A Reputation For Revenge (15 page)

“Kasimir, don’t be a fool,” his brother said tersely. “You can still—”

Kasimir turned his head as he heard Josie coming in from the snowy garden. He hung up, dropping his phone into his pocket.

“Why did you run off like that?” She was laughing, wearing a white hooded coat, halfcovered with snow. “We’re not even done. The poor snowman only has one eye.” Puppy-like, she tried to shake the snowflakes off her coat. Her eyes sparkled like a million bright winter days, and the sound of her laughter was like music. “Ah,” she sighed. “I’ve missed winter!”

He’d never seen anything, or anyone, so beautiful. As he looked at her, his heart twisted with infinite longing.

And he realized:
he loved her.

His eyes narrowed, and he knew he wouldn’t let anyone take Josie away from him. He’d keep her. At any cost.

“I have something to tell you,” he said softly. He pulled off her white hooded coat, covered with snow, off her shoulders and dropped it to the floor. “It’s important.”

Josie gave him a teasing, slow-rising smile. “Hmm. Knowing you…” She tilted her head, pretending to consider, then lifted an eyebrow. “Does that something involve a bed?”

“Ah. You know me well,” he answered with a wicked grin. “But no.” Growing more serious, he gently used the pads of his thumbs to wipe away the snowflakes from her creamy skin, and those tangled in her eyelashes. Looking down into her eyes, he saw eternity in those caramel-and-honey-colored depths. And he whispered the words in his heart. “I love you, Josie.”

Her lips parted in shock. Tears filled her eyes as a sob escaped her. “You love me?”

He cupped her cheek. “Will you stay with me and be my wife?” He gave her a crooked, cocky smile, even as his hands trembled. “Not just now, but forever?”

“Forever,” she breathed. A single tear streamed down her cheek. “Yes,” she choked out. She threw her arms around him. “Oh, yes!”

He pulled back from her embrace to look down at her. “But there’s just one thing.” He looked down at her. “If you stay with me as my wife—you must never see Bree again.”

“What?” She wiped her eyes with an awkward laugh. “What are you talking about?”

“I saw your sister with my brother at the ball. Laughing. Kissing. They are together now.” He set his jaw. “So you must choose. Them…” He tucked back a long tendril of her hair and said in a low voice, “Or me.”

Josie blinked fast. “Maybe if we all just talked together, we could…”

“No,” he cut her off.

Josie stared at him, her brown eyes glittering. She swallowed, then whispered, “You can’t ask this of me.”

“I must.” He pulled her into his arms. His hands moved to her back, getting tangled in her lustrous, damp brown hair. He kissed her temple, her cheek, her lips. “Choose me, Josie,” he whispered against her skin. “Stay with me.”

She trembled in his arms, uncertain. Knowing he’d asked her the deepest sacrifice of her life, he persuaded her in the
only way he could. He lowered his mouth to hers, kissing her with his soul on his lips, holding nothing back. He kissed her with every bit of love and longing and passion in his heart, until even Kasimir was dizzy as the world seemed to spin around their embrace.

“Let me show you the world,” he whispered. “Every day can be more exciting than the last. Choose me.”

Her arms twisted around his shoulders as she sighed against his lips. “I can’t…”

He kissed her again. In the distance, he dimly heard noises outside the dacha—the call of the birds, the crack of wood in the bare forest.

With a sob, Josie pulled away. A single tear fell unheeded down her cheek. “I love you both.” She drew a deep breath like a shudder, then lifted her gaze and whispered, “But if I must choose, I choose you.”

Kasimir’s heart almost stopped in his chest.

Josie chose him.

It was a selfish thing he’d asked of her, he knew. Selfish? Unforgivable. And yet this amazing woman had chosen him. Over everything and everyone she’d ever loved. He got a lump in his throat. “Thank you, Josie,” he said in a low voice. “I’ll honor your sacrifice. For the rest of our lives….”

The outside door banged against the wall. Whirling around, Josie gasped, “Bree!”

As if in slow motion, Kasimir turned his head.

Vladimir and Bree stood in the open doorway.

“Josie.” The slender blond woman ran quickly towards her younger sister. “Are you all right?”

“Of course I’m all right,” Josie tried to reassure her. “You’re the one who’s been in trouble.” She patted her sister’s shoulders as if to be sure she was really there. “But are you okay?” she said anxiously. She scowled at Vladimir. “He didn’t—hurt you?”

