“She already told me,” Vladimir replied. “Your plan to turn us against each other didn’t work.”
Kasimir stopped. “You already know? So what do you intend to do?”
“I am willing to make the trade.”
He sucked in his breath. “You’re willing to give up your billion-dollar company? For the sake of a woman who once lied to you?” His jaw hardened. Vladimir must really love Bree. “Too bad. I’ve changed my mind. I no longer have any intention of divorcing Josie, for any price. You can keep your stupid company. In fact...there’s no reason for us ever to talk. Ever again.”
“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.”