by Annie West
Carissa never did what he expected. She wasn’t what he expected.
Now she made him feel as if he were in the wrong.
Residual anger made his heart pound his ribcage. Yet that didn’t explain the unfamiliar, queasy feeling in his belly. It wasn’t fear, not now she was safe.
Surely it wasn’t guilt? She had risked her neck out there.
The woman was trouble.
Alexei straightened from the wall, circled around the sculpture that had caused this drama, and headed towards the light streaming from her suite. He needed to see how badly she was hurt.
* * *
Mina bit her lip and tried to stop shaking enough to tear open the box of sticking plasters she’d found in the bathroom. It dropped to the floor and she sagged against the wall, eyes closing.
She’d pick it up in a minute, when the shaking stopped.
She was so angry. But soon she’d be calm.
Except it wasn’t simply anger that made her tremble from head to foot. Mina wiped her uninjured hand across her cheeks, scrubbing away the fresh trails of wetness that had nothing to do with the sodden hair dripping down her face.
There was a blockage in her throat, hot and sour, making it hard to swallow. A ball of emotion that refused to go away.
Stupid. Thoughtless.
The words circled again and again. She didn’t know how to silence them.
Mina told herself she was in shock. The storm had been terrifying. When she’d started out to save the sculpture, the wind hadn’t been so bad and she’d been sure she’d have time. Then all hell had broken loose and she’d been stunned to realise danger was upon her, upon them. It was her fault Alexei had been out there too.
What if he’d been hurt trying to save her?
Her mouth crumpled and a sob seared her clogged throat.
Mina shook her head. She didn’t cry. She never cried. Not even when her father died.
Stupid. Thoughtless.
She swallowed again and this time tasted tears.
The last time she’d seen her father they’d argued. She’d wanted to go to art school and he’d already enrolled her in university to major in economics. It was one of the rare times he’d lost his temper. Usually he was cool and distant. He expected his daughters to obey, to do whatever he expected, including acquiring appropriate qualifications to prove women in Jeirut could play a part in the country’s modernisation.
There was no room for an artist in the royal family. Mina’s value, like her sister Ghizlan’s, lay in being useful.
Their father’s focus was the country, not them. He’d never cuddled them or laughed with them. Never been close, let alone shown love. They were tools in his grand plans. Her mother had died when she was an infant so there was no one to argue on her behalf.
But at seventeen, Mina had believed she had a right to choose her career. Her father had put paid to that. He’d been brutally frank about her purpose in life. As a princess she’d be a model for Jeiruti women and have a key role in royal events. In time, she’d make a dynastic marriage to a man her father chose.
Mina was stupid, thoughtless and selfish to question his plans.
Two days later he’d dropped dead from a brain aneurism.
She’d never had a chance to mend the breach between them. She told herself it didn’t matter because her father hadn’t loved her, or she him. Yet regret lingered. Hearing those words again, whiplash sharp—
‘Carissa? Are you all right?’
Mina’s eyes popped open, horror enveloping her. She caught sight of herself in the mirror and groaned. Her eyes were pink and she couldn’t stop her mouth quivering.
‘Yes.’
The door rattled. ‘Why have you locked the door?’
Mina sank her teeth into her bottom lip. She didn’t need this. She didn’t have the energy to face Alexei. She needed time to marshal her defences.
‘Carissa?’
‘I want privacy. Is that too much to ask?’ Her shaking grew worse, not better. She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to hold in the ache. And the cold. She felt so cold.
‘Open the door, Carissa. I need to make sure you’re okay.’
Great. Another man who refused to take a woman’s word or believe she could look after herself.
But Alexei thought her stupid, didn’t he?
To her horror, fresh tears prickled her eyes and she blinked frantically. She felt...raw, unprotected, unable to summon the assurance she projected to keep people at a distance.
It was ridiculous. Words couldn’t hurt her. Yet Alexei’s expression as he’d spoken... The knowledge he’d been right—
‘Open the door now, Carissa, or I’ll break it down.’
