Free Total Package by Cait London Page B

I understand why.”
    “He’s only being nice, but really, I can walk. Danya, put me down.”
    His answer was curt and adamant. “No.”
    “I could make you,” she whispered in his ear.
    “Could you?” His tone held a challenge.
    Sidney watched the Stepanov wives come out of the resort and lean close against their husbands. She didn’t understand what was happening, but suddenly she was amid the Stepanovfamily and Danya was holding her close. She tried to maintain appearances when she knew that her face was heating.
    “Oh, hello, everyone,” she managed lightly, and then the words just flew from her lips: “I’m not hurt. I can walk just fine. Isn’t this corsage beautiful? It’s my first. I didn’t get Danya anything. Oh, no, I didn’t get Danya anything, and look, he loaned me these beautiful earrings to go with this dress—Ellie made it in only a day, you know. She’s wonderful, and yes, I would love to take your family portraits—Ah, this is a corsage, an orchid. No one else is wearing a corsage, Danya. Why am I?”
    “Sid?” Danya whispered against her temple.
    “Huh?”
    “Hush. Everything will be just fine.” He carried her into the resort and slowly placed her on her feet. Danya took the high strappy heels from her and kneeled to slide them onto her feet. He rose to turn her slowly until she faced a full length, massive mirror.
    Sidney didn’t recognize herself; standing in front of Danya, she looked sleek and beautiful, the earrings shimmering in her ears. She’d dabbed a bit of the model’s makeup around her eyes and glossed her lips, and she looked feminine and—
    “Beautiful,” Danya whispered, his arms sliding around her from behind to draw her close to him.
    She seemed so unfamiliar, this beautiful feminine woman, and terror spread through her. “This isn’t me. I know it isn’t. I want to go home, Danya. Let’s leave now. Say I’m sick or something. And I really am getting that way,” she added earnestly.
    His opened lips moved against her nape, and then to her cheek leaving a heated trail as he whispered, “So you’re running from a fight? You’re afraid?”
    Sidney looked over her shoulder to him. “You know that’s not true. Why I’ve been in the middle of earthquakes, I’ve—”
    His mind-blasting, devastating, gorgeous smile stopped her mind and she could just stare up at him. Danya took her hand and laced his fingers with hers. He felt solid and strongand good and a part of her. “We’re still who we are, friends who met on Strawberry Hill, right? Let’s go socialize, do our bit and then eat. I’m starving.”
    Who was she? Sidney wondered as they entered the Amoteh’s ballroom and the Stepanov family came to surround them. Who was this beautiful woman, floating dreamily on a cloud?
    She was going to do something wrong—she was going to embarrass Danya— “Let’s leave now—”
    Then she saw the models homing in on Danya, moving en masse toward them and she knew she had to protect him….
     

    Danya looked down at the small woman standing protectively in front of him. “Back off,” Sidney said firmly to the approaching tall svelte models. “You’re not getting him. He’s mine.”
    It wasn’t exactly a declaration of love, but it would do, Danya thought with pleasure.
    A tall sleek, raven-haired model and a blonde with a carefully tousled mane came close to study Sidney. “Sid?” The dark-haired woman asked tentatively.
    “Sid?” the blonde asked, leaning down from her six-foot height to look at Sidney.
    “Yeah. It’s me. Just back off, will you? And if you make fun of me, just think of how I can make you look—really awful.”
    The models grinned impishly. “But, Sid, we wouldn’t do that. We love you.”
    “Yeah, well, just don’t try to cuddle me. I don’t go in for that hugging, kissy-poo stuff. Back off, will you?”
    A sultry redhead with green eyes came to stand near Danya. “You must be Mr. Wonderful. No wonder Sid has been