by Jennie Lucas
But now, as they desperately ripped off each other’s clothes on his desk, as they kissed and suckled and licked, he felt her soft body move and sway beneath him, pulling him deeper, deeper. And suddenly those same unthinkable, forbidden three words rose in his heart, like sunlight bursting through a dark cloud.
Could he…? Did he…?
Bree moved, rolling him beneath her on the desk. Her silken thighs wrapped around his hips. He looked up at her expressive face, at her breasts swaying like music. A glowing sunset through the study’s window washed her pale shoulders red, the color of a ruby.
The color of his heart.
With a gasp, she impaled herself upon him, pulling him deep inside her. As he filled her completely, for the first time in ten years everything was clear.
He loved her.
He’d been afraid to see it. He’d tried to deny it, to ignore it. He’d buried himself in work, in sex, in dangerous sports. But he could not deny it any longer.
He loved her. The truth was he’d given her his heart long ago. When he thought she’d betrayed him, his heart had simply frozen, like an arctic sea. But from the moment he’d seen her again, across the poker table at the Hale Ka’nani, his heart had begun to thaw. Feeling the sting of her cold rejection today had taught him that he still felt pain. He still had a beating heart.
A heart that loved her.
Whatever the cost. Whatever the risk.
His love for her was absolute. He could not change it.
He wanted to go back in time and be the generous, trusting man he’d once been. He wanted to be the man who deserved Breanna Dalton.
When she gasped with pleasure, he tilted back his head and the first hoarse cry escaped his throat. Their joy built together, until he could no longer tell where his voice ended and hers began.
With a final cry, she collapsed in his arms. He held her tightly, both of them still sprawled on his desk. As he stroked her naked back, his heart pounded in his chest. He wanted to blurt out the words. But words were cheap. He would show her, the only way he knew how. He would do what terrified him most.
“I’m letting you go, Breanna,” he said quietly. “I’m setting you free.”
For a moment, he thought she hadn’t heard. Then she lifted her head to look into his eyes. He’d thought she would be happy. Instead, she looked stricken, almost gutted.
Vladimir frowned.
“Don’t you understand?” Reaching up, he caressed her cheek, tucking wild tendrils of sweaty blond hair behind her ear. “You’re no longer my property. You’re free.”
“Why?” she choked out. “Why now?”
He smiled despite the lump in his throat. “Because…” Cupping her face with both his hands, he looked straight into her eyes. “I’m in love with you, Breanna.”
Pulling back, she gasped, as if his words had caused her mortal injury.
He sat up on the desk beside her. “It took me ten years to realize what I should have admitted to myself long ago. I never stopped loving you. And I never will.”
Blinking fast, she looked away.
“But what if I don’t deserve your love?” she whispered. “What if I’ve done things that…”
“It doesn’t matter.” Gently, he turned her to face him. “Somehow, in spite of all my flaws, you decided to love me. I was too much of a coward to do the same.” Lifting her hand to his lips, he kissed her skin fervently, then looked at her with tears in his eyes. “Until now.”
She sucked in her breath.
“Whatever you do,” he said quietly, searching her gaze, “for the rest of your life, I will love you. For the rest of mine.”
Bree started to speak, then shook her head as silent tears spilled down her cheeks.
Was she so amazed, then, that he could return her love? The thought of that shamed him, reminding him how selfish he’d been. Pulling her back into his arms, he held her. When she claimed she was too tired to eat dinner, he took her to bed. He held her through the night as she cried herself to sleep. He didn’t understand her tears. But as Vladimir stroked her hair and naked back, he vowed that he would never give her any reason to cry again. Ever.
His heart was irrevocably hers. But she was free.
Would she choose to stay with him? Or would she go?
Shortly before midnight, when Breanna finally slept, Vladimir realized he had to prepare for the worst. Pulling on a robe, he quietly left their bedroom and went downstairs to his office. Turning on his computer by habit, he looked for his cell phone. He’d order the jet to be available in the morning, to take her wherever she wanted to go. Then he prayed he could convince her to stay….
His foot slid on the mess of papers scattered across the floor. In the dim glow of light from the computer screen, the first words on the page of a contract he’d never noticed before caught his eye. Bending over, he picked it up.
I hereby renounce all shares in Xendzov Mining OAO…
His heart stopped in his chest. Hand shaking, he turned on a lamp, thrusting the paper beneath the light.
…giving them freely and in perpetuity to my brother, Kasimir.
He read it again. Then again.
This contract had been slyly slipped into the pile of papers on his desk. And with sickening certainty Vladimir knew how it had gotten there. Only one person could have done it.
He closed his eyes. When he’d first seen Bree in Hawaii, he’d assumed she was there to con someone. Later he’d convinced himself that meeting her at that poker game had been wild, pure coincidence. Even when he’d discovered from Greg Hudson that Kasimir had deliberately tried to plot that meeting, he’d convinced himself that Breanna, at least, was innocent.
Exhaling, he crushed the paper against his chest.
But his first instincts had been right all along. She’d been in Honolulu for a con. And just like ten years ago, Vladimir had been her mark.
As he opened his eyes, the dark shadows of his study were bleak. All color had been drained from the world, leaving only gray.
