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  It was so close to what Kat had intended—although she hadn’t known about the sexual marathons at the time of planning it!—that she couldn’t prevent the guilty heat from suffusing her cheeks.

  Dair gave a disgusted snort as he threw back the sheets and moved to sit on the side of the bed, his face etched in grim lines in the last of the sun’s evening rays shining in through the windows and doors.

  Kat instantly scrambled up onto her knees. “Dair—”

  “Don’t even touch me right now,” he cautioned, causing Kat to still as she heard the danger beneath the softness of his tone. “Why the hell didn’t you say something to Gregori at your father’s funeral—”

  “I don’t even remember my father’s funeral!” She had tried, God knows she had tried, but everything before Dair came to her at the clinic, losing the baby, the trip to London and back, felt as if it had happened to someone else, or she simply didn’t remember it at all.

  The only thing that had remained constantly with her was her hatred of Sergei, because a part of her would never forget the fact he had killed her baby.

  Was it any wonder she had gone for him with a dinner knife?

  A nerve pulsed in Dair’s tightly clenched jaw as he kept his face turned in profile away from her, meaning Kat could no longer read his expression.

  “Ivan had arranged for me to be admitted to the clinic the moment we got back from England,” she continued dully. “The only person I’ve seen since then is Sergei. Every day, always for the same reason; I could leave the clinic if I agreed to marry him again,” she added bitterly. “Incidentally, I think someone should check into what happened to Sergei’s legal wife.”

  “Kat—”

  “Please, Dair.”

  He sighed. “I’ll have my men look into it. But knowing Ivan I doubt he bothered with the expense, or possible exposure, of a divorce…”

  Kat thought so too. “If you hadn’t come for me when you did I would probably have met the same fate if I had continued to refuse Sergei, as I fully intended to do. My death would have had to look like an accident, of course, or possibly suicide, probably from an overdose or slitting my wrists with one of those dinner knives,” there was a certain irony to that she was sure Sergei would have enjoyed. “No doubt the explanation to Gregori would have been that I’d taken my own life while suffering from depression.”

  Dair stood up, too restless to remain seated any longer; at this moment in time the walls of the palace could have been four feet thick and he would still have wanted to try to punch his fist through them.

  Kat was right, he knew she was right, and that Sergei had already started the groundwork for her suicide to happen by telling Gregori that Kat was in a clinic suffering from depression after her father’s death. The bastard had forgotten to mention the fact that he had killed his own baby, and almost killed Kat too, just a week or so before that funeral.

  Dair reached down to pull on his boxers before standing up and walking over to stand beside the doors that opened out onto the balcony, welcoming the slight coolness of the night breeze on his overheated skin.

  What a fucking mess.

  Sergei and Ivan Orlov.

  Gregori Markovic.

  With Kat very nicely caught in the middle of the two powerful families.

  Dimitri Markovic may have been a cold-hearted bastard, but Dair knew he would never have tolerated this insult to both his daughter and their family. Or that Gregori would be able to do so either.

  There was a way out of this. There had to be. One that saved face for both families.

  One that didn’t result in Kat having to suffer any more than she already had.

  Dair drew in a deep and controlling breath before turning back to face her, hardening his heart at how tiny and forlorn she looked sitting naked in the middle of the bed. “You should have trusted me, Kat.”

  “I did trust you,” she instantly protested.

  His mouth thinned. “Not with the truth. Not until you had no other choice. Your plan was to steal money from me, take your stolen cell phone, and run, is that correct? Did you think any further than that, little Kat?” He didn’t wait for her to answer either of his questions before he continued. “Did you stop to think of what Gregori’s reaction might be when I turned up without you? Did you give even a moment’s thought as to what that might have meant for me and my family?”

  She gave a slow shake of her head. “Gregori wouldn’t—he couldn’t have blamed you for my actions!”

