Bought: For His Convenience or Pleasure?

CHAPTER SIX

‘IF I DO agree to the marriage…what are the terms?’ Quietly and with dignity, Ellie fearlessly met Nikolai’s frosty gaze.

Inwardly he sensed something settle, and realised he had all but been holding his breath, waiting for her answer. Moving back across the room, he resumed his position in front of the fireplace.

‘The main one would be that you agree to remain my wife until Arina is grown—shall we say twenty-one? After that we can divorce. You may leave my household, but you will remain her mother…agreed?’

‘I would hardly want to bring that relationship to an end!’ Ellie frowned and took what looked to be a reluctant sip of her cognac. ‘What about my work and my commitments to people?’

‘You may still pursue your career, with all that that entails—including your commitments to those people who have come to rely on you. I suppose you are mainly referring to your father? But Arina’s needs must always come first. For instance, if she is ill I would expect you to stay and look after her, not the au pair or my housekeeper. The nature of my own work will also entail you accompanying me and Arina on essential trips abroad from time to time. I have become accustomed over the years to taking her with me whenever I go away—especially if it is a long trip—and she too has come to expect that. As she gets older I will hire a private tutor to school her whenever we are out of the country, so she will not miss out on her education.’

‘Your expectations as far as me being a mother to Arina are not unreasonable, Nikolai, but I would expect some degree of flexibility from you as regards my work. For instance, when someone is having ongoing counselling it could be extremely disruptive for me to go away indefinitely…not to mention distressing to my client.’

‘Then when the situation arises we will negotiate for the best interests of all concerned. I am not an ogre, Ellie…even though you may think me hard-hearted and unforgiving. I can be reasonable too.’

He allowed himself the smallest of conciliatory smiles, but Ellie did not look particularly convinced by it. Would she resent him for good, given that he was more or less forcing her into this marriage? This time Nikolai did harden his heart. He was only demanding what was owed to him and Arina, he reminded himself. Once he saw that Ellie was as good as her word in being the kind of mother to their daughter he expected then bit by bit she would come to see that there were definitely certain benefits to being married to a man of his considerable wealth and position. Benefits that would surely more than make up for what she might regard as her perceived lack of freedom?

‘There is one more thing I have to ask.’ Placing her glass on the nearby walnut side table, Ellie rose to her feet.

Where her cheeks had appeared pale before, there was now evidence of a definite rose coloured tint in them. But beneath her lovely eyes were also visible signs of strain and tiredness. Remembering she had said that she’d struggled beneath the hot studio lights all day, Nikolai frowned.

‘Go on,’ he said, folding his arms across his chest.

‘There’s no delicate way to put this, so I’ll just have to come right out and say it.’

The rose-pink in her cheeks deepened almost to scarlet, and Nikolai felt a tug of intrigue and…yes…a quiet excitement deep in his belly. He had already easily guessed the nature of her tentatively voiced question, because the subject had inevitably been on his mind too.

‘Are you expecting us to be intimate once we are married?’

‘I have the same needs as any other red-blooded male, Ellie,’ he heard himself answer nonchalantly. ‘And as a woman no doubt you must share similar needs. So my reply to your question is yes…I think being intimate will be a natural consequence of us living together, and may even make the marriage better than we could have hoped for!’

Her emerald-eyed glance should have spoken volumes as to her feelings, but right then Nikolai was so captivated by their beauty and luminosity he lost the capacity to think about what else was going on. But inside he did sense a thrill of anticipation at the idea of making love to her. Something he had long craved since that explosive kiss they had shared all those years ago…

‘I would also like you to move in before we are married,’ he announced, still gazing directly into her eyes. ‘It will give us both a chance to adjust to the new situation, as well as getting Arina used to the idea that we will soon be wed.’

‘What about my flat? I can’t just leave it and not go back!’ Ellie focused determinedly on the less sensitive of his proposals.

‘Do you own it?’

Ellie flushed. ‘I have a mortgage—like most people.’

‘Then I would suggest you either make arrangements for someone to rent it or else put it on the market to sell. Let me know what you decide and I will take care of it for you if you like.’

He saw her swallow and look away.

‘It seems like you’ve thought of everything!’

‘I am accustomed to sorting things out. It is not a problem. Do you agree to my terms regarding the marriage?’

