Threat: Follow up to Stranded but not Alone (Dragoslava Connection) (18 page)

The same river someone tried to trick her into riding into bogusly marking her scavenger hunt map leading her to an icy death.

Maybe Martha…heifer.

Pulling the flashlight from the side belt to see where she’d ran off to, Bethany was surprised to see how far she’d gone into the darkening forest and the night had begun to awaken around her with chirps and groans, the crunching of crusted snow sounding more like someone rummaging through a bag of chips.

Holding onto the reins she gave him slack to dip his head to take a drink close to the edge where it was safe to walk. Tired, she dismounted then squat next to him on a long stump half buried under the snow.

Angrily, she dug her foot under the heavy snow chucking it out over the ground to dig into the hard packed earth. She knew it wasn’t moving but she needed to destroy something and digging a hole was distracting to her raging mind.

What happened back there with Martha? She was a busy body but never like this.

This was getting her nowhere; the accusations and snide remarks. Somehow, she’d prove she had nothing to do with this and when she did… cut off by the horse whinnying attempting to nibble at something on his chest.

Patting a hand down the horse’s thigh, she noticed a glint of blood matted in the hairs.

“When did that happen?” she grumbled dabbing at it with her gloved finger, coming away with a smear of blood. It wasn’t oozing so it had to be a superficial cut, easy enough to stop the faint spots of blood. She fought back the nausea at the sight. Even a small amount set her off. Good thing it wasn’t more or whatever else was out there would emerge looking for something wounded to snack on tonight.

Grabbing up a hand full of snow she rubbed it over the cut. The horse drew back, whining and stomping the ground at her touch. “Hey, hey, it’s okay, boy. Let me look at it and see if there’s anything in there.” Tentatively, she held her palms out allowing him to nuzzle her hands showing she wouldn’t hurt him, she then worked over the length of hair to see a small twig poking out of the flesh. She scrunched her nose. “Alright this won’t hurt at all if you just hold still. I can’t hold the flashlight and take care of your wound.” Working the piece of wood gingerly out soothing the spot with more fresh snow she spoke to the horse, “There you go, boy, see it didn’t hurt much,” stepping back admiring her work, “Everything’s okay and once we get you back to the barn; we’ll get some ointment on that or whatever horses use.”

“And what will I put on your emotional cuts, Bethany? Obviously you’re hurting but running won’t make it better.”

Mikhail’s accent had her jerking back, the reins tight in her hand; she wasn’t ready to deal with anyone.

“Baby don’t run from me, I’m here to help you.” Mikhail’s rich voice bled through the forest with the clomping of horse hooves crunching through the snow. He settled his horse draping the reins over the branch and crouched low in front of the horse inspecting her untrained veterinary work. “Not bad, Cansler. My boy might live.” He stroked a hand down the nose before turning his big body to face her.

Making room, she scooted over on the log. “She was the one I’d avoided on the elevators because she’s a gossip at the office. Eh. It doesn’t matter now if I did it or not, they need a suspect and it’s me.”

“It’ll matter to me, Bethany. Will it matter to you that I care or will you keep sticking your finger in my eye when I’m trying to help us, help you?”

“How were you helping letting her bump her gums like that?”

“Potential lawsuits from angry employees are a businessman’s daily concern. I’ve had my doubts about Martha for some time. I think she’s a plant from a competitor. I’ve been watching her the last few weeks and wondered who she was after.” He took her flashlight shining its beam out through the trees over the freshly fallen snow for tracks she thought. Happy with what he saw, he returned it to her on the stump. “I let her bury herself in front of the other employees so when I fired her it was legitimate. And not a favor to you.”

“What’s between you and GCT Holding’s?”

“Nothing. It’s between me and Mark.”

“Mark, why?”

“When I proposed the diversity program originally, my first employee left and never returned. Mark was the first to say the program wasn’t working and letting everyone know I’d failed.”

“And you didn’t fire him?”

He laughed dark and wicked. “You don’t fire family.”

