Ruthless Russian, Lost Innocence(30)

‘You look beautiful,’ he greeted her quietly. Three simple words, but the slight roughness of his voice turned the compliment into a sensual caress that made the tiny hairs on her skin stand on end, and the gleam beneath his heavy lids evoked a slow-burning fire deep in her pelvis.

‘Thank you.’ Did that breathless, sexy voice really belong to her? When he drew out a chair she sat down thankfully, and took her time unfolding her napkin while she fought for composure.

‘Would you like champagne?’ Vadim lifted a bottle of Krug from the ice bucket, but Ella shook her head and quickly filled her glass with water from the jug on the table.

‘Water will be fine, thanks,’ she murmured, blushing at his mocking smile that told her he understood her determination to keep a clear head this evening. He trapped her gaze and she found it impossible to look away, the tension between them almost tangible until suddenly, shockingly, a figure walked into the room and the sensual spell was broken.#p#分页标题#e#

‘Ah-dinner,’ Vadim announced, walking around the table to take his place opposite her. ‘Tak-Sin is one of the best Thai chefs in London. I hope you’re hungry,’ he added, when the man pushed a trolley laden with a variety of dishes over to the table.

‘When you said you’d ordered dinner, I assumed it would be delivered in plastic cartons,’ Ella murmured wryly, her taste buds stirring as Tak-Sin placed a bowl of clear, fragrant soup in front of her. She smiled at the chef, who promptly reeled off the names of the dishes he was placing on the table.

‘Gai phadd prek, goong preaw wann…’

‘He doesn’t speak much English,’ Vadim explained, when she looked at him helplessly. ‘The first dish is chicken with green peppers, and that one is prawns with sweet and sour vegetables. This is some sort of beef dish-I think…’

‘Well, it looks and smells gorgeous, so I guess the names don’t matter,’ Ella said as she picked up her spoon and tasted the soup. The food was nectar to her empty stomach, and she spent the next ten minutes sampling each of the dishes with such concentration that Vadim smiled.

‘I’m glad to see you enjoy your food. Most of the women I know seem to survive by nibbling on lettuce leaves and the occasional breadstick.’

‘I guess I’m lucky that I can eat what I like and never gain weight,’ Ella said with a shrug. ‘But the downside is that I’ll probably always be scrawny and flat-chested.’

‘I would describe you as slender, rather than scrawny.’ Vadim paused and trailed his eyes over her slim shoulders and the delicate upper slopes of her breasts revealed above the neckline of her dress. ‘And although your breasts are small they suit your tiny frame. I think it’s a pity that so many young women have breast implants and end up looking as though they’ve stuffed a couple of footballs under their clothes. I definitely prefer the natural look,’ he added softly, his eyes gleaming wickedly when Ella blushed.

Trying not to dwell on the hordes of women he had dated in the past, and desperate to steer the conversation away from the size of her breasts, she seized on the first thing that came into her head. ‘I believe your company is the biggest mobile phone company in Russia, and now has a major stake in the European market? How did you start out selling phones?’

‘I actually started out selling Russian dolls. Yes, really.’ Vadim laughed when Ella looked at him disbelievingly. ‘Matryoshka dolls-you’ve probably seen them; they’re made of wood, usually about seven in a set, and they fit one inside another from the smallest to the biggest. When I left the army the political situation in Russia was changing, and in the early days of post-communism it was possible for the first time to set up a private business.’ He paused to take a sip of champagne before continuing. ‘I was working as a porter at a hotel; the wages were not good, and I was desperate to escape the life of poverty and drudgery that had been my father’s miserable existence.’

Vadim’s face hardened. ‘I would have done anything-and, trust me, there was a thriving black market operated by criminal gangs who lured young, dissatisfied men into their fold with the promise of easy money. But I was lucky.’ He shrugged. ‘At the hotel I met a German businessman who owned a chain of toy shops across Europe. One day he asked me about the traditional Russian dolls he had seen, and voiced an interest in stocking them in his shops. By that evening I had sourced a supply of dolls and negotiated a deal with Herr Albrecht to act as his supplier. That was the beginning of my career. Within a couple of years I had made enough money to be able to invest in other ventures. The gap in the mobile phone industry was waiting to be filled, and I seized the opportunity.’#p#分页标题#e#