“Vladimir?” Bree looked astonished. “No. Never.”

“What are you doing here?”

“We came to save you.”

“Save me?” Looking bewildered, Josie looked at Kasimir with a smile then tilted her head. “Oh. You mean from my marriage.” She sighed. “I knew you’d be upset I married Kasimir, but you don’t need to worry. It started out as a business arrangement, yes, but now we’re in love and…”

Her voice trailed off as she looked at the faces of the others. Vladimir folded his arms, glowering at Kasimir. He stared back at his brother warily.

What’s going on?” Josie breathed, looking bewildered.

Kasimir set his jaw. He’d been so close—so close to getting her away forever. But now he had no choice but to tell her
everything
—before the others did. He turned to her, his arms folded.

“There’s something I need to tell you,” he said tightly. “Something I need to explain.”

“Go on,” she said uncertainly.

He desperately tried to think of a way to make her understand, to forgive. “It was… I thought it was fate.” He tightened his hands into fists at his sides. “When you fell into my lap.”

He parted his lips to say more, then stopped.

“Kasimir threatened me on New Year’s Eve,” Bree stated. “He said if I didn’t trick Vladimir into signing over his company, he would make sure I never saw you again!”

Josie gasped.

Her sister scowled. “I had to get the contract signed by midnight tonight, or Kasimir was going to make you disappear into the desert forever. Into his harem, he said!”

Josie’s face went pale. “No,” she breathed. She turned to him. “It’s not true,” she whispered. “Tell me it’s not true. It’s some kind of—misunderstanding between you and my sister. Tell me.”

Kasimir’s shoulders and jaw were so tense they hurt as he looked down at her. “I was going to explain, the night I came
back on New Year’s Eve. Having you with me, when Bree was with Vladimir, it just seemed—well, I told myself I’d be a fool not to take advantage of the situation.” He paused, then forced himself to continue. “I… I was the one who arranged for you and your sister to get jobs in Hawaii.”

“You did!”

He gave a single terse nod. “I hoped to convince you to marry me. And I hoped Vladimir would see Bree.”

“You mean you hoped I’d cause a scene,” Bree retorted.

“Which you did,” Vladimir murmured, giving her a wicked grin. She blushed.

“That’s neither here nor there,” she said primly.

But Josie’s soft brown eyes didn’t look away from Kasimir’s face. “That’s why you took me from Honolulu to Morocco?” The color had drained out of her rosy cheeks, leaving her skin white as Russian snow. “You weren’t keeping me safe—you were keeping me hostage? To blackmail my sister?”

Kasimir’s heart twisted in his chest. “Josie.” He swallowed. “If you’ll just let me explain….”

And again, she waited, still with a terrible, desperate hope in her eyes. As if there could be any way Kasimir could explain his actions that didn’t make him a selfish monster. He took a deep breath. “I did do a terrible thing. But an hour ago, I called and told them the deal was off. I told Vladimir he could keep his company. All I wanted was you.” Urgently, he grabbed her hands in his own and looked down at her. “Doesn’t that mean something?” he said softly. “I called off the blackmail. For you.”

For a moment, Josie’s eyes glowed. For that split second, he thought it was all going to be all right.

Then her expression crumpled. “But you were going to separate me from my sister forever, rather than confess how you tried to blackmail her. You were going to force me to
give her up, her friendship, her love, for the rest of my life, rather than tell me how you threatened her—with my
safety!
”

“I was afraid.” Words caught in his throat. He felt her hands starting to slip away and he tried to grab them, hold on to them. “I was afraid you wouldn’t understand. I couldn’t take the risk you wouldn’t forgive me….”

She pulled her hands away. “If even an hour ago, you’d confessed everything, I think even then I could have forgiven you,” she whispered. “But not for th-this.” Her teeth chattered. “You d-demanded that I make that horrible choice. When it was never necessary. Even knowing what it would cost me!”

“I’m sorry,” he said in a low voice.

Her eyes widened, then narrowed. “You never loved me,” she choked out. “Not if you could do that.”

Desperately, he took a step towards her. “It was the only way I could keep you!”

She flinched. Closing her eyes, she exhaled. “I always wondered why a man like you would be interested in a woman like me. Now I know.” She opened her eyes, and tears spilled over her lashes. “I was just a possession to you. Someone to be married for the sake of land in Alaska, then traded for your brother’s company. Then kept at your whim, as what? Your mistress, your sex slave?”

