The Cost of the Forbidden (Irresistible Russian Tycoons) Read online

  ‘You are such a bastard!’ She laughed, she cried, she was about to say yes.

  ‘What the...?’ Sev started, but he never got to finish. Instead he was literally hauled out of her arms and swung around.

  All Naomi said was a flash of red and then a fist and then the sight of Sev flying back against the wall where she stood, but like being against the ropes in a boxing ring he propelled himself outwards.

  ‘No one else?’ a man shouted, and her mind was still spinning from the kiss and its rude interruption, but then she saw who it was.

  ‘Andrew?’ Naomi looked up and saw red foil heart balloons floating up to the roof and realised he must have come to meet her.

  And so too did Sev.

  He had come out fighting and, given the life he had led, that he would floor this guy was a foregone conclusion.

  But then he heard who it was.

  The next fist to his gut he took.

  But then, when Naomi tried to come between them, shouting to Andrew that he had no right and Andrew responded with words Naomi did not deserve, Sev saw red—only they weren’t heart-shaped balloons.

  Sev went to floor him but four strong arms were holding him back—Security had arrived and, looking around at the stunned travellers, Sev tried to keep his breathing even, telling himself to calm down, that an airport, and being sober at that, was no place to fight. He was also telling himself that had Naomi been his fiancée, he’d have been just as furious as this guy was.

  ‘I’m fine,’ Sev said to Security.

  ‘You’re sure about that?’ one responded.

  ‘Sure.’

  ‘Because—’ It was the security guard who didn’t get to finish their sentence this time because, unlike Sev, Andrew was unrestrained and still angry as he took his cowardly chance.

  Naomi let out a scream as Sev’s head was violently hit and knocked backwards.

  The security moved quickly to restrain Andrew, leaving Sev to fall to the floor, and her quiet homecoming disappeared in a blur of police and then paramedics.

  ‘No need...’ Sev slurred, when they insisted on taking him to the hospital.

  ‘There is, Sev,’ Naomi said. ‘You were knocked out.’

  ‘For how long?’ one of the paramedics asked.

  ‘Three minutes.’

  They had been the longest three minutes of Naomi’s life.

  She hadn’t looked up, she hadn’t cared that Andrew was being arrested—all she’d been able to think of was Sev.

  Which wasn’t a first—for the past four months almost all she had been able to think of was him.

  Who was she kidding? Naomi thought as she got into the ambulance he had been stretchered into and the doors were closed.

  As if a brave goodbye could change anything.

  Her heart belonged to him.

  * * *

  Even if she was terrified and terribly worried it became apparent, about ten seconds into their arrival, that Sev, though terribly vital to her, was rather way down on the list of priorities.

  The triage nurse checked him and Naomi wished she had a little triage desk in her heart.

  She did have one.

  On the day they had met it had spoken to her and strongly suggested that this man was trouble, that if she let him in, even a little way, she’d surely regret it.

  Only she didn’t.

  ‘What the hell is this place?’ Sev asked an hour or so later, when he was dressed in a gown and had come to better but was still groggy and growing increasingly irritable, which the nurse said wasn’t a good sign.

  He’d been irritable for a few days, Naomi wanted to point out.

  ‘Why didn’t you get them to take me somewhere private?’ Sev demanded.

  ‘The paramedics don’t care if you’re a billionaire,’ Naomi said. ‘They took you to the nearest hospital.’

  ‘And now we’ll be here for the next fortnight, waiting to be seen. I don’t need hospital.’

  ‘You need to be stitched.’

  There was a huge gash over his left eye and it had closed over. He kept going to sleep, only to wake up angrier every time he woke up and demanding to know the time.

  ‘It’s eleven a.m.,’ the nurse said. ‘You’re just waiting to go around for an MRI.’

  ‘I don’t need an MRI.’

  ‘You’re drowsy.’

  ‘Because I haven’t slept since...’ Sev looked up at the peeling ceiling and he recognised it well, or rather he recognised that type of ceiling and he remembered Nikolai and that he had to meet Daniil.

  ‘Where’s my phone?’

