The Most Coveted Prize(19)

Kiryl grimaced inwardly. He doubted that his father would have agreed.  He would have said that the last place an unwanted son with Romany blood  would be at home would be a royal palace-unless of course it was in the  position of the most lowly of serfs.

"It's your eyes, you see,' Alena continued, unaware of what Kiryl was  thinking. "They are exactly the same colour as the malachite columns,  and when you make love to me,' she told him huskily, "they glow with  green fire, and that tells me that you want me as much as I want you.  Oh, Kiryl you've made me so happy-so much happier than I ever believed  possible. I wish we could stay longer in St Petersburg.'                       
       
           



       

"So do I, but we have to return to London tomorrow.'

"You have business to attend to, I suppose.' Alena pulled a small face.

"I do have business to attend to,' Kiryl agreed. "But that would not  stop me remaining here. No, the reason I want to return to London is  because your brother will also be there, and there is something very  important I need to discuss with him.'

"You mean me? Us?' Alena guessed.

Kiryl nodded his head, and the two of them stood close together whilst  the other sightseers moved past them. For once the magnificence of the  Malachite Room failed to command Alena's full attention and admiration.

"It is only right that I inform your brother of our relationship and my future plans for us.'

Alena felt as though her heart was melting. "He will probably say that we are rushing things,' she warned Kiryl.

"And I will convince him of how vitally important our relationship is,'  Kiryl assured her. "Just as once we return I intend to show you how  important you are to me.'

Listening to him, and much as she loved the Hermitage, all Alena wanted  was the privacy of the bedroom they were sharing, and the intimacy of  his possession of her body. "Let's go back to the island,' she  whispered.

The look he gave her made her heart race and her body ache deliciously in anticipatory delight.

Later, lying in his arms whilst he traced a delicate pattern of sensual  pleasure over her naked body as he leaned over her in the bed, making  her body quicken again even though they had already made love once since  their return, Alena told him helplessly, "I love you so much.'

"Good,' Kiryl replied, cupping the soft warmth of her breast and kissing  the pulse at the base of her throat, before teasing her with nibbling  little kisses that sensitised the receptive flesh of her shoulder and  neck. "That means that my plan is working.'

"What plan?' Alena demanded as she tried valiantly to remain as in control of her arousal as he obviously was of his.

"The plan to make you love me, of course,' he responded mock-seriously.

"Oh, so you planned to make me love you?' Alena murmured back. She was  having trouble concentrating on their wordplay because of the effect  Kiryl's kisses were having on her, stealing away her self-control.

"Helplessly, wholly and besottedly,' Kiryl confirmed. "To the point  where you would give yourself completely to me and deny me nothing.'

"Mmm  … ' was the only response Alena could manage, and even that was lost  beneath the suddenly fierce male possession of Kiryl's mouth of her own  as his knee nudged her thighs apart and her body melted with eager  anticipation.





CHAPTER EIGHT


AS SHE stepped into the taxi, ahead of her meeting with Dolores Alvarez  at the charity's headquarters, Alena could feel nervous butterflies  filling her tummy. In four hours and ten minutes' time exactly Kiryl  would be meeting Vasilii at the apartment, and then he would tell him  about them.

Kiryl had insisted that she wasn't to say anything to Vasilii about  their love for one another until then. It was his duty and his pleasure  to tell her half-brother of what had happened between them, he had  insisted, and Alena had conceded that role to him quite willingly. It  had been hard, though, not to say anything. The temptation just to speak  Kiryl's name out loud for the pleasure of feeling it on her tongue and  hearing it in the air was so strong-even if she only had to do so for a  couple of days.

Now, though, with Vasilii back from his business negotiations, Kiryl had  an appointment to see him this afternoon, and whilst she was nervous-it  was important to her that the two men she loved so much got on well  -she was also excited and happy. She wanted their love to be out in the  open so that they could make plans. A small private wedding was what she  wanted-not a fuss-and then  …  and then she and Kiryl would have the rest  of their lives to spend together.

Alena's toes curled into the warmth of her boots at the thought of such  bliss, but the ring of her mobile interrupted her happy plans. The call  brought news that her morning meeting had had to be cancelled as Dolores  had gone down with a winter vomiting bug and was confined to her bed.

Leaning forward, Alena instructed the cab driver to take her back to the  hotel. She would while away the time whilst she waited for Kiryl to  arrive in reading the latest reports from those people overseeing the  charity's projects. She was still determined to convince Vasilii that  she was mature enough to take over the charity now.

As she let herself into the apartment the sound of male voices came from  the half-open door of the room in the apartment that her brother used  as his office. That wasn't unusual-but the unexpected discovery that one  of those voices belonged to Kiryl was enough to stop Alena in her  tracks. The now familiar joy of knowing he was close cascaded happily  through her. She had no idea what had brought Kiryl to the apartment so  far ahead of his appointment with her half-brother, but her heart still  sang. Perhaps he had been so impatient to be with her that he had  brought his meeting with Vasilii forward, so that he could surprise her  on her own return? She started to walk towards the door.                       
       
           



       



* * *

Oblivious to Alena's return, inside the room Kiryl faced Alena's half-brother as he waited to deliver his ultimatum.

He had changed his appointment with Vasilii deliberately, so that he  could see him without Alena being there. That way he would be long gone  before Alena got back from her meeting at the charity's offices and it  would be left to her brother to tell her about the reality of Kiryl's  relationship with her and its purpose.

Alena.

Kiryl was caught off-guard by the sudden jolt to his heart caused by the  thought of her. That should not have happened. It had only happened  because he had let it happen-because somehow he had let Alena slip into  his thoughts, just as he had done last night, lying alone in bed without  her, his body aching treacherously for her, dangerously aware of how  empty his bed had felt without her lying within the curve of his arm,  her soft breath warming his skin.

Alena-with her open and total giving of herself to him without holding  back. Alena-who loved him. Love? What was that? Nothing. And if his bed  felt empty without her-well, he would soon replace her, Kiryl told  himself. She meant nothing to him as a person, after all. She was simply  a pawn to be used and then discarded.

He had no emotional feelings. How could he? Emotional feelings were a  weakness. From his past he heard his father's jeering laughter as he  looked down at him, lying in the gutter, trying to conceal his misery.

"You are your Romany mother's child, all right. You have her foolish  emotional weakness. No true son of mine would ever show such weakness.'

His mother's child with his mother's weaknesses. Weaknesses that had to  be crushed into oblivion. Only by sharing his father's lack of emotion  could he stand taller than him. And only by doing that could he fulfil  the vow he had made to himself lying in that gutter.

So why was he hesitating? Why was everything he had worked for  single-mindedly and for so long being threatened by his weakness now?

Why was he allowing himself to even acknowledge, never mind listen to,  whatever it was inside him that gripped him with the need to simply turn  and walk away. Why was this unwanted voice inside him urging him to  change his mind? Why was this weakness-his mother's weakness

-interfering with his plans now? Was it because he was being tested to  see if he would be tempted to weaken? If so then that temptation was a  test he must endure and survive. He must reach his goal-if he failed  then he would never be able to call himself the man the young Kiryl had  promised himself he would be. The man who would succeed where the father  who had despised him had failed.

And yet still he could not rid himself completely of the image inside  his head of Alena looking at him, her silver-grey eyes luminous with  love.