The moment those silken strands slid through the pads of his fingers and whispered against his palm, he knew it was a mistake to touch her. His fingers closed around the strands, holding them in the exact center of his palm. He felt her heart beat. Contract. Pound. He felt the air catching in her lungs. In his. He stared into her eyes--eyes so blue he felt as if he might be pulled into them and be lost soaring through the skies.
A frisson of awareness--of alarm--traveled down his spine. Abruptly, Maxim opened his hand, allowing her hair to drop away. He stepped away from her, dark suspicion rising. He didn't feel for others, emotion had been taken from him long ago. He was a machine, not flesh and blood. He couldn't be hurt. Couldn't feel compassion. He suppressed even the flashes of anger that had never quite been beaten out of him when he was a child.
This . . . this made no sense, and anything that wasn't logical to him was dangerous. "You can't believe that. They would go into town, snatch one of the women sharing your farm and hurt them until you begged them to come get you."
His voice was harsh, far crueler than he meant it to be. He knew she had found her mother cut into pieces, tortured and left on her bed for her to discover. He had just conjured that vivid nightmare up for her all over again. He could see it on her face.
Maxim was disgusted with his behavior. Nothing threw him, and yet this small slip of a woman had done so without even trying. She hadn't acted seductive or flirtatious. She had fought valiantly, even managing to score a couple of times against him. He found himself inexplicitly drawn to her. Worse, when he was close to her, like now, he could barely think straight.
He stepped backward until he was once again resting his hip against the door. He knew he wouldn't give himself away with his facial expression. He looked confident, cool and casual leaning there, but every instinct he had was on full alert. Every cell in his body was coiled and ready for a fight.
Tears swam in her sky blue eyes and his heart squeezed down like a vise. It took every ounce of discipline he possessed not to press his palm over his chest. "Damn it," he swore at her between clenched teeth. "Stop with the tears." She had to stop. He felt a little desperate. Tears weren't supposed to affect him in the least. They never had before.
Airiana blinked rapidly and drew back further into herself, but her chin went up, and he felt the breath ease in his lungs.
"I didn't think about that," she said in small voice.
"You deliberately led us away from the other woman with you," he said, his tone much more gentle. "I knew she was there, but you felt protective of her. You didn't want anyone to get their hands on her. I'm guessing it was the younger one. She manages the farm. Lexi Thompson."
He'd done his homework as soon as he became aware Ilya, his youngest brother, had settled in Sea Haven, and then Lev, his second to youngest brother, had supposedly drowned there. The Prakenskii brothers had a way to get word to one another. It wasn't used often because they didn't dare chance that their communication could be compromised, but Lev had checked in using that route. He was alive and married to one of the women who owned the farm with Airiana. One of Maxim's older brothers, Stefan, had also let the others know he was alive and married to another of the women owning the farm.
Maxim had immediately done extensive research on the farm and the women who owned it. He knew more about Airiana than she appeared to know about herself.
"Lexi's very fragile," Airiana said, her voice tight with emotion, but she didn't allow tears to spill over. "Thank you for not grabbing her as well."
"It's going to be a tough job getting you off this ship, let alone two of you. I knew I could protect you, but you see how these men are. You know what this ship is all about. Bringing a second woman on board would only double the danger." As it was, knowing Prince Saeed was there had already compromised everything, because he had no intention of leaving the man alive.
Airiana let her breath out slowly. She nodded, twisting her fingers together so tightly her knuckles turned white. He had to resist the urge to lay his hand gently over hers to quiet that telltale movement of distress.
"Why do you think I'm this Theodotus Solovyov's daughter?"
"He told me. He has pictures of you from the time you were born as well as a box of letters from your mother. Hundreds of letters. He treasures every one."
"You expect me to believe my mother had a secret life, one I didn't know about? She didn't take trips to Russia, and believe me, when I say our family was investigated thoroughly, I mean by the United States government. They would have found a connection to Russia."
