Secret Fire by Johanna Lindsey Page B

will!”
    “You are objecting too much at this point, little one, considering in the end you enjoyed yourself. Let the matter go. To make a fuss now will avail you nothing. And Vladimir has been instructed to deal with you generously now.”
    “Money again?” she asked in a deceptively soft tone.
    “Of course. I pay for my pleasure—”
    “Oh, God!” she shrieked furiously. “How many times must I say it? I was not, am not, nor will I ever be for sale!”
    “You would refuse two thousand pounds?”
    If he thought the extent of his generosity would effect an immediate about-face in her, he was quickly disabused of that notion. “I not only refuse it, I would be happy to tell you what you can do with it.”
    “Please don’t,” he said distastefully.
    “Nor can you buy my silence, so don’t bother insulting me further.”
    “Silence?”
    “Good Lord, haven’t you been listening?”
    “To every word,” he assured her, smiling. “Now, can’t we dispense with this? Come, Katya.”
    She drew back, alarmed, when he reached for her. “Don’t! Please!”
    The beseeching note in her voice infuriated her, but she couldn’t help it. After last night she was terrified of her own reaction should he touch her. She had never met a man as handsome as he. There was something almost hypnotizing about his beauty. That he had wanted her, that he had made love to her all night, was astonishing. It took a concerted effort to concentrate, to protect herself with her well-founded anger, and not just simply stare at him.
    Instead of being annoyed by her response, Dimitri was rather pleased. He was too familiar with women being unable to resist him to mistake her present dilemma. He should press his advantage now, but he hesitated. As much as he still wanted her, she was too agitated at the moment and not likely to calm down any time soon.
    He dropped his hand with a sigh. “Very well, little one. I had hoped—never mind.” He sat up on his side of the bed, but glanced over his shoulder at her, his beguiling grin devastating. “You are sure?”
    Katherine groaned inwardly. She would have liked to pretend ignorance of what he was intimating, but she couldn’t. His look was explanatory in itself. Good Lord, how could he possibly still want to make love after the excesses of the night?
    “Quite sure,” Katherine answered, praying that now he would leave.
    He stood up, but not to leave yet. He walked over to the chair where her clothes lay, and came back to the foot of the bed, handing them to her.
    “You should accept the money, Katya, whether you want it or not.”
    She was staring distastefully at the black dress. He was staring at the petticoats, noting that she did have better taste, at least in underclothes.
    He added gently, “If I offended you by offering too much, it was only with the thought that you might like to improve your wardrobe. It was intended as a gift, no more.”
    Her eyes rose and rose until they met his. Why hadn’t she noted how incredibly tall he was last night?
    “I can’t accept gifts from you either.”
    “Why?”
    “Because I can’t, that’s all.”
    He was finally annoyed. She was impossible! Who was she to refuse his generosity?
    “You will accept, miss, and I will hear no more about it,” he stated imperiously. “Now I will send a maid to assist you, and then Vladimir will take you—”
    “Don’t you dare send that brute in here again,” she cut him off sharply. “You see, you haven’t listened to me at all. I told you I’m having Kirov arrested.”
    “I regret that I cannot appease your wounded sensibilities by allowing that, my dear. I won’t leave my man behind.”
    “You will have no choice, just as I had no choice.” How it delighted her to be able to say that .
    His smile was condescending. “You forget we sail today.”
    “Your ship can be detained,” she retorted.
    His lips tightened ominously. “So can you be, until it is too late for you to cause any