Bought for Her Innocence(11)

Her skin clammy with sweat, she packed a quick bag, stuffing in underwear, another pair of jeans, a few blouses and the few cosmetics that she owned.

And the diamond pendant, her one precious belonging, that Andrew had given her for her eighteenth birthday.

This was it.

She was saying goodbye to this life. Her pride and her curious weakness when it came to Dmitri... She would have to find a way to deal with it.

It was past eight when she finally reached her mum’s flat. The same frustration built up inside her as she borrowed the keys from old Mrs. Davies, but this responsibility, Jasmine realized, she couldn’t walk away from. Not until one of them was dead.

She cleaned up the one-bedroom flat, emptied the grocery bags and then loaded up the cardboard boxes with empty bottles. She put the check she had made out at the bank in an envelope and left it on the counter.

The bulky box in hand, she had barely made it down the steps when the hairs on her neck stood up, like the antenna on her mother’s old TV.

The long lines of a dark limo slowly materialized under the sadly flickering streetlight, the sleek vehicle a stark contrast against the dirty pavement.

And leaning against it, his long coat fluttering against the wind, his denim-clad legs crossed at his ankles, stood Dmitri. Moonlight illuminated his face in shadows and strips but still enough for her to see the arctic blaze in his eyes.

Soundlessly, he moved toward her and Jasmine let out a yelp, trying to escape him.

The cardboard box slipped from her fingers and thudded to the ground, the bottles causing a loud tinkling sound. Anything she had been about to say fell away from her in a horrified squeak as he lifted her off the ground, threw her over his shoulder, waited for his chauffeur to open the door.

And then threw her onto the long leather seat as if he was dumping out yesterday’s garbage.

Undignified protests sputtering from her mouth, she had barely even straightened on the seat when the limo took off.

“What the hell do you...”

The dark scowl etched on his brow shut her up instantly, his silver-plated watch glinting in the dark as he barked out commands in Greek.

Jasmine pressed her fingers to her temple and forced herself to breathe in and out. She sat up straight and looked out the window, struggling to rein in her temper. Of course, the tinted glass offered up a reflection of the man’s aquiline nose, sculpted cheeks and a mouth made for sin.

He didn’t get off the phone all through their drive through the city. They had left her dirty neighborhood, drove for a long while and finally had crossed the motorway when the limo came to a stop. Even then, he didn’t look at her. Only waited patiently when the door was opened.

Jasmine scrambled out with as much dignity as she could muster, given that he was dragging her with him as if she were a recalcitrant child.

“Oh, wow...” she said, as she finally noticed the sleek lines of the jet that was already idling. Glancing around only now, she saw the acres of empty land stretched out on all sides, a string of lights marking a couple of runways. They were at a private airstrip, miles away from the city.

She pulled at her arm. His fingers dug into her flesh.

“Ow, ow... Dmitri, you’re hurting me.”

He let her go so suddenly and with such force that she half stumbled. She couldn’t believe it was the same man who had fed her pasta with such tenderness. “What is wrong with you?” she yelled.

Fury gripped his features. “You were not supposed to leave the hotel suite. There was a report of a young woman’s body found near the...”

Turning around, he kicked at the ground, causing asphalt to fly around them.

She put her hand on his arm and he tensed. “I was never in any danger.”

“Theos, Jas, do you want to go back to that life? Is that it? You’re just as addicted to the danger and desperation of it as him? Like the whole infernal lot of people I’ve been cursed to know?

“If you are, tell me now. Because I won’t have your death on my conscience, too.”

Andrew. He was talking about Andrew, Jas realized slowly—about Andrew’s lifelong gambling addiction.

How long had he known? Had he found out after he had talked to Noah?

But Jasmine couldn’t bring his name up. Not when the very subject of Andrew seemed to push them both into a dangerous territory. Not when she didn’t trust herself to say something nasty just because Dmitri was here and her brother wasn’t.

Dmitri had had a benevolent godfather who had come for him just at the right time, true. But the whole world knew how hard he and Stavros had worked to turn their godfather’s small factory into a global empire.

