Bought: For His Convenience or Pleasure?

‘How is—how is Arina?’ Finally plucking up the courage to enquire about the one thing she was desperate to know most of all, Ellie knew her voice was barely above a whisper.

Nikolai’s frozen glance did not thaw for even a second. ‘Do you not think you relinquished the right to know that five years ago?’

‘I never stopped caring about her…no matter what you might think!’

‘But you obviously did not care enough, or you would not have deserted her like you did!’

‘I didn’t mean to just leave her like that. You make it sound like it was a pre-meditated decision, and it wasn’t! I was hurt and traumatised from the accident, and for the first time in my life I let my father take charge and look after me. Was that so terrible? If you had seemed less closed-off and unapproachable, I would have talked to you about it… But—’

‘What?’

‘I knew you were hurting badly yourself…emotionally, I mean. You’d lost your brother…why wouldn’t you be? I know what a loss like that is like. The last thing I expected was that you would want me to stay on and take care of Arina. How could we possibly coexist under the same roof when it was clear that you hated me after what happened? Besides, I thought your wife might want to play more of a part in Arina’s upbringing when I left.’

‘Veronika and I are no longer married. We divorced not long after you disappeared.’

All the muscles in Nikolai’s face seemed to freeze for a moment, and Ellie felt genuine shock ripple through her at his news.

‘However I might have appeared,’ he continued gravely, ‘you should have put Arina’s welfare first…not your own! You simply ran away—like the coward I now know you to be!’

The comment was like a sharp-bladed dagger plunged into Ellie’s chest, and the pain that ensued took her breath away.

‘I’m not a coward!’ She slammed her hand down hard on the table and the glassware and crockery rattled. It felt as if every pair of eyes in the room was on her, but she was sick with misery and hurt at the unfairness of Nikolai’s cruel remark.

She understood his need to vent—he must have been storing up resentment over the years, desperately needing someone to blame. But Ellie had suffered too.

‘Is there no understanding or forgiveness in your heart at all?’ she appealed. ‘It’s been five years, Nikolai! Do you honestly think it will help you come to terms with your grief any better by holding onto blame?’

It was the first time she had used his name, and she saw the flicker of surprise in his eyes.

‘The answer to the first part of your question is no. There is no forgiveness in my heart where you are concerned, Elizabeth! I trusted you and you paid me back with nothing but deceit! You abandoned us…not caring what happened and clearly thinking only of your own position!’

Her stomach clamped in a vice of pain, Ellie glanced forlornly round at the other diners in the chic hotel restaurant, imagining she saw only pleasure and happiness reflected on their faces—states of mind that were a million miles away from what she was currently experiencing.

Inhaling deeply, she turned back to Nikolai. ‘How did I deceive you? I only left because I was hurt and in shock. Since when has that become a crime? And you’re wrong if you think I didn’t care about what you and Arina were going through. Especially Arina! There’s not a day that’s gone by when I haven’t wondered how she is! I’m so, so sorry if I added to her suffering and yours by going away. What more can I say?’

‘You ask how you deceived me?’ Nikolai drawled, the low-pitched timbre of his arresting voice sending an explosion of hot little shivers down Ellie’s spine. ‘Well…I will tell you. It is my belief that at the time of the accident you were having an affair with my brother.’

‘What?’

‘Not only were you having an affair, but you were also planning to elope with him—taking the baby with you! It is my belief that is why you were in the car together that day!’

‘That’s ludicrous!’

‘Is it, Ellie?’

His unexpected use of the shortened version of her name made Ellie stare at him for a suspended moment. Then the adrenaline flooding her body after his unbelievable words kicked in, and she felt quite ill at the implications that crowded in on her.

‘How do you know?’ Nikolai suggested with deadly softness, his gaze making a dazed prisoner of hers. ‘When you say you cannot remember anything? You two always seemed pretty close, and what other reason would you have had for agreeing to drive him that day? If he had wanted to go somewhere alone he would have rung for a cab…not taken you with him!’

A small helpless groan left Ellie’s throat, and she shook her head in frustration and misery at the yawning space in her mind where her memory should be. ‘Look…I know I can’t remember what happened that day, why I should have been in the car with him and Arina, but I’d swear on my life that your conclusion is a million miles away from the truth!’

The returning dark, condemning gaze on her companion’s face said he didn’t believe her, and Ellie’s spirits sank even lower. No wonder he was furious with her if he thought that she’d been having an intimate relationship with his brother and planning to run away with him, taking the baby with them!

‘And you’re wrong about us being close. I offered Sasha comfort and support after my sister died, that’s all! And after you suggested that I move into the Park Lane house and look after Arina full-time you know how infrequent his visits were. Sometimes he could be gone for weeks on end!’

‘There is something else.’

Ellie hardly dared breathe.

‘A valuable jewel was found in the wreckage of the car after the accident—a diamond necklace belonging to my mother that I kept in a locked casket in my bedroom. You must have heard Sasha arguing with me about money before I left to go to the office. Obviously it was stolen to help fund your new life together! Did the two of you plan the theft together, or was that something you decided on all by yourself?’

Laying her palms down on the fine linen tablecloth, Ellie desperately needed something to anchor her. All of a sudden her world felt like a wild storm-tossed sea, and she was drowning in it. Breathing out a harsh breath, she made herself look Nikolai straight in the eyes.

