Really looked at her.
Gigi got lost in his dark eyes.
‘Gigi, I’ve got to go south for business.
Then he kissed her. And although she’d thought he had already kissed her and she had kissed him last night in all the ways imaginable, this was so lushly romantic, with his hands in her hair, and her hands curled trustingly between them, it felt new. It felt like the first time. Not just between them, but like her first kiss.
Gigi opened her eyes to find him gazing down at her, as if the kiss had astonished him too.
‘My mother’s people are indigenous to the region of Kabardino-Balkaria in the mountains of the North Caucasus.’
He spoke with a quiet sincerity that moved through her like a promise.
‘I tell you this because I have a place down there, at the foot of Mount Elbrus. We can be alone for a couple of days. No work, no interruptions...’ he gave her a smile ‘...great sex.’
Then he sobered.
‘I want to show you where I come from. What matters to me. Give me that time.’
More time to stumble deeper into this. To lose a little more of her ability to find her way out.
His next words didn’t make her heart lift as they should.
‘Then I promise to return you to Paris.’
* * *
He hadn’t told her it would be like this.
Gigi lay in a cot of marmot fur in Khaled’s strong arms and watched the moon and stars through their own private observatory.
‘Why did people stare at me in the village today?’
‘You’re the exotic creature I’ve snared in my net. If I’d hunted and skinned you they couldn’t have been more surprised.’
Gigi frowned. ‘Because of what was printed in the Moscow papers about me being a showgirl? I guess this is a pretty conservative place.’ She raised her head to look at him anxiously. ‘It won’t get you into trouble, will it?’
He was quiet, and then he said in that low, sleep-gravelled voice Gigi liked to pretend no other woman in the world had ever been privy to and belonged only to her, ‘Other men may try to lure you away...that’s about the extent of it.’
‘If they use cake I can’t promise not to go.’
‘That’s my girl.’
She looked up archly. ‘I think you could have left me in Paris.’
‘Do you?’
‘Yes, I do. I don’t think I was in much danger at all. I think it’s perfectly clear you wanted an excuse to act like a Russian he-man—’
This earned her a squeeze around her waist.
‘—to sling me over your shoulder like a kill and bring me with you without the chance that I might turn you down!’
Khaled put his mouth to the shell of her ear. ‘You’ve found me out.’
Gigi beamed.
It had been this way since they’d left Moscow and flown into Nalchik two days ago, and then driven for miles along a highway that could be described at best as bumpy in a landscape that had taken her breath away.
Deep valleys, high mountains peaked with snow... At one point huge mountain deer had forced them to a stop as they crossed the road.
He’d brought her in the gathering dusk to a gorge littered with tall stone fortresses. Khaled had told her he’d refurbished this one, all six storeys of it, and they were now on the top floor, with its glass ceiling and panoramic views.
He had tossed her into this cot filled with marmot furs, pulling off her clothes and some of his own like a man possessed, and had made love to her with such fierceness and tenderness Gigi couldn’t help feeling a little way in over her head.
After all, he’d made this amazing romantic gesture—bringing her here.
‘I’ve never brought a woman here before.’
Okay. He had her attention.
‘Why is that?’ She tried to sound casual.
‘Hmm?’
She frowned at him and wondered if she acted like one of those female mountain goats they’d seen yesterday trying to get a male’s attention, bucking and sending clods of earth into the air so he’d get the message.
‘Why have you never brought a girlfriend here?’
‘I haven’t had one to bring.’
She rolled her eyes. ‘Right. So what was Alexandra Dashkova?’
‘Who?’
‘She had herself wrapped in a rug and rolled out before you.’
‘Did she?’
‘The other dancers were talking about her,’ Gigi persisted, because Didn’t she? wasn’t going to cut it.
‘I’ve met her several times socially—we’ve never been intimate.’