by Dani Collins
‘But how am I supposed to witness your anger if I am gone? No, Roman. Surely better for me to be here and witness you in your full monstrosity, no?’
He wanted to hurl the bottle he still held against the wall beside him, and the only thing staying his hand was that somehow the glass might shatter and catch her. And when everything in him was screaming out to protect her, to keep her from him, that he could not do.
‘What are you doing here? What do you want from me?’ he demanded.
‘I want to know why you lied.’
‘Good God, Ella, everything I’ve ever said to you has been a lie.’
‘Not everything. But certainly all that you said in the restaurant.’
He couldn’t look at her. He had done that day, but it had taken everything in him and he no longer had the energy to fight. He knew that if she looked too hard, thought too much, she’d realise the truth. And he had to protect her from that.
‘You are fooling yourself. Once again. So naïve.’ He forced the cruel words through thin lips.
‘But no longer innocent?’
‘Have I not hurt you enough? Have I not proved to you how depraved and damaged I am?’
‘I will not lie and tell you that. Because there have been too many lies between us and you have hurt me. And I’d not use depraved—that was your word—but damaged? Yes, you have been damaged, but not broken and not irretrievably so. I…’ She paused, and he couldn’t not look at her, couldn’t not face whatever it was that she would say next. ‘I owe you an apology.’
‘Hell, Ella. What are you—?’
‘I asked you to trust me. I asked you to trust me to know that you could be better. Trust that I knew that about you. And I let you down. Because at the first sign, the first suggestion that you might not be, I walked…ran even, not looking back. Not looking back enough to see the truth.’
He was shaking then. He was racked by it, the trembling that had started in his heart, spreading out through his body, and he felt the press of hot wet heat against the back of his eyelids. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t…
‘I told you that I loved you and I left.’
She was killing him. Tearing him apart with her words. All the things he had never wanted to face, never wanted to know or feel.
‘I will not take full responsibility for that, because you did have a hand in that. But, for my part, I am sorry.’
He wanted to rush to her, drop to his knees and beg her forgiveness. Beg her to take him back, promise to do whatever it would take to make it up to her. Tell her that…that…he loved her more than life itself. But he couldn’t. Not yet.
‘Ella, please.’ Roman no longer knew what he was asking for. For her to stop, or never stop.
‘Tell me the truth,’ she demanded and he owed her that much.
‘I thought—think—that you deserve more. That you are owed more. After all that I have done, under the guise of vengeance… I simply don’t know how to be. When you asked me to buy your shares, you didn’t know what you were doing. Didn’t know that it would give me the only possible chance of having what I had spent a lifetime wanting. I felt, believed, that if you did love me then you wouldn’t ever have asked me to give that up. Kolikov Holdings was the last tie to my past, to my grandfather, to my mother’s death…and I wanted, needed, it to be gone and you placed, in my hands, the ability to do so—and demanded that I didn’t.
‘Do you understand, Ella? Do you see? The promise I made to my mother on her deathbed, it was a promise that kept me alive, made me get up in the morning, drove me beyond anything else in this world to succeed and achieve the impossible. You made me promise not to do it, and I couldn’t live up to that. I couldn’t because my mother came first. That promise came first.’
* * *
For the first time since she had made him make that promise Ella realised the cost of it. Tears rose to her eyes at the position she had put him in, unwittingly. In her mind, the destruction of Kolikov Holdings was simply the embodiment of his betrayal—of Vladimir’s betrayal—of her. She hadn’t really thought what it had meant to him, what it had symbolised to him.
‘Why didn’t you tell me this? Why didn’t you try to explain?’ she asked in a softer voice than the trembling she felt within her.
‘And risk you leaving with my child?’
‘A departure you specifically engineered only a few months later?’ she couldn’t help but interject.
‘The few months it took me to realise just how much damage I could do to you. When I realised that I was too weak not to give in to the urge to destroy the last trace of Vladimir’s hold on this world.’
Ella took a moment to think through his words, the pain and anguish clearly ringing within them. She had been so determined, so sure of her demand when she’d made it, she could see that she would have walked away. Her own pain and anger, the fierceness with which she’d thought she had been in the right.
Taking a breath, she made herself feel the intention of his words, to feel the truth of them.
‘And now?’ she asked.
‘Now?’ Roman seemed confused, as if in his mind there simply couldn’t be a now.
‘Yes. Now, how do you feel?’
‘About Vladimir’s company?’ he asked.
‘I don’t care about the damn company and never want to hear its name again,’ she cried. ‘I want to know how you feel about me.’
She looked at him, watching his features closely as if they could give her some kind of hint or hope to what she believed he felt. He crossed the room to come before her, dropped to his knees and took her hands in his. ‘There is nothing in this world more important to me. I love you with every single beat of my heart.’
Her own heart leapt, her hands shaking within the press of his.
