You Belong to Me by Johanna Lindsey Read Free Book Online Page A

you had forgiven Vasili for the way he behaved toward you on your trip to Cardinia.”
    “I have,” she assured her husband. “I understand he was only trying to keep me from falling in love with him. But he should have figured out right away that that wasn’t going to happen, instead of being such an utter ass nearly the entire trip. But he’s still a peacock, and I can’t tell you how much I’ve hoped that some woman would bring him down a peg or two, though I wish it were one he was interested in. Vasili’s problem is that women don’t tell him no. They don’t wait to get to know him, they fall instantly for that face of his, and imagine what that’s done to him. It’s no wonder he’s so insufferably arrogant. He can’t get through a day that some woman isn’t trying to seduce him.”
    Stefan laughed at her look of disgust. “You would be surprised, Tanya mine, how annoying Vasili finds that circumstance.”
    She snorted. “Oh, sure he does, about as much as I don’t like being pregnant.”
    Since she was absolutely thrilled about her pregnancy and everyone knew it, she’d just dismissed his remark. “But it’s true,” he insisted, his sherry-gold eyes glinting with laughter. “There is, after all, only so much one man can do in one day.”
    There was no way she could restrain her sarcasm now. “Well, that explains it. He gets annoyed when he can’t accommodate every woman who asks. I can’t tell you how sorry I feel for him. I’m probably the only woman he’s ever met who actually, seriously , disliked him, but that doesn’t count, since that’s just what he was striving for in my case. But I honestly think it would do him a world of good to meet a woman who ignores him. Unfortunately, I doubt we’ll ever see it happen.”
    “And you say you’ve forgiven him?”
    She sighed. “I’m sorry, Stefan. I suppose I do still have trouble separating the Vasili Imet from the Vasili I know now. I know he’s usually charming. I know he can be terribly sweet at times. And, of course, I know how fiercely loyal he is to you, and I love him for that. But the arrogance and condescension, the derision and scorn—that didn’t come from nowhere. He has all those traits, though I will allow, not in the abundance I first thought.”
    “I’ll go along with the arrogance, but that’s all,” he replied loyally.
    She started to argue, but his raised brow stopped her. Vasili was, after all, not just his only cousin, but as close to him as any dearly loved brother could be.
    “Oh, very well,” she conceded. “But he’s dreaming if he thinks he can get this Russian girl to cry off from marrying him, and you know it. She’s going to fall instantly in love with him, and no matter how nasty he tries to be, it won’t make any difference in the end. He’ll break her heart, but she’ll still want him for her own.” And then Tanya sighed. “I pity that poor girl, I really do.”

5
    T wo months later, the girl Tanya had pitied was still blissfully unaware that she had a betrothed, or that his arrival was imminent.
    Anna was with Constantin when Bohdan brought the news that the Cardinian was only a few hours away. The baron had stationed a number of men along the roads leading to his estate for just that purpose, so he wouldn’t be caught unawares, and because, despite Anna’s pleading to do otherwise, he was waiting until nearly the last minute to apprise his daughter of the upcoming nuptials.
    “He has certainly dragged his feet about getting here,” Constantin felt compelled to grumble. “The countess’s letter informing me that he was coming arrived more than a month ago. He should have been right behind it.”
    “And what does that tell you?” Anna asked, receiving no more than a scowl for an answer. “Exactly. It says he doesn’t want to get married.”
    Constantin was nervous, extremely nervous, not only because Count Petroff was finally about to arrive, but because he had yet to inform