An Engagement in Seattle Read Free Page B

studied Julia Conrad. Outwardly she was often arrogant and sometimes sarcastic. But she wasn’t entirely capable of hiding her softer side. Every now and then he caught puzzling, contradictory glimpses of her. She cared deeply for her employees and was often generous to a fault. Then there’d been the day, shortly after Alek had come to America, when he’d seen Julia with her grandmother.
    Julia’s facade had melted away that afternoon. If Alek hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn’t have believed such a transformation was possible. Julia had glowed with joy and pride as she gave her grandmother a tour of the rebuilt facilities. Alek had watched from a distance—and had held on to that image of her ever since.
    Marriage. He sighed inwardly. His religion didn’t accept divorce and he refused to sacrifice his life and his happiness for a business proposition.
    “I wish you’d say something,” she said.
    He returned to the chair and kept his features as expressionless as he could. “There’s much we would need to consider before we enter into this agreement.”
    “Of course,” she returned.
    “Your money does not interest me.”
    She seemed surprised by his words. “Even for your family?”
    “Even for my family.” What he earned now was adequate. Julia wasn’t the only one who was proud. Alek couldn’t be bought. She, a woman who needed no one, needed him, and he appreciated what it had taken for her to approach him with this offer. Alek wasn’t being completely unselfish, nor was he without greed. He had a price in mind.
    “Then what is it you want?”
    He shrugged, not knowing how to tell her.
    Restlessly she came to her feet and walked away from him. He admired her smooth, fluid grace. She was a woman who moved with confidence, sure of herself and her surroundings. Usually. But at the moment she seemed sure of nothing and obviously that disturbed her.
    “I don’t know what to say,” Aleksandr answered truthfully.
    “Do you find the idea of marriage to me so distasteful?” she asked.
    “No,” he told her quietly. “You’re lovely.”
    “Then what is it?”
    “I don’t want money.”
    “If it isn’t money, then what? A percentage of my stock? A vice presidency? Tell me.”
    “You Americans regard marriage differently than we do in my country. There, when a man and woman marry, it is for many reasons, not all of them love. Nevertheless, when we marry it is for life.”
    “But you aren’t in Russia now, you’re in America.”
    “Americans treat marriage like dirty laundry. When it becomes inconvenient, you toss it aside. My head tells me I live in your country now, but my heart believes in tradition. If we marry, Julia, and it would be my wish that we do, there will be no divorce.”
    Her breath escaped in a rush and her dark eyes flared briefly.
    Aleksandr ignored the fury he read in her and continued. “We both stand to gain from this arrangement. I will remain in the country and complete my experiments. You will have what you wish, as well. But there is a cost to this, one we should calculate now. The marriage will be a real one, or there will be no marriage.”
    Her gaze cut through him with ill-concealed contempt. “So you want more than the golden egg, you want the whole goose.”
    “The goose?” Aleksandr hadn’t heard this story. He smiled. “In my family, goose is traditionally served at the wedding meal. I do not know about the golden egg, but you may keep that. I want only you.”
    Her voice was husky when she spoke. “That’s what I thought.”
    The phone on her desk rang just then and Julia reached for it. “I said I didn’t want to be disturbed,” she said impatiently. Her face tightened as she listened. “Yes, yes, of course, you did the right thing. Put me through immediately.” Several seconds passed. “Dr. Silverman, this is Julia Conrad. I understand you’ve had my grandmother taken to Virginia Mason Hospital.”
    Alek watched as the eyes that had