Read Online Untouched by His Diamonds by Lucy Ellis - Free Book Online Page B

She was your date. Or are there so many we start to blur?’
    Luke snickered.
    ‘Raisa is a friend, nothing more.’ He actually sounded a bit affronted, as if he couldn’t believe they were having this conversation.
    The lady in front of her looked Serge up and down. ‘I wouldn’t trust him, love. Too good-looking.’
    Too good-looking. It was an understatement. He was a big, tough gorgeous Cossack. Every other woman in the vicinity was glued to him.
    Clementine bit her lip. It was funny, and she had to admit it was extremely exciting.
    She deserved some fun—to be a light-hearted girl again instead of the cautious woman she had become, constantly second-guessing herself.
    And he was here. He’d come for her. It was ridiculous to consider any of this romantic but she did. It was the most romantic thing that had ever happened to her.
    ‘All right,’ she heard herself saying, throwing herself off the emotional diving board. ‘Why not?’
    Satisfaction entered the look Serge was giving her, and she noticed a little breathlessly that his gaze took a round trip of her body but she decided to let it pass. Right now she just wanted to revel in her romantic moment.
    Serge offered his hand and she took it. It was big and rough and enclosed hers completely. It felt unfailingly intimate. Even this man’s hands were fantasy material.
    ‘I’ll call you when I arrive,’ she said belatedly to Luke, who was grinning and gazing up at Serge like a fan girl.
    ‘You do that, Clem. Have fun, darl.’
    They had only gone a few hundred metres when she realised they were moving away from the public terminal.
    ‘Where are we going?’
    ‘My plane,
kisa
.’
    ‘Your plane?’
    ‘Private jet.’ He glanced down at her and was met with a look of complete wonderment. Cynically, he wondered if that little bit of information was going to get him laid before the plane even took off.
    She dug in her heels as they left the terminal and hit the tarmac. Ahead was indeed a private plane—a state-of-the-art jet. Nerves set in like never before. She yanked on his hand. ‘Serge, I need to make a few things clear before we go any further.’
    He looked at her impatiently. ‘We’ll discuss it on board.’
    ‘No, we need to discuss it now. I have …’ She didn’t know how to phrase it, so she grabbed the nearest equivalent. ‘I have some terms and I want to make sure you’re okay with them. I don’t want any misunderstandings.’
    He gave her a look of sheer disbelief. ‘You cannot be serious?’
    Her heart stuttered at that. He wasn’t going to be difficult about this, was he? It wasn’t a deal-breaker?
    ‘I am serious,’ she said more crossly. ‘And I want to be up-front about this.’ She’d come to a complete halt, pulling free of his hand. ‘I don’t want to be treated like some girl you’ve just picked up.’
    He made a sound of deep male frustration in the back of his throat. ‘I have no intention of treating you as anything but a lady. Frankly, Clementine, in Russia we do not do things in this way. Would you not prefer some discretion?’
    Baffled she gazed up at him. He would treat her
as
a lady? Why didn’t that reassure her? Shouldn’t he
consider
her a lady?
    Suddenly it all felt too hard, and she decided then and there to let it go. She was reading too much into everything he saidbecause she was having trouble trusting anyone. It wasn’t fair to Serge, and it was going to ruin things before they started.
    ‘We can discuss your terms when we’re alone,
kisa
,’ he said dryly. ‘But I can assure you there won’t be any “misunderstandings” as you describe it.’
    She laid her hand gently on his chest. He felt so hard, and she could feel the shift of muscle as he took a deep breath. She affected him, and it thrilled her because it answered her own desire for him. But it wasn’t anything she was going to act on unless it felt absolutely right.
    She smiled up at him—her first for the day. ‘I’m really