Return of the Untamed Billionaire

by Carol Marinelli

  ‘Never.’

  ‘Please, don’t.’ She put up her hand to his face and she remembered the first time she’d done that and he had flinched but he did not now. Theirs was a very precious love and she would tell the truth. ‘You do care and so do I. You said yourself that Daniil has everything you ever wanted.’

  ‘I wasn’t talking about Nadia,’ Roman said. ‘I meant that he was happy that he had a family he adored. He still would have, even if it was just him and Libby. Anya, I admire how you have pushed yourself, how you have given up so much for nights like tonight. And I respect it too. It’s up to you whether or not you believe me.’

  And she told him another truth. ‘Every time I dance, I dance for you.’

  But then Roman, the man who had always had her heart, told her again that it was time for something to be different.

  ‘Anya, tonight go out there and dance for yourself.’

  ‘For me?’

  ‘Yes, for you. You have worked for this, you deserve the reward.’

  He gave her a kiss, a long slow one that really ought to lead to the bedroom, but he let her go and then at the sound of footsteps Anya watched as his jaw tightened.

  ‘Privyet.’ Mika said hi as he walked past them.

  It was time to go in.

  ‘I’ll be watching,’ Roman said.

  It was nice to know.

  Only as she headed in through the stage door did Anya realise she hadn’t told Roman that she and Mika weren’t and never had been an item.

  Oh, poor Roman, having to watch them perform tonight, Anya thought, and then, for the second time that day, found herself laughing out loud.

  ‘Anya!’

  There were calls of greeting and also a sense of relief because Anya had arrived, and she was usually here by now.

  She waved back and went into her dressing-room, breathed and centred herself, had a shower and preparations began.

  She took out her feather and the little pink thing with dangly legs and placed them on her dressing table.

  And she took out a peanut-butter cup, which would be her treat and energy booster during the interval.

  Her peacock-swirl dress had been hung up and she would wear it later tonight, Anya decided.

  Then she thought of Roman and was starting to believe not just in his love but that they could make it.

  She took out the little trinkets that told of their love and she knew more about him now.

  The earrings were now a pair.

  Every time she had danced it had been for him.

  But Roman was right. Tonight she would dance for herself.

  Her friends, good friends, were in the audience to support her and so too was the love of her life.

  And he knew the truth now.

  Now she could dance for herself, and claim for herself the reward for the hard work it had taken to get to this point.

  She applied the finishing touches to her make-up and secured her headpiece.

  The costume manager came in for one final check.

  Anya looked at her reflection.

  She was shaking with nerves as she made her way through the maze of corridors to the stage. She stood there, battling nausea, but today it would not abate and she called for a bucket.

  No one was surprised. This was backstage after all and nerves were the motivator.

  ‘Better?’ Mika checked, after Anya had rinsed her mouth and the make-up lady had come and touched up her lipstick.

  ‘Better.’ Anya nodded and they shared a small smile.

  Soon he would hold her, Mika thought longingly as he took up his bow and arrow and went onto the stage.

  Anya took a few steps back to position herself for her leap onto the stage.

  * * *

  Roman sat as the performance started.

  Out came Ivan the Prince into the enchanted garden.

  And Roman waited.

  They all did.

  Friends who had been through so much waited for this moment and she did not let them down.

  As she streaked onto the stage Roman knew the agony behind such gracious, beautiful movements and he respected it.

  Just as she would have supported him had he been a boxer.

  No, Anya might not have liked it but she would not have held him back and he would do the same for her now.

  She was enchanting.

  And if she could forgive him about Celeste, Roman thought, then he could sit through this because there was serious chemistry on stage.

  Anya flirted, no, he corrected himself, Firebird flirted.

  And Mika, no, no, Ivan the Prince courted and embraced her and traced her arms, her legs, her spine, with eyes that loved her.

  How Mika loved her and as Anya turned she was perfection in his arms and he lifted her high with skilful hands that held her thigh.

  Roman cricked his neck.

  He was proud, so proud but also relieved when the interval arrived and drinks were very gratefully received.

  ‘I couldn’t have done it,’ Libby admitted as the women stood and chatted. ‘I’ve always been jealous and wondered whether, if I had pushed myself harder, I could have made it as far as Anya.’ She shook her head. ‘I couldn’t have. Anya is absolutely brilliant and Mika’s on fire tonight.’

  ‘He’s so hot,’ Rachel said.

  ‘He really is,’ Naomi agreed.

  Daniil gestured with his head to Roman and they pulled slightly aside from the group.

  ‘Are you planning something for Anya?’

  They were each other’s mirror. They might be a mirror that had broken many years ago but mirrors could break and still they reflected.

  ‘I have a ring,’ Roman said. ‘I actually had it made at the same time as Nadia’s cross. I was just waiting for the right time.’

  It was the right time, he was sure.

