by Cora Blu
Mikhail groaned. “Don’t add another problem, Bethany. We have enough to deal with, and I’m up to four Motrin a day with a threat hanging over you,” he admitted pressing a palm to his forehead. “But you’re right. It’ll make their offer look that much better.”
“And if you cheat me out of my profits, I’ll be more than willing to walk away.”
“Cheat you!” He drew back, his brows squeezing together. “Why cheat you?”
“Calm down.” She eased the tension she witnessed in his stiff shoulders. Mikhail was the epitome of a businessperson but he held a fierce possessiveness about him at the time that she found hauntingly sexy. He used it to get his clients the best of every deal and with her he wanted to possess her, not consume but he craved all of her attention. “All I’m saying is if we were at each other’s throat, that’s how it would look once I found out there’s money involved. I would see it that way,” she added. “And by you never clarifying what happens to the employee who’s bringing in all this revenue, what should I have thought? Shouldn’t they—me—be compensated?” How could he keep something like this from her? It’s her money. “You’re making it easy for them to lure me away from Heinemann’s by keeping secrets from me.”
Mikhail pushed off the desk, walked behind her placing his hands on her shoulders massaging the tension from her neck.
“Am I wrong to want my money?”
“I’ll pretend you didn’t say that. You’re the first employee, Bethany, to make it through a year in the program.”
She turned her face up to see him at her back. “Khail, it’s a legitimate question, not a jab at you.”
He cupped her chin holding her face up to his stare. “From someone else, it’s a question. From you, woman, it’s a slap in the face.”
She loosened his fingers holding them to her lips. “You don’t see it, because you have millions, and it doesn’t affect you the same. I have my savings and investments and no, a missed paycheck won’t leave me destitute, but this is my sole support, Mikhail. If I have money coming, I’d like to know.”
She sucked in a breath when his lips caressed her throat, dotting soft kisses up along her jawline until he’d covered her lips in a long hot kiss. Bethany dropped her head back giving his tongue full access to her mouth.
He pulled back smoothing hair off her forehead, followed by a gentle kiss. “You’re right…but would you have given me a second chance if I waved money in your face first?”
“You should know me better by now. Tell me about the money, Mikhail.”
“You’re not supposed to know about it until it’s presented to you at the end of year awards ceremony.” Bethany shoved at the desk to turn around but he’d wrapped his arm around her now, his mouth next to her ear. “The final report doesn’t come out until a month before the ceremony, Bethany. Relax these shoulders. I haven’t kept anything from you.”
“How much?”
“The last report placed your numbers at thirty seven thousand.”
The pencil fell from her fingers.
Bethany shuddered. “And you get a portion of that?”
“No. I get a bonus out of what the company gets.” He held her in the chair.
“So I’m the golden goose and getting rid of me stops your cash flow.” Let him explain before you flip out.
“The dividend is a onetime bonus, Bethany,” he assured. “To have your name on a project that could potentially change the way the company does business is worth going to prison for some.”
“You think they’re behind the media lurking around everywhere we go. I hear it in your voice.”
Mikhail pulled her chair out setting her on the desk and plopped down on the chair resting his arms on her thighs.
“When you look like that—thoughtful and quiet…Damn if you’re not the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen,” he said, and his breath warmed her knees through the jeans. A tingle rode over her skin down her leg to make her toes curl.
“Ah.”
She traced a finger over the cupids bow in the top of his lip. “What are you thinking behind that rated R-gleam in your eyes?”
“This is nice. Alone, together. No arguing.”
“We’re good together.”
Reaching out she brushed a lock of hair from over his brow to kiss his forehead drinking in the peace. The hearty aroma of coffee and minty mouthwash danced under her nose from his mouth close enough to kiss if she wanted to go there. The heater warmed the space to a comfortable temperature. Her desire for Mikhail toasted her body from her toes up to her hair.
She had to taste him. Taste that mouth. Press her lips to that smile, a slow quiet smile aimed solely at her.
