AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Steeling my nerves, I sucked in a slow, deep breath through my nose and then looked up at Stepan with hardened eyes of my own.
Shit.
"Why do you look like you want to take me over your knee?" I wanted to slap myself and jump to the bottom of the ocean after my thoughts left my mouth. I had no intention of actually asking him that!
Chuckling dryly, he pushed off the edge of the desk that he leaned back against to lower himself down and cage me in with his arms on the armrest of my chair. "Do you really want me to answer that?" The playful edge to his voice, paired with his stern expression, made it hard to discern whether it was a rhetorical question or not.
I don't know how, but he made me feel smaller by a simple question. "Better yet, why is that the question you ask? Something on your mind about me you want to share about, little tigress?"
That damn smirk of his is going to be the end of me.
Forcing the lump down my throat, I quickly slipped under his arm to try and make a run for the exit to go down to the employee lounge, but I didn't even make it an inch before he grabbed me by the back of my neck and threw me back down onto the chair.
Growling softly, I frowned deeply at him with a glare while throwing my fist at him out of instinct. Bad mistake, because of my sprained wrist. "Fuck!" I hissed under my breath when he caught my wrists with his hands.
"Tigritsa, stop, you're going to hurt yourself more." He sighed heavily with a slow blink before slowly getting on his knees before me.
Releasing my uninjured hand, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a roll of bandaging and a small pop-able icepack. After setting the pack on the desk, he popped open the ACE bandage wrapping, carefully and expertly wrapping my injured wrist up before placing a kiss against it, making me shiver involuntarily at the action.
If I had no self-control, then I would've grabbed his hand to keep the contact going. I was so starved for this man's touch, though I'd never fully admit it to myself and suffer in silence.
"Ice it until I come back, I'm going to run down to the med bay to grab a brace for you." He told me with a soft grunt when he pushed himself back up on his feet.
"I don't need—"
The hard look from him was all I needed to shut my mouth because that look meant business. "Thank you." I managed to force it out of myself, not wanting to seem like an ungrateful brat.
"You don't have to thank me for taking care of you, little tigress. I'll always do it no matter what because I want to." He gave me a soft smile filled with longing as he reached out and rubbed the top of my head softly.
"I'll always take care of you, don't you ever forget that."
Chapter 23
Stepan
Apparently, Logan lacked more brain cells than I credited him for.
He would've taken my threats seriously if he had been remotely intelligent. Instead, he goes on a date with Hanna even after I've given three warnings.
Logan only had himself to blame for what was about to happen. I had given him a clear warning when I left the office the other day. If Hanna knew about what I did to make our little paintballing date and dinner happen, then she'd probably beat me to a bloody pulp. Surely, I thought Logan would've gotten the message clear across his dense brain after seeing his tires slashed and watching his car blow up seconds after, but stupid me for thinking he had one functioning brain cell. Damn buffoon managed to sweeten his way into Hanna's graces the next day, so the façade of him standing her up fell into freezing waters.
No matter, the thought of him dying over the toilet from the poison in his food while his apartment burnt down brought some joy to my twisted heart. It's too bad I couldn't be around to witness the destruction and mayhem because I'd much rather spend it watching over Hanna. Hopefully, this will be the last warning I'll have to give him. I just needed him out of the picture so Hanna could be all mine for the taking.
Watching Hanna from the corner table I sat at was easy, but my positioning was the only easy part of this whole thing. Keeping myself rooted to watch her date unfold tested my self-control like the night at Guilty. I wanted to march myself over and throw Logan out of his seat—preferably out the second-story window—and take his spot across from Hanna. That or put a bullet through his head from where I was at and be rid of him forever.
Mine and Hanna's little lunch dates—at least I considered them dates—couldn't compare to her letting me take her out on an official dinner date to her favorite hole-in-the-wall place or wherever she fancied. Even with her tactic of distancing me, at least she still let me take her to lunch and give her breakfast, so I was grateful for that. However, it did irk me greatly whenever she'd ask me where I'd get the food I give her so that she could get some with Logan. The fact she even thought about him, let alone share anything with him, made the red-faced demon wake within me.
Pulling out my phone, I triple-checked with the men who worked in the restaurant to ensure things were in place as they should.
The place resided within our territory and paid us protection, so they were under Volkov control. Thankfully, Logan picked a place within our territory. Otherwise, this plan of mine wouldn't happen. Well, I could have paid a chef enough to do what I needed if they weren't already under Volkov control, but it was nice not to worry about keeping someone in check. The chef here wouldn't dare go to law enforcement with what I would have him do.
Dinner crawled by painfully for the next hour. I don't know what was more painful, watching their somewhat bland date or actually hearing their boring conversation. Hanna contributed little, mainly because she deflected nearly every question thrown at her. Logan was too self-absorbed and liked talking about himself and the successful company he inherited from his father.
Maybe I'd be less pissy if Hanna chose a better man than me to entertain, but this guy was as interesting as a brick wall. Scratch that; a brick wall had more going on than Logan. At least a brick wall could be colorful and artful with paintings and graffiti.
I never thought I'd say this, but I wouldn't even be mad if she hooked up with Lev instead of Logan. Granted, I don't want her to, nor would I let that happen, but still. Between my own brother and this moron, I much rather it be my damn brother.
I couldn't help but wonder if Logan was at home hugging his toilet at this point in time after I'd perched myself at Hanna's windowsill for the past hour. The poison—hopefully—should have kicked in by now after a few hours. In which the bomb should be going off in the next ten minutes according to the timer I'd set on it.
