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fighting for his family, years that had taken their toll.
    But there was nothing he could do for this woman. Though it would be so easy to take what she offered, so easy to sweep her into his arms and carry her to his room, he wasn’t going to do it.
    She wasn’t kissing him because she wanted
him.
She was doing this to prove something to herself. And he didn’t feel like being the conduit through which she tried to vanquish her anger and disappointment.
    Her reaction to his news about her sister and Russell had not been what he’d expected. He’d set her up in his mind as a cold, calculating woman on a mission for her lover. He’d not stopped to think that maybe she really had been worried, or that she didn’t know her sister wasn’t missing but was instead sneaking off to Chad Russell’s room.
    Alexei didn’t like the way her tears had made him feel, theway her sweet vulnerability just now—the tentative kiss, the hint of desperation—struck a nerve inside him.
    She brought memories crashing into his head that he tried to shove away. Memories of a pale, sad woman lying in a hospital bed, her lips cracked and dry, a lone tear sliding down her cheek as she whispered that she loved him.
    The last person on this earth who loved him had died because he wasn’t able to save her, because even though he was a prince, he’d been poor and broken and couldn’t afford to buy the best leukemia treatments money could buy. After Katerina’s death, he’d vowed on her memory that he would not be poor for the rest of his life. And he would strike back at the cold-blooded man who’d stripped them of everything before he’d returned to America with the rights to the land their mother had sold, and the rich oil and gas deposits beneath.
    Tim Russell had left them with nothing, and though it would have taken only a fraction of the wealth he’d amassed from their land to help Katerina, he’d refused. Alexei had scraped together the money to fly to Dallas and beg for his sister’s life, but he’d been met with cold disdain. He still remembered standing in Russell’s office, high over the Dallas skyline, and being both awed and sickened by the wealth on display. He’d wanted that life for his family, and it had made him sick to think it might have been theirs had this man not stolen it from them.
    Once Katerina had died, Alexei had found the initiative to start Voronov Exploration with nothing more than bravado and a geological engineering degree from Moscow University. He’d burned with a passion to regain everything that had been lost and to destroy the Russells in the process.
    It had taken years, but he was at the pinnacle of his success now—and victory over the Russells was within his grasp. If he could turn back time, he would save his sister from the cancer that had eaten her strength and her life. He would giveback all the money and give up the idea of vengeance if it was possible to have another chance.
    But there was no going back. Ever. Life moved forward, no matter how much money you had. It hadn’t helped Tim Russell when his time had come, and it wouldn’t help his son when Alexei finally gained control of Russell Tech.
    Alexei gripped Paige’s arms, gently, and set her away from him. She sucked in a breath, and for a moment he thought she might start to cry again. Instead she wrapped her arms around her waist and stared up at him, her eyes huge pools of hurt.
    He couldn’t help but feel sympathy for her. Those tears had been real, regardless of her reasons for being here in the first place.
    And maybe, just maybe, he could turn her anger and sadness at Chad Russell to his advantage. She was his secretary; she knew sensitive information about his business.
    Information Alexei could use.
    “You don’t really want to do this,” he said softly. “You are hurt and sad and you want to make it go away. I understand this. But tomorrow, you would have regrets.”
    She shrugged one shoulder, as if to say it