“My wife!”

“You never thought of… of
me.
How I would feel. You either didn’t think about it, or you didn’t care.”

“It’s not true!” With a deep breath, he said, “Yes, I tried to use you to get revenge on my brother. But everything changed, Josie, when I… I fell in love with you.”

She stared at him. Turning away with a sob, she pressed her face against her sister’s shoulder.

“Please,” Kasimir whispered, taking a step towards her. “Doesn’t it mean anything that I gave up what I wanted most—the company that should have been mine?”

“You don’t have to give it up.” Vladimir stepped between
them, his face grave. Reaching into his coat, he pulled out a white page. “Here it is.”

For an instant, Kasimir stared blankly at the page. He took it from his brother’s hand. Looking down, he sucked in his breath. “It’s the contract I gave Bree.” He looked up in shock. “It transfers your shares in Xendzov Mining to me. You signed it.”

“Let this be the end,” Vladimir said. “I was wrong to force you out of our company ten years ago. I was angry, and humiliated, and my pride wanted vengeance. But I was the only one to blame. So take back what I owe you, with interest. Take it all. And let this be the end of our war.”

Kasimir’s mouth was dry. “You’re just giving it to me?” His voice was hoarse. “Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

“A lifetime’s work. You’re throwing it away?”

Vladimir’s forehead creased. “I’m trading it. For the happiness of the woman I love. The woman who will soon be my wife.” His blue eyes, the same shade as Kasimir’s own, were filled with regret as he said softly, “And to make amends to the little brother I always loved, but have sometimes treated very badly.”

A lump rose in Kasimir’s throat.

“I should have waited for you,” Vladimir said in a low voice, “all those days we walked to school in the snow.” Glancing behind him, he gave a sudden snort. “And I should have listened when you said Bree Dalton was a wicked creature, not to be trusted…”

“Hey,” she protested behind him.

Lifting a dark eyebrow, Vladimir gave her a sensual smile. “You know you’re wicked. Don’t try to deny it.” Then he looked back to Kasimir, his expression serious. “I was wrong to cut you out of my life,” he said humbly. “Forgive me, brother.”

Kasimir’s world was spinning. He gripped the contract
like a life raft. “You can’t mean it,” he said. “You’ve put your whole life into Xendzov Mining. How can you just surrender? How can you let me win?”

“For the same reason that, an hour ago, you were willing to let it go.” Vladimir gave a crooked smile. “I’ve won a treasure far greater than any company. The life I always wanted. With the woman I always loved. You reunited us in Hawaii. And I have you to thank for that.”

“I was trying to hurt you,” he said hoarsely.

His older brother’s smile lifted to a grin. “You did me the biggest favor of my life. Now you’re taking the mining company off my hands, I’m off to Honolulu. I’ve just bought the Hale Ka’nani resort for Bree.”

“You did what?”

“Oh, Bree,” Josie breathed, clutching her sister’s arm. “Just like you always dreamed!”

“I dreamed of running a little bed-and-breakfast by the sea.” Bree’s lips quirked as she looked at Vladimir. “Trust you to buy me a hundred-million-dollar hotel for my birthday!”

“It was way easier than trying to buy you jewelry,” he said, and she laughed.

Kasimir’s throat hurt as he looked down at the signed contract in his hand. He had the company he’d always wanted. He’d soon have Josie’s land in Alaska. He even had his brother’s apology.

He’d won.

And yet, he suddenly didn’t feel that way. He looked past Vladimir and Bree to the only thing that mattered.

“Can you forgive me, Josie?” he whispered. “Can you?”

She looked up from Bree’s shoulder. Her cheeks were streaked with tears, her face pale.

His heart fell to his feet. He tried to smile. “It’s in the marriage vows, isn’t it? You have to forgive me. For better, for worse. Can’t we just agree that you’re the better, and I’m the worse—”

Josie held up her hand, cutting him off. He stared at her, feeling sick as he waited for the verdict. She’d never looked so beautiful to him as she did at that moment, when he knew all he deserved was for her to walk out the door.

“I was willing to give up everything.” She sounded almost bewildered. She put her hand to her forehead. “
Everything.
How could I have been so stupid?” She looked up, her eyes wide. “I was willing to give up everything for you. My family, my home, my life—everything that makes me
me.
For a romantic dream! For
nothing!
”