She looked up. “He’s not?”
He shook his head, then looked down wryly at his dark wrinkled suit, white shirt and blue tie. “Do you know I haven’t changed clothes for twenty-four hours?” He loosened his tie, then pulled it off. “When my lawyer said the land in Alaska was finally mine, I left
St. Petersburg straight from the office. All I could think was I wanted to go home.” His lips twisted. “But all I saw in Alaska was a rickety old cabin, piles of snow and a silent forest. It wasn’t home.” Looking straight into her eyes, he whispered, “Because it wasn’t you.”
Josie looked up at him, not even trying to hide the tears spilling over her lashes.
With a trembling hand, he reached out and brushed a tear from her cheek. “You’re the home I’ve been trying to find for my whole life, Josie. You’re my home.”
“Then why did you let me go so easily?” she whispered.
Kasimir took a deep breath, closing his eyes, allowing the warm air to expand his lungs. “After you left,” he said in a low voice, “I tried to convince myself I’d won. Then I tried to convince myself that you deserved a better man than me. Which you do. But this morning, in Alaska, I realized something that changed everything.”
“What?” she faltered.
He looked straight into her eyes. “I can be that man.” He took her hand in his own, and when she didn’t pull it away he tightened his grasp, overwhelmed with need. “I can be the man who will mow the lawn by your white picket fence,” he vowed. “The man who will be by your side forever. Worshipping you. For the rest of your life.”
“But how can I believe you?” Josie wiped her eyes. “Our whole marriage was based on a lie. How can I ever give you my whole heart again?”
Kasimir stared at her, his heart pounding. He finally shook his head. “I don’t know.” He gave a low laugh, running his hand through his dark, tousled hair. “I wouldn’t blame you for telling me to go to hell. In fact, I sort of figured you would.”
“Then why come all this way?”
“Because you had to know what was in my heart,” he whispered. “I had to tell you how you changed me. Forever. You made me want to be the idealistic, loyal person I once was. The man I was born to be.”
Covering her face with her hands, she wept.
Falling on his knees before her, Kasimir wrapped his arms around her. “I’m so sorry I tried to separate you and your sister, Josie. I was selfish and I was a coward. Losing you was the one thing I thought I couldn’t face.”
He felt her stiffen, then slowly, her hand rose to stroke his hair. It was the single sweetest touch of his life.
Kasimir looked up, his eyes hot with unshed tears. “But I should have thought of you first. Put you first. Now, all I want is for you to be happy. Whether you choose to be with me. Or—” he swallowed “—without—”
“Shut up.” She put her finger to his lips, and his voice choked off. She said slowly, “I’ve learned I can live without you.”
Kasimir’s heart cracked inside his chest. He’d lost her. She was going to send him away, back into the bleak winter.
“But I’ve also learned,” Josie whispered, “that I don’t want to.” Her brown eyes were suddenly warm, like the sky after a sudden spring storm. “I tried to stop loving you. But once I love someone, I love for life.” Her lips lifted in a trembling smile. “I’m stubborn that way.”
“Josie,” he breathed, rising to his feet. He cupped her face, searching her gaze. “Does this mean you’ll be my wife? This time for real?”
Reaching up, she said through her tears, “Yes. Oh, yes.”
“You better make her happy!” Bree yelled. They turned in surprise to see Vladimir and his bride standing amid the flowers beyond the gazebo. Bree’s eyes were shining with tears as she sniffed. “You’d better...”
“I will,” Kasimir said simply. He turned back to Josie and vowed with all his heart, “I will make you happy. It’s all I will do. For the rest of my life.”
And he lowered his head to kiss her, not caring that Bree and Vladimir stood three yards away from them, with all the partygoers of the wedding reception behind.
Let them look, he thought. Let all the world see.
Taking Josie tenderly in his arms, Kasimir kissed her with all the passion and promise of a lifetime. When he finally pulled away, she pressed her cheek against him with a contented sigh, and they stood together, holding each other in the moonswept night.
He could get used to Hawaii, he thought. In the distance, he heard the loud roar of the surf against the shore. He heard the wind through the palm trees, heard the cry of night birds soaring across the violet sky. And above it all, he heard the pounding of his own beating, living heart—his heart which, now and forever, was hers.
“I wish we could stay here,” Josie said softly, for his ears only. She looked back at the other couple. “That we could live nearby, and all our children could someday play together on the beach...”
“About that...” Thinking of the decision he and his brother had just made, to build the world headquarters of their merged companies right here in Honolulu, Kasimir looked down at her with a mischievous grin. “I have a surprise for you.”
“A surprise, huh?” Tears glistened in Josie’s eyes as she shook her head. A smile like heaven illuminated her beautiful face. “Just wait until you hear the one I have for you.”
EPILOGUE
THE DAY JOSIE placed their newborn daughter in her husband’s arms was the happiest day of her life, after eight months of joyful days.
All right, so her pregnancy hadn’t been exactly easy. She’d been sick her first trimester, and for the last trimester, she’d been placed on hospital bed rest. But even that hadn’t been so bad, really. She’d made friends with everyone on her hospital floor, from Kahealani and Grace, the overnight nurses who were always willing to share candy, to Karl, the head janitor who told riveting stories about his time as a navy midshipman with a girl in every port.
The world was full of friends Josie just hadn’t met yet, and in those rare times when there was no one around, she always had plenty of books to read. Fun books, now. No more textbooks. She’d made it through spring semester, but now college was indefinitely on hold.
The truth was, Josie didn’t really mind. Her real life—her real happiness—was right here. Now. Living with Kasimir in their beach villa, newly redecorated complete with a white picket fence.
Now, Josie smiled up from her hospital bed at Kasimir’s awed, terrified, loving face as he held his tiny sleeping daughter for the first time.
“Need any help?”
“No.” He gulped. “I think.”
Looking at her husband holding their baby, tears welled up in Josie’s eyes. They were a family. Kasimir loved working with his brother as partners in their combined company, Xendzov Brothers Corp. But for both princes, the way they did business had irrevocably changed. They still wanted to be successful, but the meaning of success had changed. “I want to make a difference in the world,” Kasimir had said to her wistfully, lying beside her in the hospital bed last week. “I want to make the world a better place.”
Josie hit him playfully with a pillow. “You do. Every time you bring me a slice of cake.”
“No, I mean it.” He’d looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “I was thinking...we could put half our profits into some kind of medical foundation for children. Maybe sell the palace in Marrakech for a new hospital in the Sahara.” He stopped, looking at her. He said awkwardly, “What do you think?”
“So what’s stopping you?” With a mock glare, she tossed his own words back at him. “The only one stopping you is you.”
“Really? You wouldn’t miss it?”
She snorted. “We don’t need more money, or another palace.” She thought of little Ahmed breaking his leg on the sand dune, far from medical care. “I love your hospital idea. And the foundation, too.”
He looked down at her fiercely. “And I love you.” Cupping her face, he whispered, “You’re the best, sweetest, most beautiful woman in the world.”
Nine months pregnant and feeling ungainly as a whale, having gained fifty extra pounds on banana bread, watermelon and ice cream, Josie had snorted a laugh, even as she looked at him tenderly. “You’re so full of it.”
“It’s true,” Kasimir had insisted, and then he kissed her until he made her believe he was an honest man.
Josie smiled. Kasimir always knew what to say. The only time she’d ever seen him completely without words was when she’d told him she was pregnant that night of Vladimir and Bree’s wedding. At first, he’d just stared at her until she asked him if he needed to sit down—then, with a loud whoop and a holler, he’d pulled her into his arms.