rooms. He gets claustrophobic in small spaces,’ Olya confided.
‘There has to be a helipad and easy access to London. Nikolai prefers to fly himself and he enjoys the nightlife in the city,’ Sveta added.
‘What does he like about the countryside?’ Abbey prompted.
Blank expressions met the enquiry. Apparently Nikolai had yet to demonstrate a single preference for rural pastimes-he didn’t hunt, shoot or fish, nor did he cherish an interest in architecture. Darya, however, gave her useful information about his St Petersburg base. Leaving the Arlov building, Abbey embarked on a tour of the most upmarket estate agencies, gained information on several city properties and promise of further details that would be sent to her and began planning an appropriate presentation. Her mobile phone buzzed and she answered it.
It was Nikolai. ‘Where are you?’ he asked. ‘My driver was waiting to take you wherever you wanted to go.’
‘That won’t be necessary-’
‘Allow me to decide what is necessary.’
Abbey grimaced. ‘I think I’ll find it very difficult to allow you to decide anything that concerns me.’
‘Where are you?’
Grudgingly she told him and he urged her to wait to be picked up.
‘I’m taking you to a film premiere the day after tomorrow,’ Nikolai continued. ‘Sveta will be in touch with regard to your acquisition of a new wardrobe commensurate with the position you’re taking on.’
‘You should just get married,’ Abbey informed him tartly. ‘What you need is a wife, not me play-acting as a hostess in some outfit you’ve had to pay for.’
‘I’m not the marrying kind.’ His reply was icy.
A few minutes later, a limo pulled up beside her, the driver jumping out to open the passenger door to her. Abbey felt like a rubber ball being steamrollered flat by an immovable weight. She was also certain that, just like a rubber ball, she would not be able to tolerate being flattened for long. Caroline had invited her over for tea and, since it had been a couple of weeks since she had visited her brother’s home, she went straight there.
Caroline’s nanny opened the front door. Abbey sent an uneasy glance back at the limo, since the chauffeur had insisted that he would wait for her. Her nephew and niece, Benjamin and Alice, greeted her cheerfully and burbled on about their day at school. Abbey hugged the children and found her sister-in-law in the kitchen engaged in putting together a meal. ‘You have to tell all,’ Caroline said the instant Abbey walked through the door into the cosy cluttered room.
And, to her surprise, Abbey found herself doing exactly that, although she still kept Nikolai’s use of his charitable donation to put pressure on her a secret. Caroline stopped chopping vegetables for the casserole, her warm brown eyes wide and concerned. ‘You slept with him?’
Abbey nodded wretchedly.
Visibly striving to conceal how surprised she was by that confession, Caroline said, ‘Well, I think it’s marvellous that you’ve finally met someone who really attracts you.’
‘Even if he’s a womanising billionaire?’
‘The guy couldn’t take his eyes off you at the fashion show. It was like he had a homing device planted on you. He’s keen,’ the small blond woman pronounced cheerfully. ‘And why not? You’re beautiful and very intelligent. Drew tells me Nikolai was on the phone first thing this morning to make an appointment to see you, so how did that work out?’
Abbey told her almost the whole story.
‘I still say he’s keen,’ Caroline persisted. ‘You’ve backed him into a corner. He has no other way of seeing you.’
Abbey dropped her head, her violet eyes betraying how unimpressed she was by that opinion.
‘And there’s an even brighter side to this,’ her sister-in-law continued chirpily. ‘When word gets round that Nikolai Arlov is using our services, it’ll be amazingly good free publicity and excellent for business. My goodness-’ Caroline broke off suddenly, frowning as she looked out through the window at the limousine she had finally noticed parked beyond the hedge. ‘Did you arrive in that monstrous vehicle out there?’
Abbey nodded uncomfortably, restrained from sharing the full content of her meeting with Nikolai by the confidentiality he had demanded. ‘Nikolai insisted I use it while I’m working for him.’
Caroline looked amused. ‘How to travel in style,’ she teased. ‘You’re going up in the world.’
But Abbey felt the exact opposite. Nikolai was interfering with her life and she didn’t care how good he might be for business at that moment; she could only fiercely resent his meddling. ‘How are you and Drew doing?’ she prompted.
Caroline pulled a face. ‘Right now, your brother seems very worried about the business and he’s still burning the midnight oil most nights. It almost feels like he’s avoiding me,’ she confided heavily. ‘He’s just not himself, Abbey, and I don’t know what’s going on with him.’
Resolving to take a closer look at the accounts as soon as she got the opportunity, Abbey went home. Only after agreeing a pickup time with her for the following morning was the driver prepared to leave. She found she couldn’t sleep that night: Nikolai’s derisive wish that she be warm and happy in her cold bed haunted her like a mocking laugh. She remembered the feel of his hard muscled physique against hers and the incredible excitement. She tossed and turned, flipping over the pillow to find a cooler place for her hot face to rest. Her body tingled as though she were on fire and she was so tense that when her mobile phone beeped in receipt of a text message she jumped as if thunder had rolled through the room. Worried that it might be something urgent because it was after midnight, she scrambled up with a groan and went to check her phone.
‘Invite me over. I can’t sleep,’ Nikolai had texted her.
Rage ripped through her like a cleansing flame. She wanted to reply with something scornful, but she did not want him to know that she was lying awake as well. So she got back into bed without replying, the race of her heartbeat and the sensual tingling now banished by shame and the conviction that such responses were a shocking sign of her weak lack of self-control. As she lay dreaming up scornful replies that she might have made, she finally fell uneasily asleep.
At eight the next morning, Caroline phoned Abbey in a state and told her that Drew hadn’t come home the night before and wasn’t answering his mobile phone. The two women discussed whether or not it was too soon to inform the police, but before they could make a decision on that Drew finally called Caroline on her mobile and the emergency was over.
‘I had a few drinks too many and slept on the sofa in my office,’ her brother confided, when Abbey arrived at Support Systems later that morning. ‘Caroline had no need to make such a fuss! She contacted practically everyone we know to ask if they’d seen me-’
‘Your wife was worried sick about you. You should have phoned. Is that what you do when you go out these evenings-go out drinking alone?’
An angry flush on his thin face, Drew gave her a resentful look. ‘No, as it happens. I have a group of friends I usually hang out with. Mind your own business, Abbey!’
Sveta phoned and told Abbey she had an appointment at a fashion salon just before lunch. A copy of her contract had been couriered over to the legal firm Support Systems used. Abbey went through it with their solicitor and signed it. She made use of what was left of the morning to check out the properties in the City of London. Uncovering various drawbacks, she removed some of them from the list, revised her short presentation and received new information from two agents.
Sveta greeted her when she emerged from the limousine to keep their appointment and escorted her into the exclusive salon where her measurements were taken and an array of fantastic clothes was paraded by models for her benefit. Garments for every possible occasion were selected by the stylist present, who promised to locate the right accessories to go with the outfits and urged Abbey to make a personal choice from the gorgeous collection of silk, tulle and lace underwear that was laid out for her examination. In all, the acquisition of a new wardrobe entailed a display of jaw-dropping extravagance that shook Abbey to her conservative core.
‘Does Nikolai often make over-the-top gestures like this?’ she asked Sveta.
‘Nikolai is one of a kind,’ Sveta responded with diplomacy. ‘I have never met his equal.’
Nikolai phoned Abbey and said he would pick her up at her apartment in an hour. ‘I have a property
