Read Online Behind the Palace Walls by Lynn Raye Harris - Free Book Online Page B

Her body was softening, melting, her core liquefying beneath his touch. My God.
    “Why you feel so responsible, why you would sacrifice your own happiness for hers.”
    “I didn’t say that. Emma doesn’t need me to be unhappy just so she can be happy.”
    His eyes were sympathetic, understanding. “You must have been very young when you had to become her mother.”
    “Eighteen,” she said.
    “It was difficult for you, yes?”
    Paige sighed. Why was she telling him this? And yet it felt somewhat comforting to do so. Like her tears the other night, it was cleansing to finally let it out. “Of course. I was still a kid myself and I didn’t always know what to do. I didn’t get everything right.”
    “Yet you did enough. She is grown and independent. You must allow her to sink or swim on her own.”
    “I appreciate what you’re saying, but you have no idea—”
    “I had a sister,” he said very suddenly, his eyes shadowed. “She was three years younger than I. I protected her fiercely, Paige. But I could not save her in the end. I only wish she’d lived long enough to be able to drive me insane with her choices.” He squeezed her hand then. “Celebrate your sister’s ability to do so, and stand by her when she falls—but do not ever feel as if you must cease to live your life in order to always be there for her.”
    Paige couldn’t speak. Shock—and fear—had frozen her vocal cords. How did he see inside her like this? How did he know what her fears were, and what she’d given up over the years without her actually telling him the details? It was disconcerting.
    And yet she also ached for him. For the loss that clearly still affected him. She wanted to say she was sorry, wanted to ask what had happened, but before she could find her voice again, his phone rang.
    “You will please excuse me, I must take this,” he said, frowning at the display. Paige nodded—but she needn’t have bothered because he was already talking.
    He spent the next thirty minutes on the phone as the car glided through the city. The farther they drove from the hotel, the more Paige started to wonder if she’d made a mistake. She usually deliberated before she made decisions. She did not act on impulse.
    Until now.
    She’d signed on for a nice, authentic dinner in a real Russian restaurant with a man who fascinated her. She’d not expected to have her soul bared to him, or to experience the chink in her heart when she’d realized he’d also lost someone he loved.
    It was supposed to be dinner. Nice, simple, easy.
    But the car kept moving farther and farther from the city center. They passed from the densely packed buildings of Moscow into the outskirts before rolling along a congested highway. She wanted to ask Alexei where they were, but he was still on the phone.
    When they took an exit and made a turn, she suddenly realized they were approaching an airport. Her stomach dropped to her toes. Though it didn’t look like the same airport she’d flown into only a couple of days ago, it was still a large facility with a lot of traffic.
    “It is Sheremetyevo” Alexei said, as if he’d been reading her mind. He tucked his phone away. “You probably flew into Domodedovo, which is south of the city.”
    Paige tried not to panic. “Yes, but what are we doing here?”
    “I am taking you to dinner, maya krasavitsa.” His expression said it was obvious.
    “At the airport?”
    “No,” he said as the car hesitated for a moment at a security gate. The chauffeur exchanged a few words with the guards, and then they were through. A couple of minutes later the car came to a halt. The door opened and Alexei stepped out, then held out a hand for her. When she emerged, she realized they were standing in front of a hangar where a jet was slowly taxiing out into the open. The whine of the engines was loud, the wind whipping her clothes and making her wish she’d changed into jeans and boots instead of her business suit and kitten