It was too late.
She’d seen him. For the first time since she’d walked out of his hospital room. Twenty-six months ago. That had been the last time the world had seen Leonid, too. He’d dropped off the radar completely.
But he was back. Everywhere Kassandra turned there’d been news of him. She’d managed not to look. Until now.
Now her retinas burned with the image of him striding out of his Fifth Avenue headquarters. In spite of herself, she’d strained to see how much of the Leonid she’d known had survived.
The man she’d known had crackled with irrepressible vitality, a smile of whimsy and assurance always hovering on his lips and sparking in his eyes.
The man who’d filled the screen had appeared totally detached, as if he didn’t consider himself part of the world anymore. Or as if it was beneath his notice.
And the stalking swagger was gone. In its place was a deliberate, menacing prowl. Whether or not the changes were by-products of the impact of his accident, it had been clear, even in those fleeting moments on-screen:
This wasn’t the man she’d known.
* * *
Twin Heirs to His Throne is part of Mills & Boon Desire’s No. 1 bestselling series, Billionaires and Babies: Powerful men … wrapped around their babies’ little fingers.
Twin Heirs to His Throne
Olivia Gates
OLIVIA GATES has always pursued creative passions such as singing and handicrafts. She still does, but only one of her passions grew gratifying enough, consuming enough, to become an ongoing career—writing.
She is most fulfilled when she is creating worlds and conflicts for her characters, then exploring and untangling them bit by bit, sharing her protagonists’ every heart-wrenching heartache and hope, their every heart-pounding doubt and trial, until she leads them to an indisputably earned and gloriously satisfying happy ending.
When she’s not writing, she is a doctor, a wife to her own alpha male, and a mother to one brilliant girl and one demanding Angora cat. Visit Olivia at www.oliviagates.com.
Contents
“Only family is allowed to visit Mr. Voronov, Ms. Stavros.”
“At least...”
The nurse cut Kassandra’s protest off, stonewalling her again. “Only family is allowed to learn information about his condition.”
“But...”
Refusing to give concessions they both knew she wasn’t allowed to grant, the nurse rushed away, dismissing her like everyone else had. For the past damned week. Since his accident.
The dread and desperation she’d been struggling to keep at bay rose until she felt her blood charring.
Leonid. Lying somewhere in this hospital, injured, out of reach, with her deprived of even knowing his condition. She wasn’t family. She was nothing to him, not to the rest of the world. Nobody knew of their yearlong affair.
With no one left to approach for information or reassurance, she staggered to the hectic waiting area of the highest-ranking New York City university hospital. The moment she slumped down on the first vacant seat, the tears she’d been forbidding herself to shed since she’d heard of his accident spilled right out of her soul.
Nothing could happen to him. Her vital, powerful Leonid. She couldn’t live without him, could barely remember her life before she’d first laid eyes on him three years ago.
That night, she’d been the star model and one of the top designers in a charity fashion show. As she’d walked out onto the catwalk, her gaze, which normally never focused on anyone in the audience, had been dragged toward a point at the end of the massive space. Then another unprecedented thing had happened. She’d almost stumbled, had stopped for endless, breathless moments, staring at him across the distance, overwhelmed by his sheer gorgeousness and presence.
Though tycoon gods populated her Greek-American family, and she moved in the circles of the megarich and powerful, Leonid was in a league of one. Not only was he a billionaire with a sports-brand empire, but a decathlon world champion...and royalty to boot. He was a prince of Zorya, a kingdom once part of the former Soviet Union, and annexed to Belarus since its disintegration. Though the kingdom hadn’t existed in over ninety years, he was still considered royalty in Asia and Europe—and sports and financial royalty in the rest of the world.
Not that any of these attributes had contributed to his being the only man to ever get her hot and flustered with a mere look. He’d continued to scorch her with such looks for two endless years as they’d moved in the same circles. But nothing had come of it. He’d never come closer than the minimum it had taken him to keep her inflamed and in suspense, until she’d believed that the lust she’d felt blasting from him had been wishful thinking on her part.
Then had come the wedding of one of her best friends, Caliope Sarantos, to Maksim Volkov in Russia. Leonid had been one of the groom’s guests. After every man but him had asked her to dance, frustrated out of her mind, she’d escaped outside to get some air. She’d found none when he’d followed her, at last, and taken away her breath completely.
She’d since relived those heart-pounding moments endless times, as he’d closed in on her, informing