The Marriage Ultimatum (City of Dreams Series) (21 page)

She hung onto the fact that he said they would live together. She also counted on the fact that the sexual chemistry between them never seemed to wane.

And there were so many moments, whole days and nights even, to cherish. Vlad had been a perfect guide, touring with her and Alex through the hidden spaces on the Amalfi Coast, taking them in the dinghy to a gorgeous, unknown cove for a picnic, or some fantastic lunch in a tiny trattoria on a side street of Positano.

Sometimes, when Alex went to sleep for the night, they traveled by dinghy to Ravello or Sorrento to hillside bistros or boutique hotels for dinner, places only Vlad knew of or could get into.

After the blissful nights they shared, it was always disconcerting to awaken in an empty bed every morning, as she had back in the penthouse. But the single time Sabrina had protested it, Vlad said that when they were in bed together he never wanted to sleep, and Sabrina thought with a stab of heat deep in her core, true enough. And then she recalled the nightmare he had back in Long Island during the storm and wondered if they plagued him often and if those nightmares had anything to do with his decision to sleep apart from her. Even as she told herself she should understand, she knew the reality was it hurt that after the closeness they shared, he never chose to wake up with her in the same bed.

Sabrina was picking up some Italian, which seemed to amuse the captain and crew. Vlad stayed by her side during every interaction, and when she waved away his help in translation, he still stood mutely at her side, arms folded across his broad chest as she and Alex made a game of communicating with the crew.

Alex was absorbing the Italian language like a sponge, and so Vlad began sharing small words of Russian with him, mostly the words associated with water and swimming as Alex’s ability developed by leaps and bounds.

The only thing that kept her mind from complete ease, aside from the fact that this idyll would end all too soon, was the nagging resolution that Vlad had the right to know the truth about Alex’s parentage.

As she was now in possession of the truth and had been for some days, her lack of courage shamed her. She wanted to tell Pieter to go to hell and confess everything to Vlad. Surely, their relationship, the sexual intimacy they shared, counted for something. But she was so afraid. She could lose Vlad and Alex both. How could she risk it?

Alex had blossomed from a shy toddler into a robust, articulate boy, and she had only Vlad to thank for that. Vlad patiently took the time to draw the little boy out, had shown interest and warmth to him when Alex never had a caring male figure in his life. Alex was getting super-attached to Vlad, Sabrina knew, and she chewed her lip thinking about the backward dive Alex might take if, when she revealed the truth, or Pieter chose to do it for her, Vlad excised them completely from his life.

What would Sabrina say to her little brother then, how would she compensate him for the loss of someone as vital as Vlad in his young life?

Moreover, there was no denying the fact of what a loss it would be to her. To know that if she revealed the truth to him, Vlad would likely push her out of his life without a second’s thought.

Vlad said he would give Alex the protection of his name, and by now, Sabrina had decided they very much wanted that. Even the illusion of being a family was better than nothing. Yet if he did adopt Alex, then Vlad would have a superior claim to her brother and where would Sabrina be then? With all of the information about her in front of him, Vlad could claim the little boy he adopted as his own and see to it that she would never see her little brother again.

It was always at this point in her guilty musings that Sabrina had to stop. She could no more imagine Alex being out of her life than she could imagine herself ceasing to breathe. In fact, she couldn’t imagine her life without Vlad in it either.

So what was she to do?
Nothing,
the cowardly little voice inside her insisted.
Stay in the moment,
the same little voice urged.

She rose from the lounger and was reaching down for her book when a sudden dizziness hit, and she grasped blindly for something to steady her shaking legs. All at once, Captain Ferrara was there, gripping her hand in a no-nonsense fashion and settling her back down to sit in the lounger.

“Wow, thank you. Way too much sun, I guess,” Sabrina apologized, although she had been under the shade of the umbrella with her hat on. Vlad had warned her of the dangers of too much Mediterranean sun and she had taken heed. He had declared the sprinkling of freckles on her nose cute but encouraged a high factor of sunscreen for her milk white skin and even made a point of applying it for her on the hard to reach spots.

