DAVID had the entire top floor to himself. Sonya was coming to an understanding of what it meant to have a great deal of money. His harbourside apartment, a short distance from Lady Palmerston’s, was sophisticated, clean lined, contemporary taste, stunning aboriginal art works glowing from the walls.
In the living room she saw several large sofas. The longest would comfortably seat six. It was positioned against the majestic backdrop of Sydney Harbour in its night-time dazzle. A half a dozen comfortable armchairs were covered in willow green; two bucket chairs upholstered in a complementary soft mustard suede.
The living room was divided from the dining room by a series of substantial wooden columns. The dining setting, with a rectangular mahogany table, meticulously crafted, was for ten. Adjacent another smaller setting for six, this time around a circular table. She could see he loved fine timbers as much as she did. The splendid mahogany flooring was bordered by a polished limestone inlay. It was all very impressive. A far cry from her apartment.
“You’ll be safe here.” David’s eyes followed her slender, willowy figure as she wandered about.
“I love where you live, David. I love your style.” She spoke calmly enough, but inside she was shaking. They were alone together inside his apartment. One part of her longed for him to sweep her up and make love to her. The other commanded her to hold herself together.
“That will do for a start,” he said, his tone sardonic. “There are four bedrooms apart from the master suite. Come and see where you think you’ll be most comfortable. All the guest rooms are made up, bed linens changed once a week whether I have guests or not. All of them have en suites. Sonya, come along.” He knew he sounded in full possession of himself, but hunger for her was nearly bringing him to his knees.
“Where are we going to put the Madonna?” she asked.
“First things first, I see. I have a safe in my dressing room.”
“May we put it away right now?” Her emerald eyes were fixed on him with great intensity.
“Of course. Follow me. I recommend you pick out your bedroom first. You get the icon out your bag. I’ll go open the safe.”
“You don’t want me to know the combination?”
“If I give it to you, you have to guard it with your life,” he returned.
The shorter the time they were inside the confines of his dressing room, off the bedroom, the better. One false move and she would be right into his arms. That couldn’t happen. He had given his promise.
Sonya was so on edge she picked the first guest room they came to. He put out a hand to flick the panel that controlled the lighting. Immediately the room glowed with soft golden light. The room had an exceptional view of the harbour. There was a big king-sized bed, with a dark golden bedspread, a long, very interesting mahogany bench at its foot; a big comfortable armchair with a good-sized footstool. A long Japanese scroll framed in ebony over the bed; a plush coffee-coloured area rug imprinted with Japanese-style branches and blossoms in a soft chocolate.
“Your guests must count themselves very lucky,” she said. “This will do me fine.”
“Okay.” He made himself walk away from her, fighting down urges that were mounting into a tremendous force.
“David?” she called, after a minute or two.
His name on her lips was a caress. “Are you lost? I’m down here at the end of the hallway.”
He sounded so matter-of-fact she might have been a young cousin. These tumultuous emotions could well be on her side. She had to remember he would have had any amount of experience with women. She had had no sexual experience along the way. She moved slowly, almost pinning herself to the wall. She had to think of Marcus. There was no other way.
His bedroom was huge, again with the magnificent view and a spacious balcony beyond. The neutral colours were given considerable impact by a splendid dark crimson and gold bedspread. Matching cushions sat on the two big armchairs positioned on either side of a coffee table. On it stood a specimen vase, with a single pure white butterfly orchid with three delicate stems. A bronze bust of a beautiful woman was nearby.
“My mother,” he said, following her gaze.
“She’s very beautiful.” Sonya moved closer to inspect it.
“That she is,” he said. “I take after my mother’s family, the Holts.”
She stroked the sculpture with a gentle finger. “I can see you in the set of the eyes, the high cheekbones, even the mouth.”
“I resemble my mother, yes. Come along, Sonya. We’ll get this icon into safekeeping.”
He spoke so crisply she had the dismal feeling she was holding him up and he wanted to be away from her. The dressing room was adjacent, beyond that the bathroom, all in keeping with the subdued opulence of the rest of the apartment.
