Bought: For His Convenience or Pleasure?. Maggie Cox

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СКАЧАТЬ with me about money before I left to go to the office. Obviously it was stolen to help fund your new life together! Did the two of you plan the theft together, or was that something you decided on all by yourself?’

      Laying her palms down on the fine linen tablecloth, Ellie desperately needed something to anchor her. All of a sudden her world felt like a wild storm-tossed sea, and she was drowning in it. Breathing out a harsh breath, she made herself look Nikolai straight in the eyes.

      ‘Haven’t you been listening to me at all? Sasha and I weren’t having an affair, and I know nothing about any necklace being stolen! I know you won’t believe me, because I can’t prove it, but I do know my own nature—and I would cut off my hand before I took anything that wasn’t mine from anybody!’

      Nikolai shrugged. ‘Unfortunately, Ellie, all the evidence seems to suggest that you are indeed guilty. It is not just the necklace. Other things went missing from the house around that time too. And the fact that you disappeared so suddenly after the inquest would make anyone suspicious! Your father must have known what you had planned, and he took you away so that you would escape punishment! Who knows? Perhaps he even helped you steal the necklace and those other things?’

      ‘No! Is that why you searched for me?’ Her voice was hoarse now, and Ellie’s hand moved nervously against her throat. ‘Because you wanted to prosecute me for theft as well as blame me for the accident?’

      ‘If not you, Ellie…then your father! He has spent time in prison before for theft, has he not?’

      The Russian sighed, as though it was all a mere formality, and Ellie’s blood ran colder than any ice-packed river as she looked into that handsome, unforgiving face.

      ‘What would you do in my position?’ he asked. ‘I have been both deceived and betrayed. Do you not think I deserve to be compensated in some way?’

      ‘You can’t involve my father! He’s done nothing…I know he hasn’t! And he’s not a well man! Going to prison again would likely kill him!’

      ‘How dramatic you are! I see there is indeed fire beneath that deceptively cool air you exude.’

      ‘Don’t mock me! If you’re so set on accusing me of crimes I know nothing about let alone have participated in, and if you want compensation—then perhaps there is a way I can somehow pay you back? We should talk…work something out. I’ll do anything as long as it doesn’t involve my father! Please, Nikolai… Whatever you decide, leave him out of it!’

      CHAPTER THREE

      STUDYING the flawless buttermilk complexion of the lovely face before him, and steeling himself against her heartfelt plea, Nikolai sensed a renewed sting of fury and something perhaps equally disturbing but more personal sweep through him at the thought of Elizabeth with his brother.

      Before he knew it, a blood-heating memory surfaced inside him, of an unforgettable encounter with her the day before the accident. It had been evening, the baby had long since been put to bed, and Nikolai had been looking over some important documents concerning a meeting he was due to attend the next afternoon. There was a lot of small print and equally as much red tape to wrestle with. Usually he didn’t flinch for a second over such tasks, however tedious, but at that moment a world of onerous responsibility had weighed him down like an iron cloak across his shoulders, and he had longed to throw it off.

      He had been groomed to take over his father’s multimillion-pound oil empire when he should have been enjoying his youth—just as Sasha had been allowed to enjoy his. He had spent every minute of his day dealing with the complexities and demands of running a hugely successful business. All of a sudden the realisation had come to Nikolai that he was fatigued and disenchanted, and that the only thing he really longed for right then was his freedom… And not just from his sense of duty and responsibility. Veronika and he had barely been speaking to each other, and on the rare occasions when they were actually home at the same time lived in a state of near excruciating stalemate—neither of them having the time or energy to bring the increasingly brittle marriage to its deserved and grateful end. Nikolai had long suspected she might be seeing someone else.

      Unexpectedly, Elizabeth had knocked on the door, shaking him out of his agonising introspection, and he had been grateful. She had brought him a cup of tea made just the way he liked it—black with sugar and lemon. When she had first arrived at the house to work he had been instantly drawn to her warmth and shyness, and her eagerness to learn new things. When she had exposed an interest, he had personally schooled her in the intricate art of making his favourite beverage in the highly decorated brass Samovar that had originated in Moscow and had belonged to Nikolai’s great-great-grandmother.

      Her thoughtful gesture in bringing him the tea, and the radiance of her presence, had acted like a soothing balm to Nikolai’s soul, and he recalled smiling up at her with much more warmth than usual, his worries temporarily forgotten. He remembered Elizabeth placing the mug carefully on the side of the desk, and how fascinated he’d suddenly become with the graceful contours of her small, pretty hand as she’d uncurled it from the porcelain. A powerful desire had consumed him to discover if the flawless texture fulfilled the idea of satin and silk, as its appearance so alluringly suggested.

      Compelled by some irresistible force he hadn’t been able to fight, Nikolai had reached out and cupped his palm over her knuckles, momentarily holding her captive. A bolt of electricity had harpooned through him like lightning, and Elizabeth had been equally affected. Her sweet breath had whispered over him like hushed gossamer silk, and Nikolai had gazed into her eyes and seen the same helplessly wild longing that he had known must blaze in his own hot glance.

      ‘By all the saints!’ Before he’d known it he’d been rising to his feet and cupping the back of her head, to free the pale ivory comb that confined her hair. It had fallen onto her shoulders like warm summer rain, drifting softly onto a sunlit meadow, and trickled through Nikolai’s fingers like smooth, silken skeins of pure spun gold. He had caught his breath in sheer delight, the parameters of his world narrowing down to just the vision of her lovely face. His senses on fire, he had touched his lips to hers, finally drinking at the exquisite well that promised to satisfy his thirst and heal his wounds like no other…

      Wrenching his mind free of the distracting and stirring memory, Nikolai forced himself to return to the present. The fact was—if his suspicions were correct—the lovely face and bewitching but treacherous lips before him had also been caressed by his brother, and it made him wonder if he had imagined the mutually hungry response and naked need in her eyes that day five years ago? Or was it simply that Ellie, as she called herself now, was a girl who took pleasure in teasing men with her beauty and sexuality just because she could?

      Even though he had no evidence to support the idea, it was utterly distasteful to Nikolai’s strong sense of male pride that she might employ such disingenuous behaviour—even once—and it completely doused the heat that had automatically flared inside him. But he knew that it would undoubtedly surface again. He had always been attracted to his brother’s beautiful sister-in-law, and could no longer deny it. But he had been married when she had dropped out of college to come and take care of Arina after her sister’s death.

      Sasha had been in no fit state to take care of the baby himself, so had agreed to let Nikolai take charge of things. And, although there had been a definite maturity about the way Ellie had conducted herself, and also the way in which she’d taken care of her small charge, there had been a touching innocence about her too, and because of her comparative youth Nikolai had fought hard against his growing attraction for her.

      ‘So—’ he broke some bread between his fingers ‘—we will eat our meal and I will take some time afterwards to consider what СКАЧАТЬ