"They did find it eventually, but they already had you in their school and they didn't want to give you up. Marina Ridell was born Marinochka Venediktov. She had an incredible mind, and I suspect she was also bound to an element, probably air as you are. She had no brothers or sisters and her parents were killed in an accident when she was eighteen. She was attending Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and she met Theodotus Solovyov there when she was at her most vulnerable."
Airiana pressed her lips together and blinked several times. He held his breath, afraid the fresh flood of tears on her lashes would fall, but she controlled herself, and he exhaled. She didn't belong in his world, she was far too sensitive.
"She was young and grieving and was drawn to him probably because he had such a brilliant mind and could discuss subjects she was interested in intelligently. He was older and very taken with her. The combination was . . . impossible to resist."
Maxim kept his gaze burning over her to catch every nuance. Body language told him a lot about his opponent. She wasn't adept at hiding her feelings. She wasn't even trying. She didn't want to believe him, but she was beginning to in spite of herself.
"He was married." Airiana made it a statement.
"Yes, he was married," Maxim admitted. "His wife, Elena, was not a nice woman, and he was lonely. Your mother and Theodotus met at the wrong time for both of them. They fell in love. Elena had no desire to carry on a conversation with Theodotus, she could barely understand what he did, but Marina was just the opposite. She cared nothing for money but craved conversation and closeness with him."
Maxim heard footsteps coming down the narrow corridor. At once he was on Airiana, nearly leaping across the small space, slamming her back on the mattress. "Scream. Scream loud." He kept his voice a thread of sound between them, hoping she would understand.
She stared up at him in horror, those sky blue eyes shocked and bruised. Deliberately he caught the wealth of wild blond hair in his fist, pulling her head back so that he stared down into her terrified eyes. "Scream," he instructed again. His voice was harsh, his grip brutal. He was afraid he would have to go further.
Airiana obeyed, her cries very real, terror so close he could feel it coming off of her in waves. The footsteps had stopped outside the door to the cabin.
His mouth came down on hers, effectively cutting off her scream in midcry so there could be no mistaking wha
t was happening inside the room. One part of him remained on alert, listening for the sound of receding footsteps--or a stealthy entry. Another part of him was caught in a firestorm of pure feeling. Her mouth was soft and tasted as good as she smelled.
Like his brothers, he'd been trained in the art of seduction and how to please a woman, but he was too rough, too distant to ever be effective at that particular skill. Kissing Airiana was different, and he felt that difference immediately. His mouth gentled, his hands relaxed a bit. Sadly, for both of them, it wasn't all show.
His teeth nipped at her lower lip. "Struggle," he instructed, keeping the thread of sound between them. "Struggle hard enough that they can hear you."
She nodded, some of the panic receding. She kicked out, punched at him, the sounds of the blows audible in the small confines of the room. He amplified them a bit, added a grunt and slapped his own thigh hard. She cried out, and he stopped the sound again in midcry, his mouth covering hers.
Her hands went to his shoulders, holding on, anchoring herself there. He couldn't say she responded--she didn't--but she didn't pull away either. He kept kissing her over and over until the footsteps receded.
The moment he was certain the intruder had retreated down the corridor, he lifted his head and gently pulled her into a sitting position. "Are you hurt?"
She touched the back of her hand to her mouth and shook her head, her sky blue eyes enormous. "No. But you scared me. You move so fast, and when you do, you look terrifying."
His smile was slow in coming. Hers was even slower in answer. Her smile was tentative, but genuine. He brushed her hair back with gentle fingers. "Thank you for trusting me."
"I didn't have much choice." Her smile widened, lighting up her eyes. "I did think about bringing my knee up very hard into your groin, but then I realized you could have attacked me the moment we entered this room."
"Good girl. Keep thinking like that. We may need your fighting skills before we're out of here."
The powerful engines vibrated throughout the ship as they cut through the waters fast, taking them farther from all help.
"That little girl was dead, wasn't she?" Airiana asked, sobering. "The one in Prince Saeed's room. She was dead."