them it has been different. I yearn for their touch right now, I crave it constantly and I just can’t get enough.
This though? This is making me ridiculously uncomfortable.
“What the—” Blaine is the first one to react, seconds from jumping off of his chair and yanking Kronin off of me but his future stepfather intervenes, explaining what the fuck is going on.
“Heed, boy! Evgeny is an artist. Actually, one of the most prominent modern artists of this century. This is how he made his fortune. And this is why he’s here: I’ve commissioned him to create a painting, a portrait of myself and my new bride, to be hung in our penthouse in the new resort I’m having built in the Maldives, that will make this hotel look like a hovel. It will have the place of honor on our mantle.”
Kronin intervenes, “But of course it will be my pleasure to give you the painting as a wedding gift, especially since you’ve commissioned several pieces to be displayed around the resort. We’re practically family, товарищ (comrad). I just hope that this beautiful creature will agree to be my model for the sculpture that you want as the center of your Bellagio style fountain. You could be a Greek goddess, дорогая (darling).”
Blaine quits glaring at his stepfather and asks, “Your mantle? Do you plan on spending a lot of time in the Maldives?” Van Der Beck smiles, as if he were planning to move one block away.
“Yes, Blaine. Your mother and I have decided to make the Maldives our permanent residence. I’m in the process of selling the Schiller Corporation. These resorts belong to a new venture, completely separate from the old company. After all the trouble your brother’s old man caused, the company was navigating in stormy waters anyway, so I decided that it was time to retire from the stressful world of international finance and become a modest hotel tycoon.”
I don’t miss the way Kaden looks at Royce: Van Der Beck is trying to get rid of the old company he embezzled from, after he managed to get Royce’s father to take the fall for his own crimes. And he’s moving to the Maldives, which is a red flag in itself: even I know that the island country has no extradition treaty with the United States. So, this can only mean that whatever dealings Van Der Beck has with Kronin, they will result in the need for him to disappear somewhere where the US government can’t bring him to justice for his crimes.
Kronin seems totally smitten with me and to be honest, he makes me even more nervous than Van Der Beck. While Alicia’s fiancé is a bully and looks dangerous, the Russian billionaire turned artist exudes a completely different type of danger. There’s something in his gaze that looks not just violent but unhinged and I know that look, I’ve stared into a similar gaze many times.
“So дорогая (darling), please tell me you’ll consider posing for me?” I open my mouth at a loss what to answer, because while I know that this could be another golden opportunity to find out what our enemies are planning, my instincts tell me to run as far away as possible from Evgeny Kronin.
“You don’t have to answer immediately, Sloane. I’m throwing a party for Casper and Alicia’s rehearsal dinner on my yacht tomorrow night—” Van Der Beck interrupts him. “I was making preparations for the rehearsal dinner on my yacht, I thought—”
Kronin’s voice loses its inspired, almost musical lilt, becoming suddenly cold and hard. His tone causes a shiver to work its way up my spine as the smile stays firmly in place on the Russian’s face. “Nonsense! One of the reasons why I accepted to come here to deliver my wedding present personally, is that other little side business we have going on.”
I almost don’t recognize my own voice when I ask him: “And what would that be?”
Kronin’s smile widens as he explains. “See дорогая (darling), I met Casper in Moscow at a lavish party thrown by one of my friends. It was … what do Americans call it when you show your new house to friends and they bring you presents?”
River speaks for the first time. “A house warming party?”
Kronin nods. “большой спасиба! (Many thanks!) That’s it, it was a housewarming party and I gave my friend a small painting as a gift. Casper was there to sell his company to Anatoli but the deal fell through. Casper and