‘I said—’
‘Now!’ He didn’t shout like before. But the low resonance of his voice convinced her more than any ranting threat.
Mina stumbled to the door and flicked the latch. It swung open and Alexei surged in, making her back up.
She refused to meet his eyes, turning instead to the packet she’d dropped on the floor. ‘Since you’re here—’ she tugged in a swift breath and tried to sound nonchalant ‘—would you mind picking that up? My hands are a bit unsteady.’ There was no way of hiding that so she might as well admit it.
Without waiting for a response Mina turned to the basin and ran water over the jagged cut in the fleshy part of her hand, cleaning away the dripping blood. Her grasp of the screwdriver had slipped on the last screw and dug into her flesh. Strange, she couldn’t feel any pain.
‘Here, let me.’ A large hand took her elbow and Alexei pushed her down onto a chair beside the vast bath. His touch was surprisingly gentle. Mina opened her mouth to protest but found she didn’t have the inclination. Her shoulders slumped as her energy ebbed.
Alexei wrapped a fluffy white hand towel around her hand. Mina frowned, thinking of blood on the pristine cloth, but said nothing. It was his towel.
He took her other hand and pressed it to the cloth to keep the pressure steady. Then he collected the packet she’d dropped plus a bottle from the cupboard and hunkered before her.
She was aware of his heat above all, like a furnace sending out warmth to tease her frozen body. But she refused to meet his eyes. Instead she concentrated on those hard, beautiful hands. They worked deftly.
‘This will sting.’ He unwrapped the towel and dabbed the wound. Mina felt the burn of antiseptic but didn’t flinch.
‘It doesn’t look too deep.’
‘No. Fortunately it drove along my hand instead of in.’ If it had surely she wouldn’t feel so calm. A major injury to her hand would be catastrophe.
Alexei’s grip tightened for a second, then eased. Mina frowned, watching him work. A moment later it was all over.
‘How does that feel?’
‘Fine.’ She flexed her hand, discovering she’d stopped shaking as he held her. ‘Thank you.’
He didn’t move. Beyond the thick shutters, Mina heard the rush of the wind driving against the building. It reminded her of the danger she’d put them both in.
Her heart thudded against her ribs as if trying to fly away on the storm. She drew in another breath, this time through her mouth, trying not to inhale Alexei’s spicy scent. The storm seemed to have heightened it rather than washed it away.
‘Carissa, I’m sorry. I—’
Mina surged up, stepping sideways, away from him. It felt wrong, hearing him apologise, when she’d been at fault.
It felt even more wrong, hearing him call her by someone else’s name. She wanted her name on his lips. How crazy was that?
‘No. Don’t.’ She swallowed. He rose and she fixed her eyes on his collarbone. ‘I apologise. I was wrong to put you in danger by making you look for me.’ She sucked in a shallow breath. ‘You’re right. A sculpture isn’t as important as
a person.’ If he’d died because of her...
Reluctantly she lifted her eyes and met his deep green gaze. A thrill of recognition and awareness shot down her spine. Strangely, he didn’t look angry any more.
‘It was stupid of me. I thought I had more time. Obviously I underestimated the force and speed of the storm.’
‘I applaud your desire to save the sculpture. Just not your timing.’ His mouth flattened. ‘I shouldn’t have spoken the way I did. That was fear talking. But it was no excuse.’
‘You were frightened?’ Alexei had seemed so in control, so competent, it hadn’t entered her mind he was frightened.
‘I was frantic. You could have been badly hurt.’
His eyes locked on hers and Mina felt as if she were being pulled under by a jade-green sea, sucked into an undertow where, no matter how she struggled, she couldn’t break free.
Or had she forgotten to struggle? She tried to rouse herself from this strange torpor but couldn’t.
‘I’m tougher than I look.’
Alexei inclined his head. ‘So I’m learning. It took guts to do what you did.’ His words astounded her.
