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“Viktor, I can’t allow you to do that.”
He nodded again, understanding. Of course, he understood. “Then I will give you, your sisters, the company, whatever, a loan.” He turned to grin wickedly at her. “I will give you very generous terms and all kinds of ways you can pay.”
She threw a pillow at his head. “No. I won’t accept money from you.”
“In all seriousness, there’s no way you and your sisters can raise this kind of money. If you insist, we will handle everything through an intermediary at the bank. We will keep it strictly business.”
Emerson knew she should refuse him, but she also knew she had few, if any, other options. “Let me talk to my sisters. I’m sure they, too, will be grateful for your assistance.”
“Even if we weren’t together, it would be a good deal for me. Very limited risk on my part for the interest received. Besides I’m probably the cause of this.”
She drew her knees up to her chest. “How do you figure?”
“The other night at the gala. You rejected him and then danced with me on the balcony.”
“And then ran away.”
“Like Cinderella from the ball. I’m told it was very romantic. That wouldn’t sit well with a man like Toney.”
“Good. I’ll feel a whole lot better if this is all your fault,” she teased feeling as though she could breathe for the first time since Toney had barged into their offices.
He crossed back to her, taking her face in his hands and kissing her deeply before getting into bed and pulling her close. “Tell me about your parents. How did they start Ravenel Reliance? How did they die?”
“My parents were wonderful people, but their parenting skills weren’t always on point. They loved each other deeply but my mother was—as they say—from the wrong side of the tracks. Both sets of parents threatened to disown them if they married. They basically gave them the finger and eloped to Las Vegas. They were madly in love.”
“Not much time for their children?”
“It wasn’t like that—not really. They loved us, but they loved each other more and they were determined to never ask their families for anything.”
“There have been members of my family who were guilty of the same thing. They loved their children, but only as an extension of their own love. In the end, their inability to see reality cost them all their lives.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I never knew them. It was a long time ago.”
“I’m still sorry. So, my sisters and I had a kind of feral upbringing.”
Viktor chuckled. “That explains a lot.”
Emerson punched him playfully. “Jerk. Anyway, they were just starting to make a name for the company when they died. It was a traffic accident. They say my dad lost control of the car…”
“But you don’t believe it?”
“No. I don’t. I never did. I was told that if there was any question they’d have to look for illicit substances.”
“In other words, they’d say he was drunk or stoned.”
Emerson nodded. “He wasn’t. I know my dad. He never, and I mean never, took illegal drugs and rarely drank. At one point he wanted to race grand prix autos. He knew how to drive. There’s no way the family station wagon got away from him.”
“But you didn’t pursue it; that doesn’t sound like you.”
“I had my hands full. Tegan was falling apart, and Kendra was mad at the world. I needed that life insurance money just to hang onto the house. So, I did what I did, and swore I’d have no regrets. We’ve been trying to build the family business with little to no backing. What about you?”
“Not much to tell. Many members of my family escaped the Bolshevik Revolution and fled to Paris and then when Hitler started his rise to power, they fled again, but this time to England. I was born there.”
“Your accent sounds more Russian than English.”
“I was surrounded by Russian relatives. We didn’t interact a lot with the English. I spoke only Russian until it was time for me to go to boarding school.”
