Modern Romance June 2016 Books 5-8. Tara Pammi

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      ‘I don’t know,’ he admitted. ‘I’ll tell you afterwards how it goes.’

      ‘I shan’t be here, Roman. I’m flying back to Paris this afternoon.’

      ‘Anya, you know that we need to talk,’ he said.

      This week he had come to the realisation that they did. He could not be apart from her again. They were back in each other’s lives.

      It was Anya who resisted that now.

      ‘No, we will fight.’

      ‘So.’ Roman shrugged. ‘We know where our fights lead.’

      Anya smiled but it changed midway and she shook her head.

      ‘I don’t want to know about your wife, Roman. I’m simply not ready to hear about it and I don’t know if I ever shall be. I can’t bear to hear about your life so I’m going back tonight and I meant what I said, I don’t want to see you in Paris.’

      ‘That’s a lie.’

      ‘In part,’ Anya admitted. ‘But it’s also the truth.’

      But Roman was having none of it. ‘I have to catch up with the others but later tonight I’ll have my assistant charter a plane...’

      ‘See!’ Anya said. ‘Who are you? A man who gives platinum crosses with diamonds, a man who charters planes?’

      ‘I will tell you.’

      ‘But I can’t stand to hear it,’ she said.

      ‘Wait for me?’ he asked again, but she shook her head.

      ‘I waited so long for you, Roman. No more.’

      And then she forced herself to ask the question that she dreaded hearing the answer to.

      She knew Roman. He would not stay five minutes with a person he did not like.

      He had spent years with Celeste.

      ‘Did you have feelings for her?’

      Roman looked right into her eyes and he knew that to lie now would end them forever, but he was careful with his response. ‘Not the same feelings that I have for you.’

      ‘Had,’ Anya corrected. ‘Or you would not have stayed away.’

      He said nothing.

      ‘Did you love her?’ she demanded, for he had never told her that he loved her.

      He gave her the absolute truth. ‘There was a kind of love that grew.’

      No!

      She would never be ready to hear about it.

      And she couldn’t bring herself to tell him the truth about babies either.

      Their dreams had already been killed.

      And so Anya walked off.

CHAPTER SEVEN

      ROMAN SAT IN the sky lounge of Nikolai’s yacht and tried to comprehend the fact that they were together again and in such splendid surroundings.

      The yacht had been docked in the Thames for two weeks and was an attraction in itself, but no one asked to be shown around and neither did Nikolai offer.

      This time together was precious.

      They had been apart for the best part of two decades and there was a lot to discuss in a short space of time. Out came the vodka, which was infused with ginger, and both Roman and Daniil pulled a face at the taste.

      ‘Here.’ Nikolai handed him a plain bottle and Roman poured two glasses, one for himself and the other for his twin.

      ‘Here you go, shishka,’ Roman said as he slid the glass over to Daniil, who shot him a black look at the use of his old nickname.

      There was tension between them.

      It was interesting, though, to catch up. Nikolai had always known where his life would lead—the ocean.

      He had not started out in such splendour, Roman found out as they drank too much and caught up—he found out that Nikolai had at first been a stowaway on a ship.

      ‘Anything was better than being there,’ Nikolai said.

      Roman nodded. He had heard back then that Nikolai had been sexually abused by a teacher and that was why he had run away.

      When he’d been young, Roman remembered Nikolai building a ship out of matchsticks and he had taken it with him when he’d left. It had been found by the river.

      Sev had kept it and now returned it.

      ‘This took so long to make.’ Nikolai put it down on the table and was touched that his friend had kept it all these years and had had it couriered from New York to give to him today.

      ‘It’s good you got out,’ Roman said, and looked around the sky lounge. ‘This would be a great place to party.’

      ‘It is.’

      ‘Are you seeing anyone?’ Daniil asked Nikolai.

      ‘Any one?’ Nikolai checked, and then swiftly turned the conversation to Sev. Roman noticed the quick change of subject.

      ‘When do you go back to New York?’ Nikolai asked.

      ‘We are flying back tonight,’ Sev said. ‘Daniil and Libby are coming over in late December to see in the New Year there. You two should come too.’

      Daniil saw Roman’s slight eye roll.

      New York and happy families and more catching up he could do without for now.

      His mind wandered to Anya and he was ready now to sort things out. Since seeing her again this morning he was resolute. Yes, she was doing well and at the top of her game yet there was a vulnerability in her that only he knew about.

      Somehow they needed to talk and to get through those impossible conversations.

      Now, though, he listened. Sev, as they had always known he would, had done well. He was brilliant and was now an expert in internet security. He had been the one who always had his head in books and yet he had also, in his own way, been the one who’d stepped up when things had got out of hand.

      And they were starting to now.

      Roman listened to his twin.

      The family that had adopted him had proved to be awful. ‘They realised their mistake by the time I arrived, I think,’ Daniil explained. ‘I was never going to replace their son.’

      Roman СКАЧАТЬ