‘And stupidity.’ She couldn’t let it go.
Something shifted in his expression. ‘You thought it important. That made it courageous.’
His words sowed a kernel of heat deep inside. Heat that glowed and spread as he stared down at her.
‘Does that mean you don’t despise me quite as much as before?’ Better to remind them both that they were on opposing sides than be lulled into surrendering her guard any further.
‘I don’t despise you.’ Alexei’s voice was gruff as he lifted his hand to wipe the tear tracks from her cheeks. His touch ignited a terrible yearning. Mina had to fight to not lean closer.
‘I find that hard to believe.’ Mina moved back, breaking contact, injecting hauteur into her expression.
Alexei followed, hemming her in and planting a palm on the wall beside her head. ‘You infuriate me. Intrigue me.’ His voice dropped to a low note that resonated through her. ‘Attract me.’
Mina’s pulse thundered as she read the stark determination in his eyes. She struggled to hang on to anger but it slipped like precious water from her hands.
‘That’s impossible.’ It had to be. Because she feared she didn’t have the strength to remember they were enemies.
‘Then perhaps you’ll believe this.’ Alexei leaned in and every emotion, every sensation Mina had tried not to feel, exploded into life.
CHAPTER NINE
THE TOUCH OF his lips on hers was gentle yet not tentative. As if he gave her time to adjust to the inevitable.
And it did feel inevitable.
As if she’d waited half her life for this. As if the kiss they’d shared on the sand hours ago had evoked a longing that, once roused, couldn’t be assuaged or argued away by common sense.
Common sense?
Where was that as Mina curled her fingers around those hard, wet shoulders?
Where was it as his kiss deepened and Mina not only opened for him but slicked her tongue against his, curling, inviting, demanding more?
She’d learned a lot from their earlier kiss. It had blasted away the little she’d thought she knew about kissing. Her limited experience hadn’t prepared her for Alexei’s wholesale takeover of her senses.
He didn’t even touch her, except for his lips and tongue, but that was enough to create a sensual storm. Mina was swept away, clinging to his shoulders for support and to prevent him pulling back.
She’d been the one to withdraw last time. His hand on her breast had broken the moment, terrifying her. Not because he’d overstepped the bounds. But because Mina had been overwhelmed by how much she’d wanted more. How reckless he made her.
Stupid. Thoughtless.
The words lost their sting as Alexei’s heat swamped her and she felt his body all down hers. He angled his head for better access to her mouth and growled his appreciation as she sucked his tongue hard.
Had she ever heard such a sexy sound? It made her nipples pebble and heat blossom at the apex of her thighs where she felt an achy emptiness.
Mina might have an impulsive streak but in some things she was innately cautious. She’d never given herself to a man. Never been attracted enough to trust someone so intimately. Never been so swept away that it wasn’t a matter of if but when she surrendered.
Alexei made her feel more than she’d thought possible. That scared her. He didn’t.
Fingers still curled into his shoulder muscles, she turned her head, breaking the kiss. The sound of their ragged breathing filled the air.
‘You don’t really want me here.’ Mina struggled to find an argument that would end this.
‘But I need you here.’ His words were hot on her sensitised skin, his mouth moving against her cheek in a caress that made her tremble.
‘Only as bait to lure him.’ She gasped the words, trying to catch her breath. Trying to find the strength to push Alexei away. If she had any self-respect, she’d stop this.
His fingers gripped her chin, inexorably turning her head. Alexei was so close she fell into that malachite gaze.
‘He can go to hell. All I can think about is you.’ Alexei frowned, his look almost savage, his breathing as uneven as Mina’s. ‘If you’d been seriously hurt out there...’ He shook his head. ‘You have no idea how I felt, thinking about that.’
Mina read the echo of her own stark emotions in Alexei’s flared nostrils, tight jaw, grim line of mouth and shadowed eyes.