  And it was the right time to be back in his brother’s life.

  They were back. Roman had never been confirmed the elder, but that was their natural order and he could not have stood to have Daniil looking out for him.

  Or Anya.

  ‘Show me.’

  ‘No,’ Roman said. ‘Because then they’ll all come over.’

  They went outside and stood beneath the Firebird sign and lights, and Roman took the box out of his pocket. Daniil looked at the red stone.

  ‘When I went to have Nadia’s cross made I saw this stone. It was pale green then.’

  Daniil thought of Anya, all those years ago, peering at him as his cheek was repaired.

  Anya had belonged to his brother even then.

  It was not pale green now.

  It was a deep red.

  The stone was Alexandrite.

  Discovered in Russia, it was the most elusive and exquisite of stones. It changed colour and was known as Emerald by Day, Ruby by Night.

  As was Anya—ice by day, Firebird tonight.

  ‘Are you nervous about asking her?’ Daniil asked.

  ‘Nyet.’ Roman shook his head.

  ‘Liar...’

  ‘I’m not.’

  He wasn’t.

  They headed back inside and Daniil turned and saw Roman bend his head to the side a couple of times as they took the seat.

  ‘You are nervous,’ Daniil insisted.

  ‘Not about that. I can’t stand Mika...’ Roman admitted. ‘I thought they were just pretty boys in tights.’

  Daniil grinned as he realised the cause of his brother’s tension as they waited for the second act to start.

  * * *

  Anya was tense too.

  She had to be to perform.

  She bit into the chocolate treat and sucked in air, and then rolled t
he foil into a tiny ball.

  She was worried about the cleaners throwing it away so it went into the tiny glass case with the feather.

  She took a small drink and then touched up her lipstick and headed out.

  The orchestra teased and Anya closed her eyes and waited for her time to go on.

  The second act was somehow even more amazing. Anya gave it everything that she had.

  As she danced she wondered if it were possible to live a dancer’s life with Roman by her side. As Ivan lifted her she felt as if she was touching the sky—perhaps she could have it all.

  As the egg cracked open Anya felt as if her heart had opened too.

  And now she understood why she should dance for herself.

  Roman hadn’t been working his way back to her, he had worked his way to a better self.

  And finally he was here.

  * * *

  The applause was deafening.

  And she smiled as she heard him call out to her, ‘Bravo, beautiful woman!’

  Her eyes searched for him in the darkness but it was then that everything went black. She stood there, momentarily blinded, and closed her eyes.

  Then she opened them again, but everything was still black and Anya realised that she was about to faint.

  Ivan the prince caught her.

  But Roman could only see that Mika swept her into his arms.

  The crowd gasped as Tatania dramatically collapsed and was carried from the stage.

  The curtain hurriedly came down and a few moments later an announcement was made that Tatania was fine and had suffered a simple faint after giving her all for the audience.

  Roman was already backstage by the time the announcement was made and it was more than a simple faint because she lay pale and retching.

  The medics were not taking a chance with their star and an ambulance had already been called.

  Mika was holding her head and fanning her face and Roman wanted to rip his stupid feather cap off, but he just knelt down and checked for himself how she was.

  ‘I just need to go home and rest,’ Anya said.

  His was home.

  She had fainted after a performance before but tonight she was bundled into an ambulance with an oxygen mask over her face and there was a teeny stand-off between Mika and Roman about who went with her.

  ‘I’ve got this,’ Roman said, and climbed into the back.

  Had he, though? Anya thought.

  Surely now he would chastise her—would tell her that she needed to take better care of herself, that it had to stop.

  ‘It’s okay, baby,’ he said, and he took her hand.

  They were wheeled into the emergency department and the staff were excited that she had arrived. There were oohs and ahhs over her beautiful costume as Roman dealt with it. He removed her shoes, ballet tights, bandages and make-up, and not once did he tell her off.

  The senior doctor came in and they ran some tests and Roman translated.

  ‘What is he saying?’ Anya asked.

  ‘They are concerned about the wild chanterelles that you ate last night.’

  ‘You poisoned me,’ Anya accused.

  ‘As I pointed out to the doctor, I ate ten times the amount you did and I am fine.’

  ‘Well, you couldn’t even catch flu if you tried,’ Anya said as the doctor left, ‘whereas I have a delicate constitution.’

  And Roman smiled.

  For that was them.

  They knew their dance.

  Roman’s phone rang and it was Daniil. He said they were all on their way to the hospital and asked how Anya was.

  ‘She will be okay,’ Roman said. ‘Hold on for a moment...’ He went out and asked the doctor if Anya could have hot chocolate and the doctor agreed.

  He told his twin of the best café in Paris for hot chocolate and asked him to stop and fetch some for Anya on his way.

  Then he went back in to her. ‘You look better.’

