They walked along a carpeted ramp and there were staff waiting to greet them.
It was like a luxurious hotel, but on the water, set over four levels. They took the stairs up and walked across the main deck and into the saloon.
She accepted a drink from a butler who then told Nikolai that dinner would be served soon and left them.
‘How,’ Rachel asked in her less-than-tactful way, ‘did an orphan get this? I mean, house seats and a superyacht!’
Nikolai smiled as he shook his head. ‘I’m not going to tell you.’
‘Oh, but you are. I’m persistent, remember?’ she said, but he would not be persuaded.
‘Show me,’ Rachel said. ‘What’s up there?’
He did show her. They went up to the sky lounge deck where there were guest rooms and a theatre and also a bar and dance area.
‘I bet there have been a few parties held here.’
‘A lot,’ Nikolai agreed.
And she guessed a lot of women.
‘Doesn’t it worry you?’
‘What?’
‘That people might just want you for...?’ Rachel shrugged. ‘Well, for all this.’
‘Why would it worry me?’ He shrugged. ‘It suits me. I don’t want anyone around for long, so use away...’
‘I just might!’
There was a gorgeous alfresco dining area with heaters so that, despite the cool night air, Rachel was warm even with bare arms.
‘We could eat here if you prefer.’
It was odd, she thought. They headed up to the sundeck and she saw a Jacuzzi frothing. There was a massage room and a gym, all ready and waiting for them to use at whim.
Rooms waiting to be filled.
It was beautiful, it truly was, but it would be like being perpetually on tour—an odd sort of lonely?
‘Do you have a captain?’ she asked.
‘I am the captain.’
‘No, I mean a real one.’
‘I am a real captain.’ He smiled at her slight putdown. ‘I have sailed far bigger ships than this. Here I have a first mate and there are two engineers...’
‘And a cook?’
‘A head chef and the sous chef...’ Nikolai said.
It really was its own world, Rachel thought. ‘Where’s the control room?’
‘I’ll show you the helm station,’ he said, and back down to the main deck they went.
He liked her questions and how she sat in one of the leather seats and looked at all the controls. He wanted her to see it all at its magnificent best—in the sunshine, out on the water—so he made her an offer.
‘We could take her out for a few days, if you like. We would be back in time for the christening.’
‘I can’t get to the christening,’ Rachel reminded him.
‘Well, the wedding that you have to attend. How about it?’
‘I don’t think so.’ She laughed at the very thought but then she fell quiet.
It was the nicest offer she had ever had.
Rachel was very well travelled, her career had seen to that, but the thought of a week spent drifting and indulging herself was appealing indeed.
And the thought of more time spent with him should have sealed the deal but it would mean sharing a bed. Oh, she might be able to stay away for the occasional night but not for a whole week. It was the reason she could not sustain a relationship.
It killed her to say no.
But she did.
‘I’ve got a lot on this week,’ she said. ‘I promised to help Libby out.’
They both knew that Libby could find someone else but Nikolai chose not to push.
For now.
Instead, they walked through to the main saloon. ‘What’s up there?’ Rachel asked as they passed some steps.
‘I’ll show you later,’ Nikolai said.
‘Ah, so it’s the stairway to heaven, is it?’ she said, and went to climb them.
‘Later.’
She disobeyed captain’s orders and went up and opened the door to, yes, heaven.
Oh, my!
The lights were like stars over the vast bed and the walls were glass. She had never seen a more beautiful bedroom.
He came up behind her and looked out at the view she was gazing upon. ‘When you are out on the ocean and the water is smooth,’ Nikolai said, ‘you feel as if are lying on the water.’
She wanted to see it for herself and he knew it. He wrapped his arms around her and stood behind her.
She could feel his lean body and the strength in his arms and she wanted more of him.
He lowered his head and gave a small kiss to her ear and then spoke into it.
‘Come away with me.’
But it wasn’t only the dark she was scared of, it was the sudden thought of getting closer to him and then for him to be gone.
‘I can’t,’ she said. He was kissing her cheek and she wanted to turn her head to meet his mouth. She leant back into him and felt him hard against her bottom, and then his hands moved down to her stomach and he pressed her in harder still.
His hands searched her body.
Kissing her cheek and her ear, deft fingers came to her breasts and she loved his rough and thorough handling of them through the dress. She craned her neck so that their mouths could meet and he lifted the hem of her dress and slipped a hand into her knickers and played her.
Rachel almost couldn’t kiss him, such was the bliss of his fingers. She leant deeper into him just to feel. She wanted to fold over, to lean against the window and be taken from behind, and she tugged down her knickers but Nikolai turned her around so that she faced him.
She went for his mouth, for a kiss, but instead she got his words.
‘Why do you say no when we both know you want to come?’ he asked.
‘Oh, I want to come,’ Rachel said, and stepped out of her knickers and kissed his taut lips.
‘Rachel...’
