Staking His Claim

by Tessa Radley

  “Isn’t it?” Ella stepped around the desk and came toward him. “Are you sure?”

  This wasn’t about him...this was about...about—

  His Holly.

  He could feel every muscle in his body growing increasingly taut with every step that brought Ella closer. He wanted her to stop. He didn’t want her coming near enough for him to pick up on her lilac scent. He didn’t want her kindness. Not until he could examine why her sympathy caused him to crack wide open inside.

  Yevgeny struggled to marshal the anger and outrage that had driven him here. He’d rather remember the side of her he detested—the human icicle, the mother who wanted to send the child she’d given birth to away and abandon her without a second thought.

  That was the woman he never wanted near him. And he knew the easiest way to keep that woman—and her questions—at bay....

  “What did you advise your young client?” he barked out. “To wangle as much from her husband as she can? To lie to get sole custody?”

  Pausing, one foot in front of the other, Ella halted, and Yevgeny exhaled a silent sigh of relief.

  Mission accomplished.

  Then she said, “You can’t expect me to answer that. Any advice I give is subject to legal privilege. But I can tell you that before proceeding with divorce action, I often suggest to clients that they try counseling—”

  “Airy-fairy stuff.” Yevgeny waved a dismissive hand. “No help at all.”

  “Or get budgeting advice,” she continued evenly as if he hadn’t interrupted. But her eyes sparkled behind her spectacles. “I’m sure a financially savvy man like you would appreciate the wisdom of that.”

  One dark eyebrow shot up. “Budgeting advice so that these women can afford your usurious fees?”

  “No!” For the first time Ella sounded annoyed. “Budgeting advice to help them save their marriages!”

  He took in the anger on her face. He was angry, too. This was not going to help his position with Holly. Yevgeny let out his breath. “This is not why I came. I will call you when we both have had a chance to simmer down.”

  * * *

  Given their previous confrontation, the last person Ella wanted to see when she walked into her home the following evening was Yevgeny. She still had not “simmered down” as he had put it.

  To make matters worse, he looked totally at ease sprawled across the carpet of her living room, his gray satin tie loosened, shirtsleeves rolled up and his hair ruffled. Holly lay on her back beside him, looking perfectly content, her bare legs kicking in the air, while the Christmas tree sparkled merrily in the background.

  It was all very cozy and festive...a scene from a Christmas card...and Ella felt like a complete outsider in her own home.

  “Where’s Deb?” she demanded, stopping in front of Yevgeny.

  “I told her to take a break while I’m here.”

  His high-handedness annoyed Ella. Deb reported to her, not to her nemesis. It was something she would have to discuss with the nanny.

  Then Ella told herself to lighten up. It was Friday evening, she wanted to relax...but his presence nixed any chance of that.

  Holly gave a squeak, and Ella instantly dropped to her knees beside her. The baby appeared to be fascinated with her own hands. She gave another high-pitched shriek.

  Ella’s heartbeat steadied.

  Of course there was nothing wrong!

  Except that she was hovering too close to the baby....

  She shifted and glanced away.

  Straight into Yevgeny’s curious eyes.

  It was a good time to remember that she hadn’t forgiven him for likening her to a vulture circling a kill yesterday.

  Which led her to one of the many questions that his visit to her offices had raised....

  “I never did find out what you were doing at my offices yesterday. I take it you didn’t simply arrive planning to call me a vulture?” Ella raised a questioning eyebrow.

  He looked discomforted. Sitting up, he said, “I ordered in dinner—I thought you might enjoy not having to cook tonight. You could give Deb the entire evening off.”

  “Then I’d have to look after the baby instead of cook,” she pointed out, not sure that she liked the fact that he’d walked in here and taken over her life. She held her breath, waiting for him to accuse her of all the motherly shortcomings he usually did.

  A furrow creased his brow, and she tensed. He surprised her by saying, “I intended to play with the baby. I thought you might want to relax. Keira once said you like to take Friday evenings easy.”

  Ella blinked.

  He was trying to be considerate?

  Was that possible? Her gaze slid to Holly. The baby was wriggling her fingers and making cooing sounds. She looked wonderfully content. It shouldn’t be too difficult for Yevgeny to look after her.

  “You ordered dinner in?” she asked in case she’d misunderstood.

  “Yes, Italian.”

  That really got her attention. She loved Italian food. How did he know that? Had he pumped Peggy for information about her yesterday? Or had he been cross-examining Deb? Another thought struck her....

  “Should I consider this an apology for your rudeness yesterday?”

  A flush seared the high, Slavic cheekbones. “The food is from La Rosa.”

  The diversion worked. “I didn’t know La Rosa does takeout—much less that they deliver.”

  “They don’t.”

  So he was pulling out all the stops. “But you convinced them?” His sheepish nod confirmed it. “Who told you it’s my favorite restaurant?”

  “Keira.”

  “You spoke to Keira today?”

  “No—she mentioned it a while ago.”

  “Before they left?”

  “Yes.” The word was dragged out of him.

  What interpretation was she supposed to put on his reluctant confession that he’d remembered—and acted on—something Keira had most likely mentioned in passing?

