine and a slew of glasses on a tray. Kat raised one eyebrow. That was a lot of wine for the two of them as Lorelei wasn’t drinking while nursing. “The rest of the gang should be here any moment,” Liam said.
Awesome. Three more loving couples to show her exactly what she was missing. Liam’s personal chef Jason and Mandy, his wife, were expecting their first child. Wolfe’s friend Simon and his wife, Helen, spent so much time apart with their careers that when they were together, you couldn’t get a piece of p
aper between them. Even Liam’s best friend, and Kat’s nemesis, David, had Alina and was sickeningly in love with the wife he’d met online. Alina also spoke Russian but as Kat was desperate to maintain her American identity, she hadn’t dared speak their shared native language with her. It would be nice if she could just be herself for a while. Like she’d been with Wolfe.
She pulled in a deep breath. At least with the baby sleeping on her chest it masked the heaviness she’d gotten used to since she’d walked out Wolfe’s door. All she’d wanted was for him to choose her. He hadn’t. Her invoice had been paid promptly, with a bonus and a note from Margaret-Mary, the new chief operating officer, that it had been a pleasure to work with her.
Pleasure. That, too, had taken on a new meaning with Wolfe. Bozhe moi, it would be great if for ten minutes she could stop thinking about him.
The sound of car doors being shut announced the arrival of the others. Soon the terrace was full of people, talking softly so as not to disturb the baby. It was an unusually warm day for late October, so they were making the most of the outside. The leaves on the grapevines surrounding Liam’s house were vibrant shades of red and gold. In the morning, a low-lying mist had hung over the valley, making it appear magical. Would it conjure up Wolfe?
Stop it, Kat. I knew it could never last. Why do I let myself believe in the impossible?
She rubbed the baby’s back as he wiggled in his sleep. One of his tiny hands slipped inside her top and rested over her heart. Healing would come. It was just going to take time.
Jason, the chef, produced a plate of tasty bites, and Liam poured the wine. Simon sat next to her. If he asked her about her time in London, she’d have to leave. Liam and David had already tried and had to be satisfied with, “It was fine.” But as Simon was Wolfe’s friend, maybe he’d already been told the outcome of their not-so-fake relationship. Part of her wanted to ask if he’d heard from Wolfe. How was he getting on in Dubai? Was it everything he’d dreamed of? But she wasn’t yet at the point where she could feign indifference when his name was mentioned.
Every couple of minutes, Simon checked his phone. “Expecting a message?” she asked him.
“I’m hoping to broker a deal this afternoon. I’m waiting for one of the parties to arrive to start negotiations,” Simon replied.
Odd, seeing it was a Saturday, but business never really stopped. She’d worked every weekend. Hell, she’d worked every single day in the eight weeks since she’d been back in the States. Which was why Liam had insisted she join them this weekend.
Kat sat back and let the buzz of happy people sharing their lives wash over her. She nuzzled the top of baby Marco’s head, and Lorelei sent her an indulgent smile. Simon’s phone buzzed, and he quickly snatched it up, nodding at Liam as he did so.
“Excuse me,” Simon said before leaving the group.
Liam stood as well. “I need to check on something, too.”
“I’ll take Marco and put him in bed,” Lorelei said. Kat wanted to protest but couldn’t deny a mother her own child.
“Lorelei, can I see what you’ve done to the nursery?” Helen, Simon’s wife, asked.
Her hostess nodded.
“I’d better get a start on dinner,” Jason said.
“I’ll help you,” Mandy added, joining her husband before he’d even gotten as far as the house.
“Alina, let’s have a pre-dinner nap.” David kissed the back of his wife’s hand. They left.
Before Kat could even move, she was the only one left on the terrace. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, and she glanced toward the house where everyone had disappeared. Wolfe stood in the doorway. She blinked, expecting it was her tired brain playing tricks. Nope, he was still there. Her heart beat an unsteady rhythm.
“You really know how to clear a room,” she said, standing. She plopped right back down. Her knees were too shaky to hold her. Bozhe moi, if this were her mind playing tricks on her, she’d scream.
“I wanted privacy.” Wolfe’s deep voice, his sexy British accent, slid over her skin like a healing lotion, at once soothing and invigorating.
He advanced on her. Not a word from him in eight weeks, and he thought he could just waltz back into her life? Well, two could play the indifference game. She took a long sip of her wine before asking, as casually as she could make her voice, “How are things in Dubai?”
“I wouldn’t know. I quit.” He stopped a foot from her and sank to his knees. Her heart rate went into overdrive. A few more silver hairs salted his temples and the lines around his eyes were more pronounced. How was it possible that he was even more gorgeous?
