“Of course,” is his reply just before we end the call.
I motion to the waiter. “Can you pack my meal to go, please?”
Chapter 20
Michael is sitting in the chair across from me.
His hair is neatly-combed, his beard is freshly-shaven, his clothes are well-pressed but his eyes, they look different. Empty. Like something is missing.
“How have you been?” he asks quietly as he sets his water glass down on the coffee table between us.
“Fine,” I say.
That’s a lie.
I’ve been miserable, counting the minutes since I was last in his arms.
A long moment of awkward silence hangs over us until Michael pulls a sharp breath. “Ruth – I don’t want to loose you. Please tell me I haven’t lost you.”
“Michael –”
“I thought we were on the same page. And now, I don’t know what happened.”
“What happened is that you’re trying to marry me for convenience!”
“It’s not like that. You know it’s not like that.”
“Then, what is it like, Michael?”
He sighs again scrubbing his palms against the back of his neck. “I…I need you, Ruth.”
“Well, that’s obvious. You need me to save your political career.”
“No! I need you in my life, goddammit!” He slams his fist into the coffee table. He’s upset now. The vein in the side of his neck is bulging.
“Why can’t you just tell me that you love me?” I demand matching his hostile tone.
“You know that I do!” he retorts stomping to his feet.
“Say it, you bastard!” I’m standing too now. Only inches from his face.
“You already know the truth!”
“Say it!” My voice cracks with emotion.
“This is ridiculous!” Michael roars then grabs me by the shoulders. His face dips to mine with an urgency that I’ve never witnessed before. His lips cover mine and he kisses me with feral passion.
I feel my knees weaken as he envelops my every sense.
The smell of his skin.
The taste of his tongue.
The feel of his body pressed roughly against mine.
I can almost hear his heart pounding in his chest as he scoops me up in his arms. I lace my fingers into his hair and deepen the kiss as he carries me off towards my bedroom.
Chapter 21
My hunger is uncontrollably intense. So is his. I feel it in the way he rips off my blouse, sending buttons flying in every direction. Our bodies are aching to connect. It’s been much too long.
“I can’t close my eyes without seeing you. Without smelling your skin. Without feeling your lips wrapped around my cock.” He grunts the words into my hair as he grabs hold of my breasts, kneading them roughly. He’s spurring me on and he knows it.
“Michael,” I moan helplessly in response.
Our mouths meet again in a breathtakingly passionate kiss. I drop my body onto my bed, opening myself to him completely. He climbs on top of me. My hands are busy unbuttoning his shirt.
“You’re the only woman who’s ever made me feel this deeply, Ruth. I can’t just let you go. I won’t.”
Speechless, I slide my hands back and forth across his chiseled torso. My body is under siege by the sheer force of the energy in the room. My mind is muddled with emotions. I quiver wanting him so much. I’m better off keeping quiet at this point or I might say something I can’t unsay.
Michael rips the panties from my body with one forceful tug before slipping out of his pants and putting on protection. I groan when I feel him slide inside of me. He goes deep enough to fill me completely. I grab onto his bulging biceps as if to keep a firm grip on my sanity.
Our feral desire scents the air. The sheets cling to our damp bodies. “I’ve missed you,” he groans. “I can’t do without you. Never again.”
“Please, Michael,” I pant as his pace accelerates.
He slips his hand between my legs, massaging my soaking clit as he continues to pump in and out of me.
I can’t take the pleasure anymore. I see a confetti of colors as I explode from within. I moan out his name. Michael grunts lightly as his orgasm seizes him.
We lay on the sheets side by side, his damp skin lightly grazing mine. I turn my head slightly just to look at the beautiful face of the man I love. My mind flashes back to the first time I ever had him in my bed, the first night we met.
It was supposed to be a one-night stand. I never expected that we would become something more.
He turns and leans his head against my shoulder. He puts his hand on my thumping heart. We lay there in silence for a long moment and just before I drift off to sleep, I hear him whisper, “I love you, Ruth. I do.”
Chapter 22
I’ve been walking around all week with pure anxiety in my chest. With my scholarship being suspended due to my poor grades and my latest impromptu therapeutic shoe-shopping binge, I was positive that our rent cheque would bounce last week but so far Hailey hasn’t mentioned anything and out landlord hasn’t come banging down the door. But now I’m just confused. I was sure that I had insufficient funds in my bank account.
When my latest debit transaction at a coffee shop went through without a hitch, I knew that something was ‘off’. Once I logged into my online account, I received confirmation that someone somewhere had made a very, very big mistake.
“Good morning. How can I help you?” the bank teller says with exuberant fake enthusiasm. Nobody loves their job this much. Especially early on a Monday morning.
