Threat: Follow up to Stranded but not Alone (Dragoslava Connection) (7 page)

“Come meet my brother. He’s up with his family.” Turning to Seth, he introduced them. “Bethany Cansler…Seth Dragoslava.”

“Dragoslava,” she stated uncertain as her gaze darted between the two of them. “I forgot Mikhail’s adopted and a twin.” Removing one glove she extended her hand to Seth. “Hi, I’m Bethany Cansler, sorry for being so rude not introducing myself. I’d finally got in touch with my family in the states, and your view up here is breathtaking.”

Seth shook her hand now swallowed by his larger one, then he nodded at her marked skin. “I hear you had a rough day at the office.”

Simone looked at the rope burns on her wrists. Mikhail knew it took her straight back to that room. “Can’t say I enjoyed it much,” she added now tugging her sleeves down over the red skin. “If you’ll excuse me, I want to walk around for a bit and wait for my friend down there by the river. It was nice to meet you Seth.”

“I know I look like the one raised with wolves,” Seth teased taking her skis tucking them under his arm. “But I’m the gentleman. Come inside, we don’t bite. There’s hot food, a warm family, and my wife would love to meet you. I think you’re close to the same age.”

Bethany touched Seth’s hand. “I’m going to sit out here for a minute. I’ve had enough of being inside today.” She looked around. “The landscape reminds me of my home state of Michigan.” She took in a long deep breath.

“Michigan,” he said, “Mikhail told me your parents were in Arizona.”

“They retired after I went to work for Heinemann’s back in the states…thought it was a solid career, so my father put the house on the market. I stayed while they moved to Arizona. I moved once it sold.”

“So no attachment to the homestead,” he asked with a grin, but she didn’t, and Mikhail knew why. Mikhail jostled the bag on his shoulder and watched her digest the question, realizing how disjointed the day left her. He’d been too hard on her.

“Not all the memories in that house were…upbeat… We still have friends and family there I visit.”

Mikhail was impressed she shared that much with Seth, but his brother was down to earth.

Seth repeated with a smile. “Come on and meet my Simone—my wife, she’s from Michigan.”

Bethany smiled…finally. The knot in Mikhail’s back loosened its grip on his spine allowing him to breathe.

“I’ll have to meet her then…later.”

Seth started to say something. Mikhail held a hand up. “The chalet’s bigger than it appears. Go check in, grab something to eat before your guard gets here then come back out if you still want to stroll around the grounds. I can go out with you.” She eyed her bag on the ground. “I’ll grab it. Meet me in the private kitchen. It’s to your right of the registration desk through the arch. You need to eat and if I know my mother, there’s something hot on the stove.” He bent down grabbing her full sized luggage.

“Thank you.” She hesitated, appearing to decide if she wanted to say more, then gave him all he wanted…a smile. Small, but he saw it all for him. She was still his.

Seth tugged his sleeve with a death grip.

“Is she the first black woman you’ve dated?”

Mikhail choked out a laugh. “I’m too tired and hungry for jokes.”

Seth burst out laughing.

“If I survive Simone chewing my ass out for missing the birth, we’ll have a beer, and go out for some target practice.”

“Don’t go screwing up my night, pissing off my wife. I got plans,” Seth warned reaching a hand down to pick up a handful of snow.

He shot Seth a surprised look. “You can knock one out with the babies in the room?” Ducking his head toward the SUV’s tire, he dodged the first snowball. The second one caught him in the back of the head, showering ice down his neck. Stung like a… “You son of a…”

Seth laughed wiping snow off onto his jeans. “You’re all class,” he complained rubbing the snow from his hands on his jeans.

He was home. “How’s my other mother and father? That still sounds weird to say,” Mikhail offered.

“Larissa and Simone are getting closer since the girls were born. And Sergei, well you know Dad, he always liked Simone and loves his granddaughters.”

“Good.”

Seth slapped him on the back giving him a sideways stare. “Then I should warn you now. Anya’s claimed the girls as her grandchildren by default, and you know once she sees Bethany...”

Mikhail coughed. “Grandchildren…That would require having sex…”

Seth choked and stopped walking, grabbing Mikhail’s arm. “You haven’t…”

“Do I look relaxed to you?”

