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He leaned back wearily in his desk chair. Just hours before, the purpose and meaning of his life had seemed so clear. So bright and full of promise. He’d felt young again, young and fearless. For that one shining moment, he’d been exactly the man he’d always wanted to be.
Rising to his feet, Vladimir poured himself a glass of vodka over ice. Going to the window, he swirled the tumbler, watching the prisms of the ice gleam in the scattered moonlight.
He could still destroy her.
Destroy Breanna? The thought made him choke out a low sob and claw back his hair.
Was there any way he could be wrong? Any way she could be innocent?
All the evidence pointed against her. It was obvious she was guilty. He looked down at the contract on his desk.
But should he believe the proof of his eyes?
Or the proof of his heart?
Standing alone in the shadows of his study, Vladimir drank the vodka in one gulp and put the glass down softly on a table.
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Loving her had brought him to life again. Going back to the window, he opened it and leaned against the sill. He took a deep breath of the cold air, smelling the frozen sea, hearing the plaintive cry of distant, unseen birds. Midnight in Russia, in January, was frozen and white, gray and dead.
But still, he knew spring would come.
He took another deep breath. Everything had changed for him. And yet nothing had.
He loved her. And he always would.
Vladimir looked back down at the unsigned contract. In a sudden movement, he leaned over the polished wood of his desk where, hours ago, he’d made love to her, the woman he loved. Where he’d looked into her beautiful face and told her his love for her would last forever.
Slowly he reached for an expensive ballpoint pen. He looked down, reading for the tenth time the contract that would forever give his billion-dollar company to his brother.
And then, with a jagged scrawl, Vladimir signed his name.
* * *
The warm sunlight on Bree’s face woke her from a vivid dream. She’d been standing with Vladimir on a beach in Hawaii, the surf rushing against their bare feet, the warm wind filled with the scent of flowers as they spoke their wedding vows.
Vladimir’s eyes looked blue as the sea. I, Vladimir, take you, Breanna, to be my wife….
Smiling to herself, still drowsing, Bree reached out her arm. But his side of the bed was empty.
With a gasp, she sat up.
Last night, she’d thrown herself at Vladimir because she’d been physically unable to let him sign away his company to his brother. But she still didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t betray him. Or her sister.
I’m in love with you, Breanna. I never stopped loving you. And I never will.
She trembled, blinking back tears.
He loved her.
But even before he’d spoken the words, she should have known. He’d shown her his love a hundred times over, with each gift more precious than the last. Bree looked down at Snowy, curled up in a ball at the foot of her bed. Vladimir dreamed bigger things for her than she dared dream for herself, buying her a Hawaiian resort to support her dream of running a small bed-and-breakfast. And last night, he’d set her free. He’d sacrificed his own needs for hers.
Bree took a deep breath, setting her jaw.
She was going to tell him everything.
Pulling on a T-shirt and jeans, she went downstairs, her whole body shaking with fear. She tried not to think of Josie, or the risk she was taking. When Bree told him her sister was in danger, he wouldn’t coldly reply that Josie should face the consequences of her own actions. Would he? He would help Bree save her.