He was persistent too, she thought, because how the hell could he attempt conversation while he was this hard?
‘I don’t want to talk.’ She would end this conversation her way and she went for his zipper. Yes, Rachel always called the shots in bed, just not tonight.
He slapped her hand away.
‘Get on the bed,’ he said, and his voice was gravelly but low with command.
He started to kiss her hard and walk her backwards with his chest. And at the bed he sheathed himself and she would soon be pushed back. The air couldn’t get into her lungs when she saw the dark desire in his eyes and she knew she was about to be thoroughly taken.
She was hot between the legs with want, absolute want for him, but her mind was awash with memories.
‘Not the bed...’
He halted. He could see the flash of fear in her eyes and for a second he didn’t understand it. Then he recalled the small tussle that had taken place in the last bed they had shared and he understood now that she didn’t want to be underneath him.
Oh, she didn’t. Rachel knew she had teased the tiger without telling the tiger her rules. A scream was building and she was about to ruin this perfect night with a shout of fear that he didn’t deserve.
But then the scream died in her throat and changed to a shocked gasp as he lifted her.
Deftly he raised her and she jumped to his hands and secured her legs around him.
The relief poured from her mouth as she kissed him more deeply than she ever had. He entered her and she held his face and let him move her. His hands splayed across her buttocks and he moved her to their rhythm because they were one.
Nikolai loved her agility, the flex of her thighs that opened easily to him and then the welcoming tight grip of her.
One day he would do
her long and slow, he told her in Russian, and she responded to his lust-laden words with her body and crossed her ankles behind him. She gave up on kissing, and as his hands moved to span her waist she arched back and his tempo increased.
He wanted her naked and Rachel too wanted to tear at her clothes just to expose her heated skin.
Even before Nikolai let out a shout, she felt the surge in his body, heard and then responded with a sob of her own. He gathered her into him as he released and she answered his intimate call with deep pulses that ached for him.
She would always ache for him, she knew as he kissed her.
And it took all that she had not to cry as he gently put her down.
He undressed her. Slowly, tenderly, and he put her to bed and then joined her.
‘Dinner?’
Rachel laughed at the delicious suggestion and they were served lobster Mornay and champagne in bed.
‘Where’s my caviar?’ she moaned, and peered under the shell as if looking for it. ‘The service here is bloody terrible.’
And then she heard it, what she had never heard before.
The deep sound of Nikolai laughing. It was as beautiful as lightning yet it made her want to cry, because lightning was followed by rolling thunder, and she didn’t want to count the time until the thunder arrived—the moment he would leave.
Their trays were removed and then it was just them and the night, and as Nikolai rolled over to flick a switch Rachel looked up at the ceiling and watched as the stars went out.
It was a different darkness from the one she was used to. The moonlight caught on the water and danced on the ceiling but it did not soothe her; instead, it shrank and then expanded the shadows and with the soft motion of the water beneath them it was disorientating.
His arm came over hers and he could feel her tension.
‘Are you okay?’
‘I am...’ Rachel came up with an excuse. ‘I haven’t written my piece about tonight. I should jot down some notes...’
‘Why don’t you just write the whole thing now?’ Nikolai suggested. ‘Use my computer.’
‘You’re sure?’
‘Of course.’
He didn’t need to turn on the lights and she heard him pad across the suite and then come back to bed with his laptop, which he handed to her. Rachel opened it up and sat in the glow of light and thought about Firebird.
There was so much to write, so many things to get down while she could still remember them. She tried to convey Tatania’s amazing performance, how she was so light on her feet, just magically so, and how she had spun like liquid gold, how the Prince had seemed to love her even more dearly tonight, and how Tatania had given the performance her all.
Rachel read it back and her eyes started to get heavy. It was nice to work with Nikolai asleep beside her.
Relaxing even.
Too relaxing perhaps because a few moments later Rachel heard the soft thud of the laptop hitting the floor and realised she must have drifted off.
‘Leave it...’ Nikolai said, as she went to retrieve it.
It was kindly said, it was four in the morning after all, but without the glow of the computer she was back in the dark again with his arm over her.
If only she had left the laptop open, Rachel thought, at least then there would be some light.
Nikolai’s hand moved and came to rest on her stomach and she looked at him in the darkness.
She was fighting sleep and how badly she wanted to simply give in to it and get out of the darkness and into her dreams, but she knew if his hand moved lower, if he touched her in her sleep she might scream.
Just stay awake, Rachel told herself, but awake on his yacht in the still of night was a scary place to be. The panoramic views from the master suite meant there was panoramic darkness and shadows and odd dancing lights that stretched and moved to the motion of the water beneath.
She felt sick.
* * *
How did you roll over and admit to a man you are terrified of the dark? Rachel wondered.
Maybe he sensed her panic, because he rolled in a little closer and she could feel him semi-hard on her thigh and soon he would want her again.