  “You really are still that naïve little Kat, aren’t you?” Dair eyed her pityingly. “You were going to prevent one war, between Gregori and the Orlovs, and start another one between the Markovics and the Montgomerys.”

  Her shoulders slumped. “That wasn’t my intention at all.”

  “Intention or not, that’s what would have happened if you had just disappeared while in my care.” It was the reason Dair had been so reluctant to get involved in the first place. He could take any heat Gregori wanted to dish out for himself, but involving his family, even if he preferred to keep his distance from all of them apart from Lucien, was something else entirely. “What was the past couple of days about, Kat?” he added scornfully. “A good fucking before you left me here to face Gregori’s wrath?”

  Each word Dair spoke was like a painful dart in Kat’s flesh, making her bleed, inside if not outside where it would show.

  And she knew she deserved every word of Dair’s condemnation.

  She had been naïve to ever imagine Gregori would accept her disappearance, that he would ever stop looking for her. As to how he would react to Dair having first rescued her and then lost her again…

  Dair was right to accuse her of having been naïve in all those things.

  And for what had happened between the two of them the past couple of days…?

  No, Dair was totally wrong to accuse her of that. She may have initially convinced herself that it was only sex, a man and a woman enjoying each other with no strings attached, but for her at least, it had become so much more than that.

  Yes, Dair had changed in the past fifteen years. A lot. But then so had Kat.

  Looking at him now, so big and strong, that scar at his temple only adding to those breathtaking good looks, she knew that a part of her had never changed.

  She still loved him.

  Not that blind teenage love of so long ago, but the love of a woman for a man. A man with faults and foibles, and a foul mouth when he was angry. This man. The Dair Grayson who had scaled walls and blown up buildings to rescue her, before driving and flying her away from danger.

  And Dair had as much interest in that love as he had of ever returning it.

  She gave a determined shake of her head. “It wasn’t like that.”

  “No?” Dair scorned. “Then what was it like, Kat? What the fuck was it all about?” His hands were clenched into fists at his sides.

  Yes, a very foul mouth when he was angry… “I wanted—” She drew in a deep breath, determined not to allow any of the tears currently stinging her eyes to fall. “I wanted something for me,” she tried again. “I just wanted something for me,” she repeated dully.

  “Sergei fucked you over so you decided you would fuck over the next man that came along?” he sneered. “Lucky me!”

  Kat’s anger came hard and fast. “That’s what you do, Dair, not me. She ‘fucked you over’ so—”

  “I’ve told you not to use that language!”

  “—every other woman has to pay for whatever she did to you?” Kat continued challengingly.

  His eyes once again narrowed to silver slits. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Her.” Kat could feel the heat of anger in her cheeks as she glared across the room at him. “The woman responsible for making you distrust all other women.”

  “And what makes you think there was a woman?”

  “I’d pretty much guessed there had to be a woman who hurt you in the past, but Lijah confirmed it—
” She broke off, realizing she had probably gone too far.

  She may be angry with Dair, but she shouldn’t have involved Lijah, when he had only been trying to comfort her earlier because Dair was being such a remote bastard.

  Pretty much as he was behaving now!

  “You know what, never mind what Lijah did or didn’t tell me!” Kat moved to the side of the bed and stood up before crossing the bedroom on bare feet to take her robe out of the open suitcase. A beautiful peach-colored robe that Dair had chosen and bought for her. She turned to face him as she fastened the silk belt loosely about her waist. “I say that there was a woman in your past who let you down, badly, and because of her you think every other woman is going to do the same thing. You find it easier to just believe that they will, and treat them accordingly, because that way you don’t have to give a damn.”

  “You have no idea what you’re talking about—”

  “No?” Kat stalked across the room until she stood just inches in front of him. “Yes, I’ve screwed up several times in the past few days. Majorly. But I didn’t do any of those things with the intention of hurting you.” She poked him in the chest, hard, to emphasize the point. “I trusted you, Dair. After everything that’s happened, all that Sergei has done to me, I still trusted you. I believed I was doing the right thing by planning on disappearing. Obviously I was wrong. But you can put that down to my naiveté, and not something I thought up as a way of hurting you!” She gave him another pointed poke in the chest.

