by Maisey Yates
It didn’t matter how attracted she was. She’d felt attracted to men, from a distance, in the past five years. She simply hadn’t acted on it. Of course, she and Aleksei were in close proximity. And it was very likely they would be off and on over the course of the next few months for the different exhibitions for the new line.
She drew her knees up to her chest. Okay, so the attraction was a complication, but it wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle. She was an adult. She wasn’t some naive innocent girl. And she was in control of the situation.
Anyway, other than that brief moment, she had no reason to believe Aleksei saw her as anything more than an efficient little worker bee. And his offer tonight had been strictly business too.
And if he could be strictly business, so could she.
Madeline examined her reflection in the mirror. She was happy with what she’d done. Very happy. Her makeup was natural, making her blue eyes look bright and exotic, and her hair had been tamed into a high, sleek ponytail that cascaded over one shoulder.
She turned slightly, and looked at her bare back, exposed by the low V of her little black dress. She’d seen the dress in a window on her first day in Milan and hadn’t been able to pass it up, even though she’d had no clue where she would wear it.
She didn’t normally show so much skin, but then, she was usually working when she went to parties.
Always the coordinator, never the guest.
She couldn’t actually remember the last time she’d dressed up for something. She liked looking nice, but she always dressed for work, not for going out.
Something that was noticeably absent from her look were the promised jewels. She had a very uneasy feeling that they were due to arrive very soon, with the man himself.
A small shiver wound through her at the thought of Aleksei Petrov. She shook her head. She shouldn’t be thinking of him as anything other than her boss. Of course, that had been much easier to do before she’d seen the man in the über-gorgeous flesh. Before she’d smelled that faint masculine scent that was so uniquely him.
She made an extremely childish face at her reflection and picked up the canary-yellow clutch bag that had saved her from recycled jewels from the vanity.
When she heard the firm knock on the door, she knew immediately who it was. Aleksei’s knock wasn’t a request, it was a demand. Like every word he spoke. And that should not, in any way, be a positive quality, and yet she couldn’t help admire that in him. The confidence. The absolute surety he seemed to have that he was right.
“Come in,” she said, hoping she sounded like the confident businesswoman that she was. At least, she’d been a confident businesswoman a couple of hours ago. It hardly seemed like one meeting with her gorgeous boss should change that.
The door opened and she turned, her breath catching in her throat, making a choking sound. Her face heated. Stupid that he affected her this way. Stupid that she was so obvious. Maybe she should have jumped back into dating, had some flings at least, after The William Fiasco.
Sadly, though, she hadn’t. She’d lived like a nun, sans habit, and now all of that was starting to catch up with her.
“Does this meet with your approval?” she asked, the question tart because she was frustrated with herself for being so affected by him. And with him for being so appealing.
The slow burn of his gaze made her feel hot all the way to her toes. “It will do.”
And why did that—that phrase that was designed to get her hackles up—sound like the most sinful compliment she’d ever received.
“I brought your jewels,” he said, holding up a slender velvet box.
She walked to the center of the room. She knew he would follow her, but she had to try and get some distance between them. He was messing with her head, and she couldn’t allow that.
“I thought you would have some of the…how did you put it?…the help bring my jewels.”
She was treated to another slight almost-smile as he walked to where she was standing. “I send others to do my dirty work, not to do pleasant things.”
He opened the box and revealed a pair of earrings with yellow pear-cut diamonds at the center and a ring of white diamonds around the outside of the center gem. The cut and clarity of the gems was flawless, the design clean, but arresting.
“These are amazing,” she said, touching one of them lightly. “You really are an artist.”
She looked up at Aleksei. His expression was hard like granite, dark eyes flat. “They sell well,” he said.
“But there’s…there’s more than that to it,” she said.
“No. It’s business. There is nothing more to it than the bottom line.”
She didn’t know why, but the cold, stark sentiment seemed extremely sad, especially when it was said about something so beautiful. She loved Aleksei’s pieces. There was something more to them than aesthetics alone. Or maybe there wasn’t.
Looking at him now, at his unreadable expression, she wondered. The man himself was hard, ruthless. Maybe it really was all about the money. It shouldn’t bother her. She shouldn’t feel anything at all about her boss.
The fact that he made money was good for her. That was all that should matter.
She reached out and took the box from his hand, setting it on the vanity top, and leaned in, putting on the first earring. She raised her eyes and they caught his in the reflection of the mirror. She saw it again, that flicker of heat, and she felt it. Low in her belly, impossible to ignore.
Madeline looked back down at the jewelry box and put more focus than was strictly necessary on putting the second earring in.
“Beautiful,” he said, moving nearer to her.
He was behind her, so close she could feel the heat from his body. His masculine scent, the one that had been tormenting her all day, enveloped her.
He reached up and touched one of the earrings. “There is one thing I truly love about working with jewelry,” he said. “On its own, a gem is nice to look at. In a well-designed setting, cut to perfection, even more so. But when the jewelry is on a beautiful woman…that’s when it truly shines.”
