The Most Coveted Prize(6)

Just as Vasilii would have insisted in the same situation, Alena knew.  Such behaviour might be considered by some to be unconventional, but in  the world in which her brother moved those men who were the most  successful often made their own rules and ignored convention.

"Of course if you want us to tell him that you would prefer him to see him another time  … ?'

Alena thought swiftly. It was true that already she could feel a frisson  of nervous energy jittering through her tummy at the thought of the  responsibility she would be taking on in agreeing to meet this would-be  donor. But if she wanted to be taken seriously as a woman whose maturity  could be relied upon then she had to behave accordingly.

Straightening her spine, she shook her head. "No. I will meet him now.'

"I was hoping you'd say that. Thank you. This donation would mean such a  lot to us. Especially as it would be a regular annual income,  guaranteed for the next five years. We've asked him to wait in the  boardroom-I'll take you there now. And of course I'll be on hand with  you, to answer any technical questions he might have.'

Alena gave her a grateful look.

The charity's boardroom had windows that overlooked the street outside.  It was decorated in a businesslike and smart colour palette of  off-whites and greys shading to black, its leather furniture showing  subtle gleams of brushed steel. Its appearance was very much in  accordance with the accepted contemporary look apart from the fact that  its table was round rather than rectangular. It was the photographs  displayed on the room's walls that caught the attention, though:  photographs of children, some of them taken by children and as a result  slightly out of focus.

They were haunting, strike-at-the-heart photographs that told a story of  how a girl in the poorest of circumstances could become a young woman  who could hold her head high because of the education and support she  had received from this charity.

Normally it was to these photographs and this story that Alena's  attention was drawn whenever she entered this room. Her mother had  chosen these photographs herself, and every time she looked at them  Alena felt almost as though she could feel her mother in the room with  her.

Today, though, it wasn't the photographs that were the focus of her  immediate attention. Instead it was the man standing in front of the  windows, outlined by the light coming in through them, his features  shadowed and hidden. Alena didn't need to see those features to  recognise him. Her body and her senses had recognised him immediately.  Kiryl.





CHAPTER THREE


AFTER the initial shock, which had frozen her to the spot, a feeling not  unlike that she had felt as a child experiencing her first roll  ercoaster ride raced through Alena, leaving her powerless. Excitement  and fear gripped her insides in equal measure, horrified dread fighting  with exhilaration as her heart plunged downwards and then soared up  again.

Was it merely a coincidence that Kiryl was here? Her heart spun dizzily  like a plate spinning clown or a magician. Calm down, she warned  herself. Of course it was a coincidence. She wouldn't be doing herself  any favours as the adult she wanted to be if she allowed herself to  think otherwise. Kiryl simply wasn't the kind of man who would try to  impress a woman in such a way. Every instinct she had told her that. It  was simply coincidence that he was here.

She didn't know whether telling herself that made her feel better or  worse. The truth was that she no longer knew what to feel. Or what she  actually did feel. He moved slightly, so that the light now fell on him.  His expression was unreadable, his green eyes gleaming, and the  movement of his body as he came towards her reminded her of the  deliberate stalking of a powerful, sleek-muscled hunting animal before  it made a controlled leap on its chosen prey.

"Alena, this is Mr Andronov,' Dolores began formally.

"I  … '

I know, Alena had been about to say, but Kiryl forestalled her, saying  politely, "Miss Demidova, thank you for finding the time to see me. I  appreciate it.'

She felt faint, dizzy, light-headed-as though her body and her senses  had been whirled about in a giant fairground machine and then flung into  freefall.                       
       
           



       

Kiryl was reaching for her hand. She had a reactive, defensive, almost  childish desire to hide her hands behind her back, so that he couldn't  touch her, such was her immediate and intense awareness of what any kind  of physical intimacy between them might do to her. Was it only this  morning that she had sworn to herself she was in control of her own  reactions to him? How deluded she had been.

Dolores was watching her, waiting for her to shake Kiryl's hand.  Reluctantly she extended her own, shielding her eyes from his inspection  as she did so, not wanting him to read the vulnerability she feared  they would betray.

His hand engulfed hers, his fingers strong and warm, curling round it,  holding it and her captive. Against her will her body remembered how he  had held her the previous day, seeking out the pulse in her wrist and  then  …

swallowing quickly against the heady fizz of sensual excitement rushing  up inside her, she spoke. "Dolores tells me that you are considering  becoming a donor to our charity.' It was all Alena could manage to say.  She must be sensible and mature. She must think not just first but only  of her mother's charity, and the debt of responsibility she owed it.

"Yes,' he confirmed increasing the tension she was already feeling when  he went on, "I thought we could discuss the matter over lunch.'

"I  … ' On the point of saying that she had another engagement, Alena saw  the hopeful and pleased look in the gaze Dolores had fixed on her, and  remembered that she had told her CEO that she had a completely free day.

"It would give me an opportunity to learn more about the charity and its  work-and about your commitment to it. It would be a shame if you were  unable to spare the time, as I shal be leaving the country very soon on  business.'

Was he testing her? Daring to suggest that she wasn't committed to her mother's charity?

"Yes, of course.' She gave in, adding quietly, "I am free to have lunch with you.'

"excellent. I took the liberty of assuming your acceptance and have arranged things accordingly-if you are ready?'

Ready for what? A business lunch, or  … ? Stop thinking like that, Alena  warned herself. She must think of this purely as a business exercise

-a means by which she could show her half-brother that she was capable  of controlling her inheritance. The fact that Kiryl could affect her so  dangerously, so sensually, was a vulnerability she must conceal from  both him and her brother.

"Yes. Yes, I'm ready,' she agreed, giving Dolores what she hoped was a  calm and reassuring smile as Kiryl held open the boardroom door for her.  She could see that Dolores looked relieved by her acceptance of Kiryl's  request that she have lunch with him. The CEO had indicated that  Kiryl's donation was likely to be an extremely generous and ongoing one,  and one that they could not afford to risk losing.

To walk through the door she had, of course, to walk past him. The  discreet scent of his cologne couldn't mask the scent of him-at least  not from her. Her body reacted immediately and intensely to it, her  nipples rising into hard peaks of sexual arousal to push impatiently  against the constriction of her pretty satin and lace bra. For a  dangerous heartbeat she almost lifted her hand to cover her own  betrayal, her face flooding with colour as she recognised how easily she  could have given herself away.

What was it about this man and only this man that gave him the power to  affect her as no other man had ever done? She could feel the wild,  reckless surge of her own desire to know the answer to that question,  and was equally aware of the far more cautious and conservative side of  her nature that urged her not to get involved in a situation that  instinct told her she could not control.

It was just a lunch she had agreed to, she reminded herself as Dolores  escorted them both to the lift. Nothing more. And a business lunch at  that. The fact that he was considering making a donation to her mother's  charity was merely a coincidence.

But, despite telling herself that, once they were alone inside the lift  an impulse she couldn't control had her asking shakily, "What made you  choose my mother's charity for your donation?'

The uncertainty in her voice, combined with the colour coming and going  in her face, pleased Kiryl-although of course he was not going to let  her see that. It confirmed what his male instincts had already told him,  and that was that she was vulnerable to him as a woman. He liked that.  He liked it very much indeed. It was time to play with her a little  now-to unsettle and unnerve her whilst holding out a tiny piece of bait  to tempt her closer.