“She’s that special to you…”

“I’m going to fill the hot tub with ice, drag the boys around for a while and shake like a little girl with a new box of glitter.”

“Damn…that’s willpower. I’d had Sim pinned against the wall by now…”

“Seth…shut the hell up…you didn’t cheat on Simone,” he confessed again and this time the cut sank deeper into his heart.

“Guess I’m the smarter one of the two of us.”

“I guess so.”

Inside the warm foyer of the rustic chalet, her eyes trailed the path Mikhail and Seth veered off to disappear around a thick wall. A second doorway, had to be the private area, and she followed the example of the other guests, tapping the snow off her boots onto the mud tray, squatting low to the floor to untie them. Tucking the boots in the cubby then removing the key, Bethany clipped it to her ski jacket. Heated floors warmed her toes as she padded across into the lobby where soft country music filled the air in a subconscious suggestion to slow down and enjoy the view beyond the large window.

Beautiful and serene, this was exactly what she needed to move past the ugly of the day.

Licking her tongue out, she drug it across her lips, swearing she tasted paprika and sage; no wait, not sage, tarragon. Her mother made the best tarragon, rosemary crusted pork loin, and buttery rutabagas when she lived back in the states.

Smiling at the memory, she inhaled the unmistakable sweet aroma of butter cooking, arresting her attention all the way from the kitchen. Craning her neck, Bethany strained to see around the milling crowd attempting to narrow down the direction from where the sinful aromas were coming from. She spotted a large kitchen with an island big enough to sleep on and an even bigger draft hood hanging from the middle of the ceiling with soft lights glowing down over the marbled surface. That was what she’d loved to have one day in her home. Her new home, because she couldn’t go back to the condo.

Enough food to feed an army covered every surface of the stone island. How many people were up here? She peered around the chalet. Her gaze followed the people emerging from a long hall to a large fireplace behind her in what appeared to be a common space. The walls glowed a warm peachy color. Peach…she forced the image of her lingerie from her mind. She pulled off her hat, tucking it in her pocket along with her gloves to rub her hands together.

The chalet was beautiful with the high honey-colored beams on the ceiling. Bethany stopped ogling the place when her arm hit the registration desk, and a man’s friendly face stood smiling from the other side. She rummaged through her purse retrieving her wallet. Showing her ID, she waited while he compared her features to the face behind the laminated picture, then gave her a closed lip smile. He made a quick copy for is records.

Checked in, all she wanted was a hot bath.