His eyes brightened as she closed the minute space between them.
It wasn’t their first kiss, it wasn’t even their first touch, but it was the sweetest way to start the day.
Trembling, her fingers caressed the line of his jaw trailing up to his red earlobes a kiss of black silky strands of hair curling around the edge. Temptation a breath away, her pulse raced when his mouth lazily caressed hers. The easy kiss, sent with a love letter she hoped his heart received, he answered with delicious licks across the seam of her lips, his tongue dipping in as she slowly opened for him, soft moans and sighs floated between them.
Mikhail wrapped his hands under her knees, easing them apart, helping her down onto his lap. The solid touch of his chest to her breasts when he kissed her held a rhythm that her heart beat to match.
Bethany’s hips moved over his groin, the thick ridge pressing through her jeans, and it felt perfect. A soft groan escaped her throat. Their eyes met. Neither blinked or said a word just stared into the others face. This was an old dance between them. He’d never push, just tease her, wake her up, make her want him more—and she had.
From the moment he’d walked up the stairs, she wanted him to rip the pants from her and bend her over the desk, taking her, wild and out of control. Not now. Now slow sounds so much more appealing.
“I didn’t sleep good last night. I hate that I’m more honest in my business dealings than I am with the woman I love and you deserve the truth before I can expect you to welcome me into your arms again.” His calm words along with his searching fingers under her sweater playing along her jeans waistband stopped her hips.
“The truth is a good way to reconnect a relationship worth saving, a man worth saving.”
The sadness in his eyes left a chill on her skin. She literally shivered until his hands were smoothing the cold from her body under the sweater against her bare skin.
Mikhail exhaled. “The reason I called Gemme was to push you out of my life…”
“It worked,” she said, then regretted her words seeing the coldness return to his sad eyes. “I’m sorry go ahead. I need to know.” His hair feathered out around her fingers threaded through the soft waves, she held him close. The floorboards creaked under the slow methodical rocking under his hips in the chair.
“When you’re adopted, everyone thinks you’re supposed to feel special because you were chosen.” Mikhail’s fingers slid up to massage her ribs, holding her down on his lap. He shifted in the rickety chair. Bethany was certain it was going to fall apart, but he didn’t seem concerned.
“You didn’t feel that way?”
He frowned and the stitch of pain broke her heart. “Someone still gave you away, or at least that’s what you presume.” He paused looking out over the loft’s railings then back, bringing her hand up between them over his heart. “I was stolen from my biological parents in the hospital and sold under false pretenses to the Shamochernyi family. All my life I believed my birth mother gave me away,” he admitted with a sad grin. “You give away useless things…things you don’t intend to use again…but not your child.” He looked off to the ceiling then returned to her, his eyes glassy. “Feeling worthy of another person’s time and love and patience doesn’t come easy. Kiss and go became my dating motto. I can’t accept what I’m not worthy of. When I f
ound out my family had been searching for me, it changed the way I saw relationships.” His accent was thick and every other word was in German. Bethany had to concentrate to understand him, but she did, and it broke her heart.
She’d never seen him nervous or uncertain of anything. Mikhail was proud and confident. It unsettled her seeing this man succumb to his fears. But pride filled her that he was sharing instead of letting it continue to burn inside, preventing the bond between them to grow. “I’m listening either way, Khail…take your time.”
“When I met Simone, I’ll be honest, there was a mutual attraction. But her attraction was for the physical reflection I was of Seth. Simone wanted Seth. Seth’s personality was the deciding factor in her choice. Again, I wasn’t the one someone wanted to keep…in her heart.”
“You’re in my heart, Khail.” That wasn’t right. He was her heartbeat, the rhythm that moved her through most days.
He played in the length of her hair twining it between his fingers watching it curl around his knuckles. “Then I met you…spent time with you…fell for you.” He laughed. “That’s normally when I walk away,” he trailed off his eyes revealing a saddened thought rolling through his mind. “I couldn’t.”
