Page 64 of You Belong to Me
Bojik had been waiting on Vasili’s doorstep for Alexandra to appear. She chided herself for forgetting about him. Ever since the snowstorm when he had been unable to find her, he hadn’t let her far from his sight…and what could have possessed her to lose her temper like that again? She really didn’t care how many women Vasili had. Others? He’d saidothers, the son of a…no, dammit, she didn’t care. It was necessary to do something, yes, to remain consistent, but she didn’t have tomeanit.
She could only be thankful that he hadn’t remembered what he’d warned her he would do if she ever threatened another one of his women. She could also be thankful she had gotten out of there just in time, because he had been too close physically. Those feelings that now seemed to well up within her anytime he came near her had definitely been on the rise. And she was afraid she knew what would happen if she lost control of them again.
Vasili kept his eyes squeezed shut, but he could still smell the scent of her, still see the fury in her midnight-blue eyes, such passion, such…
He groaned and banged his head on the wall again; he hadn’t moved from there since she’d slipped away from him. He could control this, he really could. He just had to keep his distance from her. He’d managed to until today. And what had possessed him to give in to her demand? He should have called her bluff and let her camp in the street. If she got arrested, he wouldn’t say a word to prevent it. But when she came before the magistrate, he’d arrange to have her placed in his custody—and the fantasy that that inspired had him groaning again.
His mother was his only hope now, and this hell he was caught up in could conceivably be over by the end of the day. Maria’s first encounter with Alexandra could do it and…Jesus, she’d left, slammed out of here, and she was too angry to wait for him outside. He had visions of her lost in the city. The way she was dressed, and alone, men wouldn’t think twice about accosting her. And he had her whip. He’d left her defenseless.
He felt such fear, he broke out in a sweat, and sure enough, when he got outside he saw that the footman held only his horse. Alexandra’s was gone. “Did the lady at least ask you for directions to my mother’s house?” he asked the man as he mounted, but was met with confusion.
“The lady?”
“The wench who arrived with me!” Vasili snapped.
“No, sir—but I heard her tell her dog to find Nina, whoever that is.”
That news didn’t exactly relieve Vasili, and he took off, hoping he could catch up with Alexandra before she got into trouble. But he arrived at his family home without sighting her, and by the time he located his mother in the conservatory, he was out of breath from running.
He also shouted without realizing it. “Where is she?”
Maria, wide-eyed and indignant, said, “Three months’ absence and this is the greeting I—”
“Mother, is Alexandra here?”
“No, she isn’t,” she huffed. “And why isn’t she with you? Only her servants have arrived so far, the last one just minutes ago.”
That gave him pause. “Was the last one a woman?”
Maria frowned. “I suppose that’s possible. I mean, now that you mention it, yes.”
The fear was gone instantly, leaving him so weak he had to sit down on a nearby bench. Maria, observing him closely, said suspiciously, “You aren’t going to tell me that woman was Baroness Rubliov.”
Anger should have overtaken him by now, for what he’d just gone through, but instead Vasili found himself grinning. “I’m afraid so.”
Maria was horrified. “And I sent her to the servants’ quarters!”
At which point he started to laugh.
“I’ve never been so embarrassed,” Maria later told Vasili. “Why didn’t she say anything?”
They were in the drawing room, waiting for Alexandra to join them for dinner. Vasili had gone to the palace to let his cousin know he was back, but Stefan had been in conference with his ministers, so he’d left word that he would see him tomorrow. By then, he’d had only enough time to return home and change for dinner with his mother, which he wasn’t going to miss for the world, and to try to calm Fatima.
That had been a lesson in exasperation. She hadn’t stopped crying, and while he’d always given in to her tears before, he couldn’t this time, not when he knew Alexandra had her ways of finding out things—her people were too clever by half. And he’d found it much easier to send Fatima away for the time being than to deal with Alexandra’s temper again. Yet even when he’d told Fatima that her leaving would just be temporary—he hoped—she had not been relieved.
He supposed the easiest way to have assured her that everything would be all right would have been to make love to her, but incredibly, he couldn’t dredge up the least desire to do so. Fatima’s small, delicate body simply didn’t tempt him the way it used to,not when all he could think of was lush curves and breasts so large his hands couldn’t contain them…Jesus, not again!
He dragged his mind back to his mother’s question. “Alexandra didn’t say anything because she doesn’t care about such things. You probably could have put her in the stable and she would have been happy.”
“What a ridiculous thing to say,” Maria admonished. “And why was she dressed that way? Did something happen to her clothes?”
He shrugged. “She came with a mountain of trunks, but if there’s a dress in one of them, I wouldn’t know. The way you saw her is the only way I’ve ever seen her dressed.”
Maria narrowed her eyes so he wouldn’t mistake her displeasure with him. “You’re determined to persist in teasing me, aren’t you? Really, Vasili, I don’t find it the least bit amusing.”
“I can’t tell you how glad I am to know that, Mother. In fact, I can guarantee that you aren’t going to find anything amusing tonight.”
“And justwhatis that supposed to mean?”
