Crash into Me: A BWWM Russian Billionaire Romance

by Cristina Grenier

“Excuse me-”

  She cut him off with a hand and a huff. “Out of the middle of the road? Because the honking isn’t going to stop, and you probably don’t want anyone calling the police on you while you look like that.”

  Now he looked offended, and he opened his mouth to say something but then seemed to think better of it. “Fine. We’ll pull off the road,” he said.

  “How benevolent of you,” Emma muttered and got back in her car. She winced at the sickening crunch that accompanied her pulling away from the Porsche and then sighed. The last thing she wanted to deal with was car repairs and having to pay for that, so she needed this guy to not be a complete jerk.

  A glance in her rearview mirror showed that he was following her as she pulled off to the side of the busy highway, which was a good sign, she supposed. With a sigh, she cut the engine and got back out of the car, waiting for the guy to do the same.

  When she did, she folded her arms and arched an eyebrow at him.

  “Can you not start yelling again?” he asked, making a face. “My head hurts bad enough already.”

  “That’s what you get for being drunk first thing in the morning,” Emma snapped. “And you started yelling first.”

  He dipped his head, as if acknowledging that. “I’m not drunk first thing in the morning,” he said. “I was drunk last night. This is what’s known as a hangover.”

  “Don’t talk to me like I’m stupid, buddy,” Emma snapped. “I don’t care how hung over you are. You shouldn’t have been on the road if you can’t handle your car. Oh, I’m sorry,” she said. “Your Porsche.”

  The man made a face, but there was something like a smile playing around his mouth. “Look,” he said. “We can stand here and insult each other all day, but you probably have somewhere to be, and to be honest I don’t want to. So, let’s make this easy, hm? You were right. It was my fault. I wasn’t paying attention, and I hit your car. I have insurance and all of that, but I’d like to simplify things further and just offer to pay for the damage to your car. We’ll cut out the middle man and just have it done, yes?”

  Emma narrowed her eyes at him and chewed on her lip, unsure. She had insurance as well, but it would probably be a headache and a half trying to get it all taken care of. She’d have to prove that the accident wasn’t her fault and wait for things to happen with her insurance agent. Her premium might go up, and that was the last thing she wanted to deal with. His offer was honestly a godsend, but she had no idea if she could trust him to actually be honest about this.

  He seemed to sense her hesitation, or just could read it on her face, because he lifted both hands in a gesture of peace. “I swear I’ll take care of it,” he said. “Here.” He hunted in his pocket for his wallet and then drew out a card before passing it to her. “My information.”

  She looked at the shiny card, black type on a stark white background with nothing but the stylized image of a raven in the corner for decoration. “Alexei Alexandrov,” she read, and the name was followed by two phone numbers and an email address. “Russian?”

  Alexei nodded. “Indeed. Don’t hold that against me, though, I had no choice in the matter.”

  Emma snorted at that and rolled her eyes. “Believe me, I have enough to hold against you without your nationality even coming into play.”

  “Fair enough,” he allowed. “Call me when you know how much the repairs will be, and I’ll see that it’s taken care of. And...I’m sorry, for what it’s worth.”

  Her eyebrows jumped up at that. “You’re sorry?”

  “Yes. For making a mess of your morning. For running into your car. I haven’t been myself lately, but I’ve been trying very hard to limit the chaos to only affecting me. I’m sorry that I failed at that this morning.”

  There was something heavy in his tone, and Emma blinked, finding herself feeling sorry for him without even knowing why, which was idiotic, but she couldn’t quite help herself. He looked a bit like a kicked puppy standing there, and she had to shake herself to keep from asking if there was anything she could do to help.

  “Well,” she said instead. “Thanks for that. I’ll...be in touch.”

  He nodded and then went back to his car (which, unfairly, was barely damaged at all; the paint was scuffed and his headlights would need some repair but other than that it was fine), waving at her before he drove away.

