“Ready?” she breathed.
He smiled, as if he could see the sudden brutal conquest of her innocent heart. “To marry me.”
“Oh. Right.” She bit her lip. “Um, yeah. Sure.”
Pulling her into the foyer, he took a bouquet of white flowers out of a waiting white box. He placed a bridal bouquet in her hand. “For you, my bride.”
“Thank you,” she whispered, fighting back tears as she pressed her face amid the sweetly scented flowers.
He scowled. “Don’t you dare tell me no man has ever given you flowers before.”
She hesitated. “Well…”
“You’re killing me,” he groaned. “The men you know must be idiots.”
She gave him a wan smile. “Well, I don’t really know any men. So it would be unreasonable to expect them to buy me flowers.”
“You don’t know any men?” He stared at her incredulously. “But you’re so friendly. So chatty.”
“I don’t talk to cute ones. I’m too nervous. Besides—” she gave her best attempt at a casual shrug “—Bree won’t let me date. She’s afraid I’ll get hurt.”
His lips parted. “You’ve never been on a date?”
She shook her head. “I did have a sort of boyfriend once,” she added hastily. “In high school. We met in chemistry class. He was… nice.”
“Nice,” he snorted. “With your rose-colored glasses, he probably had a mohawk, a spiked dog collar and a propensity for stealing,” he muttered.
“That’s not fair,” she protested. “After all, I think you’re nice. And you’re not a thief.”
Looking uncomfortable, Kasimir cleared his throat. “Go on.”
“We went out a few times for ice cream. Studied together at the library. Then he asked me to prom. I was so excited. Bree helped me fix up a thrift-shop dress, and I felt like Cinderella.” She stopped.
“What happened?” he asked, watching her.
She looked away. “He never showed up,” she whispered. “He took another girl instead, a girl he’d just met.” She lifted her gaze in a trembling smile. “But she put out. And I… didn’t.”
A low growl came from the back of Kasimir’s throat.
Clutching the bouquet of white flowers, Josie stared down at the pattern of the polished marble floor. “I just think kissing someone should be special. That you should only share yourself with someone you love.” She shuffled her pink flip-flops, echoing the sound across the high-ceilinged foyer. “I expect you think it’s stupid and old-fashioned.”
“No.” Kasimir’s voice was low. “I used to think the same.”
Her jaw dropped as she looked up. “What?”
He gave a humorless smile. “Funny story for you. I was a virgin until I was twenty-two.”
“You?” Josie breathed. The fact that he’d told her something so intimate caused a shock wave through her. “The international playboy?”
He snorted. “Everyone has a first experience. Mine was Nina. She worked at a PR firm in Moscow, and we hired her to help our new business. She was far older than me—thirty. We dated for a few months. After I lost my half of Xendzov Mining, I went back to Russia to see her. I was floundering. I had some half-baked idea that I’d ask her to marry me.” He gave her a crooked smile. “Instead, I found her in bed with a fat, elderly banker.”
Josie gasped aloud.
He looked away. “I thought I was in love with her.” He gave her a crooked smile. “Virgins usually think that, their first time. But Nina just thought of me as a client. To her, sex was ‘networking.’ And when I no longer was a potentially lucrative PR account, she no longer had reason to see me.”
“Oh,” Josie whispered. Her brown eyes were luminous with unshed tears. “I’m so sorry.”
He shrugged. “She did me a favor. Taught me an important lesson.”