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Lukas, of course, seemed to find her condition utterly amusing and Eleanore kept her eyes glued to the scenery outside the window as the car carried them into town, all her senses riveted to the wide streets and beautiful ornate buildings, some capped with the famed gold onion domes renowned throughout Russia. It was like a winter wonderland.
A group of skaters caught her attention. ‘What are those people ice skating on? The sidewalks?’
‘Mostly the canals. St Petersburg is built on a network of islands and the water freezes solid in winter. I take it you like ice skating.’
‘Not at all.’ She grimaced and shook her head. ‘Sport was never my thing. Olivia is sensational at it though.’
‘And Olivia is?’
‘My other sister. She’s an actress.’
‘A talented family.’
Eleanore glanced outside the window again because while she knew she was good at her job she was not in either of her sisters’ league.
Not wanting to brood over things she couldn’t change she let herself become lost in the retail sector that flashed past her window as they neared the centre of town. Some of the brand names she recognised as coming from any cosmopolitan city, but others bore exotic Russian names that were impossible for her to pronounce.
Pedestrians dotted the sidewalks clad in long thick coats with their collars turned up and enormous hats on their heads. ‘I had no idea St Petersburg was so beautiful,’ she said, awed by the graceful, wintery landscape.
‘It’s deceptive,’ Lukas said curtly. ‘And it’s far from a winter wonderland, believe me.’
He sounded so emphatic she cut her gaze back to his but he was staring down at his phone.
The view outside his window caught her attention and she gasped in delight as she took in the famous Palace Square.
Lukas looked up. ‘You know it?’
‘Who doesn’t know it?’ She felt a grin split across her face. ‘It’s considered an architectural masterpiece with its smooth corners and the way it’s framed by the jade Winter Palace on one side and the General Staff Building on the other. And look, there’s the double arch with the famous winged Goddess of Victory. You know that was a symbol of Russia’s defeat of Napoleon? Oh, sorry.’ She stopped when she noticed that he was staring at her as if she were an idiot. ‘Of course you know all this. You grew up here.’
Lukas shook his head slowly. Her enthusiasm was infectious but it was clear by her wide-eyed wonder that she had never experienced the darker side of life. ‘I know the Palace Square is right beside one of our main train stations that has heating all night long and that the winged goddess is a great meeting spot for certain...transactions.’
‘Oh?’ Her curious gaze returned to his. ‘Do tell.’
Her eyes glowed with an inner fire that was mesmerising. An inner fire he did not want to think about or feed. ‘Maybe another time.’
Like never.
‘I look forward to it,’ she said eagerly. ‘One of the things I love about new places is the history that is reflected through the buildings. It’s one of the reasons I took architecture in school. And I love hearing about a city from a local’s point of view. You can learn so much. How do you pronounce the name on that building over there?’
Lukas told her and Eleanore shook her head. Languages had never been her forte but they intrigued her all the same. And so far she hadn’t had any time to learn this one.
Deciding to look up the basics on the internet she nearly fainted when she saw the length of the word for hello. ‘Is this right?’ she asked Lukas, turning her iPad toward him. ‘Is this really hello?’
He looked faintly amused at her outburst. ‘Da. Yes. But you don’t have to worry about learning the language. Most of my employees speak English.’
‘I’m not worried, but it’s polite to greet someone in their own language.’
He considered her for longer than was comfortable and she struggled not to squirm under the weight of his striking gaze. She found it much easier to think when she wasn’t looking at him. Or at least to think about things that didn’t involve what he would look like without any clothes on.
‘Zdravstvuyte is hello. Dasvidaniya is goodbye and spasibo is thank you.’
Determined not to find him at all attractive Eleanore ignored the glint of humour in his eyes.
Attractiveness was only mind over matter anyway.
‘Informative,’ she muttered, repeating the words in her head a few times before making a note on how to pronounce them on her iPad, which was when she remembered the list of questions she’d made during the flight. She pulled them up. ‘You know now might be a good time to talk about the budget.’
