Afterwards, they collapsed into each other’s arms. Exhausted, he held her close, kissing her temple, whispering her name like a prayer. “Breanna...”
Vladimir woke abruptly when he heard his cell phone ringing. Blinking in surprise, he saw gray dawn breaking over the clouds. He’d slept all night in Bree’s arms.
He looked down. She was still sleeping, cradled naked against his chest.
He’d lowered his guard and slept with a woman in his arms—something he’d never been able to do with anyone but her. The tension in his shoulders was gone. His head didn’t hurt. His heartbeat was soft and slow. It was the best sleep he’d had since the accident.
Was this what peace felt like?
His phone buzzed again. Getting up quietly from bed, he picked it up from the nightstand and left the bedroom. Closing the door silently behind him, not wanting to wake her, he put the phone to his ear. “Yes?”
“Your Highness.” It was John Anderson, his chief of operations. “The Arctic Oil merger is now urgent. Your brother just had a huge oil find in Alaska. On the land he bought last spring from that Spaniard, Eduardo Cruz.”
“Wait,” Vladimir growled. His hands were shaking as he went down the hall to his office. So much for peace. He could feel his heartbeat thrumming in his neck, hear his own blood rushing in his ears. His brother had that effect on him. He closed the office door. “Go.”
“Sir, if the find is as substantial as it seems, oil might soon flood the market, causing the price to drop....”
Vladimir paced as he listened, clawing back his hair. Usually business calmed him, because he relished a fight. But not when the news involved his brother.
Volodya, Volodya, please wait for me! Closing his eyes, Vladimir could still see his baby brother’s chubby face as he’d toddled after him through the snow those long-ago, hungry winters. Sometimes supplies at the homestead grew lean, and Vladimir had gone out with their father to hunt rabbits. I want to hunt, too. Once, Kasimir had idolized his big brother. Now, he enjoyed taunting and hurting Vladimir any chance he could get. Kasimir would probably be the death of him.
As his COO droned on, Vladimir barely listened. He felt weary. For ten years now, he’d fought this fight. There was no longer any joy in it. He’d taken up hobbies like car racing, risking death for the sake of cutting a few seconds off his time. He’d taken women, in endless, meaningless one-night stands. He’d been starving to feel something. Anything. But lately, even the thrill of cheating death had brought only a tiny blip.
There were no new worlds to conquer. He’d been going through the motions for a long time. He felt nothing.
Not until last night.
Not until Breanna returned to him.
He exhaled. Breanna.
She made him feel, after years of deadness. She’d brought pleasure. Yearning. Anger. Guilt. Desire. All wrapped up in a chaotic ball. He felt as if he’d just woken out of a coma, after years of dull gray sleep.
Perhaps he was incapable of love, with a soul twisted and gnarled like a tree split by lightning. He’d told her the truth: he’d never be the man he’d once been—naive and trusting enough to give away the shirt off his back. Not even for a woman like her.
Barely hearing his COO’s voice, Vladimir looked through the window of his villa’s home office. The bright Hawaiian dawn was burning through the low-swept morning clouds still kissing the green earth. The sky was turning blue, as blue as the sparkling ocean below.
He had the sudden memory of Breanna rising from the waves in the moonlight last night, her short silk robe stuck to her like a second skin as rivulets of water streamed down her breasts to her thighs. Vladimir shuddered, turning instantly hard. Instead of satiating him, making love to her had only increased his hunger.
“...So what should we do, Your Highness?” his COO finished anxiously.
Vladimir blinked, realizing he hadn’t been listening to the man for the past ten minutes. But he suddenly felt bored by business matters—completely bored. Even though it involved his brother. “What is your opinion?”
“We’ll have someone at our Alaska site infiltrate your brother’s mining operation to see if the data is accurate. If it is, we can try to influence the political process to delay their building. We could even consider some kind of sabotage at the mine. Although of course it would in no way be traceable back to you, sir....”
You’re ruthless. And you revel in it. The realization of how low he’d sunk caused Vladimir to flinch. “No.”
“But, Your Highness...”
“I said no.” Clawing back his hair, he paced across his office with his phone at his ear, prowling in circles around his desk.