  Roman took down the side of the gurney and she made room with her legs for him to sit on the edge, and still he was not cross.

  ‘There is some colour coming back to your face,’ he said.

  Panic had hit him as he’d raced backstage, but there in the midst of the pandemonium he’d been glad that he’d been beside her, because with or without him this would still have happened.

  She would never have to deal with anything alone again, and for so long she had.

  The weight of her mother’s expectations, the pressure, the demands of her profession, and he wondered about his decision to leave.

  He was still sure that he had been right to do so.

  But she no longer had to face the world alone.

  And when she was at her very worst he made it her best.

  ‘I’ve spoiled everything,’ Anya said. ‘We were all going to go out...’

  ‘We might still,’ Roman said, ‘just without you.’

  And his small smile told her he was joking.

  ‘Or we might just have a little after party here.’

  ‘Some party.’ Anya took in a breath. ‘I honestly don’t know what happened, I felt fine when I was dancing...’

  ‘You were amazing.’

  ‘I think maybe it was just the stress of rehearsals, or maybe...’

  And she closed her eyes because she would not change a part of yesterday. It hadn’t been the conversation or staying up late or making love that had caused this. She had been tense and teary all week, and yesterday had actually helped things.

  ‘Well, I can’t wait any longer,’ Roman said.

  ‘Sorry?’ Anya frowned.

  ‘I’ve waited for many years to say this, and I don’t want to wait another night.’

  He went into his pocket and took out a jewellery box and a faded envelope.

  She went for the envelope first and inside it was a letter. She let out several small cries as she read it.

  Dearest Anya,

  I never wanted to be a burden to you. I know I never said it but I love you.

  I have loved you all my life and I still love you in death.

  Roman

  There were no hearts or kisses, for that was not Roman’s way.

  ‘You were never a burden.’ And then she found out he would have looked after her even in death.

  ‘I made my will out to leave everything to you. Had I died, Dario or one of my comrades would have seen you got this letter and, if possible, the earring that I carried with me wherever I went.’

  And she looked at him as she found out not just that he loved her but that he knew the depth of their love.

  ‘You were by my heart when I jumped out of planes, and you were there with me through war, and when I thought I might die you were with me too.’

  He would not have died without her knowing, and that meant more than the world to Anya. She had not been left behind.

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me this last night?’

  ‘Last night was to clear the air.’

  ‘And what about at the stage door?’ Anya said. ‘You should have told me then before I went on.’

  ‘You did not require my love to dance as you did,’ Roman said. ‘You did that by yourself, for yourself...’

  And she understood him some more.

  With the drip in the back of her hand and her fingers suddenly shaking, it was Roman who opened the box.

  ‘It’s time for us to make it official, Anya. You are my family, always.

  ‘Tomorrow, in sunlight, the stone will be the colour of your eyes. Tonight it is the colour of fire.’

  He did not ask her to marry him.

  He did not need to ask, he just slid the ring onto her finger and kissed it.

 
‘All the years we wasted,’ Anya said with a sob in her voice.

  ‘No. These haven’t been wasted years...’

  They hadn’t been, she realised.

  Roman was so proud and so determined in all that he did and he had made his way back to her, and to his twin, only when he had been ready. He had returned proud to reclaim the life he’d had to leave behind.

  ‘What about babies?’

  ‘Anya, I love you. If that’s what you want, we can look at other ways.’

  ‘What do you want?’

  He had never considered that he might become a father until he had held Nadia.

  Then he’d looked at Anya and had never really considered her a mother.

  Until now.

  Others thought Anya icy, yet he knew her passion and love.

  ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Maybe, one day, we could look at adoption. We could go back to Russia...’ His voice came the closest it ever had to breaking, because he had never thought he might go back, and certainly never to an orphanage. ‘We can work it out.’

  They could now.

  A nurse popped her head around the curtain and it would seem they had visitors.

  ‘I can tell them to wait,’ Roman said. ‘Or to go home.’

  ‘I’d like to see them,’ Anya said.

  She wanted to show them her ring!

  And they all spilled in, the men in suits and beautiful, especially Daniil because he was carrying a tray of hot chocolate, and the women were dressed for an evening at the ballet and looked stunning too.

  And she could have felt drab, given that she was wearing a hospital gown, but she felt the most beautiful woman in the world as she showed them her ring.

  She watched as the twins shook hands and the other men offered congratulations and the women squealed.

  ‘You must come to New York for new year, all of you,’ Sev said, and this time Roman didn’t roll his eyes.

  And Anya would go too. She would because they accepted her. There was no punishment or silent judgment of her predicament tonight.

  They seemed to love her as she was.

  Their engagement was toasted in hot chocolate that Daniil had bought for everyone.

  It was the best after party Anya had ever known.

  The medic came back with some equipment and asked everyone to wait outside, but Roman remained.