Walking past the kitchen, she couldn’t help but stop when she noticed Mikhail hugging a beautiful black woman. She could not be jealous. She didn’t want him anymore. So why was it hard to breathe?

~~~CB~~~

In the shadows, watching Mikhail holding this other woman, so kind and gentle, Bethany held her breath fighting hard the jealousy welling in her heart. Had he wanted her to see him with another woman? Was he taunting her for breaking up with him?

The woman returned the bear hug happy to see him, gripping him with a fierce hold.

“I’m okay, really,” he said assuring her swinging her around the kitchen.

“If I weren’t so relieved to see you I’d…,” she started, closing her hands over his face, brown eyes sparkling with unshed tears. “You ever scare me like that again, and I'll unleash your brother on you for making me cry.” Her embrace and kiss he absorbed like medicine straight into his veins. There was no doubt he loved this woman.

He set her away from him. “You look good Simone.” Whirling her in a circle by the hand, a long dark thick braid swung behind her. “Hard to believe you had two babies four months ago,” he complimented winking back at Seth. “Now where are my nieces? I have a surprise for both of them.”

“Napping,” she said taking his jacket placing it on the hook beside the back door.

Nieces…that’s Seth’s wife
, she thought with a chagrin of embarrassment and fell back against the wall, shaking her head. Of all the emotions to be plagued with, jealousy wasn’t one she was familiar with. Why hadn’t he mentioned his sister in-law was black? Because Mikhail placed women in two categories, available and unavailable, and Simone was unavailable.

An older couple crossed the floor, drinking coffee and slapping Mikhail on the back. The woman had red and silver hair and the man lean and blond. That had to be his parents.

On tiptoe, she peered over the counter past the big bowl of fruit, to see Mikhail dip down and pull up a bag from his duffle. Reaching inside, he handed Simone two little powder blue boxes and two stuffed teddy bears.

“The minute I saw the bears I thought of you calling Seth Russian bear, Simone. I figure you have two cubs now and those are necklaces for their first day of school. I know it’s years off, but I’ve never been an uncle before.”

Simone held the gifts to her chest placing a kiss on Mikhail’s cheek. “This is precious. Thank you Mikhail.” Simone showed Seth the necklaces. He smiled, shaking his brother’s hand.

“That’s nice man. We appreciate it.”

“So what’s new with my family?” Mikhail asked dropping the bag to the floor.

“Well if your brother has his way, which I’ve given in a lot recently, we’ll be looking for a home out here in Vienna or the vicinity. I want to stay close to the Danube River if possible. It’s nice along the water from what I remember.”

He shot Seth a look. “You’re moving out here?”

Anya clapped her hands together showing her excitement. “I would love to have you move closer. Simone the girls will love the mountains.”

“Mihail,” Josef started, pointing to pictures of a younger Mikhail on the walls, “Remember when we came up here when you were a boy before your mother and I bought the land. I’ll take the girls fishing when they get older, they’ll love it,” Josef admitted taking a drink from his large coffee mug.

Fishing, hunting, swimming, skiing, horseback riding, who was this mountain man in a suit she’d fallen for, and what had he done with Mikhail?

“Seth you haven’t said anything. What’s wrong?”

“I’m out of the country weeks at a time.” He paused staring at Simone. “That’s a big burden on Sim to be alone with the twins so often.”

“My baby’s aren’t a burden,” she warned.

“Sim, you just want to fight me on this because you like London. You’ll grow to like it here too. I promise.” A gentle pleading followed in his relaxed posture. “Baby, I want you to enjoy being a mother not be weighed down by it. You want to get back to your photography. Having family around you can.”

“Don’t try and sweet talk your way out of that, buddy.”

“I love you libeling, and I want my wife happy and safe.”

“Seth,” Mikhail said, “my house in the city has three floors. Simone can bring the girls when you’re in Italy next month. Get a feel for the area and see if she likes it before you drop down money for a house.”

She’d never seen this family man side of Mikhail, only the businessman and playboy. Who was the real man?

The chalet buzzed with a guest arriving behind her in the lobby, but she couldn’t stop watching the dynamics of the core of what shape this man.

Mikhail coveted his beautiful home like a baby for him to open it up to Simone and the two babies said so much about his love of family.

She’d crashed there a few nights when the city worked on the street in front of her condo making it dicey getting in and out without scratching her Range Rover. That expensive truck Mikhail talked her into buying. Funny how he’d given her a key to his truck in case he blocked her in seeing as they were going to the same office building.

She shook herself; they were over, don’t go there.

“Sim…” Seth prodded with a glint in his eye. He licked out the tip of his tongue.

Bethany’s seen that before on Mikhail. Seduction was a family trait with these men.

Simone tapped Seth’s thigh. “Running your tongue across your lips is not helping to sway me, Seth.”

“Then maybe I should…”

She held her hand up warding off his teasing advances. “Okay, okay, before you start to strip, I’ll give it a chance.”

“I’ll strip for you later,” he taunted with a thick browed wink.

“Yes you will—” She finished tracing a hand up his arm. The love between them was staggering. “We still have to discuss the job offer, though.”

“What job offer?” Mikhail said wildly looking between the faces filling the room. His brother smirked a frown eyeing his wife with a hint of love Bethany could feel in the air.

“An Asian cruise line wants me to shoot the marketing material for their three ships.”

“What’s the problem?” Anya asked.

“Her ex-boyfriend recommended her, and they’ll be working together. I don’t want him anywhere around Sim.”

Ex…what had she walked in on? She cringed not wanting to infringe on their family moment, but her feet refused to move. She wanted to see how Mikhail’s twin handled an ex, maybe he’d hear how she felt about him going to Gemme.

“The Hamada Cruise line postponed it last year because of other obligations. They’re ready to take their maiden voyage in a few months, and they only want me as the marketing photographer.”

“Seth, you can’t let her pass this up,” Mikhail said, pointing to framed photographs around the updated kitchen.

Seth said in a low dark voice, “Ronald’s a reminder of the baby Simone lost. I don’t want my wife going through that again.”