Oh, he was good. A far too familiar feeling, an ache, a need, began to grow in her stomach. Beautiful. He’d called her beautiful. It made her want to hear more. She wanted to soak up the attention, the compliments. To feel important and…special.
No.
Madeline had indulged that hollow need before. Had allowed years of neglect to make her vulnerable to a man who talked smooth and offered her things she’d craved most in life. At least William had pretended to offer them to her.
She turned and realized her mistake too late. Her breasts touched his chest and she gripped the edge of the vanity to keep herself steady.
She forced a smile. “That’s nice. I mean, another one for the ad campaign.” She slipped past him and moved further from him until she could breathe again. “We should…I should…you can do what you like, of course, but I should head down now. Just some last minute rounds.”
He nodded, faint amusement evident on his face. “Of course. Let’s go see if this party is as perfect as you’ve promised me it will be.”
CHAPTER THREE
EXTRAVAGANT parties and lavish settings were, almost literally, an everyday occurrence for Maddy. But she worked behind the scenes, coordinating, planning, directing. It was her job to be invisible.
Now, suddenly, she felt quite visible.
People were staring. She knew they weren’t really staring at her. It was the jewels she was wearing. It was Aleksei, walking so close to her. The man exuded dark sexuality. Danger and extreme attractiveness in a perfectly tailored tuxedo.
The women in the room were nearly falling out of their chairs to get a closer look. Although, it could have been the jewelry that held their attention so raptly. She doubted it, but it was possible.
She smiled at a passing couple and noticed that Aleksei made no indication that he’d seen them at all. His face stayed rigid, set, unmoving as the
y walked through the ballroom. He exuded power and charisma, but it certainly wasn’t because he was making an effort.
“You might try smiling,” she whispered.
He leaned down and she caught another hint of his scent. Her stomach tightened. “Why?”
She took a step to the side, putting some distance between them, as they continued walking. “It’s friendly. It’s what people do.”
“I don’t know that I would characterize myself as friendly,” he said.
“But you are a businessman,” she said, the reminder inane and pointless. She continued on anyway. “And selling yourself is a part of selling your product.”
He turned to her, eyebrows raised.
“Which you know,” she continued.
She didn’t really like the fact that she seemed to say stupid, pointless things around the man. She did fine on the phone with him. But then, he wasn’t really there when she was talking to him on the phone, and in person he was impossible to ignore.
“Whether or not I smile, the jewelry will still sell,” he said blandly.
“Yes, well, I’m sure but…”
“And anyway, if you give people everything they want, they lose interest. Better to leave a little mystery.”
Well, mystery he had down. His private life was extremely private. There was never even a hint of scandal, no information on the women he dated. Nothing. Which seemed sort of amazing given the media’s ravenous hunger for scandal.
“If the press allows you some mystery, I suppose that’s a wise choice,” she said, looking away from him.
She looked around the room, and suddenly she felt claustrophobic. She was used to these events, but she was used to being on the outside of them. Being the staff meant she was able to hover around the edges. But actually being a guest, and being with Aleksei, well, that was getting her a lot of attention she’d rather not have.
Maddy had never really known what to do with a lot of attention, having never received a lot of it. And it had only got worse after her time in the unwanted spotlight.
Somehow, it made her feel better that Aleksei seemed to feel the same way she did. She felt him go tense next to her, his hand tightening against her back as he guided her on. She looked at him and noticed a slight line of tension on his brow. His focus wasn’t on her, though, but on the table they were heading toward, the table that was already half-filled with guests that were chatting and admiring the display cases filled with jewelry.
He didn’t want to sit at the table. And that was when she realized something about her unyielding boss. He was as uncomfortable as she was. He hid it well, his expression almost smooth, but she could feel his discomfort.
She continued on, his hand still resting on her back, and he followed, his movements stiff now.
He did actually smile at the people who were sitting at the table as he pulled her chair out for her and motioned for her to sit down. No one else would know he wasn’t completely thrilled to be in their company. He seemed as in control as ever. But she could tell. It was there, his body rigid, his jaw locked tight, even as he smiled.
When he sat next to her and placed his hand flat on the white linen tabletop, instinct took over and she rested her hand lightly over his, the gesture meant to offer comfort. A connection. It ended up being much more than that.
Lightning skittered from her palm up her arm and into her chest, jump-starting her heart and heating her from the inside out. She pulled her hand away slowly and, she hoped, casually.
She looked down at the empty plate in front of her and hoped that her heartbeat wasn’t audible to everyone at the table. She didn’t know why she’d done that. She wasn’t a touchy-feely sort of person. Most of her life had lacked in physical human contact, and she’d never been overly affectionate as a result. She’d never really had the chance to be.
She had no idea why it had suddenly seemed the most natural thing in the world to touch him.
