“I don’t think we’ll have a better offer than that,” Lukyan said, exhaling what sounded to her like a sigh of relief. The crowd burst into applause. Cate smiled as Lukyan handed her from the stage, but inside she was raging. Dimitris clearly thought he could buy her affection, but she would teach him that she would not be swayed by his money. Most women would fall at Dimitris’ feet, even if he didn’t have a dime to his name, but she was not most women. No amount of lavish spending would convince her to marry a man she barely knew
five
Dimitris looked out his office window onto the expansive back lawn of his estate. Cate had refused his requests to schedule the cooking lesson for four successive days. Finally, she agreed to meet with him on Thursday. It had taken a significant amount of cajoling to convince her to hold the lesson in his home rather than at her school. He smiled, his mate was a stubborn one. If she hadn’t agreed to meet with him, he feared that his pack would shun him. In a matter of days he had managed to offend every person working in the Volkov Investment office. He barked at his assistant, grouched at his partners, and made snide comments to his customers. Finally, Lukyan had pulled him aside to ask him to work from home for the remainder of the week. This morning Dimitris dressed casually, breakfasted in the kitchen, and then proceeded down the hall to his home office where he accomplished absolutely nothing for four consecutive hours.
Glancing at his watch, he contemplated the error he had made in bidding at the auction. His wolf had raged when Alek bid on her offering. Without thinking, he had yelled out his bid for a rather unseemly sum. Yes, it was for a good cause, and yes it was time he could spend with his mate, but it also drew considerable attention to Cate, attention Dimitris suspected she objected to. Surely that was the reason for the ire she had shown him during the past week. Cate had refused to accept his phone calls, forcing him to leave messages with the program’s administrative assistant. He had gone to her home twice to speak with her, but she declined to answer the door. Once, when he knew she wasn’t home, Dimitris went to speak with the babysitter for no other reason than to get someone to open the door to him. She had refused him entrance, as well, likely because he was a stranger to her rather than because her employer was angry with him. At least the sitter had spoken with him at the door. Peter had sneaked behind the teen and grinned at him from behind her back. Dimitris smiled at the memory. The little guy looked so much like his mother that it made his heart ache.
His eyes shifted to his watch again. Ten minutes until Cate’s scheduled arrival time. His body hummed with excitement. In ten minutes he would see his fated mate, the woman that sent his heart racing. Cate was the only woman aside from his mother who had ever told him no. Dimitris was used to getting his way, with men and women alike. Her refusal to do as he willed was a novel experience. He admired her tenacity, though. She would make his life interesting. She was strong-willed and confident, traits needed in an alpha’s mate. He knew she felt the pull to him, but he admired her ability to deny it. He was having a much more difficult time denying the attraction. Every moment without her was agony.
His worry for her safety continued. Dimitris did not believe anyone in his pack would take advantage of their bond by biting her. Although he was wary, he was not so untrusting to believe that his pack members would rebel in such a way. Other packs, however, were not to be trusted. A rival pack alpha would find his mate very attractive. Once shifted she would be have two allegiances, one to her mate, the other to her sire. A scenario such as that would lead to war between packs, something that had been avoided for over three centuries. To guard against this, Mylo and his team continued to guard Cate around the clock. She, of course, knew nothing about their monitoring. Dimitris regretted the situation, he knew she would find the security an intrusion on her privacy, but he needed to keep her and her child safe.
Cate entered the living room and sat on the overstuffed couch. The room was warm and welcoming. Outside of the kitchen, she had only seen the public rooms in the mansion. This was clearly a space for family. It was filled with comfortable furniture and picture frames. Cate had told herself that Dimitris was too rich and pampered to take seriously, but photos of him with his brother, cousins, and an older woman she suspected was his sister, told a different story. Dimitris was a man who valued family and relationships. She shook the realization from her head. It would be easy to paint him as a playboy of no substance, doing so would make this heat between them less appealing, but the truth was Dimitris had all the appearances of being a decent man.A bossy and somewhat manipulative, decent man, she amended.
