The Silver Fox and the Red-Hot Dove by Deborah Smith Read Free Book Online

elegant white wolfhound just waiting to taste her neck.
Proklyatnye!
And all his schemes could go to hell with him!
    Elena pushed his hand off her shoulder. “Yes?”
    “We’ll be landing soon. We’re flying over my estate. Look.”
    “Why should this make any difference to me?”
    “It’s not what you expected, I think.”
    Casually, but with a hidden undercurrent of intrigue, she craned her head and saw only forest broken with wide swaths of meadow. “Do you live in a tree?”
    “I have so much land that you’d never tire of exploring it.”
    “If I was allowed to go where I wished.”
    “You will be.”
    The helicopter passed over a stone wall that ran through an alley in the forest as far as Elena could see. “Is your estate enclosed on all sides?”
    “The central part, yes. I like my privacy.”
    “That wall looks rather high and unclimbable,”she said with disgust. “A prison is a prison, no matter how much greenery you grow inside it.”
    “I’m not holding you prisoner, Elena, I’m
hiding
you.”
    “I was already hidden.”
    “Your people would have found you soon.”
    “The KGB are not ‘my people.’ ” She thought of dear Sergei, who, though he’d been as affectionate as a grandparent with her, would do his duty regardless. “And what will happen if
your
people find me?”
    “They won’t. But eventually you’ll have to ask the State Department for permission to stay in this country, you know.”
    “I will ask no one. They might send me back.”
    “No. They wouldn’t do that.”
    “How do you know? You say you’re not with the government. What gives you such assurance?” “I’d have, hmmm, heard about it on
television
if we ever turned anyone down.”
    She thought there was a sly tone in his voice, but she couldn’t be certain. The helicopter was too noisy to hear such subtle changes. “Such incidents are openly discussed?”
    “Oh, yes. You should see our talk shows. Because of them, we keep up with everything from Russian defectors to the sex lives of men who wear skirts.”
    “You talk about
sex
on television?”
    “Only between game shows, and usually before noon.”
    She frowned at the humorous glint in his eyes. “Well, I’m sure I’ll see my story on television when you sell me to the highest bidder.”
    “Sell you? No.” His expression turned serious, his eyes, shuttered. Elena’s training at the institute had been designed to fine-tune her alertness to the emotional as well as physical energies that swirled within people. Now she easily read the truth in Audubon’s expression.
    He was going to use her in some way. There was no doubt. It troubled him, perhaps made him feelguilty, but he would do it. “Sell me, yes,” she said wearily, but with sarcasm. “You terrible liar.”
    “I’m actually a magnificent liar, when the need arises. I’m afraid it’s a talent my work requires. Not a dishonorable one, when used for the right purposes.”
    “Hah. You make importing and exporting things sound like a profession filled with intrigue.”
    “Yes.” He leaned back in the heavily upholstered seat, stretched his long legs across her share of the small floor space, and linked his hands over his stomach. His invasion of her territory rattled her; his hooded eyes could hide his emotions much better than she’d expected. “I’m not going to sell you,” he repeated.
    “Then why are you interested in me?”
    “You’re beautiful, you’re in danger, and you find me irresistible.”
    “Only one of those is correct.”
    “Then it will be very interesting to find out
which
one, won’t it?” He smiled at her. “So, tell me why you expect me to sell you. You seem to think you’re worth a lot of money. Is there a shortage of secretaries in Moscow? Do you type a thousand words a minute?”
    “You think I’m worth a great deal. That’s what I meant.”
    “I think you’re worth much more than money. I
have
plenty of money.”
    “What don’t you have,