“But you weren’t a man. You were still a kid.” Her heart hurt for the teenager he’d been.
“Dima was the one who was still a child. He needed us all to be strong for him.” Konstantin smiled indulgently at her. “Do not look as if I am sharing the great tragedy of our age with you. I never stopped hugging my little brother when he was a child, if that makes you feel better.”
Dima was an adult now, finished with university and starting graduate school.
“It does.” Taking a deep breath, she said, “Something else would make me feel even better.”
“I have a feeling it is not the same thing that I am craving.”
Suddenly the air around them was heavy with sexual energy.
Emma tried to concentrate on the flow of air in and out of her lungs, but it didn’t stop her nipples beading to almost painful peaks and vaginal walls from contracting with a need she’d ignored since being thrust from his life.
“I’m pretty sure you are right,” she acknowledged in a tone that was way too breathless for her liking. “Have you thought about signing a contract like I asked about last night?”
“Why?” he asked, sounding pained.
Forcing herself not to react emotionally to his obvious hurt, Emma drew on her own sense of certainty. “You never once even considered breaking that marriage-slash-business contract when we were together. You see your legal obligations as absolute.”
“Not absolute. I broke the contract last year, when Nataliya humiliated me in the media.” He didn’t sound particularly proud of that fact.
“Did you?”
“I was feeling guilty and angry.”
“That’s never a good combination for you.”
“No, it is not. It is how I ended up cutting you off so completely.”
“What were you feeling guilty about then?”
“You were a naive nineteen-year-old when we met. A virgin. And I didn’t care. I wanted you.”
“So you’ve said. You were obsessed with my body.”
“I was that. I wanted you all the time, but Emma, even more dangerous to my commitments was the truth that when I was with you, I was happy.”
“So happy that you dumped me. Let’s not rewrite history.”
“I am not trying to rewrite anything.” He blew out a clearly frustrated breath. “I am trying to be honest.”
“Okay, so in all honesty, you dumped me because you had committed to marrying another woman in a contract.”
“Yes.”
“You want me to trust you with Mickey. You want to be his dad. You want us to move in with you.”
“I want you to marry me.”
“But I am not there. I may never be there. What I need is to know with as much certainty as I can have that I can trust you not to try to usurp me with my son. That even if I never marry you, you will not attempt to take Mickey from me.”
“My word is not enough for you?”
“No.” She swallowed, knowing she wasn’t done, and he wasn’t going to like her next request any more than the first. “I would prefer that your brother the King sign the contract as well.”
“Why?”
“Because your former Queen took out a TRO against me on your behalf. I need to know that your current monarch will not do anything like that.”