“But you did, Khail. You walked away when I needed you. I had no one to turn to…no one to hold me,” she told him harsher than necessary, but he needed the truth no matter how painful. “I wanted your love so bad.”
He exploded. “I didn’t know how to love you, Bethany. Don’t you hear me?” His chest heaved in a deep inhale, and he let it seep out on his words. “How do I open the door to my heart when I’m not certain there’s one in there?” A tear dripped down his cheek. “I fell back into my comfort zone and pushed you away by hurting you.”
His pain formed a knot in her throat and she couldn’t speak. She just sat there sniffing back her tears, wanting to hold him, but he looked vacant. He hated pity, and she knew he’d see it that way. She swiped a hand beneath her nose to gather her slipping composure, shaking her head. This was awful.
Mikhail drew her in to lean against his mouth, his lips warm on her forehead before he brought them to her cheeks, a sensual caress. They searched out her mouth. His tongue played along the seam sliding in and out.
Her breasts ached for the same attention, straining against her bra. The sensitive nipples she wanted him to suck into his mouth, nip with his teeth, lick with his tongue back and forth until he forgot every other woman he’d ever been with.
So handsome.
Mikhail kept his eyes open, studying her every move, every blink. Closing hers wasn’t an option. She wanted him …Had to have him.
Strong fingers slid under her bra cups, cupping her breasts gently before, playing his thumbs between them. He rolled her nipples between his fingers, making her moan. She writhed on his lap. His length grew, nudging at her bottom through the tough jeans, stirring her from the core of her soul.
“I hate that I lost you because I wasn’t strong enough to accept you, Bethany. I’m going to have you so in love with me until the only way you’ll wake up in the morning is if I’m feeding you the breath I stole from you the night before.” Mikhail rolled her bra cups down.
He didn’t let her respond, pushing her sweater over her breasts. He ducked his face low to nip at her tight buds, sucking on them hungrily.
She arched her back, pushing the taut tips further into his mouth. Couldn’t he see she already needed him to breathe now?
“Mikhail…” he cut off her words, covering her lips with his digits. She clutched his ears as the heat from his mouth bled into her sensitive aureole. Bethany moaned out her pleasure, wrapping her arms around his shoulders holding him to her breasts.
Wet panties molded to her folds beneath her jeans as she worked her hips over the bulge straining the zipper of his jeans. Her body thrummed in anticipation, her hips working seductively over his. She needed him inside her body, inside her heart.
He lifted his head, and her flesh popped from between his lips. Her back hit his desk, when he got up out of the seat and laid her across the surface, fumbling with the snap and zipper on her jeans.
A scratching sound brought her up on her elbow. Breathing ragged she looked around. “What was that?”
Mikhail pulled back. He answered against her chin nipping it as he spoke, “A mouse, probably.”
She reared back scrunching her nose. “A mouse,” the word squeaked from her lips. She drew her leg up darting glances around what she could see of the floor.
Mikhail worked her knees down stretching out her legs maneuvering himself between her splayed knees. “It’s a barn. The cats will take care of them.”
Bethany eyed the loft, the few shelves, and the pile of hay in the corner. Was it under there? “Cats, I haven’t seen a cat.” She followed Mikhail eyes peering up to the ceiling where a big gray cat sat watching them from the rafters.
“That’s creepy,” she complained under her breath.
“Shh! Lay back.” Mikhail lay down on her, kissing her face, then the pulse at the base of her throat. The moist touch of his lips warmed Bethany’s skin. The desk groaned under their weight, and papers fluttered to the floor off the edge. Caressing the large muscles of his shoulders, she moved her hands down his back hungry to touch more of his skin. The coffee mug crashed to the floor. Splintering pottery echoed through the rafters, sending their audience, the cat, running into the shadows.
He came over her. Bethany held Mikhail’s face returning his fevered kisses, oblivious to the cup of tea splashing warm liquid over the rim as it followed the heavy mug, the clatter muffled by their moans and soft pleas. No one was out there to hear them give in to their desires.