  ‘Here,’ Naomi said. She had picked it up when he’d dropped it in the fight but as she handed it over it turned on and Naomi let out a shocked gasp.

  There were the earrings he had bought from Tiffany’s but the girl who was wearing them was in school uniform.

  ‘Hell, Sev,’ Naomi shouted. ‘When you said she was young...!’

  ‘It’s my niece, Mariya,’ Sev said. ‘I got them for her eighteenth birthday.’

  ‘Oh.’

  And Naomi sat back on the plastic seat, as Sev lay squinting into his phone.

  ‘Last year I sent a necklace and it was sold online by Renata. I don’t know if Mariya even saw the necklace so I sent these to her school.’

  Naomi sat there, thinking. It was a very smart uniform that Mariya was wearing.

  Private-school smart.

  And, no, she could live for a hundred years and not fully know him.

  Yet she was starting to work him out.

  ‘You sent that money, didn’t you.’

  ‘Sorry?’

  ‘The money for Mariya’s treatment.’

  ‘Of course I did.’

  ‘Why?’ Naomi asked. ‘Why would you do that when knew you were being scammed?’

  ‘As I told Renata, she would have had the money anyway. I always wanted my niece to have a good education and for my sister to have nice things.’

  Then he corrected himself.

  ‘Half-sister. She has the money but we don’t talk any more.’

  Now Sev’s body demanded sleep again but there was somewhere he needed to be.

  ‘Naomi, I need to get to Buckingham Palace...’

  ‘It will still be there tomorrow,’ the nurse said as she checked his blood pressure.

  ‘But I have to be there at midday.’

  Naomi was starting to seriously worry about his head injury now—there was no place that Sev ever needed to be. This was a man who could arrive eight hours late for a meeting with a sheikh without making so much as an apology.

  He never got upset or agitated and yet he clearly was now.

  ‘Sev, you have to have this scan.’

  ‘I don’t have to do anything, apart from get there.’

  ‘‘What’s so important that it can’t wait?’

  ‘It doesn’t matter.’

  Sev lay there and decided that as soon as the nurse and Naomi left he would disappear.

  ‘Can you go and get me a drink?’ He turned to Naomi.

  ‘We’re keeping you nil by mouth for now,’ the cheerful nurse said, and then left them.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Naomi said, and he gritted his teeth as she went to apologise for her ex-fiancé.

  ‘Don’t start apologising,’ Sev said. ‘I thought I’d got that far with you at least. It isn’t your fault if your fiancé—’

  ‘My ex.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I dumped him.’

  ‘Er...when?’

  ‘The night before I resigned.’

  ‘And you didn’t think to tell me? I let him hit me...’

  ‘I know you did.’

  And then he put Andrew in the file he had first assigned him to—irrelevant.

  ‘I need to be somewhere, Naomi.’

  ‘You can’t leave yet.’

  He bloody well could. Sev sat up and Naomi decided there was nothing sadder than seeing someone so strong and determined rendered incapable.
r />   He squinted at the drip and that clever brain was foggy as he tried to work out how to get it down, and then he looked at the curtain that separated them from the world.

  ‘Where’s my wallet?’

  ‘In the safe.’ The cheery nurse was back. ‘So I suggest you lie there.’

  She had never seen such defeat on someone’s face.

  And then she watched as he came up with a solution and those grey eyes turned to her.

  ‘Can you go there for me?’

  ‘To Buckingham Palace?’ Naomi frowned. ‘Sev, I think you might be a bit confused.’

  ‘I’ve never been less confused,’ Sev said. ‘I go there each year and I cannot miss being there.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘In case Daniil shows up. I wrote to him a few years ago and asked him to meet me at midday on November the twelfth and he never showed.’

  ‘You think he might now?’

  ‘No,’ Sev admitted. ‘I just don’t want to miss out on the slim chance he might.’

  ‘Okay,’ Naomi said. ‘What does he look like?’

  ‘I haven’t seen him since he was twelve. Black hair, tall...’

  It wasn’t an awful lot to go on.

  ‘He’s Russian,’ Sev added.

  ‘I’d worked that one out.’ Naomi said. She could feel herself being dragged back into the vortex. A couple of hours ago he had been willing to take her to the airport hotel, Naomi reminded herself.