  How inappropriate was it, Dair wondered self-disgustedly, for him to want to be inside Kat so badly right now his balls actually ached?

  No hiding that response either, when his erection was tenting the front of his boxers.

  And all because Kat was seriously one hundred percent pissed with him.

  How perverse was that? That this fiery-eyed, flush-cheeked Kat had him so hard and throbbing he just wanted to throw her on the bed and bury himself inside her to the hilt with one swift claiming thrust?

  He certainly didn’t want to be aroused, wanted to stay angry with her.

  For the reasons she had just accused him of?

  Hell, yes.

  He had learned his lesson, not to trust any woman ever again, and he had learned it well.

  Kat’s secrecy was proof of—of what? That she had been trying to protect everyone but herself? When in reality she had succeeded in protecting no one?

  That didn’t mean her intentions hadn’t been good, only that she hadn’t thought the plan through properly.

  “Trusted,” he repeated gruffly as he looked down at her searchingly. “You used the past tense,” he added as she looked up at him quizzically.

  Kat gave an impatient sigh, obviously still angry with him. “I’ve trusted you with my life, Dair. Several times.”

  Still the past tense, he noted. “That was Dair the rescuer, what about Dair the man?”

  “Good God, Dair, what more do you want from me? In the past two days we’ve made love—sorry, had sex,” she corrected scathingly, “in ways I never even dreamed of before you. Wasn’t that me trusting you?”

  “Past tense again.”

  “That’s because Dair the man can be such a pain in the—Oomph!” Kat didn’t say any more, couldn’t say any more, because Dair had decided the only way to silence her was to kiss her, that words were getting them nowhere except to make Kat more angry.

  This woman had a mouth that could both rip him to shreds and physically drive him insane.

  Or to heights of pleasure Dair had never known before her…

  Just thinking of exploring every delicious inch of her again with his tongue was making him harder still.

  He continued to kiss her, to devour those rosy lips, even as his hand moved instinctively, assuredly, to the belt of her robe at her waist.

  Kat wrenched her mouth away from his, her lips puffy and red from the force of his kiss. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “Untying your robe?” he ventured hopefully.

  She scowled up at him. “You’ve been behaving like an absolute bast—pig all day,” she amended as he frowned darkly, “and now you think I’m going to let you have sex with me?”

  “Um—yes?”

  She pulled out of his arms completely. “You have nerve, Grayson, I’ll give you that.”

  Was that a hint of laughter Dair could see in her eyes? Just a tiny glimmer? Enough for him to think this might not be a totally lost cause? “Was that a yes or a no?” He quirked one dark eyebrow.

  Just minutes ago Kat had felt like crying at some of the things Dair had said to her, and just minutes later she felt like hitting him over the head with a blunt instrument. And he’d been a complete bastard all day; even if he’d now revealed that it was himself he was angry with. It certainly hadn’t felt like it at the time.

  Conversely, bad-tempered or not, he had ensured that she escaped Sergei—again.

  After listening to her talk, he’d also implied that if anyone was going to die then it would be Sergei.

  In retrospect, he also had a right to be angry with her; her intention of just disappearing and leaving him to explain things to Gregori would have had serious repercussions for Dair.

  None of which made him any less a bastard, but Kat loved him anyway. And loving him…

  “It’s a yes,” she finally answered him dryly. “But I’m in charge this time, okay?” she continued firmly as he again reached for the belt tied at her waist.

  Dair wasn’t sure about that as he eyed her warily. “Exactly what did you have in mind?”

  Kat’s eyes glowed wickedly as she glanced behind him. “Well. It’s gone completely dark outside while we’ve been …talking, for want of a better word.”