She wanted him.
Fumbling with her jeans, Mikhail returned to the swell of her breasts in the darkness to kiss the dip at her waist, anticipation for what she couldn’t see swamped her. Biting her lip, she angled up only to have his large hand gently press her back to the table. He played with the tip of one orb working the nerves, rubbing just the pad of his fingers over it.
“Oh,” came out on a long low moan. It was as if lightning skittered across her skin in waves making her aureole pebble.
The crisp sound of her zipper lowering followed up with Mikhail’s moist kisses on her belly. Trailing the tip of his tongue lower on her body down to her panties, Bethany thought she would explode from his searing touch. She wanted him and cried out when he flicked it over the crotch of her panties. Heat from his mouth flowed through the material and into her moist sex.
His chin tickled her skin. “You smell delicious.” He worked her jeans down biting and nipping her skin down to her knees. Slowly, he made his way back up, licking a line up her thigh nibbling his way back to her sheath.
The urgency of her need, ripped through her setting her on fire. Grabbing him by the hair, she got his attention.
“Next time…”
He reared up over her, fishing in his pocket for a condom, his face a mask of concentration.
Thud!
Scrape!
Ekk!
Bethany froze. Every sound became louder. Their breathing, Mikhail shoving her sweater up to reposition her bra even made a sound. That sound came from shoes walking over a wood floor.
Bringing her knees down, she steadied her breath so the pulse pounding in her ears would slow down.
He was on top of her a hand over her mouth. His bright eyes glowed as he stretched his neck to peer through the slates of the railing.
Horses whinnied. Steps moved closer. Reaching between them, he worked her jeans up her legs struggling to get them over her hips without making a sound.
Bethany grasped at the opening of his jeans then stopped and listened.
“I thought you said they weren’t back together? We have to get Bethany away from him. I’d rather just get her to go with me to GCT,” the heavily accented voice said.
“I wish it were that easy. Mikhail’s stuck on this woman, and she doesn’t see
the slug that he is, because she’s naïve and…and Bethany. She’s not accustomed to men like him, and he’s counting on that to keep her by his side,” he said. “As long as she stays she’s in his pocket and neither one of us stands a chance.” It was Mark’s voice and Bethany couldn’t believe her ears.
“Think we can convince her to our side? An incentive maybe? I don’t know what women want. A trip to Aruba or Spain. Someplace warm.”
Mark laughed. “Shamochernyi’s got that pretty woman wrapped around his finger. Warning me he’d fire me when I challenged his choice of her over the other male candidates.” Mark laughed, and it was anything but funny. “Said I was discriminating, while he’s sleeping with half the office pretending he cares about her.” It got quiet. Bethany couldn’t breathe. Was this true? Mark coughed then added, “I’m not giving up…she’ll be mine soon.” The other man did something making the horses whinny. Mikhail leaned back looking through the slats, shaking his head.
“What about crazy lady? What do we do now?”
“I’ve talked to her. She has no idea she’s working for me.” His laugh was a graveled bark in the dim light of the loft. “I have to think…reassess what’s important, short term or long term. Either way I have to adjust the plans. I’m done being on bottom.”
“Get Ms. Cansler to our side, and she’ll take you to the top.”
Bile tickled the back of her throat listening to them speak about her as if she were an molded chess piece awaiting for a hand to slide her one way or another to achieve the winning move.
“Mikhail’s just playing with her mind. He doesn’t deserve someone like her,” Mark forced between clinched teeth his tone acid. “Scaring her didn’t work.”
“What do you mean?”
“I paid a few of the men to harass her a little so she’d come to me, and she did. It worked. She confided in me.”
“So why isn’t she on our side?”
“She likes Heinemann’s. I talked her out of going back to America, but she’s faithful to her contract and her clients.”
“She already turned down GCT once, why would she accept your offer?”
