She never asked, the panic clearly working to my advantage—and her disadvantage. I shifted closer and placed my hand on her back, making slow, easy circles against her back.
Her skin, to be exact. The dress was god damn backless.
“Breathe with me,” I murmured, trying not to think about how soft her skin was.
She didn’t pull away from my touch. In fact, to my amazement, it seemed to comfort her. She leaned in slightly against my chest, unconsciously seeking calm. I slid my arm around her shoulders, further pulling her against my side when I noticed I was doing something right.
“That’s it,” I encouraged as her breathing started to slow. “You’re doing great.”
Every second prickled in my awareness, time itself slowing down. A deep, quiet lull fell in the car, the only sounds being her gradually slowing breaths and the hum of the car. Thecity traffic and noise fell behind—way, way behind—along with her family.
That was when I became aware of how soft her raven hair felt along my neck, how floral her shampoo was, how small she felt under my arm. I could have broken her in two, and for a second, I felt mad at her for having put herself in such a situation.
There was something seriously wrong with me, I thought to myself. She was a Lebedev, the key to my plot, and I was sitting right next to her, comforting her like I gave a damn, worrying like she was my responsibility.
Well, she wasn’t. She was my god damn asset. I met the driver’s eye in the rear-view mirror and motioned at him to drive faster. Every second wasted felt like we were inching closer to being discovered.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered after a long silence, at last. “I just—I panicked.”
“Don’t apologize,” I said. I might have lied about my name and my occupation. Might have lied about many things, actually, but that part, I meant. “It was chaos in there.”
She looked up at me then, her face inches from mine, those brown eyes now shy from the awareness of our proximity. I wondered if she felt it too, this zap in her skin where ours touched.
Her lips parted slightly, and for a heartbeat, I imagined what it would be like to taste that full lower lip, feel her melt against me from a place of desire, and not panic.
The thought rose from such a wretched place of want that I knew I was seconds away from forgetting who I was, who she was, and why we were here.
Without thinking, I pulled back, and she cleared her throat, soothing out her hair, as though she, too, had noticed we were on the precipice of trouble.
Just then, the car came to a stop.
Beatrice looked out of the window. “Where are we?”
“My place,” I lied. “I didn’t get the chance to ask you where we could drop you off. You were…terrified. Why don’t we head in for a cup of tea?”
A cup of tea, and the start of her new life. But I had to remind myself to take it slow around her. She scared easily, was already skittish, and I needed her inside before things turned ugly.
I stepped out of the car and headed to her side of the door, opening up to extend my hand to help her.
She looked confused, conflicted.
“You’re wearing really high heels.” I gave her a soft, non-threatening smile. “And you’ve been through hell.”
At that, she smiled. Finally, she put her dainty little hand in mine, and as I closed around it, I felt a river of current weave up my arm.
“Wait here,” I told my driver quietly as Beatrice climbed out.
I led her into the small suburban house, one of my side properties that no one really knew about, bought through a friend’s shell company. Which meant, even if the Lebedevs learnt she was with me, they’d never find us here.
I finally had Beatrice Lebedev in my crutches, and from this point on, I planned to use her as a message to the family that had humiliated me in front of the entire world.
Dante Lebedev took what was meant to be mine, so I took his sister. One could call that cruel, but to me, it was good old honest revenge.
I flicked on the lights and watched Beatrice take in the sparsely furnished space.
“You…you live here?” she asked, and there was something in her voice, a tinge of suspicion.
“I know the place doesn’t look lived in.” I tried to cover up as quickly as I could. “But I only just moved in. Have to get it remodeled.”