  Emma stood there for a moment before she shook herself again and went to inspect the damage to her car. It had sounded worse than it was, and while the back end would need a lot of work before it would look the same, it didn’t seem like there was anything wrong with driving it. Honestly, she had half a mind to call in sick to work and just go back home and try to forget this day had ever happened, but it was still before nine, and she wasn’t going to let Monday defeat her like that.

  Setting her jaw, she got back in her car and drove to work.

  “Where have you been?” hissed Patricia as Emma came through the doors of Sapphire Gate headquarters. She was sitting behind Emma’s desk looking panicked, and Emma regretted not calling in at all.

  Patricia was one of the in house editors, and she hated talking on the phone and dealing with people, so Emma knew that her being at the desk was uncomfortable.

  “I’m sorry,” Emma said sincerely. “I should have called.”

  Patricia jumped up from the chair like she was worried it would eat her, eyes wide. “They made me answer the phone.”

  “I’m so sorry, Pat,” she said again. “If I had known they’d get you to cover, I definitely would have called in.”

  “What happened? It’s not like you to be late. Are you okay?”

  Emma nodded, dropping her purse on the desk and walking around it to sit in her chair. “Yeah. I just got into an accident on the way here.”

  “Oh my god, Em! Are you alright?”

  “Fine. My car, not so much, but it could have been worse. Some hung over moron with too much money plowed his Porsche into the back of my car at a red light. I might have yelled at him a bit.”

  “Good,” Patricia said emphatically. “Some people shouldn’t be allowed to drive.” She shook her head and looked at Emma nervously. “Are you sure you’re okay to be here? If you need to leave, I can…”

  Emma grinned at her and shook her head. “Thanks, Patricia, but I’m fine, I promise. You can go back to your cave, and I’ll handle this.”

  She looked relieved, and Emma was touched that she’d offered in the first place, knowing how much her friend hated working the desk. “Well, if you’re sure,” Patricia said. “Let’s go out for lunch, okay? My treat.”

  She agreed eagerly and then got to work, returning phone calls and making sure that people got the messages meant for them. It seemed like some kind of luck was on her side, since her boss was apparently out of the office for the rest of the day. She didn’t have to see him or try to explain her tardiness. Knowing him, he would try to make it out like it was her fault that some rich moron with a drinking problem had crashed his car into hers.

  As if having money made it okay to be blind to the rest of the world.

  “It does not,” she muttered under her breath and set about catching up on her morning.

  When lunch time rolled around, Patricia extracted herself from her editing cave and came by the desk. The two of them went out for Chinese food in Patricia’s car after a small detour to see the damage that had been done to Emma’s.

  “So what exactly happened?” Patricia asked as she dipped crispy noodles in the sweet and sour sauce on the table at the restaurant.

  “I told you,” Emma said. “I was stopped at a red light, and a car ran into the back of mine. I turned around to see what was happening, and there was a silver Porsche right up on my bumper. Practically taking the place of my bumper actually.”

  “Ooh, a Porsche,” Pat said with a grin. “At least he had good taste in cars.”

  Emma rolled her eyes. “As if that matters. He was clearly heading home after a long night of party
ing or sleeping in someone else’s bed. I don’t care how nice his car was.”

  “Was it badly damaged?”

  “Patricia!”

  “I’m just asking,” her friend insisted. “My dad used to have this old Porsche, you know. I swear he loved that thing more than he loved his family sometimes. Kept it in the garage and everyone else had to park their cars in the driveway. He didn’t even drive it, but he’d go out there every weekend and wash it and polish it up.”

  Emma gave her friend a bemused look and shook her head. “Well, I’m sure your dad would have been appalled that some idiot wasn’t taking care of his Porsche. Honestly, if I had a car that looked like it cost as much as a small country, I’d be more careful with it.”

  “That’s because you’re sensible,” Patricia pointed out. “Rich people rarely are.”

  She couldn’t argue with that, even though Emma was sure that she didn’t know very many rich people at all. When the waitress came by, they placed their orders and handed their menus over. When Emma looked back at Patricia, she found that the other woman was staring at her with intent blue eyes.

