Keeping Thyme (Thyme Trilogy) (18 page)

“There is an emergency with one of the alter boys in the choir. I think his voice has suddenly dropped.” She giggles.

“Come on, let’s make our way back to the hotel before Tench gets wind that they lost us.” I wink
. “Plus, if we make our way back now, we’ll have enough time to stop into some of those amazing stores I saw on the way. I have this weakness for Zara whenever I visit Europe.” I cringe at my own confession, and Tatiana beams an amused smile. “What? They make great staple pieces, okay?” I laugh.

“What are you going to say happened to Tench?” Tatiana voice is still a whisper.

“Nothing. I won’t need to say anything at all. Do you really think his guys are going to admit that they lost us when we were just over in the church all along?” I wink. “Even the Priest can vouch for us.”

The pianist trills
a beautiful melody in the hotel foyer as we step through the doors opened for us by the busboys. We make our way up to the restaurant on the mezzanine level and stumble into our chairs like we did as exhausted teenagers after a day of shopping. I clumsily drop all the bags full of designer clothes beside my feet, and Tatiana orders us our Russian high tea, which she’s very excited to share with me. A little too predictably, Tench comes up within half an hour.

“Well
, aren’t you two the talk of the town?” He grins as he dramatically stomps across the mezzanine level.

My brow furrows and I smile nervously. I hope we have pulled this off.

“Haven’t you seen all the newspapers?” he says as he holds up a handful of the evening newspapers.

Tatiana giggles at the headings. Why didn’t I learn some Russian before I came here? I look at Tatiana and hope she gives me the translation.

“The beauty that ballet brings,” Tatiana almost sings.

Then Tench holds up another newspaper and I look to Tatiana.

“St Petersburg smiles.” She laughs. “You’re just in time for afternoon tea, Joe. Would you like some fruit?” Tatiana waves her hand across the small round table that our tub chairs nest around.

Tatiana delicately straightens her skirt as she sits and reaches for her cup of
zavarka
, a strong black tea. I take a thin slice of watermelon and a small pastry from the platter and place it on my plate. Before I’ve even sat on my chair again, Luka comes up the stairs. Tatiana beams her most beautiful smile, like Kira used to in ballet school. She’s still that girl and
that
is her real smile—and she saves it for him. I look across to Luka as he reaches out for Tatiana. Oh, these two have got it bad for each other. I chuckle under my breath as I quickly shake hands with Luka and take a bite of my pastry.

I sit back and watch them all chatter away to one another. I think I’ve
discovered the two Russians two favourite pastimes: drinking black tea, and drinking vodka.

I begin to enjoy myself. My thoughts briefly take me away to a place that’s not real. I realise I still have a job to do tomorrow
, and the hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention again.

It’s a
s if my body knows he’s coming before I do, Dima steps slowly up the stairs of the restaurant. I shoot a glance towards Tatiana to make sure she’s alright after hearing what he wanted to do to me. To my surprise, she’s handling this better than I’d thought she would. She gently sips on her tea as if nothing matters at all. I place my plate back on the table and wait for his greeting.

He claps his hands together once
. “Ladies, you have enjoyed yourselves today, yes?” He fails miserably in sounding sincere. “Everybody in St Petersburg loves seeing Tatiana Pavlenko and Joseph Tench’s new fiancée together. They say our city is blessed to have you. Is this so, you think?” His eyes narrow slightly.

I wonder if the reaction from the people of St Petersburg will change Dima’s mind about me. Something tells me that once his mind is set, he won’t budge on the idea. He just doesn’t realise how right he is about me. I watch Tatiana from the corner of my eye to follow in her reaction; she seems to know these guys better than I do.

She giggle. “Is there a photo of us down at the Bronze Horseman? You should’ve seen the crowd we had going on down there.”

I almost want to slap her across her stupid face right now. What if there are photos that show us getting into a car? I’m pretty sure I had all the photographers picked around us. The car was on the opposite side to them so they wouldn’t have seen us.

Luka laughs. “One report said you got away from the fans with a smart trick?”

I laugh
. “That was Tatiana’s cunning idea. We had to be over to see the priest at St Isaac’s cathedral. He was giving us a personal tour, but we didn’t think his Holy Father was going to be too impressed if we brought a crowd with us, so we had to lose them.”

Tatiana shrugs playfully
. “This is not the first time I’ve had to use clever escapes from fans.” She chuckles and takes another sip of her tea.

She’s so collected around these men
, and I appreciate that. I think we understand each other better than we realise. Once you’ve sold yourself, you do actually sell a piece of you. What was once yours becomes theirs.

But there’s one thing they will never buy, and that’s your heart. No one understands this like Tatiana does. There are remnants of Kira in there, but the majority of her is shattered just like I am. The smallest pieces are the hardest parts to put back together. I hope she finds peace one day.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Our Russian high
tea soon turns into a four-hour, two-bottles-of-vodka drinking session. It’s been pleasant sitting, chatting amongst us; even Dima has been somewhat tolerable. I slide my hand down Tench’s hard, thick leg. The effects of the vodka have set in nicely, and I want a piece of Tench right now. His cheerful attitude tonight has been a charm that’s hard to ignore, and why would I ignore it? I love being with him in bed. Tench is my favourite game.

I lean across, and whisper in Tench’s ear
. “I want to go and make love to my fiancé.” I breathe the word
fiancé
and gently run my tongue along the bottom of his earlobe.

He takes a deep breath and grins wildly
. “Excuse me, gentleman, but I want to get this gorgeous fiancée of mine upstairs before she has too much to drink.” He flicks the bottom of my chin with his index finger.

