Inside the first box was a smartphone that looked like it’d been transported back from the future. I’d be able to call Jess with my proof of life a week early—and eventually my mom as well. Though what I would tell her about all this, I didn’t yet know.

The other boxes—from stores like Cartier, Harry Winston, Mikimoto, and Buccellati—were all filled with dazzling jewelry: a triple-strand pearl choker, sapphire earrings, an emerald drop fringe necklace with a matching bracelet. That bracelet was so heavy and substantial, I could deflect bullets with it, à la Wonder Woman.

Turning to Sevastyan, I joked, “There must be a million dollars’ worth of jewelry here.”

When he held up his palms in a what’re-you-gonna-do? gesture, I cried, “Oh, my God. There is!” I inhaled a shaky breath. This situation was too wild—and overwhelming. I now lived in a palace. I truly was not going back to school tomorrow; instead I’d be playing chess with my billionaire father.

This was my “new life” for the “foreseeable future.”

I crossed to a set of balcony doors, opening them for fresh air. I drank in the sight as a mist began to fall over manicured gardens and landscaping lights came to life all across the property.

When Sevastyan joined me at the balcony rail, that feeling of connection swept me up again. But he was all coolness toward me.

“What’s that building?” I asked him, indicating a two-story manor catty-corner to this wing. As with the lake folly, its colors and architecture complemented this palace. There was a sleek black Mercedes in the drive, much like the one he’d rented in Lincoln.

“My home,” he said shortly.

“You live on the property?”

“Da. Though I have an apartment in Moscow,” he said in a pointed tone, no doubt referring to my comment about searching his place—and doing other things. Such as watching him masturbate.

I swallowed, peering up at him, filled with questions about the man. What was he thinking at this moment? How’d he get that sexy scar down his lips? Who’d broken his nose?

Had anyone ever kissed that slightly askew bridge for him? “You must have missed this place while slumming in Lincoln.”

Shrug. “I return downstairs now.”

I followed him back inside. “What do you need to talk to Paxán about so urgently?”

Over his shoulder, he said, “I do have private concerns with him, Natalie.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You’re going to tell him about us, aren’t you?”

He swung his head around at me. “There is no us,” he said with such vehemence that I almost flinched.

“You know what I mean.”

“I’m going to admit that I behaved inappropriately with you. I owe him that.”

I had a great feeling about Kovalev, but the truth was that I didn’t know him well. What type of punishment would an infraction like this bring? “How mad will he be?” I couldn’t picture Kovalev losing his cool, but then I also couldn’t picture him blackmailing politicians.

“At you? Not at all. As for me, he can’t be more angry than I am at myself.”

Sevastyan was starting to piss me off. I strode up to him. “Look, I just got here, and everything is wonderful with Paxán. Why rock the boat when you and I barely did anything? I held off on despoiling you. You were relatively safe from my clutches.”

Stony gaze.

“Please, I’m asking you not to make a big deal out of something so trivial.”

“Trivial?” He closed the slight distance between us until we stood toe-to-toe. “Maybe for two experienced adults. But you’re hardly experienced, are you?” His breaths quickened along with mine. Tension sparked the air around us. Oh, God, his intoxicating scent hit me just as I recalled his fierce virgin-or-not promise and his admission: What was supposed to sate my appetite has only whetted it.

Chin raised, I bowed up to him until a sheet of paper wouldn’t have fit between us. “Just because I haven’t had sex doesn’t mean I was a nun.”

He cocked his head to the side, gaze flicking over my face, like he was trying to read me and coming up empty. I knew the feeling.

“And if my virginity is such a sticking point with you,” I said, “that’s an easy fix.”

His fists clenched. “You mean with another man?”

That show of jealousy thrilled me, so I reminded him, “You could have done it.” When I’d been wet and ready for him. Curiosity about how he would relieve me of my virginity seized me; I could only imagine what kinds of tricks this man had in his bag. A long exhalation escaped my lips, and I found myself saying, “You still could.”

He took a step back, as if what I had might be catching. “Perhaps I want to tell Paxán so it doesn’t happen again.”

“You’re that certain you don’t want it to?”

“Yes,” he said, but he’d started twirling that thumb ring. Maybe that tell also indicated when he was lying?

“Was I just a job to you, Sevastyan?”

He gazed to the right of me as he answered, “That’s all you can be.”

“Do you wish you’d never been sent to America for me?”

He faced me fully. “Every second of the day,” he said, no longer touching his ring.

Chapter 14

Buzzzzzzzz.

My suite had a doorbell? As I hastened to the doors, which were a haul from my bedroom, I wondered if Sevastyan had come to get me. Though I’d been hurt at first by his parting words, I’d assured myself that he was trying to be a good enforcer, walking away from the taboo woman.