The Marriage Ultimatum (City of Dreams Series) (19 page)

Sabrina washed and dressed them both quickly, and they entered the main cabin in time to smell coffee and the variety of breakfast choices that had been set out, from fruit to oatmeal to fresh-squeezed juice and cappuccino.

Vlad, in dark jeans and a linen shirt, looked well rested and fresh. Sabrina knew he didn’t usually need more than five hours a night. She’d slept so poorly of late, but perhaps because of the emotional overload it had caught up with her and she’d managed to fall into a dreamless slumber.

He set aside his tablet when Alex expressed interest in eating while sitting in the seat next to him. Alex ordered everything that Vlad did from orange juice to cantaloupe and Sabrina felt a rush of emotion as she saw the hero worship in her little brother’s eyes. Alex was lucky to have Vlad in his life no matter how long their relationship might last.

She sat opposite them in a gauzy white top and khaki shorts. Swinging her bare leg back and forth while she skimmed the newspaper and nibbled on a croissant, she flushed when she felt Vlad’s gaze return more than once to her legs.

Shortly, the jet started its deep descent for the landing in Naples, and Alex decided he wanted to sit next to Sabrina.

“Don’t worry, we can hold hands,” Alex told her so seriously that Sabrina nodded solemnly at her suddenly grown up little brother. They both sat, fingers intertwined, gazing out the window at the rapidly rising strip of land shimmering in the cerulean sea.

Vlad had arranged for a car to take them from the airport to his yacht anchored off the coast of Capri.

Vlad had even organized her clothing. An enormous suitcase of resort wear lay open on the rack near the bed.

Alex kept pointing out boats in the far distance and asking which was theirs. Sabrina flushed at the possessive pride in his voice but Vlad seemed unfazed telling Alex he would be sure to point it out to him when they could see it.

“Yikes, good thing this is a Navigator, I can’t imagine going along these roads in something smaller,” Sabrina said as they sped along the narrow coastal road that lead down to the sea. The view dizzied her, but Alex unaffected by the sheer drop hundreds of feet to the water, was beside himself at the concept of staying twenty-four/seven on a boat as opposed to a bricks and mortar building. In the short time he had been exposed to the new experiences entailed in living in Vlad’s world, his vocabulary had grown and his toddler fears had in large part been banished.

“You’ve made his day,” Sabrina commented, “his year, really.”

“How about you, Sabrina?”

Vlad’s gaze arrowed in on her own with sudden intensity.

“Um, me? I really didn’t expect, this is way above and beyond anything you had to do. I mean, there aren’t any cameras here are there? And I’m really so happy Alex is with us.”

She was babbling as she had a tendency to do in Vlad’s presence. She pushed out a laugh. “Far be it from me to complain. I mean, it’s my first trip to Italy, first time on a plane and,” she threw her arms wide, “it must be eighty-five degrees out—I’m thrilled!”

Vlad nodded, a half smile on his rugged face at her response.

The
SunKing
was more than five hundred feet long and Sabrina counted twenty people standing in a row on the gleaming deck to greet them as they boarded—presumably captain and crew. After introductions, Vlad himself led them to their quarters. They each had a stateroom done up in sumptuously modern décor, and Alex wasted no time asking to change into his swimsuit.

“Well, let’s wait a bit, okay, Alex?” Sabrina stalled. “This is the open sea, so you need to be careful.”

Alex didn’t even know how to dog paddle in a wading pool, and Sabrina’s lack of skill in that area meant she was no help. Swimming lessons were the kind of thing she hadn’t had the funds to provide for him in their old life, nor had she even had the time to enroll them in the Y.

“Stay close to me, young Alex,” Vlad advised with a smile. “I lived on a ship and swam off it from an early age. Besides,” he added, “there’s a pool on board.”

Both Sabrina and Alex had looked over with identical wide eyes as Vlad said those words. This was a Vlad she didn’t know. As soon as he had boarded the yacht, his demeanor had changed. He was still the Type A mogul, no doubt about that, but he seemed to be more relaxed, more at home standing on the deck of the yacht than Sabrina had ever seen him in the corridors of VGI or on the streets of the city, or even at his home in the country.

