Chapter 24 #2
“The game is called chaugan, and we will,” Oleg said. “And you will not be a spectator—you’ll be playing as well.”
Her eyebrows went up. “I did not agree to this.”
“Contractually, you agreed to an agenda of prewedding festivities as determined by our social secretaries.” He smiled. “The chaugan matches were on the agenda.”
“Matches? As in more than one?”
“One tomorrow night and the next one as part of the reception festivities after the wedding.” Oleg lifted one eyebrow. “I was assured that the Poshani would be contributing players. Kezia seemed quite enthusiastic about it.”
Dammit. She knew she should have paid attention to Rumi better when she was listing off all the events over the month leading up to the wedding.
“Oleg—”
“Relax, milaya.” He smiled softly. “This will be a friendly game only. No one is going to attack my bride on horseback even if you are a captain.”
“What?”
Her voice was so loud that the Hazar banged on the door.
“Tatyana le Tala!”
“I’m fine!” She got up, shooting Oleg a dirty look. “I’ll need to speak to them or they will not stop.”
She cracked open the door to see four worried faces. “Did you four know that we’re supposed to be participating in this horse game tomorrow?”
All four of them grinned.
“Yes,” one said. “Rudov’s horses are supposed to be among the best chaugan mounts in the world.”
“God save me,” Tatyana muttered. “I’m fine.” She waved at them. “I’m fine.”
She shut the door and walked back to Oleg. “I see I am alone in my dread of this sport.”
He scooted to the side and patted the space next to him on the couch.
She stood over him, snapped twice, and pointed to the fireplace. “Fire.”
He tossed the flamed into the hearth, which jumped into a merry brightness as the logs inside lit.
“Did you enjoy the snapping?” Oleg asked.
“Not as much as you do.” She sat next to him. “Why did you really want to see me tonight?”
“I miss my wife,” Oleg said roughly. “You have been avoiding me.”
Because she knew he would try to get her naked, and she still had a pronounced red mark under her ribs. “Rumi has filled my schedule since I returned from Warsaw.”
“And?”
She looked at him. “And I’m annoyed you didn’t tell me about the priest.” Not that she wasn’t hiding things herself. “Is there any news?”
“Yes. Mika finally found a witness in a village at the base of the mountains. A shepherd who was moving his sheep across the road on Friday afternoon. The driver honked. The shepherd noticed the stranger and didn’t recognize the car that was heading up the mountain.”
“Which would be unusual?”
“In that area? Yes. There are not many strangers. Mika got a description and then followed his little rabbit trails until he tracked down a rental car that had been rented to a private firm in Budapest.”
“Budapest?”
“Yes, and that firm is a front for Poshani operations. A black market art dealership owned by your sister.”
Tatyana’s mouth dropped open. “No, Kezia would not have anything to do with—”
“You are correct.” Oleg kept his voice low.
“Mika knows Kezia’s chief Hazar well. He immediately contacted her to ask about the rental car, and she confirmed that one of their darigan had been mugged in what they thought was a random attack.
His wallet was stolen, and that was the name used in the rental. ”
“And Mika is confident that she’s not lying?”
Oleg nodded. “He is satisfied that the point of the attack was to steal the man’s bank card. He was mugged, but nothing but his wallet was taken, not even the very nice watch on his wrist.”
“Someone was trying to frame Kezia,” Tatyana said. “They expected you to track down the car and immediately be suspicious of the Poshani.”
“Just as you would be suspicious of the Kievan Rus after the attack on your mother’s house.”
What did it mean? “They are trying to drive a wedge between us, perhaps? So that we will call off the wedding?” She lowered her voice. “But you said that your brothers are in favor of our union?”
Oleg’s eyebrows went up. “So you assume my brothers are behind this but not your sister?”
Tatyana angled her head. “Really? We all know that Ivan was probably behind both. And if he tortured Father Izaias, he probably knows the true nature of our marriage.”
Oleg narrowed his eyes. “Which is?”
She felt her fangs fall. “Are you truly asking me this?”
“I would burn the world for you, Tatyana le Tala.” He kept his voice low. “Can you say the same?”
Tatyana thought about the Hazar who would be risking their lives to kill Oleg’s brother just so Tatyana could be certain Oleg would not have to execute yet another of his kin.
“I would do the same for you,” she murmured. “You are my mate.”
There was a leap of energy between them, and Oleg reached for her, but she eased away from his touch. “I cannot.”
He glared at her. “Why not? It has been weeks.”
“And it will be a week more until we are publicly wed and all this pageantry is over.” Tatyana stood. “Until then, there are too many eyes on us.”
And Kezia was already proving more suspicious than Tatyana preferred.
Oleg narrowed his eyes. “I can smell how much you want me.”
She rolled her eyes. “Please don’t smell me.”
