inclined her head. ‘Of course.’
‘No further input you’d like to add?’
She didn’t miss a beat. ‘Nothing you’d want to hear.’ Not the best exit line...yet there was a small degree of satisfaction in having had the last word.
And in doing so, she failed to see Alexei’s lips quirk with mild amusement.
Natalya Montgomery was the antithesis of the carefree young woman he’d once known. Now she rarely smiled in his presence, which shouldn’t concern him, yet it did, for he could too easily recall the way her voice would subside into a husky purr as he pleasured her. The sweet slide of her mouth when she caressed his body, teasing, tasting with such delicacy it drove him mad...until he took control, and it was she who gasped as he used his mouth to trace a tortuous path to the apex between her thighs, edging them gently apart to savour the acutely sensitive clitoris, using his tongue to drive her wild with need as she begged for his possession. And cried out as he moved over her and surged in deep as they both became swept up in the throes of a passion so intense there was only them...devoid of sense of time or place. So completely lost in an acutely sensual climax.
Alexei had contemplated for ever, his ring on her finger, a home, children...the complete package.
Only for everything to suddenly and inexplicably change.
Alexei leant back in his office chair and idly took in the cityscape, brilliantly clear on a mild summer morning. Beyond the many varied buildings the sky and sea appeared to meld as one.
The past couldn’t be changed. There was only the present, and the future. Together with a plan...one he was determined to win.
IT WASN’T SURPRISING the media channelled social and business reports around Alexei’s every move...or so it appeared.
He was the new man in town. Successful mogul, ruggedly attractive with a dark earthy quality that had the social set flooding him with invitations.
Very few of which he chose to accept, preferring two prominent events, the proceeds of which aided worthy children’s charities.
Both events drew national media attention, and resulted in photographic evidence of his presence with a different glamorous socialite clinging to his side. Each almost visibly simpering at having gained his notice.
Instructions for flowers...specifically roses...to be despatched to each socialite with the following message...
My personal appreciation for an enjoyable evening.
Really?
How personal was personal?
As if Natalya cared.
Although he did, in her eyes, redeem himself slightly by gifting a sizable donation to each nominated charity.
Laudable, Natalya conceded, or calculated...and mentally derided the latter as prejudicial, in spite of the fact he ranked numero uno on her list of least favourite people.
On the other hand she had to admit he worked long hours, for it soon became apparent he was the first to arrive each morning and the last to leave. No one could achieve what he managed on a nine-to-five schedule. A factor which had obviously enabled him to reach his current level of success.
His prominence in the business sector seemed to grow with each passing day, as did the respect of his peers.
Everything her father could...and should have had if he’d paid more attention to business instead of frittering company funds with magnanimous abandon.
Three weeks in, Natalya had managed to assume an admirable professionalism—no matter what Alexei threw at her.
And he did. Frequently, without warning.
If he was bent on testing her, she managed to rise to the occasion, and derived a certain satisfaction in holding her own...professionally.
Personally? Not so much.
As hard as she tried, she couldn’t fault him. And she wanted to, badly.
Staff admired his business nous...especially the men. While the female staff sprang to sparkling attention every time Alexei appeared within sight.
Something Natalya chose to ignore, without much success. A fact which irked her unbearably.
She was over him. Had been for years.
So why did he enter her dreams and force a vivid reminder of what they’d once shared?
It was crazy.
This Alexei bore little resemblance to the man to whom she’d gifted her body...dammit, her soul.
Then he’d surrounded her with his warmth, his affection. Love, she amended, prepared to stake her life on it.
A time when she’d thought to hold the world in her arms, when nothing and no one could take it away.
Yet he had. And she hadn’t been able to pick up the shattered pieces of her life.
The many nights she’d lain awake in tears searching helplessly for a reason why. Hoping, praying for a phone call, text, email...any form of contact that would provide an explanation.
Yet none had appeared, and slowly she’d managed to rebuild her life. Vowing she’d never let another man get close enough to melt her frozen heart.
There were friends, the trusted, tried and true kind, of whom Aaron was one. Ivana, her mother, another she’d trust with her life. Leisl, her BFF, who had married and now lived with her husband in Austria, with whom she kept in regular contact via social media, Anja, registered nurse and cosmetician to a leading Sydney dermatologist.
Acquaintances, of whom there were many, but not one of with whom she would lay bare her innermost thoughts.
The insistent ring of her smartphone dismissed any further reflection as she checked caller ID, picked up and briskly intoned, ‘Natalya.’
‘I’ll require your presence this evening.’
Alexei issuing a statement, not a request. And there was no reason whatsoever for the faint shivery sensation feathering down her spine at the sound of his voice.
‘I may have made other arrangements.’ May ensured it wasn’t exactly a fabrication. She even managed to sound suitably regretful.
‘Cancel them.’
Just like that? ‘If you’d given me more notice,’ she began, only to have him cut her words short.
‘Have you neglected to recall the terms of your salary package?’
Really? As if she could forget. ‘Is it too much to expect a degree of courtesy?’ Sweet she could do, albeit with a touch of saccharine.
For an instant she braced herself for his comment, only to feel