She bent her head to kiss the case reverently, speaking a few words in Hungarian. It had been a source of family pride for her grandmother to teach her mother the language of her birth and for her mother in turn to pass that language on to her. Through her father she had learned to speak fluent French and German, just as her mother did. It had been nothing in her family to speak several languages. It had been encouraged. She passed the icon to David, watching him in silence as he put it into the safe, built into the floor of his mahogany wardrobe. The room had the smell of luxury, of leather and beautiful clothes.
“Thank you, David,” she whispered.
“Let’s get out of here.”
There was a dark, intense look on his face. “You wanted to bring me here,” she pointed out, turning about almost at a run. “Now you think you’ve made a mistake?”
“Maybe I have!” He moved after her.
“So the Madonna is safe! That’s all that matters. I don’t have to stay. I’m happy to go back home.”
“Are you?” He swung her back to face him, as wound up as she. There was a fierce quaking locked up inside him that threatened to escape. A telltale shaking was travelling down his strong arms.
“I want to be as much away from you as you want to be away from me,” she said fiercely. “Isn’t that so?”
In her fury she looked incredibly beautiful, eyes blazing like precious gems, hot colour in her cheeks. “How many times do I have to tell you? I want you, Sonya. But I’m trying to do the right thing. Don’t make it impossible for me. I hardly seem to know what I’m doing any more.”
“And you hate it, don’t you?” she accused “You want to fight it, this first time a woman has the better of you?”
“The better of me?” His handsome face tautened. “I’d advise you not to provoke me, Sonya.” He felt panicked by his rush of anger. Only it wasn’t anger at all. It was white-hot desire that was burning out of control.
Her eyes went huge in her emotion-charged face. She knew her behaviour was verging on the irrational, but she couldn’t stop. “Why, would that give you an excuse to rape me?”
Shock and disgust froze his tall, elegant body. “I’m going to have to forget you said that, Sonya,” he said, too quietly. “I’ll go now. But before I do I’ll show you how to lock up after me.”
The words were barely out of her mouth before she realized how disgraceful they were. Some men wished to rape. David, never, never, never! She flew after him. “David, I’m sorry. So sorry. I didn’t mean that. You are right to despise me.”
“Good night, Sonya,” he said curtly, without looking at her.
“Please, David, don’t go in anger. I said I’m sorry.” She had feared all evening she would cry. Now she did, seeking any measure of relief from the tightening knots of pain.
He swung back on her, looking incredibly tense, his eyes as black as night. “Don’t do that. I don’t want you to cry. Wait until I’m out of here.”
“Yes, of course.” Obediently she dashed the tears away with one hand, then perversely went back on the attack. Nothing made sense. “Who are you to give me orders?” she demanded. “I’m allowed to cry if I want to. Now, what is it you wish to show me?” She tilted her chin, wanting to prove her self-control hadn’t gone with the wind.
Her dramatic volte-face got under his guard. Women! he thought in high frustration. “Come here.” He motioned her towards a large panel of switches.
“I think I know how to handle a few switches,” she told him with that infuriatingly blasé aristocratic air.
“You don’t know.” He gritted his teeth, feeling like a man lurching towards disaster. “Just listen and watch.”
She didn’t dare move a step closer. A step closer to this man she loved with all her heart. She had known little certainty in her life, but she knew this. “I fall in love with you,” she burst out, flooded with all sorts of conflicting emotions. “It is all wrong, a catastrophe. I know you think that.”
He felt like hitting something in his immense frustration. He knotted his fist, then hit the wall. “Sonya—”
“Every time I see you I fall deeper in love,” she confessed, a writhing mass of nerves. The floodgates had well and truly opened. “A tragedy. I didn’t want it. I don’t even understand how it has happened.”
“Sonya,” he said very tightly indeed. “I must go.”
“Go, then. Go, go go!” She was utterly beside herself, almost dancing on the spot. “I put up with you as long as I can!”
She was sounding more and more foreign, her excellent English failing her.
He couldn’t afford to continue this argument. Didn’t she know she was inciting him beyond control? “This one,” he gritted, stabbing his finger to a switch. “Then this one.” He pointed to a switch in the next line. The slightest spark would set him off.
“So you’re going to abandon me?” she cried.
Was she a woman gone crazy sending out all these mixed messages? He stared down into her overwrought face “Abandon you? Excuse me, you wanted me out!”
