by Bella Rose
It was the first time Maxim had ever heard the little man curse. It didn’t make him feel any better at all.
Chapter Fourteen
“Girl, it is so good to see you!” Thayla flung her arms around Landry and squeezed her tight. “I was hoping you would call or text or something! I figured you were busy with the new job so I decided I would give it a few more days before I sent out a rescue party.”
Landry took a seat at a corner table in their favorite restaurant. She and her friends had been coming here since college days. The place was barely more grill than bar. It had a plethora of televisions tuned into the latest sports events and there was karaoke on Thursday nights. Some half-drunk college boy was up at the microphone right now whining about tears in beers or something equally obnoxious. The place was sort of dirty with its secondhand cast-off decorations, sports jerseys, and farm equipment hanging from the ceiling. But it was sort of home too.
“It’s good to see you too,” Landry assured Thayla. “Are Casey and Morgan busy? Casey never texted me back earlier.”
“Morgan had a work thing.” Thayla rolled her eyes. “And Casey got elected to be her wingman.”
“Oh boy.” Landry laughed as she enjoyed the return to what felt like normal drama. “Is Morgan on the prowl at her office again?”
“You would think they’d invoke a no-dating-coworkers policy just for her,” Thayla mused. “Although I have to say that she’s been weirdly aggressive the last few days. You know that thing she does when she doesn’t get what she wants?”
“The one where she needs to find someone to adore her so that the world is right-side up again?” Landry almost said something about the weekend, but the waiter appeared right then to get their orders.
When the waiter got everything down—including Thayla’s huge helping of cheese fries—Landry decided she might as well just tell Thayla the truth and see what happened. There was really no harm in it. Right? Besides, she needed an outside viewpoint just so she could get some perspective. The guy came right back with their drinks and Landry decided it was now or never.
“So you remember how that guy Morgan went after over the weekend totally turned her down?” Landry said, poking at her drink with her straw.
“Oh my God!” Thayla moaned. “I haven’t heard about anything else for days! Speaking of,” Thayla reached over and poked Landry in the shoulder, “do tell where you ended up over the weekend. You weren’t home. Casey and I went to check on you since Morgan was such a bitch.”
“David showed up after I left the club.”
“What?” Thayla’s gasp of horror drew the attention of more than one person at adjoining tables.
Landry waited for people to turn their attention back to their own concerns before continuing. “So I was in the alley out back because I just needed some air, you know? Then David shows up and starts acting like a total ass.” Landry had the thought that it was very different to be on this side of the dramatic retelling. Usually she was the one being impressed by someone else’s daring. “So then the guy from the club shows up—you know—the one that told Morgan off!”
“Oh. My. God!” Thayla put her hands over her mouth. “Did he rescue you? That is so hot. Hell. He was hot.”
“He was also in a limo. It was parked in the alley. That’s why he happened to see what was going on. He got rid of David and offered to take me home.”
Thayla narrowed her gaze speculatively. “And…?”
“And we sort of had sex in the limo.” Landry tried to seem nonchalant as she sipped her drink. “And maybe we sort of had sex at his place. All night long.”
“Holy shit!” Thayla was now bouncing in her seat. “You know that Morgan would flip her shit, right? But I’m so proud of you! You totally kick ass!”
“Except I feel sort of odd, you know?” Landry sighed. “It gets weirder.”
Thayla downed half her margarita in one pull. “How could any of that possibly get weirder for you?”
It was a fair statement. Pretty much the entire situation was weird. Landry sighed. “Turns out the super-hot guy I slept with is my boss. He owns the fucking company.”
There was utter and complete silence for nearly five minutes. The sounds of the restaurant ebbed and flowed. Someone scored a goal on television and a raucous round of shouting and applause broke out at the bar. The waiter came and brought their food. If he noticed the unnatural silence at the table, he at least didn’t mention it. He just dropped the plates and moved on to the next table.
“Well that’s awkward,” Thayla finally said.
Landry took a deep breath. It was time to be honest with herself. “I think I might be falling for him.”
“Whoa.” Thayla sat back in her chair. “That isn’t like you, Landry. You’re the one who has to know people forever before you start to be comfortable with them. You dated David for nearly six months before you slept with him. It’s time to take a step back and look at what it is that appeals to you about this guy. Because if you don’t get some perspective and be honest with yourself, you’re screwed.” Thayla chuckled. “And not just in a good way.”
***
Maxim could not believe that he had stooped to spy on his own employees. Who did that sort of thing? Russian mobsters? He was not a part of the organized crime families of Moscow. He didn’t belong in a nondescript black four-door sedan lurking outside a woman’s residence while waiting for her to decide if she was going out already or not.
Taylor lived in the bottom-floor apartment of a building in a pleasant suburb of the city. It was a middle-class neighborhood, pretty nice, and seemed to be home to plenty of families. So it did seem somewhat odd that Taylor—a single woman who seemed very concerned about her image—would not choose to live in a trendier part of the downtown area popular with singles.
