Prince Voronov's Virgin (15 page)

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.

His gray eyes took on a faraway cast, as if he were looking at some distant object she could not see.

And then he spoke, his gaze coming sharply into focus once more. What he said rocked her to the core.

“Tim Russell destroyed my family. He took everything, and he didn’t stop until nothing was left.”

P
AIGE’S KNEES FELT
weak so she sank onto the bench again. Or fell onto it maybe. Alexei’s face was stark, raw with emotion. She hadn’t expected it, and her heart went out to him, squeezed tight in her chest with sympathy.

But what if he was wrong? What if he’d misunderstood?

She quickly dismissed that thought as ridiculous. How could he misunderstand something so important? He truly believed it, regardless of what she thought.

“I’m sorry,” she said, because she didn’t know what else to say.

He turned, his face in profile to her, and stared out at the vast gardens. “My aunt was a ballet dancer with the Bolshoi. She met Tim Russell when she was on tour with the company in the United States. They married a short while later.”

Paige couldn’t have moved if she tried. Alexei’s aunt had been married to Chad’s father?

“But that means…”

“That Chad is my cousin, yes.”

“I’ve met his mother,” she said softly. “I had no idea she was Russian.”

And Chad had never mentioned the family connection. Why not? He’d briefed her about his nemesis on the flight to Moscow, but he’d never once said that Alexei was his cousin.

But she’d only been an employee. Why would she need to know the personal side of their story? She didn’t. Yet knowing he’d been romancing her sister at the same time, she felt oddly betrayed once again that he had not told her this information.

Would it have changed her reaction to Alexei? Would it have made her more cautious when he professed an interest in her? Perhaps she would have realized just how brutal this feud was and kept above the fray.

As if that were an excuse, she chided herself. She’d known that Chad and Alexei were business rivals and she’d still let herself be charmed. What would knowing the true relationship have possibly done to make it different?

“Did you not ever wonder where he learned to speak Russian?” Alexei asked.

“I assumed he learned it in college.” She stared at her clasped hands on her lap, heat rising into her cheeks. Was there absolutely anything she’d not been deceived about?

“He learned it from his mother, just as he learned to hate us from her as well.”

“But why?” she asked, unable to fathom what would make Elena Russell do such a thing. She’d thought Chad’s mother was a bit standoffish, but she’d never thought the woman was rude or hateful. The few times she’d been in the office, she’d been nice enough. She just hadn’t been overly friendly. Paige had chalked it up to reserve. Some people were just that way.

His expression was like granite. “My father’s family believed my mother too lowborn to deserve the title of princess, and that created a rift between them and us. When my father died, it was my grandmother who turned us out. She should not have been able to do so, but she knew people in certain places and my mother did not.”

Paige’s heart throbbed with feeling. How could anyone
throw her grandchildren out into the cold, even if she didn’t like their mother? It was monstrous, unfathomable.

“Where does Chad’s father fit into this?” she asked.

“When he was expanding his operations, Elena suggested he go to my mother and try to purchase the bit of land she’d gotten on my father’s death. By then, the majority of the family property had passed into state hands with the death of my grandmother. All that was left was what my mother had.”

Paige shook her head. “I’m not sure I understand.”

“We had nothing, Paige.” Alexei shoved his fingers through his hair. “Nothing except our land, and not much of it either. Russell made promises to my mother in exchange for her selling to him. It should come as no surprise that he kept none of those promises,” he finished, his jaw so hard she thought it might crack.

“But he paid you money, right? Didn’t that help some?”

He snorted in disgust. “He paid far less than he would make when he developed it. And when he struck oil, he refused to share any of the profits as he’d promised. My mother was too trusting, and we ended up with less than nothing.”

So Chad’s father had bought Voronov land, promised to give them a share of profits, then disappeared with the money. She could understand why Alexei would dislike the Russells. But as successful as he now was, did he really need to embark on revenge simply to get back at Chad’s family for what they’d done?

Tim Russell was dead, and Alexei was beyond rich now. She hurt for him, but she also hurt for Chad. They were both victims of one man’s greed, and it didn’t seem fair to either of them. They had so much in common, if only they could see it.