Do something, for God’s sake. Do something for both of you. The voice inside his head shouted the warning.
“Don’t go, David.” Now she turned to pleading. “I hurt you. I am sorry.”
“Sonya, if I stay—” He broke off, dragging breath into his lungs like a marathon runner.
“Stay,” she whispered. “You want me. I want you. I want to lose my virginity to you. I promise you I won’t regret it.”
The drumming in his ears was so loud he had to put up his hands to cover them. The voice inside his head was no match for this heavy pounding. “Sonya,” he groaned, under unbearable pressure.
“It’s all right.” She went to him, lifting her white slender arms to link them around his neck. “Kiss me, David.”
It was a heartfelt plea. Yet her voice was more alluring than any woman’s had the right to be.
“Hold me. Make love to me.”
Such an invitation was like a galvanic electric charge. What man could deny himself promised rapture? He knew he was in thrall to her. Woman, the goddess. Man was right to fear her. Only he didn’t hesitate to obey, not for a nanosecond. He swooped to lift her high in his arms.
For a moment as she opened her eyes Sonya was disorientated. She had no idea where she was. She was lying in a huge, wonderfully comfortable bed, stark naked. Then on a wave of heat it all came flooding back …
David!
She put a hand to a pink nipple. It throbbed. She found herself stroking her own skin with a sensuous hand. She had never felt more like a woman. She was a virgin no longer. She was in a state of euphoria.
David! She whispered his name. David, her perfect lover!
Rolling voluptuously onto her back, she stared up at the high plastered ceiling. The world felt like a different place. It was transformed. David had made love to her, starting so slowly, sweetly, gently, so exquisitely mindful of her, so when at long last, when she could stand no more, they joined together her deliriously excited body was ready for him.
“Forgive me,” he had murmured, drawing back to stare at her, showing his distress.
Forgive? What was there to forgive? He had shown her unimaginable rapture. Afterwards both of them had sunk into a spent sleep, her naked body spooned into his, his strong arm around her. Both had awoken at dawn when they made love again, this time in an escalating desire that became a passionate fury. She had lost her heart totally. He had wrung the soul from her. Now her body was his. Every inch of it he had charted. She had thought sex something she could live without. She knew very differently now.
It was David who had now to take control of the situation. Could they become a couple? Could she ever be accepted? There were so many hurdles to be covered. But whatever happened in the future no one could take her night of nights from her. It had been a sublime experience. David had made it so. She wanted no other man.
He almost missed her coming out of the apartment building. She must have called a cab because she flagged it down as it approached the luxury complex. He had to be getting old. He had fallen asleep after he saw Wainwright drive away some hours before, in a big Mercedes.
She was on her own. That was good!
All he needed to do was follow her. He had a hunch she was returning to her own apartment. A hunch that was soon proved correct. No question the two of them were sleeping together. Why not? They were young, beautiful people. He didn’t want to hurt this girl. He was Hungarian. He knew all about the tragedies of the Andrassy-Von Neumann family; the tragedies that followed after the war. He knew how the car crash that had killed the girl’s parents had been engineered. He had never wanted such a job. He wasn’t a murderer, but he did know the name of the man who had done the job. He had proof the count was a bad man. A scary man, even to him who had been given the job of scaring people. Only this young woman was the true countess, the rightful heir. Once all those things had mattered a great deal to him, but for years now he had been corrupted into becoming just another one of the count’s pawns.
Sonya paid off the driver, then made for the entry to the building. She needed to pack more things if she was going to be away from her apartment for some time. David wanted her to stay at his apartment, but eventually they had decided it would be best for her to move in with Lady Palmerston, who had instantly agreed to having her.
Almost at the front door of the building she became aware of the footfall behind her. She turned, seeing a big, burly man, well dressed, advance towards her. His demeanour, however, was in no way threatening. He addressed her in Hungarian. Somehow she wasn’t shocked. She had been expecting it.
“Good morning, Countess. At last I have found you.”
His tone was respectful. Sonya replied in the same language. “What is it you want?” Her green eyes were cold and distant.
“Only to speak to you, Countess.” He gave a half-bow. “Have no fear. I mean you no harm. There is no point in running away. I will always find you. Let us get this over. I come as an emissary from your cousin, Laszlo. He has a proposition to put to you. Allow me to put your mind at rest. He means you no harm.”