As usual, any casual touching between them rapidly escalated into a sexual game. Just yesterday, Vlad had entered the stateroom as she was changing into her bikini and offered, with an unholy gleam in his eye, to help her apply the sunscreen. Unable to resist, she had agreed, and soon that led to a more private game as Vlad spread the lotion onto her bare body. The feel of his large hands all over her skin was her undoing as Vlad, taunting her with his skillful hands, massaged the sunscreen all over her skin, and then proceeded to stroke, kiss and lick only those areas without any sunscreen—her lips, her nipples and then, inevitably, down to the soft folds between her legs. She had been gasping and quivering in his hands as he tormented her and then when she could stand not a moment more, he’d satisfied her.

Sabrina shivered, her breasts plumping as she relived that moment. No sooner did he touch her than she was ready for him, and he knew it. She lived in a perpetual state of readiness around Vlad—he just had to look at her in a particular way for her to respond with quivering knees that were ready to part for him alone. She was shocked at herself. She wondered how she had ever thought herself immune to the opposite sex. But it was true. Before Vlad, she had been an innocent, distracted by the demands of day-to-day survival. Now, he had turned her into his own personal sex doll. She only responded to him.

But if she were accurate, Sabrina knew that went both ways. She had learned to be as demanding as Vlad, and he responded to the new sexually confident Sabrina very well indeed.

She reached for her iced tea. Just thinking about Vlad and what they did together brought a flush to her skin and a bead of sweat to her upper lip. She took a long swallow of her iced tea.

“I didn’t intend to stay out this long in the midday sun.”

“
Signora Grigory, per favore
, take care. Often a woman in your condition is prone to lightheadedness. I don’t want to see you fall. Perhaps if you rise more slowly…” he advised.

“My condition?” Sabrina raised puzzled eyes to his.

“
Mi dispiace
, forgive me, It’s just that I have a wife and three grown daughters, I have learned to recognize the early signs of pregnancy.” He spread his hands in a purely Latin way.

“Oh, no, Captain.” Sabrina smiled uncomfortably. “You’ve got it wrong.”

It was difficult to say who was more embarrassed.

“Please accept my apologies,
Signora Grigory
, my mistake.”

The Captain saluted, inclined his head, and hastily backed away from the pool deck.

There was no way for the Captain to know that Vlad had continued to take precautions even after they had married. His harsh comments about unwed parents and his own stated desire never to have a child all came back to Sabrina then, and she pushed away the sadness. In her deepest heart, she had to acknowledge the melancholy, because she now knew she would have loved to bear his child. But he had been adamant. They didn’t even have to discuss it, and she would never bring it up.

Their manufactured relationship would not stretch to a living, breathing addition. Besides, she had Alex to love. Wanting more was selfish.

She settled her sunglasses firmly on her nose and made her way into their stateroom for a cool shower. As the ten days of their vacation had gone on, Sabrina couldn’t help but notice that Vlad spent more and more time taking urgent calls and corresponding with his deputies via computer. His stamina was such that he was able to accomplish all of that while still paying attention to her and Alex, and taking them to see all the sights along the fabled coast.

Sabrina knew now that he had spent considerable hours before the wedding taking care of pressing business so they could have their honeymoon. As much as she wanted to believe it was so they could spend private time as a couple, or as a family, she knew the entire vacation was just another PR exercise.

Their photos had even appeared in the Italian press, and no doubt elsewhere. No photos from the yacht appeared anywhere. Thankfully, Vlad had far too much security for their privacy to be invaded here, but on their jaunts to town to shop or to enjoy a café, they had been discreetly photographed. Vlad was unsurprised, and she knew he judged the publicity to be positive for his foundations.

She had even taken some photographs of her own with the new camera Vlad had bestowed upon her as a wedding gift and insisted she carry. It was difficult not to be inspired by the breathtaking coastline.

But as always, she was most stirred by Alex and now by Vlad. She had taken a sweet photo of them while they walked ahead of her, Alex on Vlad’s shoulders. She’d called to them and when they turned, she’d snapped them. It would be a good keepsake of this trip when they got back to New York.