‘Believe me, I know.’ Mina couldn’t hold back the words. ‘When I thought about how I’d put you at risk I felt sick.’ Alexei’s hand softened against her face, palming her cheek, inviting her to turn her head into his touch. She did, luxuriating in the comfort of it, even as it sent a buzz of adrenalin ricocheting through her body. ‘It’s crazy. I don’t even know you—’
‘And you don’t like me,’ he added with a wry tilt of his mouth.
‘I don’t think this is about liking.’ What she felt came from a deep, vital part of herself and it demanded honesty. She was beyond prevarication.
The hint of humour in his expression died. ‘Carissa, I—’
‘No!’ She pressed her fingers to his mouth, desperate to stop his words. Mina couldn’t bear for him to call her by her friend’s name. Not when she trembled on the brink of something so huge. ‘Don’t say anything. No more words, please.’
There were lies enough between them. But what she felt, however unexpected, was real. More real than anything she’d felt for any other man.
It had to be just sex. It couldn’t be anything more. Yet this felt as unstoppable as sunrise. As wondrous as a child’s smile.
She could no more turn her back on this than she could stop the storm outside.
Even if she could, she didn’t want to.
It was time.
Instead of smiling, Alexei’s expression grew more serious. There was no triumph in his eyes, or greedy anticipation, just a steady regard that told her he felt the same.
Or was she impossibly naive, painting her own wash on circumstances?
Before she could decide, Alexei bent, slid an arm around her back and another behind her legs, and lifted her off the floor. Mina slipped her hands around his neck, torn between dismay at being hoisted high against his hard chest and quivering delight at how strong and sure he felt. How utterly feminine he made her feel.
She’d never ceded control to any man. Had resisted it, she now realised, after seeing so many acquaintances pushed into unwanted, arranged marriages. Her sister included. Now she discovered the delight of being with a man whose physical strength far surpassed hers. Surprisingly she didn’t feel vulnerable but treasured.
He carried her out of the bathroom and Mina’s pulse quickened as they approached her be
d. But Alexei kept going, through the door and down the corridor that formed the spine of the house. Towards the master suite.
The hall was gloomy and the wind sounded like the malevolent howl of the desert djinns her nurse had told her about when she was little. Mina shivered.
‘We’re safe here.’ Alexei must have sensed her thoughts. ‘The main house is built to withstand worse than this.’ He stopped walking and fixed her with that steady gaze. ‘But if you prefer, we could sit this out in the basement storm shelter.’
He was giving her the opportunity to change her mind. One last chance at sanity.
For answer Mina slid her fingers into his wet hair and tugged his head down, pressing her lips to his. She slicked her tongue along his mouth till he opened. Alexei shuddered, then gathered her closer still, his hold so tight he crushed her breathless.
When, finally, he lifted his head, she couldn’t hear the wind over the thunder of her blood and Alexei had lost that veneer of calm. She read naked hunger in his dark eyes.
Mina squirmed as arousal coursed through her, coalescing in a sensation like wax melting and softening between her legs.
Then Alexei was striding down the dim hall, eating up the distance to his room.
Fleetingly Mina wondered about mentioning her inexperience, but she shied from anything that might delay or even stop what lay ahead. Besides, instinct had worked fine so far.
Alexei lowered her feet to the floor and switched on a bedside lamp. Mina had an impression of space, of furnishings the colour of parchment with azure accents, then Alexei put his hands on her waist and she had eyes for nothing but him.
His black hair glistened, wet against his skull. Lamplight highlighted the severe, beautiful angle of his cheekbones and threw into relief the stern set of his nose.
Mina’s gaze dropped to his mouth, so sensual and generous. Her heart dipped and she felt again the liquid rush of desire.
She swayed closer, grabbing his shirt. Of their own volition her fingers began undoing his buttons. Gone was the deft quickness of a woman who worked with her hands. She fumbled first one, then another, but Alexei didn’t help, just stood, still as a breathing statue.