  Ella grew impatient with herself. It probably meant nothing more than that Yevgeny Volkovoy had a frighteningly good memory.

  Something she’d be wise to keep in mind.

  * * *

  True to his word, Yevgeny tended to Holly. He even helped Deb bathe and change the baby before the nanny left. He played with the baby, waving toys and rattles to stimulate her interest. Before she could become too caught up in watching Holly interacting with her uncle, Ella excused herself to express milk from her aching breasts for the baby’s next feed and to enjoy a soak in a bubble bath before the meal arrived.

  By the time she emerged, dressed in comfortable skinny jeans and a T-shirt, wonderfully relaxed and scented from her fragrant hot bath, Yevgeny had set her dining table for two and, more miraculously, gotten Holly off to sleep. The handset from the baby monitor lay on the table.

  Ella was impressed by his efforts—even though her eyes lingered on the second place setting.

  Yevgeny intercepted her gaze. “I am staying. I want to assess whether La Rosa’s cuisine lives up to your high recommendation. And I have something I wish to ask you. But I think I hear the food arriving. Let’s eat first.”

  To Ella’s delight the meal was excellent—well up to La Rosa’s high standards, even without the ambience of the restaurant setting. Even better, Yevgeny graciously declared it to be among the best Italian he’d eaten in a long time.

  “As an apology, that meal was most certainly acceptable.” Ella set down her dessert spoon after savoring the last spoonful of tiramisu and smiled at him.

  Rather than take umbrage at her gentle ribbing, he laughed, but once his laughter died away, an awkward silence settled over the table.

  Ella broke it first. Pushing her spectacles up her nose, she said, “Are you ready
to tell me why you came to see me yesterday?”

  He picked up his half-full glass of red wine and sat back in his chair. “I was annoyed that you’d gone back to work. I intended to confront you.”

  “You have no right to question my decision. My practice is my livelihood. I don’t meddle in your business.” Ella leaned forward, determined not to allow him to push her around. For once, the big Russian had the grace to look abashed. “Besides, I made it clear from the outset that I wouldn’t look after the baby. I’m giving Holly up for adoption. I don’t want to make what is already a difficult situation more difficult by bonding with her.” Even by expressing her milk to feed the baby, Ella suspected she was becoming closer than she’d ever meant to be to Holly. Inside she could feel her muscles tensing and the all too familiar anxiety that she took such pains to conceal rising. The sense of well-being that the soak in the tub and the delicious meal had instilled was rapidly ebbing.

  “I understand.”

  “Then why your annoyance yesterday?”

  He didn’t answer, instead swirling the glass and appearing to be enraptured by the deep ruby glow of the wine. Then he looked up, and the illusion of contentment shattered. His eyes were full of turmoil. “I understand now. I spoke to Jo Wells earlier.”

  What had Jo said? Ella sought his eyes for answers. But found none to justify the panic that flared inside her.

  Jo couldn’t have told him anything. Because not even Jo knew.

  Unless Keira had told her...

  Ella blocked out the possibility of such a devastating betrayal.

  “The way Jo explained your decision not to bond with the baby made me realize that it wasn’t an act of neglect or selfishness.”

  Her teeth snapped together. She’d been trying to get that through to him. But he listened to a stranger? “Thanks!”

  “She also said that you wouldn’t be forsaking Holly—that you intend to keep in close contact with her. She told me that you were always adamant—even when Keira and Dmitri planned to adopt her—that Holly should know that you were her tummy mummy.”

  Despite her outrage, it was so incongruous to hear him use that term for surrogacy that Ella almost smiled. “It’s always been important to me that there should be no deception in this kind of situation—it only hurts the child.” She shuddered inwardly as she looked away.

  If he only knew...

  When she glanced back, it was to find that Yevgeny was swirling the wine again, staring into the rich, red depths.

  It must be hard for him to face the fact that he’d seriously misjudged her—and admit it. Many men would’ve shirked this. Maybe it was time to cut him a little slack.

  “You can drink it,” she assured him to lighten the mood. “It’s a good wine—gold medalist, in fact.”

  That brought his gaze back to her. “I didn’t think you would poison me.”

  This time it was Ella who laughed. “What makes you so sure?”

  “You uphold the letter of the law. I don’t see you as breaking it. I’m starting to realize you have plenty of integrity.”

  The unexpected compliment warmed her.

  Her lips tilting up, she said, “Flatterer!”

  He shook his head. “No, it’s the truth...which I appear to have managed to miss.”

  “While we’re on the topic of truth, what was really going on in my office yesterday? I asked you if you’d lost custody of a child in the past. Tell me about your child, Yevgeny,” she invited softly.

  A mask dropped into place.

  He smiled. But no hint of humor lit his eyes. It was as though a dark thundercloud hung over him. Ella shivered, no longer sure she should pursue this line of questioning. There was pain there...and something else.

  “What child? I’ve never been married.”

  Ella slanted him an old-fashioned look to lighten the mood. “I didn’t think you of all people would believe you had to be married to get someone pregnant.”