‘I want to see Arina regularly and be a part of her life again, and after all this time apart from her I don’t want to jeopardise that…So, yes…I agree to the terms, Nikolai.’ She agreed even as the thought of their proposed intimacy danced around in her head. ‘It all feels a bit unreal to me at the moment, but I expect I will eventually get used to what’s happening. Now that we’ve discussed things…I’d really like to just go home and be by myself for a while. It’s been quite a day, one way and another.’

Relieved beyond measure by her reply, Nikolai sighed and briefly moved his head in agreement to her request.

Shortly afterwards, having assured Ellie that he would be in contact again the following day, he allowed her to leave and his chauffeur took her home.

Nursing what remained of his cognac, Nikolai went to sit on the sofa in the same spot that she had occupied only minutes before. Shutting his eyes, he knew every sense he possessed was alert to not just the summery perfume that lingered there, but also to the disturbingly feminine essence Ellie had left behind her. Ellie…Mrs Elizabeth Golitsyn.

Smiling with possessive satisfaction, Nikolai opened his eyes again. He had taken the first vital step in achieving what he now knew he desired above all else—a convenient union between them, with his daughter’s happiness and security paramount. He told himself he should be more than pleased. However, he had not been immune to the doubt and reluctance in the beautiful emerald eyes that had pierced him after Ellie had agreed to the marriage and his terms, and it had been a harsh pill to swallow. She had cared for his brother, not him! he savagely reminded himself—plus, he was blackmailing her into a marriage she did not want. Why should she be remotely pleased?

Both thoughts cut into him like Damascus steel, and he swallowed down the rest of his drink with little pleasure, grimacing at the fire that erupted inside his stomach. As long as Ellie kept her word and made Arina her priority then Nikolai told himself he could bear her disturbing presence. Indeed, this marriage of theirs would have compensations as well as convenience. Ellie was now perfectly aware that he expected her to share his bed, and had not even put up an argument.

Telling himself that she was at least being honest about that aspect of her nature, and would not want to contemplate a union with a man without sex, Nikolai pushed to his feet and depressed the switch that put out all the lamps as he left the drawing room. Turning his mind to the practicalities of the situation, he vowed to speak to Miriam first thing in the morning about preparing for the newest member of their household.

The Saturday at the end of the month was the date they had agreed that Ellie would move into the Park Lane house, and if by then she had not found someone to rent or buy her own property then Nikolai would step in and find a suitable agency to do so for her. And just as soon as a civil marriage could be arranged between them at the local register office their union would be sanctioned officially. Life would continue on more or less as normal…the only difference being that now he would have a wife and Arina a mother…

Ellie put her arm round the thin, hunched figure seated on the threadbare couch beside her. ‘Jay?’ she said gently, aware that the boy was crying and didn’t want her to see. ‘Tell me what happened.’

Scrubbing at his tears with his tobacco-stained nail-bitten fingers, he turned his resentful and hurt gaze towards her. ‘I saw her…I saw me mum with her new bloke in the high street. She acted like she didn’t even know who I was! I was staring at her and she looked right through me!’

‘What did you say to her?’

‘Nothin’!’ His expression was savage. ‘What was the point? She’d probably just ignore me anyway! You could see she was more interested in the loser by her side! All loved up, she was, and happy…happy that she wasn’t with me!’

‘Do you know where she’s staying?’

‘No—and I don’t want to either!’

‘It must have been hard for you…’

Absently stroking the boy’s straight dark hair, Ellie soothed him as though he were a child. It didn’t matter what the textbooks or the rules said—in her opinion when someone was hurting they needed the warmth and reassurance of human contact and Jay had been fending for himself since he was a small boy. His alcohol-addicted mother had inflicted a series of woefully inadequate and violent men on her son in her desperate search for a relationship.

‘Seeing her again must have opened up old wounds. But you’re getting your life together without her, Jay,’ she reminded him. ‘Next Saturday you’re moving out of the shelter into a room of your own, and on Monday you’re starting your apprenticeship at the timber merchants. Things are moving on for you too. Soon you’ll be earning your first real wage packet, and life is just going to get better and better!’

The teenager sniffed and looked her straight in the eyes. ‘It’ll be great moving out of here! Not that it ain’t any good, but it ain’t exactly a palace is it?’

