Behind the Palace Walls (15 page)

She’d been determined to resist his sweet seduction when the time came, because she’d never imagined it would not.

But his announcement preempted her. Alexei was indifferent to her. She should have realized it considering the impersonal way in which he’d married her. Instead of a beautiful dress, flowers, happiness and friends, she’d been married in a sterile office by a public official who spoke a language she didn’t comprehend.

“I want to know what happens now, Alexei.”

She couldn’t stand the uncertainty. What was she supposed to do as his wife? Were they going to live together as a couple, or would he leave her here and continue his life as it had been? There were so many things she didn’t know, so many worries. She felt very far from home, and very out of her element. She felt as if her life had been stolen from her. A cold shot of fear dripped into her belly at the thought.

His arctic eyes glittered with heat. “You will go wait in the drawing room. There will be hot tea and a small lunch, if you can stomach it.”

She bit the inside of her lip to keep from reacting to the thought of food. Her queasiness was getting better since the doctor had prescribed antinausea medication, but she still reacted sometimes.

“That’s not what I meant and you know it,” she said softly.

“Yes, but I have business to attend to and no time for chitchat. You made a deal, Paige. If you are finding it difficult to keep up with your end of the bargain, then perhaps you would like me to reiterate the consequences if you do not?”

Her temper sparked. “I understand full well what you are capable of, Prince Voronov. How could I not?”

“And what does this mean? Have I been anything but kind to you, Paige? Have I neglected you or left you behind to raise my child alone?”

She stamped her foot in frustration, uncaring what he thought about the gesture. “I would have been perfectly happy to raise my baby without you. I don’t need anything from you.”

For the first time since she’d opened the door and seen him on her porch, a flash of emotion crossed his features. He took a step toward her. She would have backed away, except that she suddenly knew what a trapped rabbit must feel like. Safer not to move.

“Oh, yes, you had no plans to tell me about my child, did you? You would let him go through life without a father, when I could give him so much more than you ever could.”

She sucked in a breath. He looked angrier than she’d ever seen him. The corners of his mouth were white, and she suddenly knew that what he’d been battling for the past two days—the reason he’d barely spoken to her—was anger.

How did he manage to make her feel petty and mean when he was the one who’d dragged her halfway around the world with him? The one who’d ruined everything with his greed? God, how she wished she’d never met him!

She tilted her chin up. “I didn’t think you’d want to know.”

It wasn’t a good defense, but it was the truth.

His laugh was not friendly. It was a broken sound that ended before it began. “Because you know so much about me.”

He punctured her indignation like a balloon, and her heart suddenly ached at the emotion behind his words. She was supposed to hate him, and yet she hurt for him. She’d been wrong to consider keeping the baby a secret, but she truly had believed he wouldn’t be interested.

“I know nothing about you, Alexei,” she said. “But I’d like to.”

She was surprised to find she meant it. He was the father of her child—her husband—and she wanted to know him. They’d shared a beautiful evening once, even if it had all been a sham. Though it hurt to think of how he’d used her, she knew this was a consequence he had not foreseen.

His mouth opened, and she found herself leaning forward, wondering what he would say. Would this be a rapprochement for them? A new beginning? She was surprised at how badly she wanted it to be. She could learn—they both could—to put their animosity behind them for the sake of their baby.

But then Alexei’s jaw snapped closed. He pivoted and strode down the hall.

***

Alexei felt as if he’d been standing beneath an oilrig when it had suddenly, and without warning, crashed down on top of him. He’d gone to Texas to examine his new acquisition and returned home with a wife.

A wife.

And not only a wife. From the moment he’d heard the voice of a nurse inform Paige about her ultrasound appointment, he’d known what lay down the road he was traveling.

She’d been a virgin. She was pregnant. He’d gone back over the night in his head, and he’d remembered the one thing he’d tried to forget. He’d fallen asleep beneath her, their bodies still joined. When he’d awakened, the condom was loose. It didn’t take a genius to figure out how she’d gotten pregnant.

He’d been careless, and now he was suffering the consequences.

Alexei put his head in his hands. He couldn’t concentrate on the figures in front of him any longer. He did not want a wife. He did not want a child. He’d already lost the people he’d loved, and he had no room to care for anyone again. It was not a risk he’d ever planned to take.

But already he felt a burgeoning protectiveness toward the child she carried.

And toward her.

Chert poberi!

She was a thorn in his side. She looked at him with those wide, dark eyes, with her emotions on her sleeve, and he wanted to take her in his arms and tell her it would be okay.

But it wouldn’t be okay.

How could he say it would? He’d said the same thing to Katerina, yet they had both known the truth. He would not do it again. He would not put his heart and soul on the line for life to crush. It was easier being alone. He understood how to be alone.

He did not understand how to be a husband and father.

Then why didn’t you leave her in Dallas?

He did not know why, except that he could not do so. She was carrying his child. He’d thought the Voronov line, the direct paternal line, would probably die out with him since each year passed without him taking a wife. But Paige had changed everything.

On the long flight home, when she’d curled up in the center of the big bed in his suite, he’d wanted to lie with her. He’d wanted to curl behind her, to pull her into the protective curve of his body and spread his hand over her abdomen. He’d wanted to feel her breathing, smell her summery scent and sleep beside her.

He’d done none of those things, though the impulse had been overwhelming. The thought of doing them horrified him. What was happening to him? How could he let one small woman get beneath his skin like this?