He adjusted the binoculars. She had been picking up and putting down her phone off and on for a good ten minutes. Suddenly he saw her snatch up the phone as though she’d finally gotten a call or text that she’d been waiting for. She put the thing up to her ear and had an animated conversation with someone. Finally she ended the call and then appeared to look at a clock or something.
Maxim decided he was no good at surveillance. He couldn’t figure out what the hell she was up to. Then he realized that there were three kids walking toward the apartment. The oldest was perhaps fifteen or sixteen—a girl. The others were boys younger than that—perhaps somewhere between six and ten. As Maxim watched in openmouthed shock, the kids stalked into the apartment where Taylor was standing. The two younger boys immediately bolted toward the television in the front room. The older girl started an argument with Taylor that did not end until Taylor stormed out of the apartment.
Maxim was so damn tempted to let Taylor go just so he could find out whose kids were in her apartment. Surely he could find a way to knock on the door and get the kids to answer and tell him their family name. Right?
Except for all that stranger danger bullshit.
He would be lucky if they didn’t call the police on him and accuse him of being a child pervert. It would be better to follow Taylor and find out what she was up to. Then he could go back to human resources and start digging into personnel records.
Taylor got into her car and drove off without even noticing that he was sitting in a car just across the street. Maxim started the engine. Taylor might be oblivious, but the fifteen-year-old girl in the apartment was staring out the window with a whole lot of suspicion on her face. It was time for him to go.
He pulled into traffic and stayed a few cars behind Taylor. Then he realized that they were headed to a part of town that was very familiar to him. Maxim did a lot of business here. There was a restaurant called Little Kiev that he enjoyed. And when Taylor pulled into the parking lot in front of the restaurant, Maxim quickly did the same. He took a spot at the very back of the lot and wondered how to proceed. He needed to know why she was here. Who was she meeting and what she was planning, because he was start
ing to get the feeling that Taylor had a lot of things going on, but none of it was on the up and up.
Maxim waited an interminable fifteen minutes before going in. His other problem with entering the restaurant was that he was well known to the staff. He didn’t want them inadvertently giving him away. He was going to have to play it safe and be careful or they would blow his cover before he even got in the door.
His ruse started as soon as he walked in the front door. He caught the hostess just as she looked up and her expression brightened with recognition. Maxim put his finger to his lips and pointed at the bar. She gave him a huge smile and nodded. Perfect. The first hurdle had been taken care of. Now he just had to get into the bar without drawing undue attention to himself.
The bar was located on the right side of the restaurant. The long structure was all old-world elegance in dark wood and mirrors. Two bartenders worked the crowd and it was a busy night. That was going to be in his favor. Nobody had time to pay attention to him. Not tonight.
He sat down at the very end of the bar and used the vantage point to let his gaze sweep the restaurant. The tables were nearly full. Large family parties, couples celebrating special occasions with their heads together as they whispered and smiled—the room was packed with people from all walks of life.
It was actually the laugh that did it. Maxim would have known that laugh anywhere. Yet when he sought out Boris, he did not expect to see that it was Boris who happened to be here with Taylor. Maxim cursed long and low in Russian. He said nasty things about Boris’s relations living and dead, and then he took a deep breath and decided that he needed to get a little closer.
Maxim got up from the bar and slunk around the fringes of the restaurant. He was approaching the table from the side. Hopefully he would be able to get close enough to hide behind the huge grouping of potted plants before Boris or Taylor spotted him. Eventually he was going to confront them. Now just wasn’t the time.
Chapter Fifteen
“It just didn’t work,” Taylor told Boris. She was examining her nails and looking very uncomfortable.
Boris downed his drink in one long swallow. “What do you mean it didn’t work? He is a man. You are a woman. What sort of man turns down a chance to put his dick in a woman’s mouth?”
“He wasn’t interested.” Taylor swirled her own drink in her glass. “I think he must have another piece of ass on the side.”
“Then get rid of it!” Boris burst out. His face turned bright red and his eyes narrowed to slits. “I need leverage, and if you want to get paid, so do you.”
From behind the plants less than ten feet from the table, Maxim could not decide if he was furious or amused. Perhaps he was amused, but he was also mad as hell. Why would Boris do such a thing? They had just signed another agreement for services earlier this week. Hell. Maxim had flown to Moscow so things would be convenient for Boris because the man claimed he hated to fly. Yet here Boris was. It made no sense at all.
Maxim rubbed a hand down his face. Perhaps it made all the sense in the world. Someone tapped him on the shoulder. It was the hostess. He shook his head and waved her away. She frowned, but left him alone. He didn’t want a table. He didn’t want a drink. He just wanted to confront these assholes and get it done.
Or…
Perhaps he was looking at this all wrong. If he left now and pretended he had never seen them talking, he could find out what their plan had been. Perhaps the key was to let them hang themselves.
Yes. This was a better option. Turning on his heel, Maxim stalked out of Little Kiev and wondered why he felt as if the only thing he wanted was to see Landry. In fact, the urge was so strong that he fisted his hands at his sides to try and hang on to a shred of his self-control.
His car waited for him on the curb across the street. He got in and put his hands on the wheel. Taking deep breaths, he tried to calm down. It was unlikely that Landry would welcome his appearance on her doorstep. Their relationship—or non-relationship—was so complicated that there was no way of knowing where he stood with her.