Once they settled into their staterooms, Vlad took them on a tour of the vessel, showing them every nook and cranny of the enormous craft.

“So, what do you think?” he’d said, pride evident in his voice.

“Better than home plate tickets to the World Series,” she’d responded.

Sabrina knew she could get lost in the vast space of the vessel with its warren of staterooms, but the beautiful feeling of freedom beckoned and shortly she left Vlad and her brother to go above deck and breathe deep of the fresh Tyrrhenian Sea air.

Following the usual wisdom not to give into jetlag, they ignored the time zone change and set off for a walk on the island of Capri. In dark glasses and sandals, Sabrina enjoyed the feeling of anonymity, after weeks of dodging cameras, as they strolled into and out of ceramic shops, jewelry, and linen stores.

In no time, Alex’s short legs fatigued and Vlad put him on his shoulders as they walked ever higher on the island until they found a likely spot where Alex could enjoy a gelato while Sabrina and Vlad sipped espressos.

By the time Vlad’s driver met them at the gelato shop, Alex was sprawled, fast asleep on Sabrina’s lap. Vlad carried him to the car.

Vlad decided they would stay on board for dinner the first night since jetlag had already caught up to Alex and Sabrina was heavy eyed. Quick showers revived them, but Alex settled into bed with nary a peep.

Sabrina changed into a lemon sundress with a halter-top. With her bare legs in heeled sandals and her hair caught back in a clip, she transitioned into vacation if not honeymoon mode. They sat in an alcove on the deck with a full view of both the twinkling necklace of light that was the Caprese shore, and the inscrutable green depths of the sea.

Sabrina was mesmerized, more with Vlad than the view. The shadows threw the hard angles of his high cheekbones into relief, giving him sexy and dangerous appeal in the light of the moon, the small hanging lanterns the crew had placed overhead, and the hurricane lamps placed strategically along the deck.

Alone as they were in that sea of flickering light with Vlad looking so impossibly handsome in close-fitting linen slacks and shirt, Sabrina found herself wondering why he would choose to be with an ordinary girl like her. But then reality reasserted itself. He had not really chosen her; they had been thrown together by the circumstances of that ridiculous tabloid photo, and everything had snowballed from there.

She’d been so easy to read, so easy to have. He’d fired her from his company; yet she had willingly put herself in his bed and had reveled in the experience. God help her, she’d better never, ever, forget this was just a PR honeymoon, an alliance purely for the press. No, she told herself, she wouldn’t forget. But she didn’t want to think about it either. And she definitely didn’t want to dwell on Pieter and his threats. Pieter and Vlad and the circumstances that had contrived to put her right here with Vlad made no difference to her right now.

She wanted to be in the moment. Wanted to absorb and enjoy the fact that the crew was courteously invisible, and their entire meal from appetizer to pasta to fish to dessert with iced champagne on the side, was laid out on a table for their enjoyment with no staff or crew popping up to interrupt them. This was, after all, supposed to be a honeymoon.

Sabrina found she wanted badly to give Vlad a glimpse of her true self, to unburden herself, to tell him she was not Alex’s mother, but rather his sister and that she had met his awful brother and—guess what? He was Alex’s father. But how could she do that? How could she risk it all?

So instead, she wanted this to be something in the nature of a first date. They’d never had one, had they? Why couldn’t they be just getting to know each other? Why couldn’t she forget that guys like Vlad did not, on any planet, want to be with girls like her? So what if theirs was a manufactured relationship?

Right now, she didn’t care.

“So, you were a sailor? Er, is that the correct term?” She mentally rolled her eyes at her prosaic query.

“I was a merchant marine, yes.” There was hesitancy to his response, overlaid with a hint of amusement. No doubt at her lack of conversational prowess. Nevertheless, she nodded encouragingly.

Strange that with all that had occurred between them, all of the sexual intimacy, Sabrina knew little more than the essentials of his background. Once again, she was left with the feeling that if she had something to hide, Vlad had his secrets as well.

“I spent some years on a tanker ship, much bigger than this one, learning and rising through the ranks to second officer. I’m very much at ease on board.”

That was the understatement of the year, she thought. He was totally in his element. He looked more energized than a major league shortstop. Sabrina on the other hand, felt as jumpy as a turkey on Thanksgiving eve.