“Hi. I logged into my account and I think there might have been a transaction that I wasn’t aware of.” That’s the understatement of the century. Over half a million dollars just appearing in your account is more than a little shocking but I have to choose my words carefully. I don’t want to raise any red flags.
On the teller’s instructions, I insert my card into the card reader and enter my pin code. She punches a few keys on her computer, then the smile on her face goes rigid. “Oh dear god,” she mutters under her breath.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” I ask, now more nervous than before. I climb onto my tiptoes and try to get a peek at her screen.
She brings her attention back to me. “Ma’am – follow me, please.”
Chapter 23
I’ve been ushered into a small but nicely-decorated room at the back near the safes. The teller offered me a seat as well as a cup of cappuccino and a tray of French pastries. Then, she disappeared out of the room.
After an eternity, I could hear voices by the door, whispering in hushed tones. “I could lose my job for this. I could go to jail,” I hear the teller say.
“Oh, calm down,” I hear a man say. “I do this all the time.”
I’m even more nervous now. My palms are sweating. What the hell have I gotten myself into?
After a few moments of rumbling, a man in an expensive-looking suit enters the room and takes a seat in the luxurious upholstered chair across from me. “Ms. Salvador, I understand that you have some questions about the funds that have been deposited into your account recently. They were wired to your account by a client of mine, Mr. Sergei Aksakov, before he died.”
My blood runs cold. “Sergei’s dead?”
“Yes, ma’am. I’m sorry for your loss.” His words are inappropriate but he doesn’t seem to know that. He’s just informed me that the man who deposited over half a million dollars into my account is dead. It’s only natural that he would assume that Sergei and I were close and that his death would affect me.
Although my throat tightens and tears burn at my eyes, I’m not mourning Sergei’s death.
I can’t.
After everything he’s done to me, I can’t mourn.
The man hands me a box of tissues to mop up the tears streaming down my face. My emotions are completely misplaced. Sergei was a monster. He deserved to die. That’s what I tell myself. It’s the shock that’s makin
g me cry. I’m not actually sad.
At this point, I know I have to leave. I can’t be here. I can’t have anything to do with Sergei. “I’m sorry. I have to get going,” I announce as I stand to my feet.
The man stands, too. He’s towering over me. And I’m a pretty tall girl. “I apologize, Ms. Salvador – but I can’t let you leave this room until you watch this video.”
Without further explanation, he slips a disk into a video player sitting in the corner of the room and Sergei’s gaunt face takes up the television screen.
Chapter 24
Sergei’s voice is weak and, at some points, I have to strain to hear what he’s saying both because of his wheezing and because of his strong Russian accent. “Ruth. My angel. If you’re watching this video, I must be dead.”
He coughs and reaches for a glass of water on the table beside his bed.
“I know you want nothing to do with me and I’m sorry for holding you hostage right now to get my message across. But I need you listen what I say.”
He wheezes a bit before continuing.
“Ruthie, I apologize for all the pain I cause in your life. I was a bastard. I should have never hurt you. I regret it. That’s why I wanted you to have my club. It was worth millions of dollars. I wanted you to have that. You deserve it all. But since you don’t want it, I tear up the contracts I forced you to sign and I close it down. I sell the assets and deposit the proceeds of the sale into your account. It’s not as much money as you would have gotten if you had kept the damn thing open and running, but you made your choice clear.”
He coughs into a dirty rag sitting on his bedside table.
“Use the money however you choose. I just don’t want you to ever struggle again. You deserve happiness and ease. This man you’re involved with, he cares for you. He can make you happy. But there are people out to destroy you.”
My ears perk up when Sergei says that.
“That’s what I try to tell you that day when I come to see you at the gym. People like this woman want to take you down,” Sergei says holding up a blurry picture of a short blonde woman wearing a baseball cap standing just outside the entrance to Club Evade. His Russian accent becomes thick as he grows angry. “She want to destroy you, Ruth. She had the nerve to show up at my club trying to dig up dirt on you. I stop her in her tracks.”
“Hold the tape,” I cry out. The man hits pause. “Can you zoom in on that picture that Sergei’s holding in his hands?”
The man smiles. “I can do better than that.” He hands me an envelope. Inside are half a dozen blurry photos of the mystery woman.
I squint and tilt one of the pictures just a bit, and to me, the mystery blond looks a lot like Liz.
Chapter 25
“I need to talk to you about something.” I stand tentatively in the doorway of Michael’s home office with a large brown envelope in my hands.