Pushing the button to start his engine, Maxim decided that it did not matter. When had Maxim Sokolov allowed the possibility of another person’s disapproval to dictate his decisions? He wanted to see Landry. She was at home. Therefore, he was going to her home in order to get what he wanted.
It was only after the car was in motion that he realized he had no clue where she lived. His driver had taken her home when she left his house. A quick text to Felix remedied that situation, and Maxim pointed the car toward the other side of town.
***
Landry sighed and set her purse on her countertop. Kicking off her shoes, she reached for the kettle to heat up some water for tea. Tonight had not exactly gone the way that she had hoped. Or perhaps it had gone exactly as it needed to and she just didn’t like the result. Either way, she felt like crap.
The gas burner flared to life and she put the kettle on to boil. Choosing a tea bag, she carefully placed it in her mug. Then she rested her hip against the counter and tried to think. This could not be all bad. Thayla was right. This wasn’t like her. She didn’t get this comfortable with someone so quickly. David had taught her better. In fact, she should have been wary of Maxim because of David. She had thought she knew her ex-boyfriend before she had climbed into bed with him. He’d been charming and solicitous until she’d taken that final step. Then he’d turned into a possessive jackass.
“If that was going to happen with Maxim, wouldn’t it have happened already?” she muttered.
The guy didn’t seem super possessive. Sometimes it even seemed like he didn’t want anything to do with her. It was confusing. And he was spoiled. He expected things to go his way because he was rich and powerful and that’s pretty much what usually happened.
The thought brought a smile to her face. Then the kettle started to whistle. Using a potholder, she picked it up and poured herself a full mug of tea. Setting the kettle on the back burner, she took her mug to the living room and sat down on her overstuffed sofa. It felt so good to curl up in her own space and try to puzzle things through. She might have an apartment the size of a shoebox, but it was hers and that was what mattered.
Absently running through Maxim’s behavior over the last several days since she’d started working at Maximov, she let the teabags bob up and down in her mug. She was so involved in her own little world that she didn’t even realize there was someone knocking at her door until the sound became quite insistent.
Apprehension made her belly knot with fear. What if it was David? He did this sometimes, just showing up and making trouble. She’d even had to call the cops the last time he’d showed up unannounced.
She set her mug aside and got up. Nervously hovering near the door, she cleared her throat. “Who is it?”
“Maxim.”
That took a moment to process. Why would he come here of all places? “Maxim?”
“Please let me in.” There was a pause. “I’m not used to waiting in hallways and I find it does not agree with me.”
It didn’t agree with him? Really? She didn’t even bother to contemplate the ridiculousness of his statement. She was too busy feeling more than a little intruded upon. Taking a deep breath, she put her hand on the doorknob and prepared to be firm. Even though there was a tiny part of her that was ecstatic that he’d gone to such trouble to come and see her.
Enough! This is not a little girl fantasy land!
***
Maxim tried not to be overly impatient. He had shown up unannounced. Perhaps she had other plans. An angry wave of emotions rolled over him and he realized that he did not like this idea at all. He’d never felt so possessive of a woman. Usually he didn’t much care what they did with themselves after he’d gotten what he wanted. Perhaps he just wasn’t done with Landry. That would make some sense. Once he got her out of his system this would be over and done with.
The lock finally clicked and the door swung open. Landry stood in the doorway
, blocking his entry with her body. “Can I help you with something, Mr. Sokolov?”
Her tone grated. Her words pissed him off. And he was very near the point where he was going to lose his temper. Great. What had happened between their interlude on the roof of his building and this moment to make her act so cold toward him? Had he done something he wasn’t aware of?
“May I come in?” he asked, attempting to be gracious.
She raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. With all of the trouble we’ve had at work, I would imagine we’re under a great deal of scrutiny.”
“That didn’t seem to bother you earlier this afternoon,” he retorted.
Okay. So that had been somewhat out of line. The stormy expression on her face suggested she agreed with that assessment. Her eyes were flashing and she looked positively furious.
“I understand that the two of us”—she cleared her throat—“consenting adults that we are, made a slight error in judgment earlier this afternoon, which was completely out of line if you think about it.”
“Can we talk about this inside?” he pressed. Glancing around, he could not shake the feeling that he was being watched.
“Ugh!” She made a disgusted noise in the back of her throat. “Whatever. Come in then.”
He stepped through the doorway and took a long look around. Her home was exactly what he would have expected from a woman like Landry. The space was stamped not only with her unique scent, but also with a sense of hominess that his own place never seemed to have acquired even though he’d lived there nearly ten years.
The furniture was comfortably shabby and overstuffed. The fabrics looked soft and inviting and the colors were feminine. A few landscape pictures hung on the wall, but there were concert posters and colorful advertisements for comicons and other things as well.
“It’s quite nice,” he told her in what he hoped was a cordial tone.
***
The guy had basically demanded entry to her home and now he wanted to comment on her décor? All right. She could play this ultra-polite game too. Landry smiled a sickeningly sweet smile and gestured to the kettle on the stove.
