Josie loved him. Come what may.
At that simple decision, peace had come over her. The bodyguards, who’d been arguing over who would be stuck watching the crying woman instead of the two-hundred-inch projector screen in the basement, had been astonished when she’d suddenly stopped pacing and told them in clumsy Russian to go watch the game. She’d gone alone to the kitchen. She’d made herself some Russian tea. After speaking briefly to her sister, who sounded very shocked indeed that Josie had married Kasimir, she’d brushed her teeth, put on her nightgown and gone to bed. Rehearsing what she would tell him, she’d waited for her husband to come home.
She’d fallen asleep, but it didn’t matter. She hadn’t used a word of her little rehearsed speech anyway. She’d just taken one look at the gray bleak shadows on Kasimir’s face, at the tight set of his shoulders, and spoken the truth from her heart.
Now, pulling back from his sudden hungry kiss, Josie looked at him. His eyes seemed haunted, tortured, dark as a midnight sea. But he cared for her. She could see it. Feel it. Reaching up, she cupped his cheek. He put his rough hand over hers, then pressed his lips to her palm in a lingering kiss so passionate that her soul thrilled inside her body.
And looking at him, she felt no more trembling fear. She felt only the absolute knowledge, down to her bones, that her love for him was meant to be.
This time, Kasimir was the one who was shaking, as if he felt her words of love like a physical blow. She tried to imagine what his life had been like for the last ten years, unloved and alone—never knowing what it was to be protected and sheltered by another human soul.
Starting today, and for the rest of his life, he would know. She would shelter him. Protect him.
Beside the bed, she pulled the black overcoat off his unresisting body. She removed his tuxedo jacket and dropped it to the floor. Pushing him to sit on the bed, she knelt and unlaced his black Italian leather shoes, then she reached up for his black tie.
He grabbed her wrist. “What are you doing?”
She exhaled, then leaned up, smiling through her tears.
“Let me show you,” she whispered.
His eyes widened. His hand numbly released her.
Pulling off his tie, Josie undid the top button of his white tuxedo shirt, then the waistband of his black trousers. She removed all his clothes, one by one, then pushed him back against the bed. Looking down at him, she yanked her long nightgown up over her head. She kicked off her panties. For a split second, she shivered in the cool winter air as they stared at each other, both naked in the flickering firelight, against the misty gray dawn. Then she pulled the goose-down comforter over them.
Beneath the blanket was their own world. She wrapped her arms around his hard, shivering body, trying to warm them both. She kissed his forehead. Then his cheek. Then…
Suddenly, staying warm was not a problem. She felt hot, burning hot, with his naked skin against her own. She kissed him, clutching him to her, and a growl came from the back of his throat.
Putting his hands on both sides of her face, Kasimir kissed her back fiercely, possessively, almost violently. Rolling her body beneath him, he kissed slowly down her neck, running his hands over her naked skin as if it were silk. As if he wanted to explore every inch of her.
Insane, intoxicating need overwhelmed her. If he couldn’t say the three words that she yearned to hear, she needed to feel his love for her.
“Take me,” she whispered. “Now.”
He sucked in his breath, searching her eyes. Then, gripping her hips, he pulled back, then thrust inside her, filling her so deeply, all the way to the heart.
She gasped, gripping his shoulders. He wrapped his arms around her, pressing his hard body against her own, and she felt the heat of his breath against her skin as he rode her slow and hard and deep. She cried out, clutching him to her. Drawing back, he looked straight into her eyes, holding her gaze as he plunged one last time, deep, so deep, that she shuddered all around him, as he shuddered inside her.
Afterward, tears ran down Josie’s cheeks as she felt his strong arms around her, keeping cold winter away. She loved him so. And when Kasimir reached for her again a brief time later, to show her his love again and again, she knew that fairy tales were true. They had to be. Because even if he couldn’t speak the words, he loved her. His body proved it.
They were in love. Weren’t they? That meant everything would be all right. Didn’t it? So they’d be together forever.
Wouldn’t they?
Two and a half days later, in the rustic, dark-walled study of the country house, Kasimir dialed Bree Dalton’s number with shaking hands. When she did not answer, he gritted his teeth and called a number he hadn’t called for ten years. A number he knew by heart.
Kasimir had waited till the last possible moment to call. For three days now, he’d racked his brain to think of a way to keep both Josie and his revenge. But Bree expected her sister in exchange for the signed contract. There was no solution. Only a choice.
But such a choice. Kasimir had already sent his bodyguards with the luggage to the nearby private airport, where his jet was ready to take them to Marrakech. But then, five minutes ago, outside in the snow with Josie, watching her sparkling eyes as she made a snowman, he suddenly knew the answer.
He wanted Josie more than anything else. So the solution was screamingly obvious.
He would give up his revenge.
He would take Josie to some place where her sister and Vladimir would never find her.
He took a deep breath as Vladimir answered his phone.