It had taken her four days to overcome her anger. He had embarrassed her with his outrageous bid for the cooking lesson, but more importantly, he had insulted her. Her love could not be bought, even by a devastatingly handsome and rich man like Dimitris. Cate allowed her fury to stew, until yesterday morning. A shockingly perceptive comment from Peter had convinced her to let it go. “Mom, if you let him make you angry then you’re giving him power.” She snickered. Where her son heard something as philosophical as that, she had no idea, but she did know that it was true. Cate had accomplished next to nothing at work this week, the lessons she presented to students were disasters. Her anger with Dimitris was definitely affecting her ability to function. She dropped Peter off at school, drove to work, and immediately informed her assistant that should Dimitris call, she was available to give his lesson on Thursday at eleven. It had taken several back-and-forths before the two could agree on the location, though. Cate was willing to forgive, but she was not yet ready to make life easy on him.
Without warning, the door opened. Dimitris stood in the frame looking too good for words. He was wearing a pair of faded jeans that slipped to his hips and a plain black tee. His dark hair was tousled, like he had been running his hands through it, and his face had gone unshaven for a day or two. She fought the urge to run to him and throw her arms around his neck. This man would be too easy to fall for, she thought.
He greeted her with a smile. “You’re early,” he said.
“Sorry. I got here a few minutes ahead of schedule. I debated sitting in the car for a bit, but decided to knock on the door instead.”
He stepped toward her, “No, I’ve been waiting. I’m glad you came in. If you had been here two hours ago that would have been even better.” Dimitris’ wolf had sensed Cate’s presence before she had left the car. It had taken all of his reserve to wait in the hall so that she could be allowed entrance and seated in the living room. His wolf urged him to close the distance and take her in his arms, but Dimitris resisted. He knew that he would need to go more slowly with his mate. Their last meeting had proven that.
“Did you get the recipe I sent to your email?” He had told Cate’s assistant that he wanted to make something traditionally Russian during the lesson. He missed the food he had grown up eating. Cate’s assistant had suggested smoked salmon, but Dimitris asked if they could try to recreate his grandmother’s stroganoff recipe. His grandmother had been dead for many years, but his mother still had the recipe in her cooking files. She had repeated the steps over the phone, refusing to communicate with him through email. He had written down each ingredient and instruction and sent the recipe to Cate.
“I did. I have to tell you that I have never made stroganoff before. There is nothing about the recipe that looks complicated, but I have no past experience with this dish. So I can’t promise that it will taste like your grandmother’s.”
He shrugged. “I’m sure it will be delicious. Shall we get started?”
Dimitris escorted Cate to the kitchen. Both were silent as they walked. They entered the open space, and she noticed that all the ingredients had been placed on the island in the center of the room. As instructed Dimitris unwrapped the beef from its paper casing, and began to cut it into half-inch thick slices. “We’ll use the tenderizer to pound the meat thinner once you’ve made all the slices,” she added.
Cate watched as he held the utensil in a vice grip, causing the meat to tear. “Finesse, Dimitris, use some finesse with the knife,” she corrected, picking up a different knife to demonstrate a proper hold. He eased his grip and went back to the task. Cate fought the urge to wrap her body around his. It would be so easy to press her body behind his bigger one, and cover his hand with her own. She pushed the idea away.
Soon Dimitris finished with the slicing. She layered the beef cuts between two lengths of wax paper as he went to the sink to wash his hands. “The next part is where the fun begins,” she said picking up the metal tenderizer. “You can buy these now that press down like an easy button. It’s probably less messy than the hammer style tenderizers like this one, but it also takes all the fun out of it. I prefer to beat the hell out of it.” She laughed at her jest and began to hammer the beef slices.
Dimitris watched as she wielded the kitchen tool. Her movements were efficient and precise. She was lost in the moment which gave him time to soak in her loveliness. Her hair was pulled back in a messy, low chignon. She wore no jewelry and little makeup, and her clothes were a baggy pair of chef pants and a long-sleeved tee. He had never seen a woman more lovely than his Cate. He longed to touch her.
