“No buts!” he snapped. “If you don’t think me capable of winning the fair lady on my own, perhaps I should cease to try.”
It was a warning, plain and simple, and Sonya was wise enough to heed it. Tight-lipped, she turned and left the room.
Dimitri headed for the liquor cabinet and splashed vodka into a glass. He didn’t need his aunt to tell him that he should resume his courtship immediately, but he simply didn’t have the patience for it right now and wouldn’t have until he had released some of this sexual tension that had him so short-tempered. There were a number of women here that he could relieve his pent-up desires with, but as great as his discomfort was after so long at sea, he didn’t want just anyone. He wanted Katherine. Damn, but it always came back to her.
Furiously Dimitri threw the still-full glass into the fireplace and stalked out of the room. He found Katherine in the White Room, staring uninterestedly out the window. Boris, just bringing in her trunk, hurried the task and left when he saw Dimitri waiting to speak with her.
“I won’t ask if you find the room to your liking. You will just tell me no, and then—”
“Then you will have another one of your fits,” Katherine supplied as she slowly turned to face him. “You know, Dimitri, these tantrums are becoming quite tiresome.”
“Tantrums!”
“Is this going to be another one?” she asked with wide-eyed innocence.
He clamped his mouth shut. She was doing it again, deliberately provoking him so that he couldn’t think, couldn’t remember why he had sought her out in the first place. But he didn’t forget this time. And two could play her game.
“You fail to mention your own temper.”
“Me? Have a temper?”
“No, of course not,” he jeered. “You just scream and shout because it’s good exercise for the lungs.”
She stared at him incredulously for a moment and then began to laugh—warm, honest laughter that filled the room and surrounded Dimitri with enchantment. He had never heard her laugh before, not like this. It made him realize there was an aspect of her personality he had overlooked—a sense of humor or even, possibly, mischievousness. If he thought about them, many of the things she had said to him, things that had annoyed him, could actually have been gentle teasing.
“Oh, God,” Katherine sighed after a moment, wiping tears from her eyes. “You are priceless, Dimitri. Exercise my lungs—I’ll have to remember that when my brother complains that I’m a tyrant. I do lose patience with him occasionally.”
He didn’t want to break this mood. “And with me.”
“Most certainly with you.”
But she was smiling as she spoke, and he was filled with a curious pleasure. Why had he come? To lay down new rules. To hell with that. He didn’t really want to change her or take away her pretenses, which she so obviously enjoyed. If only he weren’t so sensitive where she was concerned! But if she had simply been teasing him, even just half the time…
“There must be some way we can fix it,” Dimitri said as he casually moved closer.
“Fix it?”
“Yes, fix it—your lack of patience, my lack of patience, our mutual flaring tempers. They say lovers never find time to argue.”
“Are we back to that?”
“We have never been far from it.”
Katherine warily backed up when he got too close. “Actually, I’ve heard lovers have the most violent arguments.”
“Perhaps some do, but certainly not often. Yet when they do, they have the most delightful way of making amends. Shall I tell you how?”
“I can—” Her retreat ended against the wall, and she finished with a gasp. “Guess.”
“Then why don’t we make amends for a change?”
She had to press her hands against his chest to hold him back.Concentrate, Katherine. You’ve got to distract him. Think of something!
“Dimitri, did you want to see me for a particular reason?”
He smiled at her effort and caught her hands in his. “I’m getting to the reason, little one, if you’ll just shut up for a moment.”
She became lost in his smile, and in the kiss that followed. This was no ravaging assault meant to overwhelm her. His passion had been mellowed by their talk, but it was still there, communicated in a gentle exploration by his lips and tongue that was as intoxicating as anything that had gone before. He was sharing, giving of himself, and for heavenly long moments Katherine took all he had to offer—until he became more demonstrative, and she could no longer ignore the hard bulge that pressed against her belly.
