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She wasn’t going to tell Liam that with a little practice there probably wasn’t a lot his mother could teach her, because her own mother had already taught her well. But she yearned to meet Liam’s mother. Not for what she could learn, but for what it meant. Meeting a man’s mother in Zakhar was almost a sure sign a proposal was imminent. But even here in the US meeting a man’s mother was a serious step—Cate knew that much about her adopted country. And for the first time she realized Liam was serious. He really meant it when he said he loved her.
If only she could believe he would still love her...if he knew the truth.
* * *
Five million dollars in cash—nothing larger than a hundred—was too much for a briefcase. The money had been delivered via licensed couriers to Vishenko in varying increments from different banks where his money was stashed, so as not to arouse too much suspicion. It now lay neatly stacked in a wheeled suitcase lying near the edge of the massive bed in the master bedroom of his Long Island estate. The same room where he’d first taken his pleasure of Caterina Mateja’s body all those years ago—the same bed.
Caterina thought she’d escaped. She thought she could bring him down. She would know soon just how wrong she was—no one got the better of Aleksandrov Vishenko. And no one testified against him. No one.
Five million. The first—and only—installment. Two hours from now he would be in Virginia again, and the money would exchange hands in the privacy of his plane, which was swept daily for audio and video devices that might have been planted by law enforcement. Which meant complete privacy was assured. No surveillance would record the exchange. And tomorrow...tomorrow his Learjet would take Nick D’Arcy and him to wherever Caterina was. He would teach her a lesson she would never forget. She would beg him one more time—then he would kill her. She would not live long enough to appreciate the lesson, but that could not be helped.
And when she died the sword of Damocles would finally be removed, once and for all, from above Vishenko’s head.
* * *
Liam and Cate sat on the back porch, watching the sunset. His arm was around her waist, and she was resting her head against his shoulder. “It never gets old,” she said as the last dying rays of the sun vanished behind the mountain, the amber sky fading into purple. One by one the stars began to appear, silver dots against the cloudless blue.
“Yeah,” Liam said. “It never gets old.” But he wasn’t looking at the sky, he was looking down at Cate, and his expression was unmistakable.
When she realized where his attention was focused, she turned her face to hide it against his neck, unable to meet the question in his eyes. “Please don’t,” she whispered.
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t look at me that way.”
He lifted her chin with one firm but gentle finger, forcing her to face him. “You might as well ask me to stop breathing.” He brushed his lips against her forehead. “I love you, Cate. And until you tell me you don’t love me...until you tell me you’ll never love me... I can’t look at you and not want you. Fifty years from now I’ll still look at you and want you.”
“You can’t know that.”
“Yes, I can.” His lips touched hers lightly, then he drew back. “What do you think love is, Cate? It’s not just desire. It’s not just here and now. It’s a choice. A commitment. It’s telling yourself ‘I want to share everything with this person, now and in the future. Every joy. Every sorrow.’”
He breathed deeply. “But it’s more than that. It’s sharing the little things, too. Like a sunset. Like a waterfall. Laughing together over nothing—things that wouldn’t be funny to anyone else, but are funny to the two of you. Love is going to sleep at night and waking up in the morning next to a woman who is all women to you. It’s wanting to shield her from pain—knowing in your heart of hearts you can’t—but wanting it all the same. It’s giving her children you’ll both love and cherish the way you love and cherish each other. It’s watching the years take their toll, but still seeing in your mind’s eye the beautiful woman she is inside, the woman you first fell in love with. It’s wanting to be with her when you draw your last breath...or when she draws hers.”
Tears filled her eyes, and she blinked rapidly to hold them back, but two tears escaped and trickled down her cheeks. Liam brushed them away with a gentle hand. “It’s knowing she’ll cry when you’re not there...and that you’ll cry when she’s gone. But that’s okay, Cate, because that’s what love is. Needing someone to the exclusion of all others. I haven’t just fallen in love with you. I choose to love you. That’s how I know.”