“Why not? You are my mate. and everything about you pleases me.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and leaning his face toward the juncture of her thighs.
“When we share a day chamber, I will wake at dusk and put my face between your legs to breathe in the scent of your desire. It will be the first breath I take.”
When he said things like that, she wanted to hide her face. “Next you’re going to tell me it smells like the sweetest flowers or some nonsense like that.”
“No, it smells like my wife’s pussy, which is infinitely superior to the smell of flowers.”
“I’m leaving now.” Her blood was surging, but the moment he got her naked, he’d see the red mark below her ribs, and she was tired of fighting. “Keep your energy for the polo match tomorrow, Lord Oleg.”
He muttered something in that dark, rough language that only he spoke, but Tatyana was already at the door.
She made it back to her office to find Diana waiting for her.
The woman’s eyes were red from crying. “Did… did Lord Oleg tell you? Is that what he wanted to speak to you about?”
Tatyana pretended that she knew exactly what Diana was talking about. “I would prefer to hear it from you.”
She walked around to her seat, leaving the desk between them. She folded her hands and placed them on the desk but made no move to comfort Diana.
“It was never…” She blinked. “I thought he liked me.” Her smile was tight and bitter. “It’s inappropriate. I knew it was, but… I have no excuse for my behavior. Maybe it’s all the wedding things, and you were human once and I know you met Oleg then, so when he asked me to dance at the summit—”
“Is that when it started?” Tatyana was beginning to suspect that Sándor’s theory about Ivan seducing Diana was the correct one.
Diana nodded. “I mean, I had seen him before. Heard of him, of course. He’s… he’s very rich,” she whispered. “And you don’t spend as much time with day people anymore—of course you wouldn’t—but women talk, and having a vampire boyfriend…”
A wealthy vampire patron could change a human’s life. “You thought, why not?”
“I’m not…” Diana wiped her eyes. “I’m not a prostitute.”
“I would never say that about you.”
“But the gifts he sent me.” Diana’s cheeks flushed. “Flowers nearly every day. Handbags and jewelry. And then all the time we spent on the phone. Just talking. And that was all he wanted. He never asked for sex. He said he wanted to get to know me, so I thought, maybe… this is real.”
“I think we need to be clear what we are speaking of,” Tatyana said firmly. “You have been speaking to a vampire who is not Poshani, despite the security requirements set out by the Hazar that all communication with other vampire clans must be on official phones for your security and our own.”
Diana gulped. “Yes, Terrin.”
“And you have been telling him things about our business?”
“I… I don’t know.” She shook her head. “Not intentionally, but—”
“Who?” Tatyana was starting to get angry. With Diana but mostly with Ivan. To prey on and flatter one of her own staff felt like a personal insult. “I want to hear his name. From your mouth.”
Her cheeks flushed. “I met him only once at the summit in Budapest. And he was so kind. So sensitive. Not like other vampires at all. When his secretary reached out and told me—”
“Who, Diana?”
Kind? Gentle? Not like other vampires?
What was going on? Ivan was the worst of vampires. Was he that good at pretending to be something else?
“Pavel Sokolov,” Diana whispered. “We’ve only been talking.
I promise. He only touched me once at the ball in Budapest, and I don’t think he could have gotten much information about you from that because it was not a very long dance.
So when his assistant reached out and asked that I get a phone so that we could get to know each other, I thought…
” Her cheeks were flaming red. “I don’t know what I thought, but I knew it was wrong and I concealed it. ”
Pavel?
Pavel?
Pavel had seduced her stylist? No, it was not possible. Pavel was not under Oleg’s surveillance. It was Ivan. Pavel had not been calling Diana. Ivan Sokholov had been calling her.
Tatyana narrowed her eyes. “Have you ever met with Pavel? Since you have been speaking privately, I mean?”
“No, never.” Diana shook her head. “He said we would have time to meet here in Saint Petersburg, but the schedule has been so packed and he has been hosting so many events.” Her cheeks reddened.
“He has sent me flowers almost every night though. And we talk often. But not about you! I mean, a little about you, because he always wants to know where you are so that we might meet if I get the chance but—”
“You talk with Pavel?”
Diana nodded.
“Are you sure?”
The woman frowned. “Of course I’m sure. Who else would…” Diana froze. “Terrin Tatyana, have I not been talking with Pavel Sokolov?”
“No, Diana.” She kept her voice soft, realizing how devastating this deception was going to be. “I believe someone has deceived you in a very cruel way by pretending to be Pavel.”
Of all of Oleg’s brothers, Tatyana could easily believe that a softhearted human like Diana could be seduced by Pavel. Oleg’s quietest brother was handsome, wealthy, and did not live for the bravado so common for vampire men.
Color leached from Diana’s face so quickly Tatyana worried that the woman might pass out.
“Who is it?” she whispered. “Who have I been talking to?”