“I’m going to call you tomorrow.”
“I won’t be home,” she said, taking off down the street.
“I bet you will,” he replied to her retreating back. God, that beautiful ass. It was going to haunt him until he had it in his hands again. Her reactions to him had been amazing. She had responded to his touch like a finely tuned instrument. Behind her walls, beneath her reserve, she was vibrating with passion. More importantly, she took to submission like a natural. He couldn’t wait to Dom her again, really train her up to the good stuff.
She didn’t make it easy for him, though, just as he’d suspected. She didn’t answer any of his nightly calls to the Argounov household the following week and she didn’t return to the club. No matter—he had a secret weapon. He dialed the Argounov number, this time during the day while Kat was at work. “Hullo?” came the strident voice he remembered.
“Mrs. Argounov,” he said in his most polite, eligible-bachelor tone, “this is Ryan McCarthy, Kat’s friend from the hospital. I’m so sorry I haven’t called before now. I’d love to come to that dinner you offered and meet Kat’s father. How is Kat, anyway?”
He could hear the excitement in her voice when she replied, “Oh, Dr. Ryan McCarthy! Katya is doing just fine. How wonderful you call here. You come see her and have dinner with us. This is great!”
“I’d love to surprise her. Just show up to dinner, you know? Kind of blow her mind?”
“Okay, yes.” Her mother chuckled conspiratorially. “Blow the mind. Yes, that is a good idea. You come tomorrow night and Katyusha, she will be surprised.”
Ryan thought surprised might be an understatement. But he was a goal-driven person and now he had a goal. He sat down and absently started folding cranes, lost in thoughts of thick dark curls, deep green eyes and Kat’s skin against his cheek.
* * * * *
Nope. Surprised wasn’t the best word for what Kat seemed to be feeling when he showed up at the Argounov home the next night. Elena pulled him in, enveloping him in a smothering hug. Over Elena’s shoulder, Kat pinned him with a murderous glare.
“Ekaterina,” Elena snapped. “Come and greet your visitor. Look! Look who has come.”
“I see him,” Kat said.
“Well, come give a hug to him. This man who help you when you banged your head very bad. He helped you.”
Helped her, thought Ryan. And spanked her and fucked her silly in a storage closet last week.
“Come, come greet him,” Elena crowed, pushing Ryan toward her. “She is looking well, no, Ryan?” She said it like Ry-ann. “Completely her old self.”
He gave Kat a huge smile. “Ekaterina. You do look great. Really, completely wonderful.” He hugged her, holding her close and whispered in her ear, “Don’t grind your teeth.”
“You’re kidding me, right?” she whispered back. “You’re here for dinner? Very nice.”
“Yes, it was very nice of your mother to invite me. It was terribly rude of me to wait so long.”
“Katya, go,” interrupted Elena. “Go in the kitchen and help your sisters. I introduce Dr. Ryan McCarthy to your father. He has wanted to meet Dr. Ryan and say thank you.”
“Yes, we know he’s a doctor already, Mama,” Kat muttered before turning on her heel to obey. She disappeared into the back of the home, her family’s wonderful home that was crowded, cluttered and absolutely resonant with life. Ryan waded through playing children and toys to where Kat’s father sat in the TV room off the living room.
“Dmitri! Dmitri!” Elena said briskly.
The thin, gray-haired man looked up at Ryan with a confused gaze as Elena rousted him from his easy chair.
“Here is the man, this one, Dr. Ryan McCarthy. He is the one who has saved your daughter’s life.”
“Well,” Ryan said, “I just tried to stop the bleeding and got her to the hospital. I wouldn’t exactly say I saved her life—”
“Oh, I do thank you,” Kat’s father interrupted, clasping him in a smothering embrace. For an older, somewhat delicate-looking man, his grip was surprisingly strong. “You have saved my princess. I owe you my life. My many thanks are yours,” he said, backing away with some effusive bows. His English was flawless and unaccented, if somewhat clipped.
“It was my pleasure to come to her assistance,” Ryan replied, perhaps a little formally. The whole event here, his royal reception, left him feeling like nothing less than a prince. He was seated later, of course, at the head of the table in a place of honor with Kat at his right side. Too bad the princess hated his guts.
Kat was silent throughout the meal, one of the most delicious meals Ryan had ever had the pleasure of eating. Her sisters cooed over their children and listened while Elena grilled him on every aspect of his life and Dmitri nodded from the other end of the table. But Kat just sat beside him in silence, stewing and blushing alternately, which charmed him no end. After dinner Elena insisted on reading his fortune, and he was happy to play along. With the whole family looking on, she prophesied a long life and much happiness for him, including many children with the love of his life whose description sounded suspiciously similar to her daughter.
All of this seemed to pain Kat terribly. He could have said, oh, it’s getting late, I’d better go, but he didn’t. It was too fun watching her squirm. And he needed to find some time alone with her before he left because they needed to talk. She disappeared into the kitchen for as long as she was able, but eventually she escaped upstairs. He caught her coming out of the bathroom. She gasped as he took her in his arms.
“Your family is wonderful, do you know that?” he said against her cheek.
She gave a humorless laugh, the smile not