She gave a bitter laugh. “Like he meant my mother and father no harm, I suppose?” At this time in the morning there was no one around. Most of the tenants, young people, would be at work. She was very much on her own.
“Please don’t be frightened.” He took a step back so as not to crowd her. “We will go up to your apartment. We will talk. I think you will be very happy to hear what the count wishes to offer you.”
“There is nothing he could offer me,” she said, with cold contempt.
“Please, Countess. Upstairs. You can’t get away from him. I promise you I mean you no harm. Neither does the count. Violence is to be avoided at all costs.”
“Only because he knows he wouldn’t get away with it. I have spoken to important people about him.”
“Upstairs, Countess,” he insisted. “It is just a matter of delivering the count’s proposal. Then I will leave.”
Oddly she believed him. Perhaps some residual sense of decency, of honour remained.
It was just as she thought. Laszlo wanted the Madonna. In return he would pay into the bank of her choice, anywhere in the world, the equivalent of ten million dollars.
“It is a very good deal, Countess. You could be rich!”
Her expression was totally unimpressed. “Laszlo must be mad if he thinks I’ve got it.”
The man shook his head. “But you have, Countess. Give it up. You’re a beautiful young woman, you have your whole life in front of you. Why should an icon mean so much?”
“You know very well,” she reprimanded him, sternly. “You are Hungarian. Our religious icons mean a great deal to us. How do you know you won’t be punished for trying to take it away?”
He laughed without humour. “I’ll be punished if I don’t!”
“Not if Laszlo is in jail.”
He shook his head. “That won’t happen, Countess. He has too much power. He will hunt you down wherever you go. Call him off. Let him have the icon.”
“Perhaps I need the money first?” she said, with a cool lift of her arched brows.. “He is family, but a monster.”
“So give him what he wants. Do you have it?”
“Certainly not here,” she said. “I’m not a fool. Money first, then maybe we’ll talk. He should be able to arrange an electronic transfer very easily. I can give you the name of my bank and the number of the account.”
“A wise decision, Countess.” The man stood up, a handsome man in his fashion, his blond hair almost sheared to the skull and penetrating blue eyes.
“How shall I contact you?” Sonya asked.
“Do not worry, Countess. I shall contact you. All that matters in life is to stay alive. It has been an honour to meet you. The Andrassy-Von Neumanns were once one of Hungary’s greatest and most noble families.”
When he arrived at the house, Angie, the housekeeper, told him his mother and father were enjoying a late breakfast.
“No need to announce me, Angie. I’ll go through.”
“I’ll make fresh coffee,” Angie said, hurrying away.
The informal dining room, well proportioned and expensively furnished, faced onto beautiful gardens of which his mother was enormously proud. “What is it, David?” his father looked up to ask. “You’re on your way to work?’ He studied his son’s tall, lean figure. David was wearing one of his beautifully tailored business suits. He was well known for being a very smart dresser. “You needn’t go in, you know. Nigel can hold the fort for a while.”
“Have you had breakfast?” his mother asked, always happy to see her adored son.
“Angie’s making me some coffee.” He sat down, his briefcase on the floor beside him. “I have something to show you both. It needs to go into the safe room. It belongs to Sonya. I’ve also organized for her to stay with Rowena. She’s not safe where she is.”
His father regarded him with a puzzled frown. “Really, David, spare me the cops and robbers. What is it you’ve got? What could the girl have that needs to go into a strongroom?”
“You’ll see in a minute.” He reached into his briefcase. “What I’m going to show you has been in Sonya’s family since the seventeenth century.”
“Really? Sure she’s not making it up as she goes along?” Sharron pursed her lips. Yet, Rowena, nobody’s fool, trusted this girl.
“I think this will persuade you.” He unwrapped the icon slowly, and then set it down gently on the table.
“And that’s it?” His mother sat back, arching her fine brows. “An old case?” Only the binding had the patina of centuries.
He opened out one side, then the other. Sunlight was splashing through the tall windows into the breakfast room. He manoeuvred the case into a brilliant ray.
“Good God!” Robert Wainwright leaned forward, stunned. “A religious relic, obviously Roman Catholic.”