Her tongue blocked her airways choking down his confession leaving her gasping for a breath. “Hold on—slow down the wagon with the broken wheel and stop talking.” She roiled at his words because this had been a vital issue and he’d chosen to leave it out. “Family? I need more explanation,” she finished gripping his arm to keep from shaking him in exasperation.

“I told you he was close to my grandfather; well he’s the child of a midlife affair and has always presumed he’d get the company because my mother didn’t want to run it. She willed it to me when I turned thirty.”

“Do the employees know who Mark is?”

“No…Grandfather asked that I keep him on after he retired, but I’m certain he’s starting his own company. I have no proof though.”

“GCT Holdings,” she asked incredulous of all Mark’s flowery words and offering to help all the time.

“I never would have thought…that’s his interest in me and offering to go to bat for me with GCT Holding’s.” Could the storm hit any closer to home? This was crazy.

“He considers you his. I took you from him.”

“And to the financial community, I’m proof of your talent in creating this new way of saving money moving your employees around the country instead of hiring new all the time. And the diversity edge you’re getting the employees to mix ethnically so they can support one another with the clients. And if he takes me from you, I acknowledge him as the better employer.”

He smiled under the sporadic solar floodlights illuminating dots of light on the ground around the river. Small bushes and tufts of tall grass poked through the snow. “I told you Bethany, you’re brilliant.”

“Why didn’t you tell me before?” she asked tilting her face up to look at him.

“Because you were certain I’d hurt you, and I didn’t want you to leave out of vengeance, going to my mother’s brother, but because it was a career move. That I could handle.”

Holy crap…this was seriously dysfunctional.

“I’m adopted, not a Heinemann by blood. I’ve had to prove myself every step of the way to those who have seen the company grow from nothing. Bringing you on and your status solidifies the trust my grandfather has in my ability to handle business.”

She never knew there was any animosity between him and Mark and now everything made sense.

“I don’t have it all figured out but somehow he’s behind all this. I’ve been a playboy all my life and it’s coming back to haunt me. Company heads all over are watching this program and me.”

Lifting her hand, she brushed the black curl off his brow tucking it under his cap, his warm eyes trained solidly on her mouth making her blush. “They’re waiting to see if I’m Mikhail’s prop, saving his reputation, or am I legit and have a brain in my head?”

The nerve of some people judging her intelligence on his indiscretions
, she thought. Get a grip; they would have thought that about any woman he brought over.

“In business, a solid reputation is everything. Company heads are watching us and the customers you bring in. I’m not letting my family down nor the people who trained me or the two degrees that say I’ve got the brains to back my future status as owner.”

“Securing future business for their companies,” she added.

He nodded confidently. “Investors from other countries feel comfortable knowing we employ other nationalities and come to us over other investment firms.”

“Swapping employees from the states and Switzerland and Austria makes you a pioneer.”

“And the recognition has gotten me mentioned in European Movers and Shakers magazine. That’s why the photographers.”

“The world is watching us make history.”

“Welcome to my world, Bethany.” He maneuvered closer. “Us breaking up and you not leaving Heinemann’s and your numbers steadily growing says the talent is yours and I didn’t hire you for your looks, but your brains.”

His world held dark corners and wild unruly things and people she hadn’t counted on coming after her.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked feeling like prey under his predatory stare.

“I’m indulging in this moment with you. Thinking about making love to you… seeing you soft under me…going to sleep with you spent and limp in my arms and waking to your easy breathing.”

She didn’t run screaming into the woods, but rather liked the sound of being with him. Liked the picture forming of him curled around her in her sleep and the sound of a chortle startled her, realizing it came from her mouth.

She knew the time had come to release the pain and move forward if they were to have a chance at a new start.

“When we’re right…we’re good together. I won’t lie and say I hadn’t thought about it, making love to you. I’ve never lost my attraction nor desire, Khail. You’re still the most handsome and fascinating man I’ve ever known.”

He moved closer on the wobbly and wet stump absorbing the sounds of the forest coming into its comfort of creaks, whispers, and howls.

Cupping her face, he kissed her knowingly as if they were old lovers settling in for the evening to watch the stars shine over the back porch of the old homestead.

