Page 30 of The Dancer and the Grumpy Billionaire

“How can I live like this?” I ask. “There have been days when I thought, perhaps, I could not. Twice, actually, I have been certain of it.”

Vasily’s brows knit together. “What?”

“Vera called me a spoiled brat both times. She called me immature, ungrateful, and dramatic, which is pretty much her answer to everything I do.” The bitterness in my tone is a visceral thing. It makes the bread I just ate feel like a lead weight in my belly. “I cannot even take my own life without intervention. Not one decision in my life has been my own.”

This is when I am sure he will get up and leave. I am certain that this educated, career-driven man will realize he is falling in love with a woman who is more trouble than she is worth. I can barely look at him, and I know that my cheeks are flaming with color because I am so embarrassed that I have told him something so private, so troubling.

When he reaches across the table to take my hands in his, I am shocked. My eyes dart to his, finding him sympathetic.

“I want to take you away,” I say. “I want to help you get away, somewhere out of reach of your father, where you can build a new life.”

“How could you do such a thing?” I ask.

“I have resources,” he says.

“Resources,” I answer flatly.

“I have money, and money can make almost anything happen. We can just leave. We can buy new identities and just go far away.”

I stare at him, gaping like a fish as I take in this assertion.

“The world is not that big,” I say. “My father’s reach is vast. And it is not my father who is the problem anyway, Vasily. My father wants to protect me. It is his enemies who would hurt me to get to him.”

“Your fatheristhe problem, Gigi,” he argues. “If he has enemies who would murder your mother in her bed, then he has done something toearnthat. If there are CIA agents watching your apartment, then there is something your father did to earn that, too.”

“I did see those men,” I say. “Alexei ran them off.”

Vasily groans. “Alexei did what?”

“He walked up to the car and confronted the men. He took one of their badges, I think.”

“That is…” He blows out a long breath. “That takes balls. But they won’t just stop watching, Gigi. And likely they will just be more covert and more focused after being found out like that. They may have followed you here tonight.”

I look around, raising my voice. “What do I care if they followed me here? I know nothing! I did nothing!”

Vasily pulls his hands from mine and sits back in his seat. He folds his arms over his chest, clearly annoyed by my outburst.

Our food comes and I dig in, ravenous and feeling riotous as well. Vasily watches me, darkness in his eyes. His offer to take me far away, to start a new life, hangs between us. It is what I have wanted for so long, right? I have thought so many times of walking away from dance, of exploring and building my own life somewhere, free of my father’s control.

Vasily barely touches his food. He sits, twirling the stem of his wine glass in his fingertips as he considers the emotional overload I am displaying tonight. I know he cares for me, and that he would not offer to uproot his carefully managed life for me if he did not. That alone makes the decision very simple.

“Fine,” I say through a mouthful of spaghetti. “You say you have money and resources. Let’s go. I will go. Let’s be together.”

CHAPTER 14

Vasily

This is so crazy.

I barely know this woman. I think she might be half-insane after living such a controlled, sheltered life. She seems nearly to a breaking point even tonight. Tonight, she is not the quiet, sweet, gentle Gigi I have come to know. She is up and down, high on her final performance, eager to see me, angry about her situation, anxious about the future.

Could I run away with her?

I feel connected to her in a way I have not felt connected to someone in a long time. I want to protect her, yes, but also more. I find her ridiculously attractive, even more so when the controlled façade comes down. She makes me laugh and she is observant and curious.

But she also makes me feel old, and I am not that old. Her innocence about the world alarms me. She just said it herself – she has never made a choice for herself in her life. Except, perhaps, for the times she has thrown caution to the wind in order to see me. Perhaps for this moment, in which she has decided to trust me to get her out of this life.

My thoughts go to Senator Jennings, to Katharine O’Malley, to the career I have worked so hard to build. I like to have order in my life, and Galina Gusev has scattered that order to the winds. It is so completely out of character for me to even think about giving up the life I have built, just to run away with the daughter of an international criminal. This is rash and stupid and if I do this, everything I have built will be ruined.

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