  She deserved more than that.

  ‘I’ll do this, Sev, and then I’ll come back and let you know what happened, but then I’m going home.’

  * * *

  And so she sat in the rain by the fountain and watched the world go by.

  She was so angry with Andrew, so angry with Sev too, for prolonging the agony.

  They should be over with by now.

  She should be unpacking her case, instead of sitting on the ledge of a cold stone statue.

  * * *

  It was hopeless.

  There were a few tourists, all huddled under their umbrellas, and some people walking around. How the hell was she supposed to pick out a man with black hair from the hundred or so other men with black hair? She saw a blonde woman smiling brightly, clapping her hands, and she had that sort of determined look that the rain didn’t matter and that she was here for the duration.

  So too, it would seem, was Naomi.

  It was after one when she finally gave in.

  There was no one—no one at all.

  She gave a thin smile to the blonde woman, who was looking around too, and then Naomi watched as she went over to a man.

  A moody-looking resigned man who shrugged and started to walk off, but the woman argued with him, pulled at his coat.

  And, yes, he was tall and had black hair and so Naomi made her way over.

  ‘Daniil?’

  She could look the biggest fool ever here, Naomi knew. ‘Daniil?’

  ‘I told you!’ The blonde woman exclaimed. ‘Sevastyan?’

  ‘Well, if it is, then you’ve got a lot better looking,’ Daniil said. Naomi started to laugh as they were all so stunned and sort of staring at each other, not really knowing what to do.

  ‘I’m Sev’s PA. He wanted to be here—’

  ‘I am here.’

  Naomi turned and there was Sev, as white as putty but stitched, and she watched as the two men shook hands.

  No, it wasn’t a tender reunion. Maybe Sev just didn’t go for that type of thing.

  They spoke in Russian with guarded voices and Naomi looked at the other woman.

  ‘I’m Libby.’ She smiled, rubbing her hands together from the cold.

  Naomi saw her rings. ‘You’re Daniil’s wife?’

  ‘Yes!’ Libby nodded. ‘It feels strange, saying that. We just got married yesterday.’

  ‘Congratulations,’ Naomi offered, and then she looked back at the two men and she would never understand Sev because he concluded the conversation and walked back over to them.

  ‘It’s good to meet you, Libby,’ he said. ‘Congratulations on your marriage.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘It’s good to be back in touch with Daniil but right now you two need to get on with your honeymoon and I need to get to the hotel.’ He looked at Naomi. ‘Come on, we ought to go.’

  He shook hands again with Daniil.

  Was that it?’ Naomi pondered as Daniil and Libby walked off. All those years together and then all those years apart and yet they’d chatted for all of ten minutes.

  That was who Sev was, though, Naomi realised, cold and dismissive.

  It was she who had refused to accept that.

  ‘You have to watch me,’ Sev said, and handed her a head-injury leaflet. ‘They wanted to keep me in and only let me go on the proviso that I’m checked every hour until morning.’

  ‘Get a nurse, then.’

  ‘No, I don’t want some stranger watching me sleep. If I did, I’d have stayed in the hospital.’

  ‘Well, tough, I don’t work for you any more.’

  ‘Fine.’ He hailed a cab and climbed in.

  And he would, he bloody well would, Naomi thought, he’d just go and sleep alone.

  ‘One night,’ Naomi said, getting into the taxi. Looking at his grey complexion, Sev wasn’t asking her there to seduce her.

  That much she knew.

  Naomi dealt with check-in and when they got to his suite Sev didn’t even fully undress, he just kicked off his shoes and socks and then went to deposit his hospital bag with his wallet and things in the safe.

  ‘What’s my code?’ Sev asked.

  ‘I’ll do it,’ Naomi said.

  ‘I can manage,’ Sev said, and punched in the numbers. Once done, he went and lay on the bed and Naomi closed the drapes and just sat.

  ‘How was he?’ she asked. ‘Your friend?’

  Sev shrugged.

  ‘He asked me what had happened with Roman,’ Sev said. ‘I told him that I don’t know anything. I got a scholarship at fifteen and left then.’

