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them their starters. Sergei glanced at the young man who laid their plates on the table with a solemn concentration.
    ‘
Spasiba
, Andrei.’
    The waiter gave his boss a quick, grateful smile and thenwithdrew with a little bow. Hannah felt a flicker of curiosity. Did Sergei know all his staff by name? The brochure in her room had said he employed a thousand people here. ‘So how did you build this empire of yours?’ she asked. ‘Is it a family business?’
    He stilled, staring at her for a moment, the only movement the slow rotation of his wine glass between his fingers. ‘No,’ he said finally. ‘Not family.’
    ‘You made it on your own?’ She reached for her fork and took a bite of wafer-thin beef carpaccio.
    ‘Yes,’ Sergei said flatly. ‘I learned early that is the only way you’ll ever succeed. Don’t depend on anyone. Don’t trust anyone, either.’ His voice had hardened, and his already harsh face suddenly seemed very cold.
    ‘You must have someone you can trust,’ she said after a moment. Her own life was a little lonely, but not as bad as that.
    ‘No,’ Sergei said flatly. ‘No one.’
    ‘No one who works for you?’ She thought of Grigori, or even of the waiter Andrei. Both men had seemed to respect Sergei.
    He lifted one shoulder in a dismissive shrug. ‘I am their employer. It is a different kind of relationship.’
    ‘A friend, then?’ He didn’t answer. Hannah shook her head slowly. ‘I find that very sad.’
    ‘Do you?’ He sounded amused. ‘I find it convenient.’
    ‘Then that’s even sadder.’
    Sergei leaned forward, his eyes glittering like shards of ice or diamonds. Both cold and hard. ‘At some point in your life, Hannah, you’ll find out that people disappoint you. Deceive you. I find it’s better to accept it and move on than let yourself continually be let down.’
    ‘And I,’ Hannah returned robustly, ‘find it better to believein people and live in hope than become as jaded and cynical as you obviously are.’
    He laughed, the sound rich and deep, and leaned back in his chair. ‘Well, there we are,’ he said. His gaze roved over her in obvious masculine appreciation. ‘Two very different people,’ he murmured.
    ‘Yes,’ Hannah agreed. Her knees suddenly felt watery, her whole body shaky. The tension over their disagreement had been replaced by something else, something just as tense. And tempting.
    She didn’t think she was imagining the way Sergei was looking at her, his gaze roving over her so slowly, so … seductively. She certainly wasn’t imagining the answering, quivering need she felt in herself, every nerve leaping to life, every sense singing to awareness. He might be cynical, but he was also sexy. Incredibly so, and her body responded to him on the most basic—and thrilling—level.
    She swallowed, tried to find another topic of conversation, anything to diffuse the sudden tension that had tautened the very air between them. ‘What about your parents?’ she said. ‘You must have depended on them, at least when you were a child.’
    Sergei’s eyes narrowed as his gaze snapped back to her face, his expression colder than ever. Clearly she’d picked the wrong topic. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I’m an orphan, like you are. No family to run your little shop, and no family to run my business.’
    And no family to depend on. ‘When did your parents die?’ she asked quietly.
    ‘A long time ago.’
    He couldn’t be much more than thirty-five, she guessed. ‘When you were a child?’
    His eyes narrowed, lips thinning into a hard line. ‘I don’t know, actually. No one bothered to tell me. I was raised bymy grandmother.’ Hannah stared at him in surprise, and Sergei leaned forward. ‘All these questions,’ he mocked softly. ‘You’re so very curious, aren’t you? Don’t worry, Hannah. I survived.’
    ‘Life is about more than survival.’ Clearly he didn’t like personal questions. ‘In any case, I’m sorry about your parents. It must