  “What?”

  “I’m waiting for the rest of the story.”

  “There is no story,” Emma insisted. “We got out of our cars, we yelled at each other, he made rude gestures at traffic. We got back in our cars and pulled off to the side of the road to talk.”

  Patricia waggled her eyebrows. “What did you talk about?”

  “The fact that he had just plowed into my car,” Emma said. “He apologized and offered to pay for the damages.”

  “Outright?”

  “Yeah. I’m sure it’s just a drop in the bucket for him, but.” She shrugged. “It’ll help me out, so I said yes. I’m supposed to get an estimate and then give him a call.” Emma fished the business card out of her purse and then handed it over.

  Their drinks arrived while Patricia studied the card. “Alexandrov... that name sounds familiar for some reason.”

  “I’m pretty sure he’s Russian,” Emma said. “And a pain in the butt.”

  After studying the card for another few seconds, Patricia passed it back and smirked. “Was he cute at least?”

  “Are you serious?” The earnest look on her friend’s face and the nod Emma received told her that she was. “He was...fine? I mean, I wasn’t checking him out or anything. He was hungover, obviously. His eyes were all bloodshot, and he was in definite need of a shave and a shower. But, I guess he wasn’t bad to look at. He’d probably be okay if he cleaned himself up.”

  Patricia giggled and sipped her soda. “You know what this is like?” she asked. “One of those cheesy pornos. Like, if it had been your fault and you’d run into his car, you could have offered to pay for the repairs by sucking his dick.”

  Emma gave her a scandalized look. “On the side of the road?”

  “Sure, why not? Or in your car. Or in his car.”

  “You’ve been reading too many of the smutty stories again, Pat,” Emma said, shaking her head. “I’m not going to suck his dick, and it wasn’t my fault, so it doesn’t even matter.” She drank her water a bit defensively. “And anyway, even if I was attracted to him, which I’m not, he’s a train wreck. I don’t do train wrecks. I don’t have time for them.”

  “You don’t know that he’s a train wreck,” Patricia pointed out. “He could be just having an off day. Everyone has those.”

  “Maybe. But it doesn’t matter. Once he pays to have my car fixed, I’m probably never going to see him again. I don’t even know what he was doing around here in the first place.”

  “If you say so,” Patricia said. “I still think it’s a missed opportunity. I mean. Who knows how rich he might have been.”

  Emma couldn’t help but laugh. “Probably filthy rich if he didn’t mind paying for the repairs right out without going through insurance. I’m sure he’ll make some airheaded trophy woman very happy one day. Or maybe he already is, who knows?”

  When the food arrived, she changed the subject to something less likely to make her irritated and put the whole thing out of her mind. Dwelling on people like that never did anyone a bit of good anyway.

  Chapter 4: Matchmaking

  If there was one thing Alexei hated, it was feeling guilty. He’d been doing fine with how things were going, or as fine as he could be doing, given the circumstances. But then he’d gone and run into that woman’s car, and his guilt hit him hard and annoying right in the face.

  It was one thing for him to wallow and pout and be petulant (which were things he was well aware he was doing, thanks very much), but he hated when he impacted other people’s lives negatively with his moods.

  All week he thought about the angry look on the woman’s face and how he’d probably ruined her morning. Since he had no idea how to get in contact with her, he called his mother.

  Of course the two things were different, and Alexei felt like he had been completely justified in storming out of his mother’s house like he did, but he needed to do something to make amends with someone or his head was going to explode. He’d considered Vera, but as she wasn’t returning his calls, it was clear that he was going to have to wait for her to be the bigger person there.

  His mother, on the other hand, was only too pleased to listen to him apologize and invited him over for dinner that Friday night.

  “I can only imagine what you’re eating these days,” she’d said with a sniff. “Probably take out every night.”

  Alexei had merely sighed. “I can cook, you know, Mother. I’m capable of feeding myself.”

