The Price of His Redemption Read online

  Only when he had left home and gone to university had Daniil considered that his parents may have lied and simply not mailed them. Of course, by then Roman had long since left the orphanage—to where, no one had been able to tell him.

  Daniil actually felt as if a part of him was missing. A vital part—his identity.

  He had been back to Russia on several occasions but had always drawn a blank. He was going again, for another attempt at finding out what had happened to his twin, after the anniversary.

  He knew how much he missed his twin, and surely it must be the same for Roman. Daniil knew he would spend the rest of his life searching for him.

  Yes, he had decided that he would go to the anniversary party and make the speech, just for the chance to get to the truth, but as he went to make the call his intercom buzzed and he heard his receptionist’s resigned voice.

  ‘There’s a Ms Tennent in Reception, asking to see you. It’s been explained to her that she doesn’t have an appointment. She insists that we ask for ten minutes of your time.’

  Daniil let out a slight curse.

  Of course Libby was here.

  No doubt Lindsey was sending in the big guns again.

  Well, Libby could hardly be called a big gun.

  ‘She can have five minutes.’

  ‘Oh.’

  Cindy was clearly expecting him to offer his usual refusal, and possibly he should have, but he had been waiting for a week for her to make contact and ask that he reconsider about the anniversary celebration.

  There was, Daniil believed, always a hidden agenda and so far he had never been proved wrong.

  ‘Cindy, you can go to lunch once she is here. Tell Libby that she can come straight through.’

  He leaned back in his chair and waited.

  It was almost a relief that her true colours would now reveal themselves because he hadn’t been able to get her out of his head.

  The business plan had been a spur-of-the-moment thing, and by that evening he had regretted it.

  He had arrived home from work and as promised his back had felt as if he’d been run over by a bus.

  It had felt the same for the next two days but on the third...

  Yes, he had remembered fondly.

  Extremely fondly, in fact, because he had had his first weekend in in very long time.

  ‘Whoops!’ Libby said as she burst into his office in a blaze of colour. ‘I nearly knocked.’

  Daniil sat there.

  She was wearing a bright red wraparound dress that looked rather like a very tight T-shirt, bright red lipstick and her smile was wide.

  She also had her huge leather bag over her shoulder.

  ‘Guess where I’ve been?’ Libby said.

  ‘I have no idea.’

  She made a great show of going into her bag, opening her purse and taking out a pale pink business card, and then she came around the desk and handed it to him.

  Libby Tennent School of Dance

  Beneath that was a photo of two lower legs in the same blush pink and the dancer was en pointe.

  ‘Do you like it?’ she asked. ‘It took me hours, no, days, to sign off on it.’

  He had never seen anyone so delighted with a business card. Daniil could fill a room with all the cards that had been handed to him over the years.

  ‘You can keep it if you like,’ she said, as he went to hand it back. ‘I’ve got hundreds.’

  As soon as she’d gone he would do his usual and toss it in the bin and for now he gave a polite nod, but the examination of the business card hadn’t finished yet because she was standing over him, peering at it.

  ‘It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?’ she sighed, and then Daniil looked a little closer and, yes, it actually was because...

  ‘That’s you.’

  There was a certain disquiet in Daniil that he could recognise her from the knees down!

  ‘It is! Well, it’s me two years ago. Are you going to guess where I’ve been?’

  ‘No,’ he said, because he didn’t partake in games.

  ‘Then, I’ll tell you—I’ve just picked up the keys to the studio.’ She beamed. ‘And the mirrors are coming this afternoon. I’ve had a poster printed for my information evening... I’m just so happy and excited that I wanted to come and say thank you for all your help.’

  Daniil stared as again she went into her bag.

  ‘Here.’ She pulled out a present, beautifully wrapped and tied with a pale pink satin bow, and there was a card addressed to him.

  ‘What’s this?’

  ‘Well, if you open it you’ll find out.’

  Daniil didn’t like gifts.

  Birthdays at the orphanage had meant an extra piece of fruit with lunch and knuckles on the head from his peers. He had never received a wrapped gift, chosen specifically for him, until he had come to live in England and had quickly found out that always, always, they came with guilt or conditions attached.

  He remembered getting a tennis racket when he hadn’t liked the game and finding out later that their late son, Daniel, had been a gifted tennis player.

  There had been clothes, books, instruments, computers and electronics, too, that had supposedly been chosen for him, but Daniil had known the thought had been with their late son.

  At eighteen he had stood awkwardly as he’d been handed a bunch of keys and taken out to the drive where a luxury navy car sat wrapped in a bow. He had caused tears when he had refused to perform for the video camera and take his gift for a drive.

  It hadn’t been a gift in the true sense.

  Daniil had known that again it would come at a price.

  How grateful he should be, he had often been told. Didn’t he understand just how lucky he was?

  Lately his gifts had been of the serious corporate kind but they, too, had come with their own quiet sway.

  He looked up to Libby, who was waiting expectantly for him to open her gift.

  ‘Come on...’ she urged, as he undid the ribbon.

  ‘Too much pink,’ he commented.