“I think I understand why you wanted to acquire Russell Tech,” Paige said. “But Chad’s father died a long time ago.
Could the two of you not leave this in the past? You’re
family.”

“Nyet,”
Alexei spat. “Chad and his mother are nothing to me.”

He ground his teeth together to keep from lashing out. How had he started on this trip down memory lane anyway? He had never, ever shared the details of what had happened so long ago with anyone.

And now he was spilling his guts to her as if they were two women gossiping about their lives. What was happening to him? He’d come out here to tell her he was leaving, because though he’d considered ordering the helicopter and simply going, he’d felt it was wrong to abandon her without an explanation.

Now he wished he’d done exactly that. He should have left and to hell with the rest.

She didn’t understand, not really. He was surprised at how much he wanted her to. All he needed was to tell her the rest, to tell her about Katerina, and her lovely face would crease in sympathy. She might even get up and wrap her arms around him.

But he could not do it. He could not endure it if she touched him. And he found he couldn’t speak the words about Katerina, couldn’t say it aloud when he’d never done so before. No one knew that he’d gone to Dallas to beg for her life. No one knew that Tim Russell had laughed in his face and thrown him out. He’d been too humiliated to ever share it with anyone.

He would not start now.

“It is not as simple as that,” he bit out.

“But what has Chad done to you?” she asked, her eyes shining with hope. As if she wanted him to see the error of his ways, wanted to play mediator and reunite him with the only branch of his family still living.

She’d boiled it down to a simple formula and she wanted
him to swallow the pill. It was so typically Paige that he would have laughed if he weren’t raging inside. She’d spent her life pleasing people and did not see why everyone couldn’t—or wouldn’t—do the same.

“Chad inherited his parents’ dislike of me along with Russell Tech. I assure you, had he been the one to close the Valishnikov deal, our situations would be reversed.”

“I don’t doubt that, but it doesn’t need to be this way. It only takes one of you to change it. You should go to him, should talk—”

“Stop,” he ordered, his voice harsh and full of the hatred he felt for the Russells. “Not everything can be fixed, Paige. Nor should it.”

He didn’t like the way she looked at him, the way her lovely dark eyes seemed so sad and disappointed and wary all at once. Again, she made him feel like a great Russian bear, ready to devour her whole and spit out the bones. It made him angry. He might not have been completely honest with her, but he’d never set out to harm her.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” he continued. “You think everything is simple, that a lifetime of problems can be solved with a conversation. You think that I need to forgive and forget, that I somehow need Chad and Elena because we share DNA.”

“I never said that,” she protested. “But I don’t understand why you don’t try. Someone has to make the first move.”

“It will not be me,” he said. “I don’t need them. I don’t need anybody.”

Her eyes shimmered with hurt. “Of course you don’t. It’s much easier that way, isn’t it? Needing people leaves you vulnerable.”

He was so stunned he couldn’t speak. He’d dated many women, but he’d never shared the details of his life with them. And even if he had, he knew in his bones that none of them
would have seen what she had just now. She’d pierced the veil of his pride, of his loneliness, of his shield, and she’d stabbed into the soft heart of the matter.

It was easier not to need anyone. Easier not to love anyone. She saw through him, and he couldn’t bear it a moment longer than he had to.

“I have to go now,” he said stiffly. “There is much to be done before we are ready to develop Valishnikov’s land. I will return as soon as I am able.”

“Why can’t I go with you? I don’t know anyone here but you, and I don’t want to be alone.”

Her plea cut him to the bone. But he had to stand firm in this. He needed to get away from her until he could regain his perspective. “You will not be alone. Vasily is here, and the staff. There is much for you to do. You will need to learn Russian. When I return, there will be cocktail parties, dinners and evenings at the ballet and theater. You must learn to be a princess.”

“Why can’t I learn Russian in Moscow?”

“Because I wish you to learn it here.”

Her expression fell just a little. “You don’t really want me, do you, Alexei? You married me for the baby, just like you seduced me for information.
I
don’t matter to you at all.”

Isn’t that what he wanted her to think? It was easier this way, easier than messy emotional entanglements. Not that he
was
emotionally entangled, but if he stood here and justified himself, if he tried to soothe her, he would only hurt her more. And he didn’t want to do that.

When he found his voice, it was hard. Just like he needed it to be.