The Marriage Ultimatum (City of Dreams Series) (13 page)

“Sabrina, if you’re saying no, say it. Now. If you don’t want this, it will be…punishing, but…” He lifted his gaze to hers. He could not make himself shrug because a shrug meant he was unconcerned and he very much cared what her response would be.

He waited, his body tensing even more if that were possible as she ran the tip of her tongue across her lower lip and took a breath.

Before he’d had her, he might have walked away. But now, now he knew her and he wanted more. He had not had his fill yet. Not by a long shot.

“I’m not saying no.” Her eyes fluttered shut.

He smiled then. “Is that a yes?”

She opened her eyes. They were deeply green and clung to his. “What would I be saying yes to?”

“To this.” His gaze flashed over her body and she shivered as fast in reaction. “Sex. Us,” he said.

“Is this part of the deal where we are the fictional reunited couple?”

“No, this is what it is. Don’t blur the lines, Sabrina.”

****

He stood before her, still fully clothed but with the outline of his erection clearly visible against his jeans. She was splayed before him on the bed, virtually defenseless but he wasn’t forcing her.

It was just sex, he said, and that was what he wanted.

But was it just sex for her? He was her first lover. That must be why her emotions were all over the place, why she craved his touch like an addict. She knew that her friends experienced less than memorable first times. She’d heard those first lovers figured in her friends’ lives for only a couple of days or even a few hours never to be seen again.

The truth was what she was feeling had everything to do with Vlad’s exceptional skills in bed. She was infatuated with how he could make her feel.

So therefore, it was just sex for her, too.

And she wanted more of it.

She opened her arms and tugged him down on top of her on the bed. The warm, heavy weight of his body, the hard pressure of his arms as they went around her, felt so good, like coming home.

“Yes,” she whispered into his throat.

Chapter 10

Getting Schooled

Apparently, when you were Vladimir Grigory, doors opened with a minimum of fuss and with a maximum of, “Is there anything else I can do for you, sir?” And thereby the preschool issue that Sabrina had agonized over for months was resolved with a phone call.

Vlad agreed with Sabrina’s choice of school after he’d gone to the trouble of reading up on the numerous options in Manhattan. Of course, they were only options if the lucky child were accepted. Vlad never concerned himself with that possibility.

“The focus is on social play and the mix of kids is impressive here,” he said and Sabrina was shocked that he’d made the effort to do the research, and then was even more amazed that he agreed with her conclusions without her even having to press an argument.

He’d even traveled with them to tour the school and to meet the headmistress. She’d been floored by his level of interest until once again, she reminded herself that he was playing a role. There was no way he would be seen as less than a devoted parent now. He was playing his part to the hilt.

Sabrina was playing her role, too. It was ridiculously easy simply to enjoy all of the lovely new clothes as well as the relaxed days with Alex, free of work schedules, frantic rushing, and financial worry. Alex was due to start school in a few days and she would have even more free time during those half days.

****

“Didn’t you hear me calling you?”

Vlad strode into the bedroom, their bedroom now, which they had shared for seven out of the last seven nights, pulling a navy silk tie from his neck.

Sabrina looked up, her neck stiff from its position hunched over her mom’s old laptop. She had lost track of the time as she caught up on some of her online college coursework.

“Hmmm? Didn’t hear you. I was reading. Lucky me, I can block everything out when I have to work.”

****

“What are you doing?”

He hated that edge of suspicion in his voice. He sounded almost needy which was ridiculous, and especially since he knew where Sabrina had been for the past week after he had moved her and Alex into his place.

She had been in his bed every night, and he had been attentive to her every want. He kept waiting for his desire to feel less urgent, but so far, more of Sabrina just had him wanting more of Sabrina. And she had been off-the-charts responsive. No question that this charade was working out even better than he’d expected on most levels. She was dynamite in bed, his cock hardened into steel at the thought of the inventive ways they had spent the last several nights.