How do you tell a man when you’ve made love so passionately that in the dark just his touch could elicit a scream?
You didn’t, she decided. You simply didn’t.
Rachel wriggled of his embrace and quietly climbed out of the bed and tried to locate her clothes.
The yacht lurched a little, or perhaps it was her stomach, but Rachel found herself on her knees, feeling for her dress in the darkness.
Panic was starting to build and all she wanted was to be dressed and go home.
She found her dress and one shoe when she heard Nikolai’s voice.
‘What are you doing?’ he asked.
‘I thought I might go home...’
‘Go home?’ he checked.
‘You did,’ Rachel pointed out.
‘We’ve already discussed that, you know why.’
His calm voice only accentuated her panic.
‘I just want to go home.’
‘It’s the middle of the night.’
‘I know that!’ It was her least favourite time in the world.
‘Rachel?’ He started to say something but his words were drowned by the roar of panic in her ears.
‘Nikolai.’ She got up from her knees, clutching her dress, and told the truth she had never shared—she just blurted it out. ‘I’m scared of the dark!’
CHAPTER NINE
THE STARS RETURNED.
The room was flooded with light and it felt like oxygen to her as she gulped in air.
She was always pale, Nikolai thought, but never more so than now. In fact, the panic in her eyes reminded him of years ago when he would wake up in the terror of recall. ‘Come back to bed.’
‘I can’t.’
‘I’ll leave the lights on.’
‘I don’t want to fall asleep.’
‘Do you get nightmares?
She was about to lie, to nod, but she had never lied to him so she told him a little of the truth.
‘I don’t like sharing a bed.’ And she knew that made no sense. ‘I don’t like sleeping next to someone.’
‘We don’t have to sleep.’
He saw her eyes shutter as she assumed he was coming on to her but Nikolai wasn’t suggesting that she get into bed for a sexual marathon. ‘If you come back to bed, I’ll tell you how an orphan like me got all this...’
He made her smile.
In the midst of panic he teased her with her own words and it drew her further away from fear.
‘You said you would never tell me.’
‘For you I’ll break the rule.’ And it always had been a rule for Nikolai. He never got in so deep with anyone to have that conversation. Times were changing, though, and soon he would be telling old friends his tale. He wanted Rachel to hear it first. ‘Come on...’ He offered his hand and she took it and got back into the bed.
There was icy sparkling water by the bed and he poured it into a glass and she had a drink and felt a little better still, especially at the soothing tone of his deep voice.
He asked for no more information and she was so grateful for that. Instead, he gave it. He told her about himself.
‘I was fourteen when I ran away. I took the trans-Siberian train to Vladivostok. I was a hare...’
Rachel frowned.
‘A stowaway,’ he explained.
‘But it’s miles. How could you not be caught?’
‘The passengers helped,’ Nikolai said. ‘They would hide me when the inspectors came, feed me. It happens on these trains. I got caught eventually and was kicked off. I wait
ed two days for the next train and did the same again and I got to Vladivostok—the biggest port in Russia. It had always been my dream destination. I watched the ships for days and I chose the one I would go on.’
‘As a stowaway?’
‘Yes.’
It gave her goose bumps to think of it and she put down her glass and lay on her side, watching his lovely mouth and listening to his words.
‘Well, I chose the vessel and I hid in the hold. I had some supplies but when they ran out I would sneak out for food at night. I almost got caught when they offloaded in Japan but I had done my research and I hid in a pipe as they loaded more cargo. Once the captain had done his search the ship sailed again and I came out. It was all going well until the South China Sea, where there were pirates...’
Rachel’s eyes widened.
‘It happens. They wait till you slow down to navigate a channel and they approach on speedboats. They were armed.’
‘What were they taking? The cargo?’
‘No, these wanted cash and jewels. They wanted the safe open and all the payroll money. They robbed the crew and then shot them. When I came out, the captain, Yuri, was alive but not well.’
‘Was he surprised to see you?’
‘Nothing surprises a good captain,’ Nikolai said. ‘But he was cross. I found out later he had always prided himself on good inspections before sailing. Stowaways are a huge problem.’
‘Like the lady whose baby you delivered.’
Nikolai nodded. ‘That was years later but the problems are the same. If found they have to be repatriated at the vessel’s expense.
‘Anyway, though Yuri was cross, at least he could put me to work. Only a few crew survived and I was able to help. Under his instruction we got the vessel back to Vladivostok. I was terrified he would hand me in but, in the time it took to get back, we became friends, I guess. Once there he offered me some cargo—jeans, an awful lot of them. He would have it written off with the insurance. I could have been an oligarch.’
When Rachel shook her head to say she didn’t understand, he explained a little better. ‘I could have made my fortune on the black market, there was serious money to be had, but instead of that I asked him to teach me all he knew about shipping.’
Billionaire Without a Past (Irresistible Russian Tycoons) Page 10