“I believe,” he said, “that you are doing that wrong.” He edged his body behind hers. He could feel her muscles tighten the moment his hips pressed to her back. His human mind told him to step back, don’t scare her away, but his wolf would not let him move from her. Slowly, he wrapped his arms around her body, placing his right hand over her wrist. “I seem to recall my grandmother being a bit more vigorous when she made this dish,” he whispered huskily into her ear. “I think you should go a little harder with the beating.”
Cate’s pulse raced. Heat from Dimitris’ body warmed her back, every spot he touched began to tingle. She turned her neck so that she could see him. “Dimitris.” Suddenly his mouth was on hers. Without breaking, he took the tenderizer from her hand and laid it on the counter, then turned her body to his in one swift move. Cate melted into him, craving his heat.
Reluctantly he pulled his lips from hers. His hands rested on each cheek, his forehead leaning gently against hers. His big body rubbed against her much smaller one, pinning her against the counter. “Cate, I am so sorry about the party,” he began. “I know my bid embarrassed you. You have to know that I would never do anything purposely to embarrass you or jeopardize what we have between us. I know it’s early and you don’t believe it, but I love you. I only want to please you.”
Cate was stunned. She had thought him too proud to admit an error. “I wasn’t as embarrassed as I was angry.” His silence prodded her to continue. “I told you that I would not marry you and you responded by throwing money at me. Dimitris, you have to know that you can’t buy my affection or manipulate me with your money.”
He did not speak immediately. His thumbs rubbed lazy circles on her cheek for long seconds as he looked deeply into her eyes. Finally he said, “I was not trying to buy your love, Cate. I simply wanted to spend time with you. I thought that if you and I could spend more time together you would grow to love me as I love you.”
Cate breathed in as though she wanted to speak, but he silenced her. “I know you think it is too soon. You think that it is not possible for a man to love a woman so deeply in only a few hours, but you are wrong, Cate. I have never had a girlfriend. I’ve never even gone on more than three dates with any one woman. No one ever held my attention long enough to bother. But you, Cate, you have all of my attention and I am determined to make you mine. I am the type of man who goes after what I want, and what I want is you.” He lowered his lips and kissed her sweetly, once each on the corners of her lips. “I want to marry you today, but for you I am willing to wait. I will do anything for you, my beautiful Catherine the Great, as long as you don’t shut me out. Please don’t shut me out.”
Cate felt her reservations begin to fade with each word he spoke. “But I’m too old for you,” she breathed. “You are young and beautiful and rich, and I’m just me.”
His responding smile warmed her. “You are just you, and just you is the only person I have ever wanted or needed. I would want you no matter how old you are. Don’t you understand? I want you for you, not your age. Besides, I suspect I’m older than you think. My family have what you might call good genes.” He pulled back from her a fraction. Cate felt his absence intensely. “My only regret,” he said, allowing his gaze to traverse the curves of her body, “is that I didn’t meet you sooner. I hate that I have missed any time with you.”
She leaned into him, closing the gap that his previous movement had created. She rested her forearms on each side of his neck and raised her mouth to his. “I would like to see where this leads, Dimitris,” she breathed between kisses. Without hesitation, he bent and scooped her up in his arms, holding her as if she weighed no more than a doll. “Wait,” she yelped as he hefted her higher to his chest. “Put me down!”
Though his wolf rebelled, Dimitris obeyed. Neither his heart nor his wolf could take more rejection from this woman, but he was resolved to go at her speed. She smiled shyly at him and then turned away. Dimitris’ wolf howled in agony. He watched as she slowly moved to the sink and washed her hands. She picked up the cloth and, with meticulous care, patted them dry. “Now we can go,” she said as she turned back to him with a smile.
Dimitris opened the door to his bedroom suite, stepped through the entry, and shut the door in one motion. He walked to the bed and placed Cate in the center. “You are mine, Cate. No more running away.”