  That was only one step up from eating fast food in his mother’s opinion, though, considering she’d probably never cooked a meal for herself in her life. Either way, he wasn’t going to argue with her. There would be plenty of time for that later, he was sure. It just came with the territory of his family.

  On Friday night he drove to the estate, wondering as he parked and made his way inside why his mother needed so much space. With his father...gone, it was just her and Vera in the massive house. He knew that it was possible for the two of them to go entire days without seeing each other, and the whole thing seemed ridiculous to him. His mother was probably hoping that he would move back in once he’d taken a wife, but that whole notion was ridiculous, and he wasn’t entertaining it.

  Instead of being met by one of the maids at the door, his mother was there, looking resplendent in a black silk dress and a diamond necklace. More diamonds sparkled from her ears and around her wrist, and Alexei was instantly wary.

  “Mother,” he greeted, leaning in and kissing her cheek. “This isn’t some charity function in disguise, is it?” he asked.

  She laughed her ‘polite society laugh’, as Alexei liked to call it, all cascading and light, and his hackles went up even more. “Of course not, darling,” she said, waving him forward. “Come in, come in. Take off your jacket and let me look at you.”

  He did as she asked, bewildered. His mother’s sharp eyes gave his ensemble a once over and then her nose wrinkled.

  “Well, I wasn’t expecting to be dining with royalty or whatever’s happening tonight,” Alexei said before his mother could get a word in about his clothes. He thought he looked nice, actually. Pressed black slacks, a dark grey button down paired with a black waistcoat, not a color in sight. His hair was brushed and tamed, and he’d shaved just for the occasion. But leave it to his mother to find fault somewhere.

  “You’ll do, I suppose,” she said, heaving a dramatic sigh before motioning for him to follow her.

  Alexei had no idea what the big deal was, but he knew if he asked her it would just turn into them arguing about it, so he just sighed and followed her into the Rose parlor. To his surprise, Vera wasn’t there.

  She rarely missed out on an opportunity to have one of these dinners that usually ended in Alexei getting told off, so he was instantly suspicious and on his guard.

  “Where’s Vera?” he asked his mother once she had instruc
ted one of the maids to bring them drinks.

  “She had something else to do tonight,” his mother said airily.

  “So it’s just the two of us?” Alexei knew that wouldn’t be the case. He hadn’t spent time alone with his mother without his father or sister or some guest being there as well since he was a small child, and he knew his mother wasn’t going to start some heart to heart meal between them now. No, there was definitely something else going on.

  When Veronika avoided looking at him, he knew he was right. “No, not exactly. There’s-” She was cut off by the doorbell ringing, and her face nearly split in its grin. “Ah, she’s here.”

  And there it was.

  He watched as his mother walked off, presumably to go with whichever of her maids was going to get the door and huffed. Part of him wanted to climb out a window and end this night already, but he was actually curious to see who his mother had invited.

  He didn’t have long to wait.

  A moment later his mother returned with a young woman that Alexei had never met before. She was pretty enough, he’d say that for her. Creamy skin, long brown hair that shone in the lights of the parlor. She was tall and thin and dressed in a shimmery dress that he already knew his mother would approve of even if it was champagne colored.

  When she looked up and noticed him watching her, she smiled and lowered her eyes to the floor. “You must be Alexei,” she said. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

  Alexei shot his mother his best ‘Are you serious right now?’ look and then stepped forward, letting his manners and good breeding take over. He took the young woman’s hand and kissed the back of it, smiling at her. “That would be correct. May I have the honor of knowing your name?”

  She giggled and blushed, holding her hand to her chest when Alexei released it. “I’m Katherine,” she said. “Katherine Devere.”

  The last name was vaguely familiar in the way that all last names belonging to other people in their social circle and tax bracket were, but his mother was quick to fill in the gaps. “She’s the daughter of Lucas Devere,” Veronika said. “He’s an associate of your father. Was an associate of your father.”