“Where on earth did she get this?” His mother looked every bit as stunned as her husband. “The diamonds are of the first water.” She touched an exquisitely gentle finger to the array of diamonds in the Madonna’s crown. “The precious stones are gorgeous too. The stones alone would be worth a great deal of money. How did a young woman who works as a florist come by this?” She searched her son’s dark eyes.
“Go ahead, David. Tell us,” Robert Wainwright said. David did.
Afterwards his parents, their attitude greatly changed, made the decision to have Sonya’s cousin investigated. “I’ll make the necessary phone call right away,” Robert Wainwright said. “There shouldn’t be any difficulty tracking the Andrassy-Von Neumann family since 1945. Actually I know of the count. He’s an industrialist and an extremely wealthy man.”
David was back in his office when a phone call came through from Rowena. She sounded agitated, which wasn’t like her. An involuntary spasm gripped the area around his heart. Surely Sonya was safely at home with Rowena? Even as he thought it he knew Sonya to be highly unpredictable. She had spent much of her life taking risks. He had been wrong to believe she would stay put.
“Sonya is here,” Rowena told him at once. “She’s had a rather frightening experience this morning.”
He gripped the phone harder. “But she’s okay? She hasn’t been harmed in any way?”
“No, dear. I should have told you at once. But you must hear what she has to say. Is it possible for you to get away?”
He was already on his feet. “I’ll be there shortly.”
“Thank you, darling.” Rowena made a sound of utter relief.
His first guess was Sonya’s stalker was in town and had made contact with her. The Madonna was safe in his father’s strongroom. His father had already started the investigative ball rolling. Not for the first time he was very grateful for the power and influence his father had.
His secretary came to the door, an anticipatory look on her face. She loved her job. “Have Prentiss bring the car around to the front of the building Liz,” he said with some urgency.
“Onto it!” Liz moved off, never one to waste a moment.
They all sat in Rowena’s garden room. A tense little group.
“Don’t tell me, I can guess.” David searched Sonya’s face. “You’ve had a message from Laszlo via an intermediary.”
She was enormously comforted by his presence, even if he was looking so formidable, such a tautness in his expression. “He treated me with respect,” she said in an effort to allay his fears.
“Then he can count himself lucky,” he clipped off. “My father has made a few phone calls. He knows of your cousin, Sonya. He’s an important industrialist.”
A lofty disdain came into her face. “Even important industrialists can be corrupt. Corruption is everywhere in high places. Massive fraud. Corporations with their meaner than mean streaks, robbing people, dismissing legitimate claims and getting away with it. It happens all the time.”
“Well, you can leave the Wainwrights out of that,” he said, leaning in closer to her.
“Hear! Hear!” Rowena piped up. “I’ve often wondered what it would be like to be a victim I saw so many sad things in the old days. This Laszlo would seem to be a very bad boy indeed.”
“He had my parents killed.” Sonya started to rock herself, her arms crossed defensively across her body. “His man offered me ten million dollars for the Madonna. Blood money.” Her voice broke.
“But S-Sonya!” Rowena was seriously taken aback.
Sonya met David’s eyes. “No big thing! I already have twenty, don’t I?”
He knew now to ignore the challenges she threw out. They were defence mechanisms. Her behaviour at different times was indicative of her perilous and erratic past life. “Indeed you have,” he said in a calming voice. “So what is your thinking on this, Sonya? You get the money in, but you keep the Madonna.”
“How did you guess?” She gave a little laugh. “Of course I keep the Madonna. It is mine! I give the money away to a just cause. Homeless young people, I think. You can help me there, David.”
He sat studying her, an intent look on his face. “Do you like putting yourself deliberately in danger?” he questioned. “You don’t seriously believe this Laszlo is going to let you get away with it?”
“He will just have to, won’t he?” She gave the characteristic lift of her chin.
“My dear!” Rowena was starting to panic. She had come more and more to realize what a very difficult, even dangerous life Sonya had led.
Sonya could see neither of them was happy with her plan. “The man who visited me practically admitted Laszlo was responsible for the death of my parents.” Tears stood in her eyes.