  ‘What about the other one, Nikolai?’ Naomi asked. ‘Did he know?’

  ‘What? That he had died?’ Sev easily said what she had struggled to voice. ‘Daniil had already found that out—apparently he was being abused.’ There was no emotion Sev’s voice, just the exhaustion of a very cruel life. ‘I didn’t know that.’

  ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘I let him down,’ Sev admitted. ‘He was crying one night and I didn’t know if he’d want me to say anything. The dormitory was not very private at the best of times. So I let it go, pretended I hadn’t noticed. Then he cried again and I asked him what was wrong. And he told me to leave it. I did. The next day he’d run away. They found him a week later, and his bag with this ship he’d made by the river.’

  ‘The one on your desk at home?’

  ‘Yep. It’s not much to show for a life,’ Sev said, slowly drifting off into an exhausted sleep.

  Naomi woke him every hour, just enough to be sure that he was okay, but by 7:00 p.m. she was exhausted too and she watched as he woke up.

  Sev tried to guess the time.

  Then the month and year.

  And then he tried to work out their location.

  ‘You’re in London.’ Naomi said.

  ‘So I am.’

  And he remembered again that before such a violent interruption they had been heading to the airport hotel...

  ‘Come to bed.’

  ‘No, thank you.’ Naomi said. ‘I’m supposed to watch you till morning, according to the leaflet, and then I’m going to go.’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘Home,’ Naomi said. ‘Well, to my mum’s for a couple of weeks and then I’ll find somewhere...’

  Somewhere.

  It was a horrible word at times.

  Somewhere to get over you.

  ‘My head hurts,’ Sev said.

  ‘You’re due for some painkillers.’

  ‘Not that head.’

&nbs
p; She didn’t want to laugh but that was the problem—he could turn her smile on even when her heart was in shreds.

  ‘Come to bed,’ Sev said. ‘God, the day I’ve had, I need a shag.’

  ‘Well, seeing as you put it so nicely.’

  He had the nerve to ignore her sarcastic response and pulled the covers back.

  ‘Not a chance.’ Naomi turned and looked at him and his lazy heart that had let her leave. ‘If Andrew hadn’t hit you, we’d be over with now.’

  ‘Wind back,’ Sev said, as if she was some bloody computer. ‘I’d suggested that we go to the airport hotel.’

  ‘You’re so romantic.’

  ‘No, I’m not.’

  ‘I’m going to order dinner,’ Naomi said. ‘Do you want anything?’

  He didn’t.

  As Naomi went into her bag to get the tip ready she saw her leaving present. She would wait till he was asleep to open it.

  There was a knock on the door and in came her dinner.

  ‘Good,’ Sev said, and sat up. ‘I’m starving.’ And he saw her blow out an angry breath and then wheel the silver trolley over to him. ‘I was joking,’ Sev said. ‘Enjoy your meal. I’ll have a glass of champagne, though...’

  ‘You can’t drink with a head injury,’ Naomi said. ‘According to the leaflet.’

  ‘That’s not very nice of you.’

  ‘I never said I’d be a nice nurse.’

  She ate the most delicious steak ever, with truffle butter, and she drank champagne and watched his wry smile as he heard her top up her glass.

  ‘You are a cruel tease.’

  ‘I know,’ Naomi said.

  ‘Go into my jacket,’ Sev said. ‘Daniil gave me a copy of a picture.’

  She went to his jacket and sat down to look at a photo of four young boys from a lifetime ago.

  ‘Daniil’s an identical twin.’

  ‘Yep.’

  How cruel, Naomi thought. It had been bad enough knowing that twins had been split up, but that they were identical made it seem somehow worse.

  ‘He can’t find Roman. From what Daniil has been able to find out, it would seem that he shacked up with Anya for a while after he left the orphanage and then left—’

  ‘Anya?’

  ‘The cook’s daughter. Daniil said that she’s a famous ballerina now.’

  Naomi looked back at the picture and at Nikolai. Well, it had to be him because other boy was Sev.

  ‘You were a nerd.’

  ‘I was,’ Sev said. ‘I am.’