“And at some point you squeezed in a university degree.” She knew none of this sailor stuff was in his googled background. She felt like she might be getting to know him a little.

“Yes, the captain of the first tanker I worked on, when I was a kid encouraged me. The boxing paid for it.”

“Boxing?” She knew it! From that first moment in the breakroom.

I wasn’t born with all this…far from it.” He swept his hand in an all-encompassing arc. “I attended university on a boxing scholarship. Taught me to stay focused. Either that or get your nose broken.” His mouth quirked up at the corner, his forefinger pointed to the obvious bump on his nose.

“And now you spend a ton of time sitting behind a desk,” she stated, considering him, her eyes alight with mischief and interest. Which one is the real you, the sailor or the tycoon?”

****

Vlad had never really looked at it that way. He had of necessity always been a striver. His captain, the closest thing to a father he’d ever known, seeing the native intelligence and thirst for knowledge in him, had encouraged Vlad to apply for the university position that he had obtained at seventeen.

His innate drive meant he wasn’t satisfied until he came back and bought that first ship with the captain’s blessing and then acquired another, and another. He’d never looked back. No one had ever asked him about himself, who he was, what he wanted. And he found he didn’t have an answer to give her.

“I’m at home in both places,” he countered.
Liar.
He wasn’t truly comfortable in either role. Not truly. Not at ease. Had he ever felt at ease? No, he hadn’t, he knew, not since he was left alone on the streets where he had first learned to sleep with one eye open. He was who he had to be, did what he had to do, to survive. He had never asked himself the true question of who he was. That was almost trivial in the world he had inhabited. Still inhabited.

“But if you could,” she persisted, like a tormenting angel, “if you had to choose between executive or sailor, which would it be?”

“Well, you’re here, so I guess right now my answer has to be sailor.”

His voice dropped to a low drawl.

“Oh.” Her gaze was fixed on him.

“Is that all you can say?” he teased. “You ask the questions, but you don’t have much to say in response. Here’s one for you. If you could change anything in your life, what would it be?”

Two could play this game.

Sabrina looked away from his intent gaze then responded in a rush, “I wish my mom were still alive. Other than that, no, I wouldn’t change anything.”

“When did you lose your mother?”

“When Alex was nine months old.”

“That must have been, er, difficult,” he acknowledged.

He was surprised she hadn’t said something about wanting to be with the father of her child or some such BS. And yet, she was a tough one, he knew. Didn’t want the poor sucker who fathered the kid most likely. Whoever he was. And, she’d had a mother all of those years when she was a kid. While he’d been alone, always. Alone even with Pieter, who, as the years had passed, drifted in and out of his life and never stuck to any endeavor for very long. Vlad had to admit that he, too, had been emotionally adrift until he finally anchored himself in work and began the tough uphill climb to prosperity. And left emotion far behind. Now he had the false trappings of a family with this alliance to Sabrina and her child. That was more than most people had.

“You said your parents weren’t married.” She came back with a sucker punch.

“I said I was a bastard.” His mouth took on a cynical twist.

“Did you know them?”

“No. Not either of them. I have no memories of parents. I was,” he cleared his throat, “you know, found and then brought to an orphanage.”

There, it was out. And with it the shameful words seemed to be written in bold black letters on his person.

Bastard

Unwanted

Unloved

Her eyes softened from inquisitive green to mellow gray, but she said nothing for a minute. He hated the sympathy he saw there. And was floored by what she said next.

“She must have been going through some really rough times to have had to do that.”

“That’s not how I see it.” He bit out the words, and if possible, his voice became harder.

“If you know nothing about them or their struggles, why not think they had no choice but to do that? Why not choose to believe what they did was the only choice they had?” Her husky voice was soothing and washed over him like honey.

Why not indeed? He didn’t believe that for a second, did he? They were evil, weren’t they? Especially his mother, who had left two sons from two different fathers and taken off to who knows where, never to be heard from again. Neither of them ever intended to come back. Had they? Had she wanted to come back? Had she fallen ill? Had she looked for them? Had she come up against a brick wall because he had gone and changed their names? Had she died?
No, no, no.