But he felt her distance. She didn’t call him at work or try to enlarge their relationship beyond what they shared in this bedroom. Compared to the women of his experience, women with whom he had never shared living space, that was unusual. They were always checking in and making plans.

“I’m catching up on my coursework.” Sabrina stretched her jean clad legs and his eyes were immediately drawn to her bare feet and pink painted toes before they slowly traveled up to appreciate the span of flesh visible from where her tight T-shirt parted from her jeans.

Her gaze met his and he felt the heat. She couldn’t hide her reaction any more than he could. They wanted each other.

As Yuri had somewhat crudely stated, the task he had was not difficult. The PR exercise was a success, or it would be if he could keep himself out of her bed and put them before the paparazzi. That was the real challenge. They had visited Alex’s school and that had been a roaring success both for Alex and for the campaign to show he was a devoted father figure.

But he was finding it difficult to keep a normal distance around her. He felt greedy. They had gone out once since the night at the Russian nightclubs and all he had been able to think of was how quickly he could get her back to the apartment and strip the short and poufy ballerina dress off her. It didn’t help that she had charmed the exclusive crowd they had encountered at the Central Park fundraiser speaking with unvarnished enthusiasm of her love for the zoo, the rink, and the walking and biking trails. Because he didn’t want to think of her interacting with anyone but him? No, that wasn’t exactly correct. He just didn’t want to get too deeply involved.

He simply wanted to see the photos of them now as a couple splashed across the various media, and then he needed to see the proper response to those photos in the important quarters where they had to be seen in Russia. Then their bogus relationship would have accomplished its end game.

But he was having trouble sharing. It was not a successful PR campaign if he didn’t want to let her out of his bed.

On the one hand, he wanted formal engagements to attend, because there he would behave in a circumspect fashion. He didn’t want a repeat of the nightclub episode where he had felt the urge to claim her publicly as his own before hustling her back to his apartment and into his bed to take her over and over as he had done that night.

That night he had barely been in control. He had given her the choice, true. But once she had acquiesced, he’d ravished her; there was no other word for it. She had responded with such a sweet passion that he had been unable to let her go back to the room she had claimed as hers in the apartment. Instead, he had anchored her to him and she’d let out a little sigh, settled against his chest, and fallen asleep. And he’d slept like that, too. They’d been intertwined until a couple of hours later when, close to dawn, he’d roused her to take her all over again.

He didn’t see any reason for it to be different as long as this demonstration of togetherness had to continue.

He tore his gaze away from her legs and lifted them to her eyes, bringing himself back to the moment with difficulty.

“Right. How many more credits till you complete your degree?”

“Just three courses, twelve credits. And when Alex is in school, I can really focus and maybe finish by December. It will be good to have this degree when I’m hitting the job market again.”

Vlad stiffened, absorbing her words.
True enough but…
“After this is over, you can rest easy. You will be amply compensated for your role because though you may have started this circus, I will reward you when we reach a satisfactory conclusion.”

She held his eye. “What if I want to find a great job? One that I’m well-qualified for? And how many times can I tell you that I had nothing to do with the lies in the press? I can’t prove it, not yet anyway. But someday you’ll realize I’ve been telling the truth all of this time, and I hope then you’ll look me up and have the courtesy to apologize.”

Vlad let out a bark of laughter.

“A very nice speech. One I’m tired of hearing. All I know is that you’ve played your cards so well that you’re looking at two paydays. Fair enough. I can’t turn the clock back. If it gets me what I want, I’m willing to pay for it. That’s why I was looking for you. I have some documents in my office you need to sign.”

She opened her mouth but before she could speak he said, “It’s sex, Sabrina. What we have is sex.”

His voice was cold and he didn’t sound particularly happy. How could he admit that having her was a compulsion he couldn’t deny? He took off his suit jacket and reminded, “Meet me in my office in twenty minutes.”