He looks up from the stack of papers he’s reading through. Those magical blue eyes sparkle at me as he’s seated at his desk wearing nothing but his favorite black satin pajama pants. “What’s up?”
He gestures for me to take a seat in his lap like I usually do while he’s working in his home office but this time, I sit in the chair positioned across from his desk. Intimacy will only make this conversation more difficult.
He straightens his posture and his eyes become serious. He sets his pen down on the desk and closes his laptop. “What is it, Ruth?”
I twist my hands in my lap. “Do you remember that I once mentioned Sergei – Sergei Aksakov?”
Michael doesn’t miss a beat. “That bastard who owns the club where you used to –” His next words stall in his throat. His shoulders tense.
We’ve never discussed my stripper past since the night I first confessed it to him. But it’s been an unspoken sore spot in our relationship ever since.
“What about him?” I already hear a hint of hostility in Michael’s voice.
“Just let me finish, Michael. Please.”
He nods lightly though his eyes look apprehensive.
“He started contacting me a few months ago.”
“What?!” Michael jumps to his feet so fast that some of the papers on his desk go fluttering to the floor.
“Michael – Just let me finish!” I demand.
He doesn’t say anything. Instead, he walks over to the mini bar sitting in the corner of the room and pours himself a drink.
I’m reluctant to continue but I’ve already opened the can of worms. I might as well get this all over with. “He contacted me because he was dying of cancer and he wanted to leave the club to me.” I omit the fact that Sergei stalked me, kidnapped me and showed up at my workplace.
Michael’s eyes dart to my face. Pure venom beams from his body.
“I refused, of course. But yesterday, I noticed a strange transaction in my bank account. Sergei closed down the club and had the money deposited into my account without notifying me first.”
“You’re not keeping that money, Ruth!” Michael roars.
“I know that!” I yell back at him. “When he closed the club all the employees lost their jobs. I’ve already started taking steps to contact them and distribute the money among them.” I neglect to mention the sizeable sum that I used to pay off my tuition and other debts.
“I’ll kill that bastard,” Michael growls, slamming his glass down on the bar counter.
“Too late – the cancer won. He died last week.”
Michael looks up at me. “That’s too bad. I would have liked to do it myself.”
Seeing Michael’s reaction to this conversation, I’m relieved that I didn’t clue him into what was going on while Sergei was still alive. Michael may be big and strong and masculine, but he’s no match for Russian gangsters.
“Michael, let me get to my point,” I approach him, handing him the envelope in my hands.
“What is this?” he asks without looking at me.
“Sergei made me a video recording before he died. He mentioned that a woman had come to his club, looking for information on me. He got a picture of her from the club’s security cameras.”
Michael takes the photos from the envelope and examines them closely. “But…this is Liz.”
Chapter 26
I sit quietly at my desk as Liz comes storming down the hallway, her coat and an overflowing banker’s box in hand. Two members of the building’s security team follow closely behind her, watching on like hawks as she makes her way to the elevator, ranting and raving with every step.
“You’re gonna regret this, Michael Moretti,” she threatens. “I will make sure of it! You will never, ever get voted into public office in this country!” Her eyes narrow as she passes by my cubicle. “And you – you’re pure, utter trash. You filthy, dirty stripper! I am so much more of a woman that you will ever be. I don’t know what the hell he sees in you.”
She looks angry enough to jump me. Security grabs her by the shoulder and escorts her to the elevator as she continues to kick and scream.
“What was that all about?” Madison asks as she walks out of her new office down the hall from my cubicle. She graduated from law school in December and passed the bar, so fittingly, she was promoted and got her own small office. She deserves it. She’s brilliant and she works hard.
She leans on the edge of my cubicle, waiting for a response. “Rumor has it that Liz leaked Ruthie’s business to the press,” Jasmine offers before I can formulate a diplomatic response.
Madison gasps. “Really? She went that far? What a psycho!” Lines form in Madison’s delicate forehead.
“I know, right?” Nadia interjects. “I don’t get what her problem is – she’s dating a total hottie. That Nicholas guy from the Chicago office.”
“Well Nicholas is cute enough, but my brother is a total catch,” Madison says defensively. “Ruth clearly won…Wait till Matt hears this!”
They’re carrying on a conversation about my life as if I’m not even here. I shake my head.
>
Just then, Campbell comes sauntering down the hall. “Ruth, can I see you for a moment?”
“Sure.” I drop what I’m doing and follow behind her.
Once we’re in conference room four, I take a seat. By the time I’m settled in, Michael walks into the room.
Ruthie's Desire - The Esquire Girls Series - Ruthie's Story (Books 1, 2, 3 & 4) - Box Set Page 22