His dark gaze wryly swept the uncurtained barely furnished room, with its tatty cushions on the floor, the single couch, and the fireplace with its inadequate electric bar heater. It tenderly moved Ellie that a lad who had never had much more than this scruffy room in the whole of his life should nurture aspirations for something better.

‘It’ll be so cool, having me own place! You’ve been a real friend to me, miss…I couldn’t have got through the last six months without you. The things you said…always so positive and upbeat…well, it gave me something to hang onto.’

Slowly moving her hand from his hair onto her lap, Ellie smiled. It touched her more than she could say to have someone like Jay affirm that she’d been a help to him, and she was reminded yet again why she kept on doing her work at the shelter even when she had a counselling practice of her own to run.

‘It was my pleasure. I know it’s been tough for you, but just try and take one day at a time, hmm? Use some of the relaxation skills I taught you when life gets overwhelming, and remember that you can always stay in touch if you need someone to talk to. Everyone here is rooting for you too…don’t forget that.’

‘I won’t, miss…and thanks again.’

It wasn’t only Jay who was moving to a new abode on Saturday. The two weeks had flown by since she and Nikolai had made their agreement. One of her colleagues at the centre had agreed to rent her flat indefinitely, and the realisation that it was now payback time swept dis turbingly through Ellie again and again—at work, and mercilessly in the evenings, when she was back home.

Carrying her mug of instant coffee from the kitchen into the living room that particular night, it hit her even more forcefully just what she had agreed to with Nikolai. She was doing it for Arina, she told herself, blanking out the flickering images on the muted television screen in front of her in order to think. And for her father… There was no way she would run the risk of him going to prison again, should she decline the marriage and Nikolai bring a private case against them—even if his suspicions that she had stolen from him were completely unfounded.

On the phone to her earlier from Edinburgh, her dad had told her how bad things were getting with his health and Ellie’s stomach had churned with anxiety and sorrow. Nikolai Golitsyn might do anything and everything he could to ensure his daughter’s happiness, but he was also possessed of a mercenary streak that she would no doubt become all too aware of should Ellie disappoint him in his ambition to make her his wife. There was simply no talking him out of this idea of his.

Every day on the phone when he rang her at work, he reminded her of that. His mind was made up. And never far from Ellie’s thoughts about the new life she had in store was the heart-racing notion of sleeping with Nikolai. She hadn’t put up a fight about that because part of her hoped that if there was intimacy between them there might eventually be trust, and…and something more perhaps. Ellie wouldn’t even say the word in private to herself, it seemed so impossible. The fact was—blackmailer or not—he was the man she had always secretly desired. But from Hackney to Park Lane! It was a surreal prospect.

Leaving her coffee on a small side table, she dropped down onto the comfy striped couch and shook her head in apprehension and wonder. Ellie wondered what her colleagues and the volunteers at the shelter would make of the dramatic improvement in the location where she lived. And there would be the stress and inconvenience of her longer journey to work everyday. It was hard to feel excitement or pleasure in the upcoming move—apart from the joy of being with Arina at last. How could she anticipate it with any sense of contentment or satisfaction when underlying it all was the genuinely gut-wrenching prospect of living in the one place from her past that had caused her more sorrow and regret than any part of her emotionally impoverished upbringing as a child?

‘Is that all of your bags, Dr Lyons?’ Nikolai’s housekeeper met Ellie at the front door and invited her into the hall.

‘My other stuff is arriving later…Nikolai—I mean Mr Golitsyn has arranged it for me.’

‘Well, then, I will take you upstairs and show you to your room!’

‘By the way…where is Mr Golitsyn? Isn’t he here?’

‘No, Dr Lyons. He has taken the little one to her ballet lesson. He said to tell you that he will join you later and to please make yourself at home.’

‘I see.’

An unexpected reprieve then…

Ellie breathed an inward sigh of relief when the housekeeper led her away from the room she had occupied five years ago. That had been beautifully appointed and decorated, but being there she knew she would have been catapulted all too swiftly into the past again, and would have felt herself at a disadvantage somehow, when she needed to garner all the positives she could muster. Determination was strengthening inside her that, for however long this strange arrangement with Nikolai lasted, she would make a decent go of it…for Arina’s sake if nothing else. And, yes, she would let him see that she was a very different woman today from the inexperienced and perhaps naïve girl she’d been when she had worked for him before. He might have blackmailed her into this unwanted partnership by using Arina as a bargaining tool, but he wouldn’t have everything his own way! Not by a long chalk!