Bree and his brother had to be working together. After Vladimir had started attending private poker games in Honolulu, while recuperating from his racing accident, Kasimir had arranged for Bree to get a job there. His brother must have known all along that she was the poison Vladimir could not resist. The poker game, the wager, the whole affair had been a setup from start to finish.
All so that Bree could infiltrate his house and infiltrate his soul.
All so that Vladimir would sign this document.
His hands shook as he looked down at the contract.
His brother had baited his hook well. And so had she.
Bree had tricked him, the same way she’d done ten years ago. And Vladimir was so stupid that instead of being on his guard, he’d been fooled even worse than before. He thought of how he’d tried to please her, giving her his great-grandmother’s peridot, buying her a puppy, buying her a hotel, and worst of all, declaring his love—when all the time, all he was to her…was a job.
He leaned back wearily in his desk chair. Just hours before, the purpose and meaning of his life had seemed so clear. So bright and full of promise. He’d felt young again, young and fearless. For that one shining moment, he’d been exactly the man he’d always wanted to be.
Rising to his feet, Vladimir poured himself a glass of vodka over ice. Going to the window, he swirled the tumbler, watching the prisms of the ice gleam in the scattered moonlight.
He could still destroy her.
Destroy Breanna? The thought made him choke out a low sob and claw back his hair.
Was there any way he could be wrong? Any way she could be innocent?
All the evidence pointed against her. It was obvious she was guilty. He looked down at the contract on his desk.
But should he believe the proof of his eyes?
Or the proof of his heart?
Standing alone in the shadows of his study, Vladimir drank the vodka in one gulp and put the glass down softly on a table.
Loving her had brought him to life again. Going back to the window, he opened it and leaned against the sill. He took a deep breath of the cold air, smelling the frozen sea, hearing the plaintive cry of distant, unseen birds. Midnight in Russia, in January, was frozen and white, gray and dead.
But still, he knew spring would come.
He took another deep breath. Everything had changed for him. And yet nothing had.
He loved her. And he always would.
Vladimir looked back down at the unsigned contract. In a sudden movement, he leaned over the polished wood of his desk where, hours ago, he’d made love to her, the woman he loved. Where he’d looked into her beautiful face and told her his love for her would last forever.
Slowly he reached for an expensive ballpoint pen. He looked down, reading for the tenth time the contract that would forever give his billion-dollar company to his brother.
And then, with a jagged scrawl, Vladimir signed his name.
* * *
The warm sunlight on Bree’s face woke her from a vivid dream. She’d been standing with Vladimir on a beach in Hawaii, the surf rushing against their bare feet, the warm wind filled with the scent of flowers as they spoke their wedding vows.
Vladimir’s eyes looked blue as the sea. I, Vladimir, take you, Breanna, to be my wife….
Smiling to herself, still drowsing, Bree reached out her arm. But his side of the bed was empty.
With a gasp, she sat up.
Last night, she’d thrown herself at Vladimir because she’d been physically unable to let him sign away his company to his brother. But she still didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t betray him. Or her sister.
I’m in love with you, Breanna. I never stopped loving you. And I never will.
She trembled, blinking back tears.
He loved her.
But even before he’d spoken the words, she should have known. He’d shown her his love a hundred times over, with each gift more precious than the last. Bree looked down at Snowy, curled up in a ball at the foot of her bed. Vladimir dreamed bigger things for her than she dared dream for herself, buying her a Hawaiian resort to support her dream of running a small bed-and-breakfast. And last night, he’d set her free. He’d sacrificed his own needs for hers.
Bree took a deep breath, setting her jaw.
She was going to tell him everything.
Pulling on a T-shirt and jeans, she went downstairs, her whole body shaking with fear. She tried not to think of Josie, or the risk she was taking. When Bree told him her sister was in danger, he wouldn’t coldly reply that Josie should face the consequences of her own actions. Would he? He would help Bree save her.
But if he didn’t…
Oh, God. She couldn’t even think of it.
Going down the hallway, she looked in his office. It was empty. Her cheeks grew hot as she saw the desk where they’d made love so passionately last night. Then she stiffened. With an intake of breath, she rushed into the room and rifled quickly through the documents now stacked neatly on his desk, intending to destroy the contract before Vladimir ever saw it.
Then she gasped. Lifting the page, she stared at his scrawled signature.
He’d done it.
He must have had no idea what he was signing. But he’d transferred his company to his younger brother.
Bree closed her eyes, holding the paper to her chest. Why had he finally decided to love her now, of all times? It had taken Vladimir ten years to trust her again. It would take a single act for her to wipe that trust off the earth forever.
But what if this was a sign? What if this was the universe telling her what to do?
Midnight tonight was the deadline to save her sister, and Bree held in her hands the golden ticket. And unlike Vladimir’s mercy, it was guaranteed. She could exchange it for Josie, then return to Russia and beg for Vladimir’s forgiveness. After all, if anyone was going to be thrown on his mercy, shouldn’t it be Bree herself, not her helpless younger sister?
Even if I give Kasimir this contract, it’ll never stand in any court, she told herself. Vladimir was powerful, well connected. He would be fine.