Sabrina nodded, closed the laptop, then rose lithely from the bed as he headed into the bathroom for a shower. Why did she have this disconcerting habit of walking around barefoot? Unless her feet were encased in the sky-high heels when they went out, at home she wore nothing on her feet. The sight of those feet was as provocative as the sight of her long legs in stilettos.

He had thought that a week with her in his bed, a record for him, would assuage his hunger. But the feeling in his gut, the one he got when he knew he had to have her immediately on any surface available never went away. The need was as powerful as it had been from day one, and even a long day away from her at his office couldn’t dampen its strength.

They were to attend another sparkling event tonight, and he had to be on top of his game at this Gala in particular, because it was the most important one on his calendar each year. They would see the many contributors, supporters, and workers within his foundation. He didn’t know what was worse: having to make formal conversation when all he wanted to do was back her into a corner even in front of a cast of thousands, or stay in his penthouse where the sight of her in jeans, T-shirt, and bare feet had the same effect. Being out in public was safer.

The documents had arrived from Yuri, and he was satisfied that the contract would set them at a safe distance, would keep her where he wanted her. Available sexually to him but knowing exactly where she stood.

And where she stood was far and away better than where she had come from. She was on the receiving end of a very generous settlement once he had deemed that the play they were enacting for the benefit of his detractors in Russia could close.

His PR people told him that so far the public in America had accepted the series of photos released across all media outlets as proof they were a couple. They believed that the Russian-born tycoon was doing the right thing taking care of his purported illegitimate son and the boy’s mother.

But the press and the public opinion on both sides of the Atlantic called for more. Apparently, he needed to legitimize the relationship to fully redeem himself.

The irony grabbed him by the throat and threatened to choke him. The little boy he had been could have wanted nothing more than for the man who had made him a bastard to set things right and marry his mother, making them a happy family. He and Pieter had talked about it non-stop at the beginning; how different life would have been if only their fathers had given them a name. And their mother had stayed.

Now he was going to do it for the little guy in his apartment. Moreover, he anticipated the ripple effect his actions had to have on all of the ones left behind in Russia. He did it so the government would allow him to continue helping them with his own money and the money his foundations raised. So their lives could be changed. So they would have some hope.

****

Vlad gazed sightlessly out at the horizon as the autumn light turned the waters of Hudson Bay tarnished silver under the moonlight. Sabrina bent her head over the multi-page document slowly perusing every paragraph. Vlad paced to his desk and barely resisted the urge to drum impatient fingers on its mahogany surface.

He’d expected she would simply sign on the proverbial dotted line and be done with it. After all, she had no bargaining power in this transaction. He checked the Rolex on his wrist.

“The car will be here in ten minutes,” he began.

“I can’t concentrate with you breathing down my neck.” She shook her hair back.

“Is there something that needs explanation?”

Sabrina threw her hands up. “Oh no,” she responded with sugary sarcasm. “It’s all crystal clear. No detail overlooked! But I’m stunned you would think I would just sign this document where I’m pretty much signing my life away in seconds just so we can rush out to get photographed by the paparazzi again!”

“Hardly signing your life away; you make out like a bandit.”

“Let’s see,” Sabrina interrupted when he would have kept talking, “we are to marry, at which time Alex and I get an obscene amount of money. We stay married until Alex turns eighteen or unless we both agree to the divorce. No infidelity.”

“That about sums it up.” Yuri had done a decent job of fleshing out the concept he had described.

“And if I refuse to sign?”

His lips tightened. “I will make it impossible for you to work anywhere in New York, but once you do sign, you and Alex will want for nothing. I would adopt Alex. Everyone thinks he’s mine already, but he would have the total protection of my name. We would have to do a search for his actual father but…”

“But no, that’s not happening. No. No adoption.” Her voice was vehement.

Vlad had not put that intention into legal language in the paperwork; he had thought to reassure her that Alex would have every protection within his power to give the boy. He didn’t want to examine why her words bled him like so many knives slashed into his chest.