Page 7 of Lord of Passion

"Perhaps," he rumbles and leaves the room.

The dealer nods respectfully, presenting Caroline with a receipt. "Shall I have this deposited into your account, Miss Basha?"

"Yes, please," she says, taking a $500,000 chip out of the pile and handing it to him. My brow rises. "This is for you, thank you so much." I remember she'd generously tipped the dealer at our first table as well. He's a little flustered, but she leans in. "You managed to deal out cards to Alexi Turgenev without wetting yourself," she whispers. "I'm not sure I would've been that brave." He breaks into a shaky laugh and they nod as he steps away to take care of her winnings.

I can see Castillo heading in from the left, so I skirt around the table, blocking him. "That was impressive," I say, hands in my pockets. "Congratulations." I want to shake her hand or kiss her soft cheek, but I suspect she wouldn't appreciate it.

"Thank you," she says blandly.

Leaning closer, I appreciate her height, being able to put my mouth next to her ear without having to bend over at the waist to do it. "I hope we can play again sometime."

She turns her head just slightly and one of her bouncy curls brushes against my cheekbone. Her scent is sweet and bracing. Berries and sea salt.

"Perhaps," she says, with a quick, impersonal smile before she heads off with Liria, arm in arm, their heads close together as they talk.

Castillo has caught up with me and looks disappointed. "I had hoped to speak to the lovely Caroline again," he pouts. "Could you arrange a meeting? I have some beautiful green diamonds, almost the color of her eyes," he says thoughtfully. "Perhaps she'd like one as a gift."

Something is curdling in me, hot and swollen like spoiled milk. "Until our agreement is formally signed, that could be considered as a bribe. For such a close member of the family."

"I see." He lights up another cigar and hands one to me. "After our relationship has officially begun, then."

Watching the sway of her ass in that black dress as she leaves the room makes me vow that Castillo will never get a chance to get close enough to her to offer one.

Chapter Three

In which Caroline asks, “Why are the pretty ones always so bad for you?”

Caroline…

A week later…

"How much did you win again?" Liria asks.

We're both sprawled on the floor of the twins' nursery, which is a wildly magical place. She and Alexsey had knocked out the two bedrooms across the hall from theirs to create the space for their twins Vasily and Anya.

There is a landscape of an enchanted forest that spreads across one wall, drawn in long, swooping details, slightly distorted, a vision created by Alexsey's right hand. He was an extremely talented artist, but he lost his dominant hand in a gun battle last year. However, with his new neuroprosthetic, he's managed to use both hands to create art that's entirely different from what he had before. To my untrained eye, it's equally as beautiful.

"It was a little over twenty-five million," I say, shaking my head. "I'm still not sure what to do with it. My estate attorney back in Boston, of course, would have acompletelydifferent opinion about that."

"Yeah, he'd be freaking out right now if he knew you had it in a savings account instead of in the stock market." Lirialaughs helplessly as Anya rolls on to her chest, sort of gnawing toothlessly at her shoulder.

"I swear to God that one's half vampire." I chuckle, stroking Vasily's downy head.

"You could start buying shares in the Morozov hospitality division," she says with a slight smile. "Or, part ownership in the Hotel Lyric?"

"Or," I say lofty, pretending to admire my manicure over Vasily's thrashing limbs, "I could retire and become a lady of leisure."

We glance at each other and burst out laughing. "Oh my God, you'd be so bored in about ten minutes," she says, trying to catch her breath. "Theworstpossible thing would be you having free time. As you recall clearly from our misspent youth, nothing good ever came of it."

"What are you talking about?" I protest. "I talked our way out of three different arrests!"

"Uh, huh," she says. unconvinced. She plays with Anya's little starfish hands for a moment before glancing back at me. "So, what did you think of Nikandr? You should've seen him when you kicked his ass in the poker finals. A Royal Flush! I don't think I've ever seen one before, not in person anyway."

"I have only had six Royal Flush hands in my entire poker history," I admit. "It was incredibly good fortune that one of them happened to be that night."

"Be honest with me," she says. "Were you happier about winning the twenty-five million or about kicking the ass of every Morozov man in the room?"

It's a good question. Liria and I both come from wealthy families, and I've never wanted for anything. A good educationfrom Boston University in Finance and Marketing, cars, a beautiful apartment. Every possible opportunity.