‘I would give anything to take back all the hurt I inflicted upon you, all the times you felt doubt, or questioned yourself because of me. I have had only a week of that myself and…’ He broke off, shaking his head. ‘I am truly sorry for it. And if you give me the chance I will spend each and every single day trying to make up for it. I will never, ever speak an untruth to you again. I will never make you doubt me, my love for you or our child. I will do whatever it takes, Ella. Because I love you. There is so much of it, there is no room for anything else. Not thoughts of vengeance, not the need to destroy. Just love. And all of it for you and our family.’
She was startled to feel the pad of his thumb sweep aside a tear she hadn’t realised was there.
She reached for him then and pulled him towards her, delighting in the feel of his kiss, sweetened by her tears of joy.
‘I love you,’ she said between presses of her lips against his. ‘So, so much,’ she said. And that was the last thing he allowed her to say before sweeping her into his bedroom, closing the door and showing her how beautiful their lovemaking could, and would, be for the rest of their lives.
EPILOGUE
Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel…they each found their handsome prince. But Red Riding Hood found something so much more. She found her mate, her wolf…her pack. And in doing so she found herself.
The Truth About Little Red Riding Hood
—Roz Fayrer
ELLA STOOD IN the doorway to her daughter’s room in Puycalvel watching the four-year-old spin slightly off-centred circles in her little pink leotard and ballet shoes, both of which were extremely cute but nothing compared to the full length pink, frothy, layered, sparkly tutu that Roman had produced for her just hours before.
It was completely over the top but Tatiana loved it and had refused to take it off, not even for bed, despite the warnings that she might damage it.
‘I’m going to be the greatest ballerina ever,’ she proclaimed between spins, ‘but not as great as Grandma, because no one could be as good as Grandma.’
The sound of footsteps ab
ove on the staircase drew Ella’s attention towards her husband, who had their second daughter in his arms as he made his way carefully down the steps. Not once had he ever betrayed his promise to keep her and their children safe, not once had he ever given her cause to feel anything but joy and love. Frustration sometimes and perhaps, even on occasion, a healthy dose of anger. But never sadness and never fear.
The moment his eyes found hers, the smile on his face brightened, his eyes widened with an awe she would never tire of as he took in her, once again, rounded form.
‘We’re going to have to stop at three, you know,’ she warned in a voice still low from trying to settle her unruly daughter.
‘Why?’ he said, as if he would never tire of seeing her pregnant, of meeting the children they bore, of increasing the amount of love each time within their family. It seemed in almost never-ending supply.
‘Because I want you to myself for a while,’ she mock growled as he pressed a kiss to her cheek.
‘You can have as much of me as you like, for however long you like. I am here, yours, always and for ever.’
‘It’s words like that that got me in this situation in the first place,’ she moaned, her hands sweeping down around her bump. Their third child was due in a few months’ time and neither parent could wait to meet the new addition to the family.
‘I will keep saying them until they stop working,’ her husband insisted.
‘I want to see Auntie Célia and my cousins,’ Tatiana announced, jumping up and down, despite the late hour.
‘And we will, but tomorrow, sweetheart. Now, it’s time for bed.’
‘Nope. Not time for bed.’
‘Yes, time for bed,’ Roman chimed in, walking into his daughter’s bedroom and sitting at the bottom of her bed. ‘And you know what that means?’
‘Story, story, story,’ exclaimed Tatiana as Adeline clapped her hands together with as much co-ordination as an eighteen-month-old could manage.
‘I believe it’s your turn, wife,’ Roman announced with a smile full of satisfaction and happiness. Ella believed that he loved this nightly routine almost more than the girls did.
‘No, surely you’re mistaken. It was my turn last night.’
‘No, Maman, last night was The Frog Prince. It’s your turn tonight.’
‘And what story would you like to hear?’
‘My favourite one, silly.’
Roman growled softly, and Tatiana looked apologetic enough for long enough, before reaching out a hand towards Ella to pull her on to the bed. Dorcas stalked over to her doggy bed in the corner of the room, seemingly content that she had successfully herded her entire family into one room.
As she sat down on the edge of the bed, next to her husband and children, Ella felt wrapped in a cocoon of unconditional love. Her family, all joyous, beautiful, beaming, happy and safe.
‘Once upon a time, there was a sweet little maiden and whoever laid eyes upon her couldn’t help but love her, nor help but remark on the beautiful red velvet cape her grandmother had given her…’
She looked at her husband and he didn’t need to hear the words that cried through her heart straight to his. For Ella did believe in fairy tales now that they’d both found their happy-ever-after.
* * * * *
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ISBN: 9781488059599
Taming the Big Bad Billionaire
Copyright © 2020 by Pippa Roscoe
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ISBN-13: 9781488059636
Copyright © 2020 by Harlequin Books S.A.
The publisher acknowledges the copyright holders of the individual works as follows:
Beauty and Her One-Night Baby
Copyright © 2020 by Dani Collins
Shy Queen in the Royal Spotlight
Copyright © 2020 by Natalie Anderson
Claimed in the Italian’s Castle
Copyright © 2020 by Caitlin Crews
Taming the Big Bad Billionaire
Copyright © 2020 by Pippa Roscoe
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esents: Once Upon A Temptation June 2020--Box Set 1 of 2