“There’s no such thing as too much to drink in Russia
,” Dima boldly replies.

My eyes flick to his. He stares at me, challenging me to bite. Luka breaks Dima’s attempt at stopping Tench from going.

“One more before you go.” He holds out two thin, filled vodka glasses for us. “
Na zdorovje
,” he bellows out as he holds the glass up.

“
Na-strovia
,” I reply in my Australian attempt at Russian.

Tench and I
hold hands and cuddle into one another as we ride the elevator up to our hotel room. We look every part the newly engaged couple. We get into the suite and I have the sudden urge to sit Tench down and ask him everything. I want to ask him why he feels it’s acceptable to trade women like they’re cattle? Why does he have to murder people? Why couldn’t he be normal so I could’ve had some kind of happiness?

My urges are interrupted by Tench’s phone ringing. He looks at me apologetically and smiles
, mouthing the word “sorry” as he answers.

The conversation is half in English and half in Russian. He ends the call and starts unbuttoning his shirt.

“That was Dima. He wants to take you to see our new bar tomorrow. I have some business down at the port for the day.” He shucks off his shirt. “We’ve been having some issues with the port authorities lately that I have to deal with. I may be away all day again … and I don’t want you to be alone.” I still see sorrow in his eyes. “But I promise you that we are almost settled with the business end of things in a day or two, then I can give you some more of my time, and I can show you my Russia.” He smiles.

My mind races with his words. He’ll be down at the port. He’s having issues with the authorities
, and he’s going to deal with them. This only means one thing in Tench’s world: certain death to those who stop him. Dima’s plans seem to be falling into place for him, too. Too bad he’s now the target.

“What time will Dima be here? I was hoping to get my hair blow-dried tomorrow at the hotel salon
,” I lie.

“He will bring the car to pick you up at eleven. I’ll get him to bring you to me after.” He smiles, completely oblivious to the hurt his cousin is planning to bring upon him.

What if there’s more to it? What if this isn’t about me after all? What if Dmitri’s real target is Tench, and I’m just the collateral damage? The idea is really off track, but what if Dmitri wants to get rid of me to teach Tench a lesson in his priorities with the family business. Maybe he thinks I’m too much of a distraction for Tench? I need to tell Simon and Liz my theories tomorrow, as soon as Tench has gone. But now, I need a solid session in the sack to take away the tension.

Right on cue, Tench strides up to me
, whisks me into his arms, and then carries me into the bedroom. He throws me down on the bed and smirks as he strips down. He doesn’t bother taking my clothes off, and rips them from my body.

“This habit of yours is becoming expensive
, you know. That shirt was Armani. I got it with my suit,” I playfully tease.

Tench moves his way over my body. He licks and bites at my skin across my belly
, and nuzzles his face down between my legs. He slides my underwear off and slips his fingers inside me. I can’t tell how many of his strong fingers he uses because he has absorbed my whole body. I grip onto his shoulders and pull him up to me. I want to feel his lips on mine.

H
e hovers above me. He looks down and grins again and within an instant I’m lost in his eyes. My body yearns for him to be in it.

His legs spread mine apart and he comfortably slips inside me. He leans down and kisses
my lips at the same time. My legs grip around his body and I pull him tight against me. Our skin heats up against one another. His kiss is full of passion.

His length hits every spo
t and I moan. I feel his gaze on me so I open my eyes to him. We watch each other while our bodies collide into one another with deep prolonged strokes, still locked onto one another’s gaze.

I study a
ll of his face and he watches mine. When Tench reaches a spot inside me that I never thought would be touched by him, I cry out. My eyes fix upon the deep amber of his. I don’t know if it’s the addition of a ring on my finger, but something feels different about this. Tench smirks and his lips press against mine, and his tongue fills my mouth with the same passion as our pounding bodies.

“I love you.”
The words involuntarily escape me as I make love to Tench for the rest of the night.

CHAPTER TWENTY

My eyes groggily
open to Tench lying next to me, still peacefully sleeping. I smile as I watch him for a moment. Right now, he looks a far cry from the evil that he actually is. I shuffle closer to him and snuggle into his warm body. He takes a deep breath and automatically reacts by holding onto me. We’ve never done this before: just lying in bed together. It feels nice.

My body is
blissfully exhausted from our love-making session last night. It’s taken it out of me, more so than if we’d just had a solid fuck.

I love you?
What is wrong with me? Why did I tell Tench I love him? I didn’t mean to say it, I just did. What does that even mean?

“Good morning
, gorgeous,” Tench says as he kisses my hair.

I r
oll over but can’t look at him yet, I still don’t know what to do with the three words I said, so I look down. I trace over his tattoo on his abs. I rub my tongue across my teeth and pray that I don’t have morning breath as I lean up and kiss him. I’ve never had to deal with this kind of normality with Tench before. Our relationship has never been this normal before. I bury my head back into the crook of his shoulder but say nothing. How can I? What am I supposed to say to the man I’m taking down, when the last thing I said to him was that I loved him?

“Wow. That was amazing last night.” He yawns
. “You really knocked me about. I haven’t felt like this for a long time. If at all, really,” he continues and stretches out, with me still tucked within his vice-like arms. “And I don’t think I’ve ever woken up so well, either.”

I roll out of his arms and stretch out too
. “I was a little surprised to find you still with me this morning.” I grin.

Tench chuckles and playfully pokes me
with his fingers. “I think that just became a habit. A habit I think I might need to break.” He pokes me again and I squirm around, giggling.

He laughs too and holds onto me
once more.