Written on the Wind (The Blackstone Legacy #2)(49)
“Must I repeat myself?” he demanded. “I need your help finding this Admiral McNally person, and I would like to do so tomorrow.”
“Don’t pull your antiquated loftiness with me. I invested forty thousand dollars in a line of music boxes that must be completed before Easter, and I’m meeting with the manufacturer tomorrow morning to discuss it.”
Natalia’s passion for business was one of her most appealing qualities, but she ought to put the railroad ahead of music boxes. He moved closer to her, drawn by an invisible force that always hummed just below the surface when she was near.
“You want me to wait because of music boxes?” he asked in disbelief.
“I want you to act like a normal human being who understands that the sun and the stars and the planets don’t rotate around his whims.”
Her wickedly pointed insults shot a bolt of pure desire into him, and she seemed just as aroused. He ripped off the starched collar that was choking him and threw it in the dirt. Now that he’d made up his mind to meet with Admiral McNally, it should be done immediately, not after she looked at pretty music boxes.
“Tomorrow, Natalia.”
She sputtered in anger. “I know this may come as a surprise to you, Dimitri, but I actually have an entire life outside of your demands to go shopping or wire money to your mother. Ever since I met you, I’ve done nothing but cater to your every whim. I gave you a manicure, for pity’s sake!”
“Will you take me to meet Admiral McNally tomorrow?”
“Yes!” she shouted, anger snapping. “Yes, I’ll take you despite how arrogant and horrible you are.” Her eyes flashed in the lamplight, furious and magnificent. “You owe me, Dimitri. You owe me a lot for catering to you like this.”
“I will never deny it. I’ll lay the world at your feet if you let me.”
“I don’t want the world,” she said. “I just want you, which annoys me to no end.”
Her words nearly felled him. “You know that I adore you, don’t you?”
“Prove it.”
It was the invitation he’d been waiting for. He swooped down like a Cossack and swept her into his arms, kissing her like there was no tomorrow. She didn’t resist, and at last—at last—he was kissing his dearest Natalia. She kissed him back with equal fervor. He lifted her off the ground but didn’t break their kiss.
“Ma’am?” The carriage driver stood a few yards away in uncertainty.
Dimitri drew on some of those three hundred years of arrogance to dismiss him. “Go away,” he ordered.
He tried to kiss Natalia again, but she overruled him.
“Stay, Archer.” Her hair had tumbled down her back, and she was still peeved, but she was also alive and vibrant and real. He didn’t want this moment to end, and it didn’t look like she did either. She stayed within his arms, her eyes fastened on him even as she spoke to the driver. “I’m ready to go home and have no more interest in pursuing this line of discourse.”
“I don’t know what discourse means,” Dimitri said, scrambling for an excuse to prolong this moment.
“It means speaking. Debate. Arguing.”
“I like this type of discourse. Don’t ever back away from normal human discourse, Natalia.” He loved it when she threw caution to the wind. It rarely happened, but tonight she was full of fire, and for once she let it burn without restraint.
“You’re asking me to back away from my entire life,” she said. “The bank. My father.”
“Yes, in a noble cause. More noble than music boxes.”
Apparently those were fighting words, for she straightened her spine and her voice rang with conviction. “This country was made great on the strength of business, and my calling is to help it flourish. Maybe it’s only a music box to you, but it’s also jobs and security for every artist or shopkeeper involved in their sale. I’m proud of my work. It takes two kinds of people to make businesses thrive. It takes dreamers and doers like you, and sensible people behind the scenes to make the dreams happen. That’s who we are. Romance and reason. Fire and ice.”
Dimitri struggled to keep his breathing under control. “That may be the most alluring statement since Cleopatra tempted Marc Antony to world domination.”
“They both ended up dead,” she pointed out.
“As befits all good heroes.”
She finally laughed. He loved the sound because Natalia’s laughter was a hard-won prize, and he hauled her back into his arms.
The odds were stacked against them, but there was no one else he’d rather walk into battle with than Natalia Blackstone. The future ahead was daunting. His title was worth something, but when news of its revocation reached American shores, it was anyone’s guess how the public would respond, which meant he needed to collect allies quickly.
He leaned down, touching his forehead to hers. “Please, Natalia,” he said in a rough voice, all hint of teasing gone. “I need your help.”
She sighed, then pulled back a few inches to look up at him. “All right,” she said. “Tomorrow morning we’ll go see Admiral McNally and pray he can lead us to the right people.”
21
The following morning, Natalia was still baffled by her own behavior outside the carriage house. She had never been so furious and entranced at the same time. Dimitri had kissed her as if his life depended on it, all in view of the carriage driver, but it had been the most alive moment of her life. Embarrassment rained down at the memory, but she needed to ignore it and get down to business.