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How the hell did this happen to me? I was never supposed to leave the vineyard. What if he finds out I’m defective? What if not being able to shift means I pass whatever is wrong with me down to our children? What if whatever is wrong prevents me from having babies? He’ll hate me. He’ll—
“Do I frighten you?”
She nodded.
“Why?”
“I know nothing about you or your vineyards. I’ve never even tasted ice wine.”
“If you like dessert wine, I think you’ll like it.”
“Why is it called ice wine?”
“Because the grapes are frozen while still on the vine. The sugars and other dissolved solids don’t freeze…”
“But the water does, which must allow for the juice to become more concentrated.”
He nodded and smiled. He was really quite handsome when he did that. “The frozen grapes are then crushed and pressed…”
“Which results in a smaller amount of very sweet juice.”
“You know your winemaking. With ice wines, the freezing comes before fermentation, not afterwards.”
She felt calmer talking about something she knew, and she wondered if he’d let her be involved with his vineyard at all.
“Why ice wines?”
He chuckled. “It gets very, very cold in Alaska for long stretches of time. I thought it was a better idea to work with mother nature than try to fight her.”
They sat quietly for a while. Then: “Tell me why you’re afraid of me?”
“I don’t know you. I know even less about you than GiGi did. Why, when you were contracted to her, did you alter the terms of your agreement with my father and choose me over GiGi? No one ever chooses me over GiGi. She’s beautiful…”
“So are you.”
She could feel the heat rising in her cheeks. “My mother thinks it’s because you think I’ll give you children more easily.”
“Your mother is right, but not for the reasons she thinks.”
“She thinks my ample figure is more like the peasant women who seem to pop out baby after baby while still working in the fields. I’m a throwback, as I look more like my ancestors who had no trouble getting pregnant and delivering healthy children.”
He shrugged. “That might all be true, but I chose you over GiGi because I thought your beauty was beyond compare and it took all my considerable willpower not to toss you over my shoulder, take you away, and have my way with you.”
“My father would never have allowed that. He would have stopped you before you could leave Sicily.”
“Not necessarily. Pyotr always makes sure the plane is fueled and ready to fly. I could have carried you onto the plane and we’d have been airborne before your father could do anything. By the time we reached Alaska, I could have had you bedded, claimed, and perhaps even pregnant with our first child.”
She looked askance at the carpeted aisleway between the rows of seats, heat flaring in her cheeks. Mikhail tossed his head back and howled with laughter.
“I’ll grant you that you bring out my more primitive, feral side, but there’s a bedroom in the back with a large, comfortable bed. I would have at least taken you back there. The thought of all the things I could do to you—it boggles the imagination.”
She could feel the color drain from her face.
“Why don’t you tell me about yourself?”
“What do you want to know?” she asked.
He pointed to Kitty, who he had insisted be put in a humane animal crate ‘for her safety.’ Simone didn’t believe that for a minute, but at least he hadn’t balked at Kitty coming with her.
