Carol Marinelli - Return Of The Untamed Billionaire

He had packed everything he had into a small backpack and left without even a goodbye.

‘You could have come and given it to me.’

‘No,’ Roman said. ‘Because we would have ended up making love. It had to be that way.’

She couldn’t dispute that they would have ended up making love, neither could she forgive his choice to leave, but that he had kept her earring for all these years meant so much.

Anya wanted to open the small box and put the earring with its partner but she decided to do that once he had gone. She did not want Roman to know just how much she had missed him, so she placed it back down and stood and turned to face him. She was tiny compared to his large frame. Her breathing was too shallow but face him she would, even if it nearly killed her to do so and to see all she had lost.

He looked immaculate.

His glossy black hair was superbly cut, he was beautifully clean shaven and scented with expensive cologne. His suit was exquisite, so much so that she reached up and touched the lapel. His chest was a toned wall of muscle beneath her fingers and she could feel tears pooling in her eyes as she saw a different Roman from the impoverished youth she had known.

His hand came and took hers, at first to remove it, because contact was too much, but then it closed over hers.

Now she lifted her eyes to his and they stared and the years that had parted them seemed to drift away.

No one could move her like Roman and it was the same for him.

‘Where have you been?’ she asked.

He did not answer when there was so much she needed to know; she could almost feel his reluctance to tell her.

‘It doesn’t matter.’

‘It does to me.’

‘I cannot stay long.’ Roman shook his head yet still he held her hand.

‘You could at least take me to dinner—we can talk properly. There is so much to catch up on.’

‘Don’t you have an after party to go to?’ Roman checked. From the shadows he had watched her accept the duchess’s congratulations and had heard the chatter.

Still they held hands, but now their fingers were entwining and their palms were exerting beats of pressure as the flame that had never died started to burn brightly again.

‘I can miss it.’

‘No.’ He shook his head. ‘We didn’t do too well at dinner last time, remember?’

A laugh caught in her throat as she remembered the one time they had been in a restaurant together. Roman, trying to make his way as a boxer, had taken her out for a Valentine’s Day dinner, using his winnings from a fight.

Valentine’s Day had still been relatively new in Russia but Anya had wanted to celebrate it.

She had wanted flowers and, of course, chocolate.

Roman had taken her to a restaurant, though.

The first restaurant they had been turned away from as Roman had not had a jacket and tie, and in the other restaurant it had been just as much hell on the inside.

A menu had been handed to him, when he had never known such a thing even existed.

There had been a wine menu too.

He had wanted to give her everything, except he’d had nothing to give.

Nothing.

But he had taken care of her aching body after rehearsals and soothed her panic as she’d prepared for an important audition.

They had lain in his room and talked, they had glimpsed a future, even if Katya had said it would be an impossible one.

And then, without warning, he had gone.

‘You left me...’ She said it with the pain she had felt then and his hand was warm over hers as she jabbed at his chest.

‘Anya, I had to. You would not be where you are today had I stayed’

‘You don’t know that.’

‘But it’s true,’ Roman said. ‘You wanted to get to Saint Petersburg and you did.’

‘You could have come too. We could have got a flat—’

‘It would never have worked, Anya. I could not afford a flat for us and neither could I sit back and say nothing about...’

He did not finish, both knew what he referred to.

Oh, their night at the restaurant had been such a disaster.

They had left and gone back to the small bedsit he’d had and it had been the blackest of Valentine’s Days. Roman had lain there, knowing that he had embarrassed her with his unpolished ways.

No.

Anya had stared at the ceiling, wondering how she might excuse that three-course meal. There had been steak and hren, a horseradish relish that she adored, as well as wine. A large meal, though, was the very last thing she’d needed before such an important audition. She’d known he had spent everything that he’d had. Roman had thought good food would help her tomorrow. Yet it had sat on her stomach like lead and she’d known it would weigh her down.

Once she’d been sure he’d been asleep she had crept to the tiny bathroom and knelt down and done what she’d had to do to make the next day work.

Her shame when the lights had gone on she felt again now.

The row that had followed had been as passionate as they.

‘What the hell are you doing to yourself?’ Roman had shouted.

‘You don’t understand how tough the competition is.’

‘Nothing is worth that! Anya, your mother is wrong to tell you...’

He never got to finish.

Embarrassed at being caught, still trying to save the situation, Anya had jumped to Katya’s defence. ‘She does what is best for me. Roman, you don’t understand families.’

She’d regretted her choice of words so badly because Roman’s eyes had shuttered.

It was the last conversation they’d had.

No, Anya thought, perhaps he could not have sat back idly as she’d done what she’d had to in order to get where she was. She had never made herself vomit since that time. Instead she controlled her portions and worked hard on her body, but few understood the discipline required.

‘Where have you been?’ Anya asked.

‘France,’ he said. ‘Corsica...’

‘So you did join the Foreign Legion?’ She just stared at his huge hand over hers and tried to hold tears back.

‘Yes.’

Anya knew about the French Foreign Legion because during their precious time together Roman had hinted that it was an option, and so when he had left she had looked into it. Legionnaires were given a new identity, passport and birth certificate.

Their pasts were wiped clean.

And it meant that the soldier you loved so much might die but you would never know.

‘Rather than be with me?’

‘I needed it, Anya. I needed a new start.’

‘So what is your new name?’

Again he didn’t answer her and Anya knew he would not be allowed to reveal his new identity. He should not even be here as visiting the past was strictly forbidden.

‘Roman.’ Anya answered her own question, for he would always be Roman to her. Yes, maybe the details had changed but he was still Roman to her heart. The feelings she’d had for him had never left, now though they heightened.

‘Are you still in the legion?’

‘No.’

‘How long were you there?’

‘Ten years.’

Which would have brought him to twenty-eight, and, given he was almost thirty-two, it meant that there were four years missing.

‘So, why are you here now?’

Because, despite so many promises to himself, he’d been unable to stay away.

‘I had to see for myself that you are okay.’

‘Then you’ll leave?’

‘Yes.’

He had to.

He did not want to complicate her life.

Always he had.

And he had read that she was dating Mika. He had always assumed male dancers were just pretty boys in tights.

His opinion had changed tonight.

‘Anya, I just came to see that you were doing well and it is clear that you are.’

‘Then go.’