Aleksei could feel the heat from Madeline’s touch, but even more he felt the comfort she offered in the gesture. He swallowed and tightened his fist, turning his focus on the woman that was speaking to him.
“Mr. Petrov, it’s lovely to see you here.”
“And so exciting to see your new collection,” one of the other women purred.
He started to talk about the collection, about the pieces. But his focus was still on Madeline’s unconscious touch. He gritted his teeth. It reminded him of things long past. Affectionate touches. Touches that were about more than sex. A connection that went beyond bodies.
He’d shut that part of his brain down. That part of his life was gone. Paulina was gone. Any connection he had imagined between Madeline and himself was simply that. Imagined. He didn’t have it in him to give, or receive, any more than that.
Maddy folded her hands in her lap. Her palm still burned.
She watched Aleksei as he spoke. He was confident when he talked about his work, at ease with the subject.
She knew he had passion for his work. She’d seen moments of it, heard it when they’d spoken together on the phone and discussed plans for exhibitions and events. But now, there was nothing. He’d done it earlier in the hotel room. He was a master at creating and maintaining distance, at controlling his interactions with people wholly and absolutely. A skill she wished she could learn.
Sitting next to him, so close his arm kept brushing hers, proved to be disturbing on so many levels. Well, it was really just one level, but it was the one level she was trying to ignore above all others.
Every time he touched her it burned all the way from her shoulder through her body and before long she was wrecked from keeping herself from jumping out of her chair.
“I think I need some air,” she said softly, when the plates had been cleared. She also needed to check on a few things and she certainly didn’t want to draw attention to the fact that she was staff. It would make it interesting that she was sitting with Aleksei. And she didn’t want to be interesting, didn’t want to be memorable. Didn’t want to be in the headlines in the morning.
Waving politely, a gesture that everyone ignored, she stood from the table and picked her way through the crowd until she’d made her way over to one of the buffet tables. Ah, low on shrimp. She’d expected that to happen.
Rather than finding a waiter to handle it, she skirted the perimeter of the room and made her way out into the long, empty corridor just outside the ballroom.
She nearly sagged with relief when she was away from the loud, frenetic atmosphere. She backed up, heels clicking on the marble floor, and leaned against the tile wall. The chill bit into her bare back. But she needed it, needed anything that could help put out the smoldering flame that Aleksei seemed to have lit inside of her.
“Are you all right?”
Out of the frying pan and right back into the fire.
She turned and saw Aleksei standing there, and suddenly the coolness from the wall wasn’t helping at all.
“You don’t like crowds?” he asked.
She stiffened. “You don’t like parties.”
He shrugged and began to walk toward her. “I would think that was obvious. If I liked them, I would attend more of them.”
“But everyone wants to talk to you.” The words just slipped out and she wished, she really wished, she could pretend she didn’t know what had inspired them. But the lonely girl that still lived somewhere inside her would have loved to go somewhere and have everyone talk to her. Look at her. Think she was special.
She shut the door on those feelings. It was no use feeling sad about things that couldn’t be changed. Wallowing in that loneliness…she knew exactly where that led to.
“Yes. Because everyone wants a piece of wealth and power. If I were one of the waiters do you supposed everyone—anyone—would want to talk to me?”
“Having spent the past few years as event staff, I can honestly tell you no. No one would talk to you.”
He came to stand in front of her, looking d
angerously attractive and like an invitation to every sin she was trying so hard not to commit again. “So then, why should it matter if people want to talk to me when their only concern is for my status, and what it can do for them?”
She looked down at her yellow shoes and admired the way the straps were woven together. Better than admiring her boss in a tux. “I—I suppose it doesn’t matter when you put it like that.”
He looked over his shoulder, back toward the ballroom door. “I simply don’t have the patience for these kinds of events. Not on a regular basis. But it is a part of this business.”
She nodded slowly. “I understand that.”
“Business comes first for you as well,” he said. “I can tell you take work very seriously.”
“Having a job is important, necessary. Having a great job is icing on the cake. And having a job I love that garners lots of positive publicity…there isn’t anything more satisfying. So, yes, business comes first.”
“You enjoy the publicity?”
It was nice to see her name in a magazine without a sleazy innuendo connected to it. Nice to have her name associated with something she was proud of. Although, she always hoped people thought she was a different Madeline Forrester. Really she just hoped they didn’t think of the earlier stories about her at all.
“Yes. It’s been great for my professional reputation.”
“Why work so hard to build a public reputation? Unless you’re planning on branching off on your own?”
“Maybe. Eventually. Not now,” she said, breathless, knowing she’d just said the wrong thing. “I mean, perhaps in ten years’ time…”
His dark brows locked together. “You’re planning on leaving Petrova?”
“I’m not planning anything. Not really. Well, maybe. But do you honestly expect that I’m going to work for you for the rest of my life? I have ambition.” She looked back down at her shoes.
“What’s wrong with working for me?” he asked, his voice soft, smooth, but she could hear the hard note beneath all that civility.