She wanted to touch him so badly she sat on her hands. Not until she knew for sure why he was here. No way could she be just another delightful interlude while he was in California on business. “Why? Weren’t the stones as impressive as you’d been lead to believe?”
“They were everything I’d dreamed about and more.”
“So?”
“They’re just rocks. They can’t begin to compare with you.” He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear, his fingertips lingering in the caress. She longed to rub her cheek against his hand.
The lump in her throat made talking difficult. Had he given up his dream to be with her?
“I made the biggest mistake of my life when I let you walk out of my flat in London. I’ve come to ask for another chance.”
Her heart fluttered. “A chance at what?”
“The chance to prove to you that I’m the man who can make you happy. The chance to put you first in my life and never take you for granted. The chance to tell you every day how much I love you and need you. The chance to see you wear this…” He pulled from his breast pocket the bicolor sapphire in the silver filigrees.
She stared at the jewel as it caught the autumn light. It was even more amazing than she remembered. “I thought you had to destroy the prototypes.”
“This is the real stone. I convinced the prince to sell it as I said no other woman would ever wear it as well as you.” Pure love shone from Wolfe’s eyes, rivaling the sapphire for brilliance.
“And he agreed?” She fingered the beautiful stone as he fastened the necklace around her throat. She should protest, but her brain was still trying to grasp the reality of him being here.
“He has five wives, I think he was trying to avoid a fight.”
She fondled the precious gem, and Wolfe’s fingers joined hers on the jewel. “You know I don’t like presents.”
“If you don’t take this necklace, Katya, then I’m going to put it in a vault and its beauty will be lost to the world. There are no strings. If you can’t accept my apology for not putting you first when I had the chance… If you won’t let me love you… Then I’ll leave, but the gemstone is yours.”
A ray of happiness broke through the defenses she’d put around her heart. Her chest filled with joy unlike anything she’d ever experienced. “What if one of the filigrees breaks?”
“It’s quality workmanship, but if it breaks, I’ll fix it.”
“Well, maybe I should keep you around. Just in case.”
His lips quirked up in a knowing smile and his gray eyes lit with desire. “You want to keep me around to fix your necklace?”
She attempted a nonchalant shrug. “Yes. And while you’re on standby, you might as well do other things.”
His fingers slid into her hair, pulling her closer. “What kind of other things?”
“Kiss me. Hold me. Love me as long as we’re together.”
He stopped his lips inches from hers and leaned back to search her eyes. “What do you mean, ‘as long as we’re together?’ I want a permanent relationship with you. I’m not letting you go again.”
She closed her eyes on the pain of having what she desperately wanted offered to her while not being able to take it. “I can’t promise you forever, Remy. If the Russians find out that Kat Smith is the hacker Pantera, I’ll have to change identities again. I couldn’t ask that
of you.”
He kissed her before replying. “Let me deal with that. If it came to it, I’d change my name, give up everything to stay with you. I love you so much, Katya Smirnova. I was an empty wasteland without you. I refuse to live like that again.”
Her soul flooded with happiness. She’d do everything in her power to make sure it never happened. He’d already given up so much. “I love you, Remington Steele Wolfe. Are you sure you don’t mind about not finishing the royal commission?”
“I couldn’t have done those stones justice without my muse. You inspire me. You nourish my creative soul and make my life meaningful.”
“Well, when you put it that way…” She leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. Her heart was too full and her brain too muddled to think any longer in English. There were better ways to communicate than with words.
By the time Wolfe stopped kissing her, they had an audience.
Simon raised his glass of wine and said, “Yes. Another successful merger negotiated. Damn, I’m good.”
Everyone laughed. Kat didn’t care who took credit. She was just glad that, once again, she was in Wolfe’s loving embrace and could be her true self.
Epilogue
Kat sensed the excitement in Wolfe as soon as he stepped through the door. He had the same look in his eyes as when he’d spotted her latest lingerie purchases. How could he know about her surprise?
“What’s got you so amped up?” she asked after he kissed her hello.
“I had a call this afternoon from Crown Prince Adjmani. Evidently the chief designer of the house they got to replace me was caught trying to seduce one of the prince’s wives. He’s been deported. They’ve asked if I’ll come back and finish the project.”
The flicker of fear didn’t have a chance to grow. Wolfe stared at her with the same love in his eyes as always, in fact, it had grown so quickly that he now badgered her daily to make their relationship permanent and marry him. If she weren’t enjoying his persuasions so much, she’d have said yes weeks ago. And he knew it.