‘Haven’t you been listening to me at all? Sasha and I weren’t having an affair, and I know nothing about any necklace being stolen! I know you won’t believe me, because I can’t prove it, but I do know my own nature—and I would cut off my hand before I took anything that wasn’t mine from anybody!’

Nikolai shrugged. ‘Unfortunately, Ellie, all the evidence seems to suggest that you are indeed guilty. It is not just the necklace. Other things went missing from the house around that time too. And the fact that you disappeared so suddenly after the inquest would make anyone suspicious! Your father must have known what you had planned, and he took you away so that you would escape punishment! Who knows? Perhaps he even helped you steal the necklace and those other things?’

‘No! Is that why you searched for me?’ Her voice was hoarse now, and Ellie’s hand moved nervously against her throat. ‘Because you wanted to prosecute me for theft as well as blame me for the accident?’

‘If not you, Ellie…then your father! He has spent time in prison before for theft, has he not?’

The Russian sighed, as though it was all a mere formality, and Ellie’s blood ran colder than any ice-packed river as she looked into that handsome, unforgiving face.

‘What would you do in my position?’ he asked. ‘I have been both deceived and betrayed. Do you not think I deserve to be compensated in some way?’

‘You can’t involve my father! He’s done nothing…I know he hasn’t! And he’s not a well man! Going to prison again would likely kill him!’

‘How dramatic you are! I see there is indeed fire beneath that deceptively cool air you exude.’

‘Don’t mock me! If you’re so set on accusing me of crimes I know nothing about let alone have participated in, and if you want compensation—then perhaps there is a way I can somehow pay you back? We should talk…work something out. I’ll do anything as long as it doesn’t involve my father! Please, Nikolai… Whatever you decide, leave him out of it!’

CHAPTER THREE

STUDYING the flawless buttermilk complexion of the lovely face before him, and steeling himself against her heartfelt plea, Nikolai sensed a renewed sting of fury and something perhaps equally disturbing but more personal sweep through him at the thought of Elizabeth with his brother.

Before he knew it, a blood-heating memory surfaced inside him, of an unforgettable encounter with her the day before the accident. It had been evening, the baby had long since been put to bed, and Nikolai had been looking over some important documents concerning a meeting he was due to attend the next afternoon. There was a lot of small print and equally as much red tape to wrestle with. Usually he didn’t flinch for a second over such tasks, however tedious, but at that moment a world of onerous responsibility had weighed him down like an iron cloak across his shoulders, and he had longed to throw it off.

He had been groomed to take over his father’s multimillion-pound oil empire when he should have been enjoying his youth—just as Sasha had been allowed to enjoy his. He had spent every minute of his day dealing with the complexities and demands of running a hugely successful business. All of a sudden the realisation had come to Nikolai that he was fatigued and disenchanted, and that the only thing he really longed for right then was his freedom… And not just from his sense of duty and responsibility. Veronika and he had barely been speaking to each other, and on the rare occasions when they were actually home at the same time lived in a state of near excruciating stalemate—neither of them having the time or energy to bring the increasingly brittle marriage to its deserved and grateful end. Nikolai had long suspected she might be seeing someone else.

Unexpectedly, Elizabeth had knocked on the door, shaking him out of his agonising introspection, and he had been grateful. She had brought him a cup of tea made just the way he liked it—black with sugar and lemon. When she had first arrived at the house to work he had been instantly drawn to her warmth and shyness, and her eagerness to learn new things. When she had exposed an interest, he had personally schooled her in the intricate art of making his favourite beverage in the highly decorated brass Samovar that had originated in Moscow and had belonged to Nikolai’s great-great-grandmother.

Her thoughtful gesture in bringing him the tea, and the radiance of her presence, had acted like a soothing balm to Nikolai’s soul, and he recalled smiling up at her with much more warmth than usual, his worries temporarily forgotten. He remembered Elizabeth placing the mug carefully on the side of the desk, and how fascinated he’d suddenly become with the graceful contours of her small, pretty hand as she’d uncurled it from the porcelain. A powerful desire had consumed him to discover if the flawless texture fulfilled the idea of satin and silk, as its appearance so alluringly suggested.

Compelled by some irresistible force he hadn’t been able to fight, Nikolai had reached out and cupped his palm over her knuckles, momentarily holding her captive. A bolt of electricity had harpooned through him like lightning, and Elizabeth had been equally affected. Her sweet breath had whispered over him like hushed gossamer silk, and Nikolai had gazed into her eyes and seen the same helplessly wild longing that he had known must blaze in his own hot glance.

‘By all the saints!’ Before he’d known it he’d been rising to his feet and cupping the back of her head, to free the pale ivory comb that confined her hair. It had fallen onto her shoulders like warm summer rain, drifting softly onto a sunlit meadow, and trickled through Nikolai’s fingers like smooth, silken skeins of pure spun gold. He had caught his breath in sheer delight, the parameters of his world narrowing down to just the vision of her lovely face. His senses on fire, he had touched his lips to hers, finally drinking at the exquisite well that promised to satisfy his thirst and heal his wounds like no other…

Wrenching his mind free of the distracting and stirring memory, Nikolai forced himself to return to the present. The fact was—if his suspicions were correct—the lovely face and bewitching but treacherous lips before him had also been caressed by his brother, and it made him wonder if he had imagined the mutually hungry response and naked need in her eyes that day five years ago? Or was it simply that Ellie, as she called herself now, was a girl who took pleasure in teasing men with her beauty and sexuality just because she could?