  ‘You can never have too much pink,’ she said, as he peeled back the paper. ‘It’s not very exciting,’ she warned as he opened the box. ‘Well, it’s exciting to me but I just...’ Her voice trailed off as her gift was revealed.

  It was a porcelain, hard thing. A bit like a grey-silver bear with pieces of glittery wool stuck to it, and it had a smiling face and eyes.

  He removed it from the paper and saw that it had very long legs with the ends dressed in pink ribboned ballet shoes.

  He tried to stand it on his desk but Libby laughed.

  ‘It sits on your bookshelf,’ she explained, and put it at the end of the desk so that its long legs dangled over the edge. She looked around his office. ‘You, Daniil, are lacking in knick-knacks.

  He didn’t like pointless things.

  Daniil had never been attached to a thing for the sake of it.

  And, yes, this was possibly the most pointless thing that had ever graced his desk.

  ‘I’ve ordered loads,’ Libby explained. ‘I might give them as little prizes.’

  ‘I see.’

  He didn’t.

  ‘Well, I have to go,’ Libby said. ‘I’ve got to get back for my mirrors arriving...’

  ‘What else did you want?’

  ‘Nothing.’ Libby beamed. ‘Just to say thank you. I know now that I couldn’t have done it without you. I tried by myself at the bank and I truly believe he was about to laugh me down the street when I produced your business plan. Honestly, almost the moment I did he offered me a coffee and I got two chocolate biscuits.’

  Daniil looked at her and smiled. She, like the thing, was now sitting on his desk, only she was chatting away happily.


  ‘How’s your back?’ Libby asked.

  ‘Well, for a couple of days I struggled even to put a shirt on and if your ears were burning that was me, cursing your name every time I moved...’

  ‘But then?’ she said.

  ‘Amazing,’ Daniil said. ‘If your ballet school flops you can—’

  ‘Don’t even say it!’ she said. ‘I’m terrified.’

  ‘There’s no need to be,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t put my name to any business plan that I didn’t consider had every chance of succeeding.’

  ‘Really?’ She frowned. ‘You weren’t just being nice?’

  ‘I don’t lie about business,’ he said. ‘I was just being nice to you...’

  ‘I didn’t think you played nice,’ she said, as he pulled her from the desk and onto his lap so that she was facing him.

  ‘Occasionally I do,’ he said, arranging her legs so she was half kneeling on the chair with her arms resting on his shoulders.

  ‘I’d love to kiss you—’ she sighed ‘—but I have far too much lipstick on for that.’

  ‘Poor excuse.’

  ‘Valid excuse,’ she said. ‘I really came just to give you your present. If they weren’t going to let me up then I’d have left it with the misers at Reception. You haven’t opened your card.’

  ‘I will,’ Daniil said. Right now, though, his hands were on her hips. ‘Before you arrived I was about to call your father.’

  ‘My father?’ Libby blinked. ‘And tell him what a bad girl his daughter is?’

  ‘No.’ Daniil smiled. ‘To say that I will go next weekend.’

  He waited for her smile to widen, for a dart of triumph in her eyes now that she had got her way, but he was slightly taken aback when instead she frowned.

  ‘But you said that you didn’t want to go.’

  ‘I know that I did, but I’ve given it some thought and...’ He wasn’t about to tell her about the letters—that was way too personal to him—so he shrugged and was vague instead. ‘Maybe it is the right thing to do.’

  ‘Not if...’ She was clearly uncomfortable with his choice. ‘Daniil, I knew, almost the second I said I’d do it, that it was wrong to try to persuade you...’

  ‘You didn’t persuade me,’ he said. ‘I decided to go by myself.’

  ‘You’re sure?’ she checked.

  He nodded.

  She was like no one he had ever met. He could tell that she was uncomfortable with her part in it all.

  Up till that moment he had thought she might be playing a game and that the reason for her visit would contain another attempt to change his mind.

  He moved her up his lap, just slithered her unresisting body closer to his.

  ‘Someone might come in,’ she said.

  ‘No one ever comes in without Cindy’s say-so.’

  ‘Even so.’

  But remembering that he had sent Cindy to lunch, Daniil went into his drawer and pulled out a tiny remote and there was the thunk of the door locking.

  She wanted him but hadn’t expected this.

  For a week there had been nothing. No phone call, no flowers, no anything and now here she was, sitting on his lap facing him.

  Their one night Libby could never describe as a mistake but, despite her bravado, it had rattled her.

  A lot.

  She had found it hard, no, impossible, to believe that was it and, guiltily, even if the present had been left at Reception she had hoped it might serve as a prompt, to remind him about what she could not forget—their night.

  ‘I can’t kiss you,’ Libby said, revelling at the feel of his solid legs between her thighs. ‘I’m not walking out of here with my face all smeared.’

  ‘Don’t...’ He was about to say, ‘Don’t come here wearing red lipstick next time, then,’ but changed his mind. ‘Don’t kiss me, then, but I can still kiss you.’

  She closed her eyes in bliss as his lips met her neck and her skin nearly wept in relief as finally Houston made contact again. His lips brushed her tender skin and then there was the warm wet slide of tongue. As he kissed her neck he undid the wrap of her dress and then lowered the little cami she wore so one breast was exposed, and he kissed her there. He swirled round her nipple with his tongue, making little nips with his teeth.