Even if he had enemies aplenty who would rejoice to see his downfall….
I’m in love with you, Breanna. She whimpered as she remembered the dark midnight of Vladimir’s eyes, the hoarse rasp of his voice. I never stopped loving you.
With a choked sob, she ran upstairs. Not letting herself look at the mussed-up sheets of the bed where he’d held her last night as she wept, she packed up her duffel bag, tucking the paper beneath her passport.
“Are you leaving?”
Looking up with an intake of breath, she saw Vladimir in the doorway, wearing a black button-down shirt and black trousers. His face was half-hidden in the shadow.
She swallowed. “Yes.” She turned away. “You set me free. So I’m going.” Forgive me. I can’t take the chance.
He exhaled, and came closer. When she clearly saw his face, she nearly staggered back, shocked at the luminous pain in his eyes. Then she blinked, and it was gone.
“I have a plane waiting to take you wherever you want to go,” he said.
“Just like that?”
“Just like that.”
“You knew I would leave?”
“Yes.” Lifting his gaze to hers, he whispered, “But I hoped you wouldn’t. I hoped you could—love me—enough.”
Her heart was slamming against her chest. She wanted to sob, to throw her arms around him, to pull out the contract and rip it up in front of his eyes. “Perhaps I’ll come back.”
“Perhaps,” he said, but his lips twisted. “And Snowy? Are you leaving her behind?”
“Of course not,” Bree said, shocked. “I wouldn’t abandon her!”
“No,” he replied quietly. “I know that. You wouldn’t abandon anyone you truly loved.”
Bree swallowed. “Vladimir, I told you the truth. I do love you. But I—”
“You don’t have to explain.” His eyes met hers. “Just be happy, Bree. That’s all I want. All I’ve ever wanted.”
“Your great-grandmother’s necklace is on the nightstand,” she said in a small voice.
“That was a gift.” Picking up the necklace, he held it out to her. “Take it.”
She shook her head. “That belongs to…to your future wife.”
Coming up behind her, he said softly, “It belongs to you.”
He put the necklace around her neck. She felt the cool, hard stone against her skin, and grief crashed over her like a wave. Closing her eyes, she sagged back against him. He wrapped his arms around her, cradling her against his chest for a single moment.
Then he let her go.
“I will always love you, Breanna,” he said in a low voice. He turned away. “Goodbye.”
Vladimir left their bedroom without looking back. She wanted to chase after him. She wanted to fall at his knees, weeping and begging for his forgiveness.
But she couldn’t. She had the signed contract. Fate had made the decision for her.
It won’t stand up in court, she told herself again, her teeth chattering. After Josie’s safe, I’ll come back. I will somehow make him forgive me….
Bree had no memory of collecting Snowy and her duffel bag. But somehow, twenty minutes later, they were in the back of the limo, driving away from the palace. Her puppy sat in her lap, whining as she looked through the window at Vladimir’s palace, then plaintively up at her mistress.
As Bree looked back at the fairy-tale palace, snow sparkled on Vladimir’s wide fields and on the forest of bare, black trees around the palace of blue and gold. And she realized she was weeping, pressing her hand against the necklace at her throat.
Bree felt something prick her finger. Looking down, she saw the peridot’s sharp edge had pricked her skin. A Russian prince had once sent his beloved wife and child into the safety of exile, with this necklace as their only memento of him, before he’d died alone in Siberia, in ultimate sacrifice.
A sob rose to Bree’s lips. As Vladimir had sacrificed…
Her eyes widened. With an intake of breath, she looked back at the palace.
You knew I would leave?
Yes. His eyes had seared hers, straight through her soul. But I hoped you wouldn’t. I hoped you could—love me—enough.
What had Vladimir sacrificed for her?
Was it possible…that he knew?
“Stop,” she cried to the driver. “Turn around! Go back!”
The puppy barked madly, turning circles in her lap as the limo stopped, struggling to turn around on the long, slender road surrounded by snow.
Bree didn’t care if the signed contract had miraculously fallen into her lap. She didn’t care what the universe might be trying to tell her. The choice was still hers.
All this time, she’d thought she had to choose between the two people she loved. She didn’t.
She just had to choose herself.
Ten years ago, loving Vladimir had changed her. He’d given her a second chance at life. He’d shown her she could be something besides a poker-playing con artist with a flexible conscience. He’d made her want to be more. To be honest and true, not just when it was convenient, but always.
This was the woman she was born to be.
And she would never be anything else ever again. Not for any price.
Before the limo stopped in the courtyard, Bree had thrown open the door, leaving her duffel bag and valuables behind as she leaped headlong into the snow. Her puppy bounded beside her, barking frantically as Bree ran straight back to the only answer her heart had ever wanted.
She found him in his study, standing by the window that overlooked the sea.
“Vladimir,” she cried.
Slowly he turned, his handsome face like granite. It was only when she came closer that she saw the tears sparkling in his eyes.
He wasn’t made of ice. He was flesh and blood. And letting her go had ripped him to the bone.
Choking back a sob, she threw herself into his arms. She jumped up, hugging him even with her legs. Startled, he caught her, holding her against him.