Following the plump housekeeper down a corridor on the topmost floor, Ellie felt her heartbeat accelerate as another troubling thought speared her. What if she was being led to Nikolai’s bedroom? She’d agreed that they would be intimate once they were married, but she’d hoped he wouldn’t take that to mean as soon as she moved in. She needed time to adjust.

But, no…This exquisitely light and airy, room with its scented air, elegant armoire, and a double bed with a rich Venetian purple silk bedspread was, Miriam announced with a smile, ‘one of my favourite guest rooms.’ It even had a lovely balcony that looked out onto the garden.

Alone again, with Miriam’s cheerful promise of a cup of tea and a slice of home-made fruitcake when she returned downstairs ringing enticingly in her ears, Ellie left her bags where they were and went and sat down on the bed. Smoothing her hand over the sumptuous silk counterpane with a softly weary sigh, she felt as though extreme fatigue—both emotional and physical—had finally caught up with her. She’d worked at the shelter nearly every night this week, after working all day at the practice, and it was no wonder her body was practically screaming at her to rest!

If Nikolai and Arina were going to be a while, would it matter if she stole ten minutes or so and had a nap? Unable to resist doing just that, Ellie kicked off the narrow-heeled pumps that had been pinching her toes all morning, and scooted up the bed to rest her head against the luxurious pillows. With another grateful sigh that seemed to arise from the very depths of her soul, she shut her eyes—and in less than a minute had drifted off into a deep, deep slumber…

‘Ellie?’ Nikolai knocked on the door for a second time. Miriam had assured him that Dr Lyons had not come down from her room since she had shown her there, and that had been over an hour ago. Leaving a hungry and happy Arina eating fruitcake in the kitchen with the older woman, Nikolai had come upstairs to see for himself what was keeping Ellie.

He had not set eyes on her for over two weeks now, and he could not deny that a quiet but fierce excitement was building inside him to redress that. When he received no response from her yet again, he turned the doorknob and stepped inside. A shaft of buttery golden sunlight streamed through the old-fashioned window, casting a dappled effect on the carpet that showed the shadow of trembling leaves from the oak tree in the garden. But it wasn’t that captivating sight that drew Nikolai’s attention.

Ellie was lying on the bed, fast asleep. The quietly hypnotic rhythm of her breathing was the only sound in the room. He moved nearer to the bed, all his muscles helplessly contracting at the vision of her lovely face, golden hair, and her sweetly curvaceous body clothed in black jeans and a lilac coloured sweater. He found himself smiling at the sight of her small slender feet with their rose-pink-painted toenails curled into the silk counterpane, and suddenly he was in no great hurry to return to the kitchen.

If Nikolai didn’t confess at least to himself that he had feared Ellie might find some way of not keeping the bargain they had made he would be a liar. And now that he had the very real and captivating evidence of her presence before him something inside him knew a great longing to keep her to himself for as long as possible before resuming the rest of his day.

Stirring a little in her sleep, Ellie had a sudden furrow between her smooth arched brows. ‘Sasha—no!’

The heartfelt whimper left her lips and Nikolai’s muscles clenched again, this time in shock and dismay and…yes…slow-burning rage too. There he stood, admiring her beauty like the most gullible fool on the planet, relieved that she had not reneged on their agreement and grasping at the slimmest hope that things might turn out for the best after all—and Ellie betrayed him yet again…Betrayed him with a dream of his brother Sasha!

Disturbed by the images that flitted across the inner landscape of her mind, Ellie opened her stunning emerald eyes and stared at Nikolai in shock, instantly alert. ‘What’s wrong? What are you doing here?’ She pushed herself up into a sitting position, her not quite steady hand smoothing back the lock of bright hair that had flopped onto her forehead.

‘Nothing is wrong. I merely came up to see where you were. Miriam said she brought you up here over an hour ago.’

‘I fell asleep.’

‘Obviously…’

Crossing his arms over his chest, Nikolai speared her with an accusing and blaming glance. ‘You were dreaming about Sasha.’