  ‘Oh...’ Libby squirmed in his lap at the pleasure and held on to his shoulders. His tongue was cool on her breast at first and then warm, the tiny nips and sucks were making her feel faint and she was incredibly, rapidly, turned on, especially as he slid down in the seat enough so that his hands moved her hips over his erection.

  ‘This could go far too far...’ she breathed, as his fingers burrowed into her panties.

  ‘Good.’

  It did go far too far because he took a letter opener and dealt with the lacy threads of her underwear so she was completely naked to the hand that stroked her.

  ‘Daniil...’ she whispered into his ear, ‘I’m not on the Pill...’

  ‘Get yourself on it, then.’

  She blinked.

  She wanted to dash out and find where Cindy kept the fire extinguisher just so she could put out the sudden hope in her heart that flared. The hope that said that there would be more, that he and she...

  ‘What?’ he said, as he felt her still.

  ‘I went to the doctor this morning. It’s okay, I wasn’t hanging out for you to call me or anything...’ She hesitated and then, what the hell, she chose honesty. ‘Well, of course I was, but really I was a little worried by my lack of morals the other night. I don’t regularly fall into bed...’

  ‘You didn’t fall,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t let you.’

  In between words he was flicking her nipple with his tongue and it felt as he was doing the same to her clitoris as she remembered her legs resting on his shoulders as he’d made magic with his mouth.

  ‘The other night was...’ Libby attempted to explain that it had been an exception but it was hard to form a sentence as his fingers moved faster inside her and the suction of his mouth around her breast had her frantic in his arms.

  ‘Precious and rare,’ Daniil finished the sentence for her in the nicest of ways.

  ‘It was,’ she said. ‘So I am getting myself on the Pill the very second I can...’

  ‘Come,’ Daniil said, his fingers working her, ‘and then we will see what you can do with that red mouth.’

  She unbelted him just to feel him, and then his hand discontinued the delicious probe of her and her sob of frustration turned into a moan of pleasure as she freed him. Hard, erect, there was a bead of moisture at the tip that had her longing to lower her head, but instead she rose up a little, not just to his hand, which was back where she felt it belonged and bringing her closer to the boil, but her legs raised to have him nearer her heat.

  Again he removed that skilled hand and guided her so that she hovered, and he stroked her now with the head of his cock and her lips twitched from the absence of his kiss.

  ‘Condom...’ she breathed, because she was fighting not to lower herself.

  ‘I don’t have any here.’

  ‘Please.’ Libby let out a half laugh of disbelief.

  ‘Why would I have them at work?’

  He surprised her.

  Always.

  He pulled her down onto him just a little way. ‘I want to feel you come around me.’

  ‘You might, though.’

  ‘I have a lot of self-control...’

  It was a risky game, but they were way past reading the fine print of the rule books. Yes, somewhere it would state that this was foolish at best, but the thought of him inside her unsheathed had Libby licking her lips. She’d never done it without a condom and she told him so.

  ‘Nor me.’

  ‘Just f
or a moment, then.’

  He lowered her down, not all the way, and she let out a moan of both bliss and want.

  He raised her and then lowered her again, watching his naked length being swallowed up and feeling the blissful wet warmth of her.

  Then he pulled her hard down and watched her grimace.

  ‘Come on, baby,’ he said, thrusting into her. ‘I won’t last long.’

  ‘Talk about pressure...’ she said, but the only real pressure was building in her. He just moved her at his will. She was limp and compliant and then suddenly her spine felt rigid and she was shaking and her orgasm was so deep, so intense she cried out.

  For Daniil, feeling her pleasure, her concentrated tightness around him was rapturous. Yes, he had self-control but even Libby felt the final swell and jerk of him just before he lifted her off. She held his shoulders and they both watched as he shot over her and her desire flickered back to life as he stroked himself empty, her hand coming down over his and their fingers mingling.

  She’d never seen anything more sexy, never felt more adored, and in that moment she truly was.

  His tongue was cold as he ignored the rule that had got them to this point and kissed her slack mouth and then they rested their foreheads on each other’s.

  ‘I want to curl up and go to sleep...’ Libby admitted, but what she didn’t admit was that she wanted to do that right there on his lap. She wanted the door to stay locked and the rest of the world to disappear and leave them alone.

  Libby had never had such intense feelings for anyone—no man had ever moved her in the way that he did—but already he was peeling her off.

  Her jelly legs moved to a stand and she looked down at her panties where they lay shredded on the floor.

  ‘Come on,’ he said, and at first she thought she was being shown the door but instead he took her into the adjoining bathroom and it was the lipstick he dealt with first because they were both wearing it. He wetted a cloth and discarded the evidence from her face and then he stripped her and they showered, kissing, kissing, kissing, washing each other, caring for each other. Then he turned off the taps and it was time to dress.

  Now it was time for Daniil to pretend it was simply sex.

  God, but he’d prefer that it was.

  He loathed having somebody in his headspace, he dreaded letting another person get close.