  “Yes…?”

  A grin even more wicked—if that was possible—curved her lips. “I want you to carry me outside and make love to me on the balcony.”

  Dair gave a glance out the open doors behind him. It was dark now, yes, but almost all of the houses along the Grand Canal had lights on, inside and out, and there was still a lot of boating traffic moving up and down the canal as well as the smaller canals branching off into the darker alleyways.

  He turned back to Kat. “You do realize its cold out there?”

  “Scared it might affect your performance?” she taunted.

  Dair was more scared he was going to put Kat over his knee and spank that delicious bottom a deep rosy red before they even had a chance to make it outside!

  He shrugged. “I just never had you figured as an exhibitionist.” Kat wasn’t aware of Dair’s men standing on guard outside, maybe even directly beneath this balcony, but Dair was.

  Her mouth twisted derisively. “I don’t think you have me ‘figured’ at all, Dair,” she said dryly. “And I don’t intend on being the exhibitionist.”

  “Sorry?”

  “I’m keeping my robe on, you’re the one who’s going to be naked.”

  “Payback time, hmm?” Dair acknowledged ruefully, at the same time as he stripped off his boxers. “You do realize that if we do this I’ll never be able to show my face in Venice again?”

  She gave a gurgle of laughter. “I don’t think it will be your face people are looking at!” Kat looked him up and down appreciatively, paying special attention to the thick length of his jutting erection. “Carry me outside, Dair, sit me on the balustrade, and then put this,” her fingers stroked lightly along the length of his silken cock, “inside me. Mm,” she murmured her approval as fresh pre-cum bubbled onto his already glistening glans. “Well?” She arched an imperious eyebrow as Dair became lost in the pleasure of her caressing fingers.

  He breathed raggedly. “You’re in charge?”

  “Do you have a problem with that?” Her fingers curled about and then tightened on his engorged cock.

  Hell, no, Dair had absolutely no problem with that as his hips arched up into her hand as she began to lightly pump him.

  As long as he had his cock
inside her at the time he had no problem with anything Kat decided she wanted him to do to her and with her.

  Chapter 14

  Dair had never done anything as insane as carrying a woman out onto a balcony stark naked and making love to her in front of anyone who cared to glance up at them. But then, insane was pretty much how he’d felt since meeting up with Kat again.

  He had spent most of the past forty-eight hours being either angry for or at Kat, or so aroused he couldn’t think straight.

  “When I lift, put your legs about my waist,” he instructed gruffly as he reached for her. “Kat?” He eyed her warily as her feet stayed planted firmly, determinedly, on the tiled floor.

  “I thought we had already established who was going to be in charge?” she challenged.

  Oh yes, another good spanking was becoming more and more of a possibility.

  “Going to take your pound of flesh, hmm?” Dair scowled darkly.

  “Oh I think you’ll find that this,” she slowly, deliberately stroked the length of his straining erection, “weighs much more than a pound!”

  “Manipulative witch!”

  “You can always say no, Dair.”

  Not when he was about to come all over her hand if she didn’t stop—fuck!

  Kat had just cupped her other hand beneath his sac and now she was slowly rolling his balls as her other hand resumed that wicked pumping motion.

  “Okay, you win,” this time, he added silently. “Would you please put your legs about my waist so that I can carry you outside and thrust that inside you?” Before he went silently, completely, out of his fucking mind.

  “Better, Dair. So much better,” she purred, running the soft pad of her thumb over his glans before raising it to her mouth and slowly—as tortuously as he had done earlier—lapping the creamy moisture, those dark and sultry eyes remaining fixed on him the whole time she did it.

  Dair could feel the pre-cum continuing to leak from his cock, and knew he wasn’t going to last if Kat continued to torment him like this. Although how the hell he had the energy, when he had come just a short time ago, was due completely to this seductive Kat. “I’ll get down on my knees and fucking beg if I have to!” he groaned.