‘Was I?’

‘You called out his name.’

‘Did I? I don’t remember.’ Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, Ellie let her bare feet touch the floor. Swaying slightly, she stood, momentarily losing her balance.

Nikolai automatically moved forward to help steady her, his hands settling on either side of her rounded hips. He let them stay there as his furious gaze duelled with hers. He was entrapped by the enticing warmth that flowed into his palms and suddenly—shockingly—he craved a far more intimate contact…

‘You seem to have an ongoing problem with your memory, Ellie. Can you blame me if I am beginning to believe it is a selective loss?’

‘Believe what you like!’ Resentfully, she freed herself and moved as far away from him as she could. ‘The only reason I’m here is because of Arina and my father. I guess I’ll just have to learn to live with your less than flattering opinions of me!’

Nikolai shrugged, suddenly lazily amused by her show of spirit and—despite his anger over her dream—still aroused too. ‘So be it. How do you like your room, by the way?’

He saw her indignation deflate. The slender shoulders in the lilac sweater lifted in a shrug. ‘It’s very nice. Pretty. I like the view over the garden.’

‘Good. Once we are married you will move into my room. It too has a nice view over the garden.’

Smiling enigmatically, Nikolai had the satisfaction of seeing Ellie’s expressive eyes widen. If Sasha had enjoyed the comfort and pleasure of her seductive body then why shouldn’t he? There was no reason for Nikolai to feel any guilt whatsoever. After all, in a very short time she would legitimately be his wife.

‘You still look a little tired. What have you been doing, Ellie? Burning the candle at both ends? Partying, perhaps, with the new celebrity friends you have made at the television studios?’

‘You’re determined only to think the very worst of me, aren’t you?’ She shook her head a little forlornly.

‘I see what appears to be right in front of my eyes!’

‘Then that’s your first mistake! Do you make all your judgements with so little hard evidence to back them up?’

Feeling strangely chastised, Nikolai impatiently brushed off Ellie’s unsettling remark and moved towards the door. ‘It’s time we went downstairs. Miriam has made some tea for us, and Arina is waiting to see you also.’

‘Talking of Arina—what have you told her about me? I mean…why I’m staying here?’

‘I explained to her a little while ago that you were her mother’s sister—her aunt. I told her that when we recently met up again I was thinking about how you used to take care of her as a baby and how close you were to her. Nearly every other day she asks me…“When will I have a mother?” So I told her that I had decided you were the perfect person for the job, and that when I asked you, you said you would happily accept.’

‘Children always sense a lie.’

Refusing to let her comment rattle him, Nikolai lifted his broad shoulders in their trademark shrug—a gesture he often employed to disguise his true feelings. In business particularly it didn’t pay to let the opposition know what you were thinking. ‘I will do whatever I have to do to make her happy! I already told you that. If you try and tell her anything different about why you are here, then I will see to it that you regret it to the end of your days!’

‘Any more threats?’ Ellie raised her chin defiantly.

Unable to stop the smile that tugged at the edges of his mouth, Nikolai shook his head. ‘For now, Ellie…I am all out of threats. What I would like to happen is for you to come downstairs and drink tea with my daughter and me! Not too difficult a task even for you…do you agree?’

‘And what about your friends? What will you tell them about me?’ she persisted.

‘I will tell them the truth. That you are Arina’s aunt and my fiancée…and that we are soon to be married.’ Without giving her a chance to comment, Nikolai abruptly left the room—not even glancing over his shoulder to see if she would join him…

The items Ellie had left behind her in the flat—the things she couldn’t do without, like her wardrobe of clothes, her compact music system, CD collection and two bookcases of books—arrived soon after she’d finished drinking tea with Nikolai, sampling Miriam’s knockout fruitcake and playing for a while with an excited Arina.

The little girl had kept giving Ellie long, assessing happy glances when she’d thought she wasn’t looking, and that had made her heart squeeze. The child was very easy to love. That much was starkly and worryingly evident. And Ellie knew that the more she allowed herself to build up a relationship with Nikolai’s enchanting daughter—her niece—the harder it would be when this pretend union of theirs failed—as fail it inevitably would. And yet again Arina would be the sad casualty of that failure in a tragic story that seemed impossible to resolve.