The Tycoon's Toddler Surprise (4 page)

“No…” she started to say, but he cut her off by placing his lips over hers.  Gently at first, testing the feel of her lips, of her skin and reaction.  But as he tested, he tasted and caressed.  When she didn’t kiss him back, he nipped her lower lip.  Not hard enough to hurt, but enough to surprise her.  Enough to make her gasp in shock.  And he took full advantage of her surprise, pulling her closer, his mouth covering hers more fully, his tongue invading, tasting more thoroughly and demanding that she respond.

Kristen had no choice.  At his first touch, the world faded away and this man, his taste, his scent filled her mind and overwhelmed her senses.  She couldn’t have pulled away any more than she could have robbed a bank at that moment.  Her arms crept up around his shoulders, her fingers feeling the raw muscles underneath the deceptively tame tailored shirt h
e wore.  This man with his blue
, compelling eyes and brilliant mind was a façade, she thought as he deepened the kiss and pulled her against him.  As her body pressed against his, she compared him to a wolf, a hungry, invading wolf that would devour her if she wasn’t careful. 

“Come
home
with me,” he said into her mouth.

“I can’t,” she replied, then gasped when he pulled her hips roughly against his.

“You can.”

“I have to go,” she said and somehow found the will to pull away. 

She wasn’t sure if she was relieved when he released her but she stepped back and picked up her briefcase.  She was immensely proud of herself for making it to his office door without falling on her face, with her shaking knees and whirling
mind that
was a great accomplishment. 

“
Thank
you for dinner,” she said, turning and glancing back at him for a moment. 

“Next time, Kristen,” he said, both a promise and ominous threat to his tone. 

He held her gaze for a long moment before she was finally able to wrench her eyes away.  She pulled the door open and rushed through the deserted executive hallways. 

In the lobby, she was met by a security guard who stepped out of the security area as she stepped off the elevators.  “Ms. Miller?” at
her nod, he continued.  “Mr. Benovich
asked me to escort you to your car because of the late hour.”

Kristen glanced down at her watch, stunned that it was after midnight.  “Thank you,” she said as if coming from far away. 

The next week was a haze of work and desire,
overlaid
by exhaustion.  She w
orked with the legal team for Benov Corporation
every day, finalizing the contract and negotiating with the factory owners to get through all the issues.  At night, for one reason or another, she found herself in Mikhail’s office discussing their progress, debating politics or just discussing art, cooking or hobbies.  Mikhail didn’t actually have any hobbies, nor did he cook.  He collected art simply for the financial aspect but could appreciate the effort an artist put into his or her work if not the aesthetic value of the piece.  More often, she answered his questions about her past, her education, her job and her family. 

And inevitably, she would find herself in his arms just as she was trying to leave for the night.  He never pushed her too hard, but by the end of the week, she was stepping into his arms naturally, just as eager as he was. 

By Friday night, she couldn’t take the sexual frustration any longer and when he demanded that she return to his place so they could continue what they’d started, she only nodded her head in silent agreement. 

In the beginning, it was idyllic.  He wanted to take her everywhere but she declined, wanting only to be in his arms at night.  When he questioned her about avoiding being seen with him in public, she explained that she didn’t want to be photographed as his next “
liaison
” and labeled a climber through sexual favors. 

All that changed one night.  It was her habit to leave before morning so no one would suspect they were having an affair.  But that morning he stopped her, pinning her to the bed and not letting her up.  “
Don’t
go,” he told her, unsure of why he was saying this.  He’d never let a woman come to his place, always going to hers so he could leave once the sex was finished.  But this woman was different and he’d known it from the beginning.  Just her resistance to sleeping with him was novel and he respected her more because of it.  Too many women tried to get all they could from him after sleeping with him but this woman with her thoughtful eyes and sexy figure only wanted him.  It was so different that he was breaking rules he hadn’t even realized he’d been keeping until he broke them for her. 

And when she tried to leave his bed, to slink out before dawn so photographers wouldn’t catch her leaving, it infuriated him.  He not only wanted her on his arm, to be photographed and claimed as his own, he wanted her to be here in the morning, every morning.  When he woke up, he was livid that she wasn’t still there with him. 

“Marry me,” he said, surprising both of them with the question.

But he was even more stunned when, after a brief pause, she smiled gently and touched his cheek, shaking her head.  “You don’t want to be married, Mikhail.  It’s not in you to be a husband.”

He rolled over so she was on top of him, putting his hands on her tiny waist to keep her pressed against his stomach.

“Why do you think I
wouldn’t
be a good husband?  Maybe I could be a perfect husband.”

She laughed slightly and pushed herself up, feeling both
vulnerable
and powerful as she felt his stomach muscles ripple underneath her and against her thighs.  “You’re too busy, too powerful, to be a husband.  Let’s not muddy this with that kind of talk.”

“What would we be muddying?” he demanded, angry but still turned on by her position.  As his hand slid down her thighs, she gasped when he pushed her backwards slightly, sliding inside of her and pressing her down so he was fully encased in her warmth.

A month later, they were married.  Kristen was deliriously happy as he took her to his house on an isolated Greek island with only the two of them and servants.  They were supposed to be there for a full two weeks, but after ten days, Mikhail had to cut the honeymoon short to deal with a business situation. 