“How absolutely shocking!” Rowena was as astounded by Sonya’s story as David’s parents had been, although she had known from the beginning Sonya was a young woman of breeding.
“I always knew it,” Sonya told them painfully.
“But what is needed is hard evidence, proof, Sonya.” Vertical lines appeared between David’s black brows. “This man won’t speak to the police. The last thing he needs is to have his cover broken. And what about Laszlo? He’s a man who has long operated without ethical boundaries.”
“So you’re against me?”
He moved from his chair to where she was sitting on a two-seater sofa. He took her hand, keeping it within his own. “Listen, stay cool. You’ve had an upsetting experience. We’re all on your side, Sonya. But I’m not about to tell you you’ve done the right thing pretending you were prepared to strike a bargain. How can you trust this man anyway? He’s a hireling.”
“He had nothing to do with the death of my parents, David,” she cried. “He’s Hungarian. I knew he did not intend to hurt me.”
David was by no means certain of that. “But then he believed you, didn’t he?” he countered. “He thought you had seen sense. How did he say he was going to contact you?”
“He didn’t say. He’s been watching me all along.”
David’s expression heightened to trigger alert. “So it’s likely he knows you’re here with Rowena?”
Her beautiful face showed her dismay. She looked across at Rowena. “I am so sorry, Lady Palmerston. The last thing I want is to put anyone in danger. I’ll go home.”
“Of course you won’t!” David, deeply perturbed for her, spoke more crisply than he intended. It was obvious Sonya was in a highly emotional state. He couldn’t have her rushing off on her own. It was out of the question. On the other hand, he felt he could no longer leave her with Rowena. Rowena wasn’t a young woman. The safest possible place for Sonya was at his parent’s.
Sonya didn’t take kindly to that. He knew she wouldn’t. “No, thank you, David,” she said, with a positive shake of her head. “I can’t think your mother is as sympathetic towards me as you say. Besides, I have nothing to fear. This man will not hurt me. The Madonna will protect me.”
It seemed more than his life was worth to tell her not to count on it. “Okay, so I have the house watched 24/7.” That should be easy enough, using their security people.
“You think that’s necessary, David?” Rowena asked. “There’s an excellent security system in place here.”
Sonya turned her green eyes on Rowena. “You would feel a whole lot better if I were away from here, Lady Palmerston, wouldn’t you?”
“Nonsense, dear,” Rowena said firmly. “Our aim is to protect you.”
“Let’s slow down a minute.” David held up an authoritative hand. “Dad has spoken to the commissioner. We should leave it to the police to come up with a plan. That’s their job. That’s what they’re trained for.”
“I don’t need their help, David,” Sonya said, starting to get nervous at the talk of police intervention.
“You do,” he flatly contradicted, intensely concerned for her safety.
Her white skin flushed. “You’re angry with me?”
He exhaled a long breath. “I’m worried, Sonya, as I should be. This man must have given you quite a fright coming up behind you, for all you’re trying to hide it.”
“Worse things have happened to me,” she said. “It can be simple, David,” she appealed to him. “I wait to get the money. I give it away. It’s mine anyway and plenty more besides. I am the rightful heir. I will tell this man I will not lay claim to the Andrassy-Von Neumann estate. He can have it. Monster that he is, I know he will take care of it. He has a son. Probably grandchildren. Maybe they are not monsters?”
“We’ll soon know if they are,” David said wryly. “No one is ever going to hurt you while I’m around, Sonya. When the police come up with a plan I won’t be very far from your side.”
He stood up purposefully. He had many things to do. Sonya stood too. He put his arm around her. She closed her eyes, nestling against his shoulder.
“You’re my world, David,” she said, very softly.
He hugged her slender body to him, resting his chin on the top of her head.
They presented quite a tableau. Rowena, looking on, fell back against her armchair. Her face, so concerned, broke into a smile of pure delight.
My goodness me! So that’s how the land lies!
She couldn’t have been more pleased. Brave Sonya nursing a dangerous secret for far too long would come through all her pain and loss with Rowena’s splendid nephew beside her. In his own way, dear Marcus had begun the healing process. Only destiny had its own plan for Sonya and David. It had reached out and touched them with a magic wand.
Could there be anything more satisfying than a happy ending? Rowena thought. But first there was business to attend to …