  He chuckled. “Very funny!”

  She wrinkled her nose at him, and decided to probe a little more. “So what was it all about?”

  “What do you mean?” he stalled.

  “There was something else going on.”

  “You’re imagining things.”

  She stared at him for a long moment. His mouth was flat, there was no hint of the humor that had lit his eyes only seconds before she’d started pushing. “I don’t think I am. What’s more...I think it has to do with a lawyer—but not me.” She thought about her own life, about what had caused her to develop her prickly, reserved shell. “Did a woman do a real number on you?”

  He laughed, and she detected a palpable tension beneath the careless sound. “Never!”

  “She was a lawyer, wasn’t she?”

  He laughed again.

  This time with relief, Ella suspected. Okay, so she wasn’t quite there yet, but she was definitely on the right track. She was certain of it when Yevgeny said, “You’re making too much of this—”

  “Because you never let anyone in,” she interrupted. “No one gets close enough.”

  His reaction was recognizable. She did the same thing. It was what she’d been doing ever since she was nineteen. She guarded her emotions zealously, only letting Keira past the barricade of her defenses.

  “What did she do?”

  “Stop trying to psychoanalyze me.”

  “Why?” She leaned across the dining table, and rested a hand on his arm. Beneath her fingers his flesh was firm, the muscle taut. For a moment she marveled at her brazenness. “Am I getting warm?”

  “Warm?” He recoiled from her touch. Ella let her hand fall. The skin stretched across his cheekbones until his face resembled a death mask. “You’re as cold as ice.”

  She got the double meaning at once. Yevgeny considered her cold. It hurt.

  Ella swallowed and looked away, determined not to let him see what his words had done to her.

  What did it matter that he thought that she was as cold as ice? He wasn’t the first to think so, and he wouldn’t be the last. It was what she’d wanted, wasn’t it? She’d cultivated a cool, distant manner to keep men like him at bay. She certainly didn’t want him to feel she was approachable, or God help her, receptive to his compliments and flattery and the advances that would inevitably follow.

  Or did she?

  That thought was the most horrifyingly painful of all.

  Escape became a necessity for survival.

  “I think I’ll go and check to make sure the baby is sleeping.” She stumbled to her feet before he could comment on her sudden maternal urge. “I’m sure you’re ready to go. You can close the front door behind you.”

  It was only after she heard the front door softly close long minutes later that Ella realized that she hadn’t discovered what Yevgeny had wanted to ask of her.

  Eight

  Yevgeny wasn’t certain of his reception when he rang the doorbell to Ella’s home on Sunday morning. So when she finally opened the door and the warm summer sun fell on her face, he experienced an unfamiliar, giddy surge of relief.

  “You never did say what you wanted to ask me on Friday night.” Behind her spectacles, her honey-brown eyes were wide with wariness. “I expect that’s why you’re here today. Or have you come to see Holly?”

  It shouldn’t surprise him that she’d guessed what he was doing here. But it did. The way in which she was so attuned to his thoughts, his actions, should’ve driven a stake into his heart. He didn’t need Ella of all people possessing the ability to read his mind. There was too much that was private—and some information was not his alone to share.

  Yet, instead of bolting in fear as he had on Friday night, he stood his ground.

  Nor did he take refuge in half-truths and claim that he’d onl
y come to visit Holly, although the baby did play a big role in his presence here today. But, to be fair, he’d played with her when he’d passed by yesterday. Ella had been out. “I wanted to ask you if you would come with me to look at a house I’m thinking of buying,” he said, deciding that directness would be the best policy.

  Whatever she’d been expecting, clearly, it hadn’t been that.

  “You’re buying a house?”

  He nodded. More than a house, a home. For him...and Holly.

  With the sun playing across her features Ella looked warm and approachable. For a moment he had a vision of...

  Then he pulled himself together.

  What was he considering? Was he mad?

  He tried to get a grasp on his thoughts...and answer her so that she wouldn’t get a whiff of the crazy notion he’d experienced. “It’s time. The penthouse apartment has never been more than a place to sleep after a long day’s work. I want a building with space around it. A garden. And I’d like a woman’s opinion on the house I’ve seen.”

  Ella rested one arm against the doorjamb, blocking his entry. “Why not take Nadiya— Why me?”

  He gave her a disbelieving look. “Do you think Nadiya would want to come and look at houses with me after the humiliation of our last encounter?”

  He didn’t want to take Nadiya—or any other woman. It had to be Ella. No one else would understand....

  “You haven’t seen her since?”

  The question jolted him. “Nadiya?”

  “Yes, Nadiya.”

  He shook his head.

  Ella hesitated. “I suppose I could join you. Now would be better than later. I’d planned to prepare for a meeting on Monday. So, as long as you give me a few minutes to get ready, I’ll come. Holly is taking a nap. I’ll need to tell Deb we’re going out so that she can get her ready.”

  “It might be a good idea to leave Holly here.”

  At the surprised look she shot him, he added reluctantly, “My Porsche is a two-seater.” It was becoming clear to him that, along with a new home, he was going to have to purchase a new car, too.