LITMIR.BIZ

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glare, since her eyes were swimming in moisture. “You don’t care, so spare me your insincerity. Besides, how do I know you’re telling the truth? How could you possibly have found Emma if she’s in Chad’s room?”

      What if he’d made the whole thing up? Though why he would do so, she couldn’t say, but surely it was a possibility.

      “My head of security used to work for the secret police,” he replied softly. “Yuri knows people, and he knows how to get things done. But I can certainly prove where your sister is if you wish. My men have audio of her with—”

      “Stop,” she blurted, turning away, her body trembling with anger and pain. Her intuition had told her all along he was telling the truth, which was why she’d reacted, but that hadn’t stopped her from grasping at straws. The last thing she wanted to hear was Chad and Emma whispering together in bed. Or worse.

      Before she realized what Alexei was about to do, he wrapped her in his embrace, his hand pressing against the back of her head so that her cheek was flush against his bare chest. Briefly she considered struggling—but gave up the idea as his other hand rhythmically rubbed her back.

      It’d been a long time since anyone had comforted her. She was always the one doing the comforting, the one who’d sacrificed everything to raise her little sister, never complaining when Emma got the best of everything. Paige had been proud that her hard work enabled Emma to have a normal life, that Emma was able to be a cheerleader and a homecoming queen and a beautiful, successful young woman with a bright future.

      She had done that for Emma, and she’d been happy to do so.

      But why did Emma have to get everything?

      On the heels of jealousy, guilt rode hard. Who was Paige to deny her sister anything? Paige had been practically an adult when their mother died. Emma was the one who’d grown up without a loving mother. Paige had done everything for her, but a sister wasn’t the same as a mother, no matter how hard she tried.

      A tear spilled free, and then another, until finally Paige was curling her hands into Alexei’s shirt as the first heartbroken sob escaped her. After that, it was easy to cry. She’d held the tears in for so long. She hadn’t cried since her mother’s funeral, had believed that tears made her weak.

      Now, it felt good to let it all out. Cleansing. The man holding her never stopped rubbing her back, never made a move to pull away and leave her alone. Selfishly she clung to him and cried for all the years she’d lost.

      While she cried herself out, she made a decision. From now on, Paige would no longer neglect her own happiness for that of others. When she wanted something, she would not deny herself. She was through denying herself.

      It was a new day for Paige Barnes. And she knew just how to prove it.

      CHAPTER THREE

      ALEXEI SENSED THE change in her before she acted. One minute she was sobbing her heart out, the next she was standing on tiptoe and pulling him down for another kiss.

      He was tempted. More than tempted. Alexei let her kiss him, fighting his reaction as her lips moved tentatively over his. She tasted like salt and sadness, and he wanted nothing more than to take that sadness away. It was his fatal flaw, this desire to protect and comfort those in need. He’d spent years fighting for his family, years that had taken their toll.

      But there was nothing he could do for this woman. Though it would be so easy to take what she offered, so easy to sweep her into his arms and carry her to his room, he wasn’t going to do it.

      She wasn’t kissing him because she wanted him. She was doing this to prove something to herself. And he didn’t feel like being the conduit through which she tried to vanquish her anger and disappointment.

      Her reaction to his news about her sister and Russell had not been what he’d expected. He’d set her up in his mind as a cold, calculating woman on a mission for her lover. He’d not stopped to think that maybe she really had been worried, or that she didn’t know her sister wasn’t missing but was instead sneaking off to Chad Russell’s room.

      Alexei didn’t like the way her tears had made him feel, the way her sweet vulnerability just now—the tentative kiss, the hint of desperation—struck a nerve inside him.

      She brought memories crashing into his head that he tried to shove away. Memories of a pale, sad woman lying in a hospital bed, her lips cracked and dry, a lone tear sliding down her cheek as she whispered that she loved him.

      The last person on this earth who loved him had died because he wasn’t able to save her, because even though he was a prince, he’d been poor and broken and couldn’t afford to buy the best leukemia treatments money could buy. After Katerina’s death, he’d vowed on her memory that he would not be poor for the rest of his life. And he would strike back at the cold-blooded man who’d stripped them of everything before he’d returned to America with the rights to the land their mother had sold, and the rich oil and gas deposits beneath.

      Tim Russell had left them with nothing, and though it would have taken only a fraction of the wealth he’d amassed from their land to help Katerina, he’d refused. Alexei had scraped together the money to fly to Dallas and beg for his sister’s life, but he’d been met with cold disdain. He still remembered standing in Russell’s office, high over the Dallas skyline, and being both awed and sickened by the wealth on display. He’d wanted that life for his family, and it had made him sick to think it might have been theirs had this man not stolen it from them.

      Once Katerina had died, Alexei had found the initiative to start Voronov Exploration with nothing more than bravado and a geological engineering degree from Moscow University. He’d burned with a passion to regain everything that had been lost and to destroy the Russells in the process.

      It had taken years, but he was at the pinnacle of his success now—and victory over the Russells was within his grasp. If he could turn back time, he would save his sister from the cancer that had eaten her strength and her life. He would give back all the money and give up the idea of vengeance if it was possible to have another chance.

      But there was no going back. Ever. Life moved forward, no matter how much money you had. It hadn’t helped Tim Russell when his time had come, and it wouldn’t help his son when Alexei finally gained control of Russell Tech.

      Alexei gripped Paige’s arms, gently, and set her away from him. She sucked in a breath, and for a moment he thought she might start to cry again. Instead she wrapped her arms around her waist and stared up at him, her eyes huge pools of hurt.

      He couldn’t help but feel sympathy for her. Those tears had been real, regardless of her reasons for being here in the first place.

      And maybe, just maybe, he could turn her anger and sadness at Chad Russell to his advantage. She was his secretary; she knew sensitive information about his business.

      Information Alexei could use.

      “You don’t really want to do this,” he said softly. “You are hurt and sad and you want to make it go away. I understand this. But tomorrow, you would have regrets.”

      She shrugged one shoulder, as if to say it mattered not at all to her. Yet he knew it mattered a great deal with that single movement.

      “It’s okay if you don’t want to m-make love,” she said, casting her eyes toward the floor when she said make love, as if it embarrassed her to say the words.

      Now why did that hint of innocence spike the heat in his blood?

      “Paige,” he said, waiting until she looked at him again before he continued, “I think you need to get some sleep. Tomorrow, everything will look brighter.”

      How many times had he told that lie to Katerina? They’d both known it was a lie, but it was a fiction they’d counted on to get them through the hard times.

      “I have to be back at the hotel by eight,” she said numbly. “Cha—my boss has an important meeting to attend.”

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