While Andrew had only continued to make worse and worse choices.

“I’m not Stavros. I won’t save someone against their own wishes to self-annihilate, Jas. If I walk away now, I will never come back.”

“No, I don’t want to go back,” she answered, all her fury fizzling out at the anguish in his words. “Not for a day. I was angry that you...” Her claim sounded so childish to her own ears. It wasn’t his fault that she was feeling so fragile.

She met his gaze squarely. “I only went back to collect a few things, Dmitri. I was going to beg you to...” She paused, realizing she hadn’t actually come up with a plan except to throw herself at his mercy.

Again.

“Beg me for what?”

“A job. Or something.”

His fury shifted as he assessed her with disbelieving eyes. He ran a hand through his hair. “That’s the first sensible thing you’ve said to me. And you wasted my entire evening.”

She did seem to have a death wish, because the words poured out of her without the basic check her brain was supposed to engage. “An evening of more festivities in Monaco?”

Instantly his expression shuttered, changed. An infinitesimal moment in which she caught a glimpse of something, a hunger, beneath the surface. Just as she had seen in the photo in the newspaper.

When he looked at her again, the careless indifference was back in place. “My activities or my personal life is none of your business, so stay out of it.”

When she dug in her feet, he turned around with a sigh. “And before you waste another few minutes, yes, your life, at least for now, is my business.”

“How, except that I owe you money that I could never repay?”

“Five years ago, when Andrew died, I should have dragged you out of that hellhole. I didn’t, and that decision has cost me a hundred thousand pounds and an ever-increasing amount of havoc on my life. Until I ensure you won’t end up on the streets again, you’ll stay with me.”

Oh, how she wanted to smack the arrogance off his face, but he was right. She had nowhere to go. So she followed him up the stairs and into the...most luxuriously chic aircraft she had ever seen.

Hanging on to her foolish pride because really, no one could expect her to get used to this kind of wealth when she had lived hand to mouth all her life, she tried very hard to act as if she traveled in first-class luxury with a textile tycoon every other day.

If the outside of the Learjet was all sleek lines and thrumming power, the inside was world-class spacious luxury she had only ever seen in glossy magazines. Power seats in cream leather so soft that she was scared of scratching it sat in two different clusters with legroom enough to accommodate a giraffe. Or her.

Two flat-screen monitors whirred out of the ceiling as she watched while the flight attendant rattled off a wine selection, half of which she had never even heard of. Sparkling water was all she had ever allowed herself, before, during or after work, resolved to never blunt her senses in any way.

“Just water for me, thanks,” she finally said, just to stop the woman from figuring out she wasn’t Dmitri’s usual caliber guest.

The moment the thought crossed her mind, she felt ashamed of herself. That she wasn’t sophisticated or educated had never bothered her before.

“Where are we going?” she asked when they settled down.

“We’re not returning. Not unless my business dictates it. You’ll travel with me until I...until you get back on your feet. But not in London, not when you’ll only be tempted to go back to that life.”

Her mum hadn’t cared about Andrew or her for as long as she could remember. Only about her broken dreams and drowning them in alcohol...

Even Andrew’s legacy for her had been crushing debt, debt that had turned her life in a direction she had never wanted it to take.

“There’s something to be said for a clean break, Jas. Believe me.”

Jasmine exhaled roughly, realizing he was right. “Can you please have someone check in on my mum once in a while?”

“Already taken care of.”

Her nerves jangled with excitement and fear and so many more feelings she couldn’t name. But at least there was no regret for the life she was leaving behind.





CHAPTER SIX

DMITRI HAD NEVER considered the private jet owned by Katrakis Textiles small by any standard before tonight. It was not his favorite, as anything—bike, car or flight—that boasted size over speed wasn’t.

But the spacious front cabin with a king-size bed in the rear had served him well on his cross-Atlantic trips, especially when he was traveling on business with a team in tow.

The constantly fidgeting woman sitting across from him, however, made him reconsider this view.

She was making him reconsider too many decidedly sure things he had designed for his life, things that gave him shallow and transient pleasure at the least, things he had become used to...