Kristen went back to work, but reality was quick to set in.  She couldn’t keep up with Mikhail’s energy level but she accompanied him as often as she could, loving being next to him.  But as business took over, she slowly lost her husband.  He had several late nights where she wasn’t involved in the negotiations.  Instead, she was left alone most nights, only to find herself pulled into his arms
when he finally came home
, feeling the incredible magic only he could weave when
he
finally returned to her. 

Four months later, she was in the hospital, praying for their daughter’s life.  A life he hadn’t even known about because he’d been away on business for the previous week, and too busy for her to catch him despite several attempts. 

Chapter
2

Mikhail walked into his office with his usual commanding stride, ignoring several people as he made his way to his office.  He had too much on his mind right now to worry about the small issues they deemed critical. 

He told himself his bad mood today had nothing to do with the fact that it was coming up on the three year anniversary of when Kristen left him.  She didn’t have any impact on his life any longer.  She’d chosen to leave, so let her have her way he told himself every year about this time. 

He slapped the papers around on his desk, not sure if he was
irritated
Ellen,
his New York assistant
,
was taking a long lunch or relieved
by her absence
.  The woman was an excellent assistant but had been showing signs of wanting a more personal relationship lately.  She’d done that before he’d met Kristen but he hadn’t been interested back then and he certainly wasn’t interested now.  If the woman couldn’t keep her personal
interests
to herself, he’d fire her
for the smallest
provocation today.

There was a pile of mail on the middle of her desk today and normally he would just pass it by knowing Ellen would sort through the pile and give him only the relevant documents, passing on the other issues to someone else on his
management
team.  But the writing on the top envelope caught his eye, looking familiar somehow.

Picking it up, he glanced at it with only mild
curiosity
.  A moment before he was going to toss it back down again, the address caught his eye.  Not only was the handwriting familiar, but the return address triggered something in his memory.  Minnesota? 

Hadn’t Kristen mentioned that her family was from Minnesota? 

Why anyone would want to live in such a
frigid
area of the world, he had no idea.  Growing up in
St.
Petersburg
, he knew what it was like to be cold and he had no intention of forcing winters like that on himself again.  He owned houses in the
Caribbean
and Greece
, not to mention his penthouse in Manhattan and Tokyo and a townhouse in Paris
, perfectly reasonable places to stay during the exceptionally cold winter days when business didn’t require him to be somewhere else. 

His fingers stilled on the white envelope, something inside him telling him to toss the letter down and walk away.  The other part of him seething with fury that the woman who had walked out on him after the death of their unborn child would dare to contact him again after so many years.  She’d left with only a note,
placed
on his bedside table telling him that she couldn’t do the fast paced lifestyle he led any longer, that it wasn’t
conducive
to a healthy family life.  He’d only assumed from that note that she wanted to drive the stake deeper, to make him feel guilt over his absence during
her
short
ened
pregnancy. 

He’d torn that letter up and tossed it into the trash but he’d never been able to get those words out of his mind.  After she’d left him, he’d worked harder than he ever had in his life, driving the members of his team to near exhaustion. 

Eventually he’d slowed down, but he’d never trusted another woman again. 

If no other woman had ever gotten close to him, he didn’t mind that at all.  He never should have let her get close.  Never should have broken his rules about not spending the whole night with a woman and, worst of all, he never should have let her into his
old
penthouse.  He’d had to sell the place after she’d left.  Not because he couldn’t bear the memories, he reminded himself.  But her scent was everywhere and he hated the perfume after she’d gone. 

She’d been an irritation.  That was all.  A bad decision that would not repeat itself with another woman.

Carrying the letter into his office, he sat down in his large leather chair and swiveled so that the light from the windows lightened the paper, revealing that there was more than just a letter inside. 

He sneered as he tore open the envelope, wondering if she was finally going to ask him for money.  She was probably wishing she’d brought the jewelry he’d given her when she’d walked out of his life. That would have kept her in high style for at least a decade, he thought, thinking back to all the silly trinkets he’d showered on her. 

Damn her!  He hated thinking about her and what a fool she’d made of him.  No woman had ever gotten to him like she had!

Pulling the contents out of the envelope, he was startled when a picture of a very cute little girl fell onto his lap.  He picked it up and almost smiled at the gamin grin of the dark haired little girl.  She had long, black hair that was pulled up on
both sides, showing off her blue
, twinkling eyes. 

Glancing at the letter, he read through the words, realizing that this was indeed a letter from Kristen but it made no sense. 

Why the hell would he care that this child was doing well in school, that her teacher was starting her off on addition even in preschool
and several years ahead of her peers
? 

Looking inside the envelope, he saw another card, this one more colorful.  A princess? 

It was an invitation?  To a birthday party? 

He glanced at the date, about to toss the whole thing
into
the trash.  But his hand froze.  He looked back at the date.  February thirteenth?  The girl was going to be three years old on February thirteenth? 

That would have been…his mind quickly did the math and with it
,
his fury exploded. 

Ellen chose that moment to walk back into the office from her lunch and he snapped
through the open doorway
, “Get me Tom Fisher on the phone immediately,” referring to the head of his legal team.

Ellen jumped when she realized that Mikhail was already in the office.  He hadn’t been scheduled to be back for several hours, having been in transit from London to New York today for a meeting on his latest acquisition.  She had no idea why he was off schedule, but she recognized the signs of seething fury when she saw them and this was possibly the worst she’d ever seen.