****

Yesterday it rained and Sabrina had secretly been thankful for a break from the strong Italian sun that seemed to sap all of her energy. The rainy day made it impossible to sightsee and Vlad caught up on his email while Sabrina and Alex rested below deck.

Today it was beautifully clear, and Alex, little boy style, had been raring to go since dawn. It was all Sabrina could do to keep him busy as they waited for Vlad to respond to some urgent calls.

They were sitting on deck chairs after an early breakfast as Sabrina occupied Alex with a small local map to plot their itinerary for the day. Alex’s baseball cap, a gift from one of the crew that was too large for his head, was caught by the strong post-storm breeze and blew into the water.

“My hat!” the little boy called out and in the way of most emergencies, time seemed to stand still, as he simply clambered up the short rail and jumped into the water after it, all before Sabrina’s astonished eyes.

“Alex,” she shrieked over and over as the little boy landed in the water and began paddling toward his hat. The crew came running from all directions as Sabrina, her eyes never leaving him, watched Alex begin to struggle in the sea.

She climbed up to the rail and, without any of Alex’s speed or grace, scrambled over it. Her thin sandals slipped as she struggled to find purchase as well as the courage to jump in after him. He was even farther away now, his red T-shirt getting smaller and smaller. “Alex,” she screamed again and again, her voice a terrified rasp and completely useless as it was carried away by the wind.

“Sabrina.” Suddenly Vlad was at her side, throwing off his shirt and kicking off his boat shoes. Without saying another word, he dove into the water straight toward the spot where she had last seen Alex’s small form.

One of the crew dove in after Vlad and Captain Ferrara put his jacket around Sabrina’s shaking shoulders.

In moments, Vlad reached Alex and in short minutes he, Vlad, and the mate who had given Alex the hat and who had, guilt stricken, jumped into the water as well, were all back on board. The entire episode took less than five minutes, but Sabrina had aged years.

“Well, that’s one exciting way to get your day going, young Alex.” Vlad held the boy securely in his arms and spoke to him in a low, soothing voice. They were both sodden, the little boy shivering.

“The sea water was c-c-cold…and the waves…” Alex searched for the right word. “The waves were stronger than me.” He shivered anew. “But they weren’t stronger than you, Dad.”

Vlad froze in the act of rubbing the boy up and down with a towel. Then he looked straight into Alex’s eyes.

“You were very brave, Alex. But remember, we talked about never going in for a swim without another swimmer. You forgot that. You scared us.”

“I scared me, too,” Alex said, and the entire crew, who had, in the midst of the drama descended from their posts and converged to where Vlad and Alex were in forward part of yacht, laughed in relief.

Sabrina stood off to the side, not wet but shuddering in reaction, the smell of the sea usually so invigorating to her was right now an awful stench. She was still in shock, unable to laugh with relief like the rest of them. She was trying to behave in the calm, reasonable way that Vlad was exhibiting, when it was all she could do not to retch. If anything had happened to Alex! If anything had happened to Vlad!

Sabrina knew enough to realize that Alex’s fears would be redoubled if she reacted in the way her instincts were demanding. She knew Alex had acted impulsively, but with confidence due to his newly acquired swimming skill. Any negativity or fear on her part would undo that confidence in a heartbeat.

Vlad knew that. He had known exactly what to do, how to behave. He hadn’t even reacted to Alex’s mispronunciation of Vlad to Dad.

Thank God, nothing had happened to either of them. Nevertheless, she couldn’t stop seeing the whole terrifying scenario again in her mind’s eye. Nauseous fear took over and Sabrina ran below to the head and promptly lost her breakfast.

Although they had planned to see Capri’s famed Blue Grotto, the storm meant the seas weren’t calm enough for anyone to enter the area. Instead, dry and in a change of clothes, Vlad organized a dinghy to Amalfi, and they spent their final day going in and out of the market stalls showcasing souvenirs and local olives, oil and delicacies. Sabrina chose gifts for Lacey, Mrs. Egan, and Mrs. Field. She was extremely happy to spend the day on solid ground. Alex seemed to have completely recovered from his dunk into the sea, but the whole incident caused Sabrina to rethink her fear of telling Vlad the facts of Alex’s birth.