Oxana tell Chanel exactly what promise she’d extracted from her son over the love thing.
Not until Chanel asked Demyan the only question that really mattered.
“Chanel.”
She turned at the sound of her name on Demyan’s lips.
He stood framed by the light from the hall. He reached and flipped a switch. More golden light flooded the balcony.
“Turn it off,” she said, angling her head away so he could not see the damage tears had done on even the indelible makeup job her mother’s professional artist had applied.
“No. We do not need more shadows in our relationship.”
She swung back to face him head-on, anger making her muscles rigid with tension. “The shadows are all you.”
He nodded, his expression as tortured as she felt, if she could believe the evidence of her eyes.
She wasn’t sure she trusted her own perceptions at all, though, not after how easily he’d taken her in. However, she didn’t think he could fake the parchment-pale of his complexion, the way his black pupils nearly swallowed the espresso irises or the way he breathed in what she would consider panicked gasps in anyone else.
“That day in my lab. It was planned.”
“I needed to meet you. You are not a social person.”
“So Yurkovich Tanner donated five million dollars to my department for research. That’s an expensive introduction.” Though nothing in comparison to what the Yurkovich fortune stood to lose if she had made her claim on the Tanner shares in the company.
“It also ensured you were predisposed to look on me favorably.”
“Your idea, or the king’s?”
“Does it matter?”
“No.”
“You’ve read the will.”
“Oxana told you.”
“I saw you go into the personal archives library on the video monitor feedback.”
“Oh.”
“I spent two hours watching the tapes, trying to find you.”
“We used the secret passages.”
“Yes. You only showed up for brief periods on the video monitors and there were too many extra people in the palace to track you with the infrared body counter and placement.”
“Poor you.”
“Cha...” Her name choked off and he stepped forward, stumbling, though she knew the stone floor was smooth with no hindrances.
“You never needed your glasses.” For anything.
He stopped a couple of feet from her. “I told you that.”
“But I thought you needed them as an emotional crutch.”
“I do not use crutches.”
“No. A man without emotions doesn’t need crutches for them, does he?”
“I am human, damn it, not a puppet. I have emotions.”
“I bet it was the king’s idea to approach me looking like a corporate geek to match my science-nerd personality.”
“He believed I would be too intimidating in my usual way.”
“That man, the corporate shark, he’s part of you.”
“Yes.”
“But he’s not all of you.”
“I thought he was.”
“Until when?” she pushed.
“Until I met you.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“I’ve never meant anything more.”
“You lied to me.”
“I am ruthless when it comes to protecting my country and those I love.”
“I noticed.”
“There is little hope that will change.”
“No. It’s part of your nature. You would have made a very good Cossack.”
“We still have the elite in our army. As tradition dictates, I spent two years training with them before going to university.”
“Wasn’t that Prince Maksim’s job?”
“He wasn’t the oldest son to the king.”
“But he is heir to the throne.”
“Yes.”
“Does that bother you?”
“No. I hate politics.”
“I hate being deceived.”
“I will not do it again.”
“Can you really promise that, with your ruthless nature?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t understand.”
“I think you do.”
If anything, his face paled further. “Don’t, Chanel.”
“Don’t what? Make you admit your vulnerabilities. If you have any, that is.”
“I do.”
“I’m not stupid by any stretch, you know. Legalese may not be science speak, but I understand it well enough.”
“Yes?”
“Yes. Bartholomew Tanner’s will is unambiguous. My marriage to you negated all claim I, or any of my children, had to Yurkovich Tanner.”
Demyan nodded.
“The prenuptial didn’t need to spell that out at all.”
“No.”
“You had that paragraph added as a kind of warning to me, didn’t you?”
He shrugged.
“You also made sure I would be taken care of financially despite the fact that legally I would have no way of pursuing any monetary interests in the future.”
“You are my wife. I