“I’d planned to spend the weekend getting you to forgive me then making love to you the rest of the week.”

Fantasies died under lies. Truth leads to unbridled ecstasy.

“You can’t predict what others have on their mind.” She threaded their fingers in her lap tucking them between the warmth of her thighs more platonic than sexual. The air had picked up, blowing across her nose and making it run. “I support everything that goes on in the office, and I’ve never had a run-in with another employee…so why me, Khail?”

He tugged her under the curve of his chin and held her to his chest. “Mark located you in the American office after my employee for our diversity program quit. When he found out you agreed to my invitation, he told everyone I stole you from him.”

“That’s lunacy. I’m already a Heinemann’s employee…your employee,” she told him. “He sounds crazy. So what does that mean for us…me?”

“It wasn’t public knowledge that my grandfather was signing the company over to me a year ago. Now other companies are watching to see if the program works, and if I can keep my dick in my pants long enough.” She flinched at his crass word. “You’re not the only one that thinks I’m morally corrupt when it comes to women.”

“I don’t think that.”
Anymore
.

“Don’t believe everything you hear. I’ve only ever loved one woman, Bethany. Just one and she hasn’t seen my…

Oh, he was not saying that word again. She jumped to her feet, grabbed up a large handful of snow balling it then lobbed it at his chest.

Mikhail bolted up, chasing her around the trees through the thigh high snow slowing their efforts.

Bethany’s pulse pounded making her limbs shake seeing him hurdling after her. She hooked her arms under the horse’s neck and huddled against its chest hiding from Mikhail when his large hands yanked her off the ground.

She giggled.

Her back sank into the snow, her body crushed by his pinning her in the thick white crunchy floor.

“You’d nearly put my eye out, woman.”

She squirmed hooking her legs out. He fell snug between the v her open thighs exposed. “Oh, my God you’re heavy. Get off me. How do you get women to sleep with you?”

He stopped moving swiping his gloved hand over her flush cheek and brought his face within inches of hers.

“I’m usually moving at the time with a good rhythm too, they don’t notice how heavy I am,” he teased wedging himself tighter to her body.

“Are you always on top?” Where had this playfulness come from? She was supposed to be pissed, but she hadn’t felt this comfortable with him in a long while.

“Are you always on bottom?” he returned. “I could adjust my weight.”

“It’s been too long to remember—” Probably because it had never been with him. Not for lack of want. She’d appreciated he understood she wanted to take it slow. Yet that had been because of his reputation, not because she was afraid to be with him.

“Bethany…” he said her name as if it were a fine wine crossing his tongue. Savoring with a lust she’d never heard before, something warm to pour over her body in long lurid swathes of sensual torture seeking out a crack in her armor to slip in and take her heart and soul.

Too late. He’d already held possession.

She stuttered breathless, “Yes, Khail…”

“You’re all I want.” He shifted his hips aligning his cock to her quickly swelling sex. “Gemme was a moment of regret and stupidity on my part, and I’m not looking for you to accept my apology, because I’m not offering one.”

Finally, he understood what she’d said. Don’t apologize for something you thought about before deciding to do it. “What are you offering?”

The kiss to her nose warmed her entire body.

“Honesty. One day I’ll find the strength to open that firewall in the back of my heart, exposing myself to these warm eyes, but for now, can you see far enough past the pain I’ve caused to love the man before you?”

She wanted to laugh and roll around the ground with him because she did love him, always had. “I’m lying beneath you on my back in the frigid snow in a wolf inhabited forest, and it’s not because I like you…”

“A man needs to hear it, Bethany. I need to know I haven’t lost you or your heart during our time apart.”

Bringing her hands between them, she massaged his hard cold face, loving everything inch of his scowling mouth and lines creased around his eyes. “Loving you isn’t the hurdle I’m slipping on; it’s forgiving you that’s crippling me, Mikhail. My heart wasn’t made to be broken, but loved and cared for. But it’s healing, slowly so give me time to move past the hurt.”

That seemed to release some tension in his body. “Say it…tell me…give me something to keep me in this race.”