Alexei got to his feet. There was only one answer. He had to leave. He had to go somewhere else, had to leave her here at the Voronov Palace where she would be safe. She would grow big with their baby, and he would make sure she had the best care available.

But he would be elsewhere, running his business and building his empire even bigger and better than before. He would visit from time to time, make sure she was thriving, but he would not stay for long. And he would never touch her again.

Because he was afraid, if he did, he’d never want to stop.

“I have to return to Moscow on business.”

Paige’s head snapped up. She’d gone for a walk on the vast grounds of the palace and found a stone bench beneath an arbor. It was peaceful, beautiful. A cascade of pink roses spilled down the arbor, their blooms sweet and profuse. It was a vastly different landscape from a month ago. It had gone from wintery wonderland to spring garden in a short amount of time.

The air still had a slight chill. She’d worn a sweater, but her hot Texas blood was beginning to cool in spite of it. She was accustomed to a far warmer climate.

“Hello, Alexei,” she replied.

He loomed beneath the arbor, hands shoved into his trouser pockets, his broody face closed and dark. Her heart skipped a beat as she watched him. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t help but remember shoving his shirt from his body and running her hands over all that smooth, hard muscle.

“I will be gone a few days, but you will have everything you need. And if you do not, you have only to tell Vasily and he will see to it that you are taken care of.”

Her heart had sped up while he talked. “You’re leaving? So soon?”

She’d expected he would have to leave on business from time to time, but she hadn’t expected it would happen within hours of their arrival. He was the only person she knew in this country. How could he leave her when everything about this situation was still so new? Who would she talk to? What would she do all day? She was used to working, used to taking care of herself. How was she supposed to do nothing at all?

She felt as if she were suffocating, as if she’d left one life where she’d been obligated to the needs of her sister only to step into another where she was at the whim of a man. A man who wouldn’t want her if it weren’t for the child in her body. Everything she’d ever wanted for herself, every dream and every scrap of independence, had been taken away from her by this enigmatic man.

And now he was leaving, as if it were nothing. As if she were nothing.

Alexei shrugged. “My business needs me.”

“And you can’t work from here for a few days? We’ve only just arrived.”

He frowned down at her. “You cannot understand the pressures of my life.”

Her spine stiffened. “Oh, really? I worked in the energy business for two years, Alexei. I understand the pressure that goes along with being a CEO. I did work for one, remember?”

He snorted. “But not a good one, da?”

Paige gritted her teeth. It was just like him to take a swipe at her ex-boss. “I like Chad. He was always good to me, he paid me very well, and he loves my sister.”

“So you have forgotten his treatment of you.”

Paige got to her feet. “His treatment? Chad never treated me wrongly, Alexei. I’ve told you that time and time again. In fact, I think he’s treated me better than you have.”

He took a step toward her, his brows drawing down. His face was a thundercloud. “He treated you so well that he lied to you about his affair with your sister. In fact, if I seem to remember, they both lied. And you put yourself in danger because of their lies.”

“That’s not what I was talking about,” she said, her heart kicking up again.

“No, of course not. You forget that I helped you, that without me you would have been caught and abused by those men. But of course I am the one who has treated you wrongly.”

Paige pulled a tendril of hair from her mouth where the wind had blown it. His gaze seemed to linger on her lips, his eyes darkening slightly before he looked away again.

“I thanked you for helping me that night. But you’ve not done a thing with my best interests in mind since. You’ve done what was best for you.”

His gaze whipped back to her. “Do you think marrying you was best for me? That bringing you here is what I wanted to do?”

If he’d stabbed her in the heart with a jagged knife, he could have hurt her no worse. She knew he didn’t want her. But to hear it stated so starkly?

She would not cry. She didn’t need him. They didn’t need him.

“You made that choice, Alexei, not I. If you regret it so much, then why don’t you let me go home?”

“You are home,” he snapped. “For the sake of the child, you are where you belong.”

She folded her arms beneath her breasts, shook off a chill. “I sometimes wish we’d never met.”

Something flashed across his face, but it was gone too quickly for her to be sure what it was. “It is too late for that. We must deal with the consequences of our actions as best we can.”

She blinked. “The consequences of our actions? Is that how you think of this baby?” As if she hadn’t thought the same thing herself. But he said it so coldly, without even a hint of emotion. Did he love this baby, or did he just feel obligated?

“He is a consequence, is he not?” He took a step closer. She thought he would reach for her, but he just stood there with his hands shoved deep in his pockets, his rainy eyes gleaming with heat.

“He might be a she,” she said softly. Because she couldn’t think of anything else to say when he stood so close. She could smell the subtle spice of his skin, could feel the heat emanating from him. Suddenly she wanted to slip her arms around his waist, press her cheek to his hard chest. Why?

“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “This baby is a Voronov, a royal descendent of my line, and I will protect him—or her—with every last breath in my body.”

Paige trembled. Not because he’d frightened her, but because he was so fierce and she believed he meant every word. He would never let harm come to their baby. He was an honorable man. She believed it to her core.

But he was not honorable in everything. And that’s what she didn’t understand.

“I want to know,” she said, drawing in a deep breath to steady herself, “why you destroyed Russell Tech. I want to understand.”

She needed to understand, because if she didn’t, the guilt of what she had done would eat her alive. How could she be his wife if she felt guilty every time her body responded to him?

She didn’t think he would answer her. He would think she didn’t deserve an answer, or he would tell her it was simply business. He’d done that once before. She expected it, waited for it, yet she’d still had to ask.