“Boss?”
Dmitri’s voice jerks me back from wherever I’ve been, staring out the window at buildings climbing toward the hills that ring Los Angeles. The day is clear enough that I can see the mountain peaks beyond.
But that isn’t the view I was lost in.
“What?”
I can’t keep the irritation out of my voice as I turn from the window.
“I asked how today’s meeting went. You came straight up here to your office and shut yourself in. If Anya hadn’t told me otherwise, I’d think the meeting went south.”
“If you already know how the meeting went, why are you asking?” I shove his feet off my desk. “Get your feet off my desk.”
My second-in-command knows I hate it when he sits at my desk like this, and the shit-eating grin on his face says he enjoysmy annoyance. Dmitri is immune to my growl that sends other, lesser beings running for cover.
“I will if you ask nicely.”
“Get the fuck out of my chair.”
He does as I ask, but so slowly I know he’s needling me. “What are you so grumpy about? Anya said the meeting with Councilor Evans went well. I already authorized the money to be sent to him. It sounds like we almost have the development project in the bag.”
Dmitri rises from my chair but doesn’t go far. He leans back on my desk and crosses his arms, a smirk pulling at one corner of his mouth.
What am I so grumpy about? That I can’t get a certain pair of dark brown, almond-shaped eyes out of my head. I can’t forget that deep-honey color I could fall into and never want to come up for air. That I’d almost fallen into last night. I can’t get the way her skin felt against my lips, or the way her full, kissable mouth took up residence in my dreams, out of my head.
It was a mistake letting the mystery woman go last night. I should have insisted on going home with her, or taken my own car, or even had her up against the wall in one of the bathrooms. Anything to get her out from under my skin and out of my head, orbiting my thoughts like the sun.
The woman is torturing me, and we were together for all of half an hour.
Fairy tales aren’t real, and neither are rom-coms. Except I felt the world shift the moment I looked into her eyes.
Damn it. Now I’m thinking about her again instead of focusing on far more important matters.
“Kirill found something big and dirty on Councilor Sharp.”
In a snap, Dmitri has my attention again as I drop into my chair. “How big and how dirty?”
Dmitri’s smirk only grows, his eyes glittering with something almost frightening. “Big and dirty enough to turn his resistance into all the support we need.”
That gives me pause and a great deal of satisfaction.
“I tell you, brother, this development will pay off in a big way. No one will be able to touch Kucher Enterprises after this.” Dmitri’s smile matches my own satisfaction, a feeling I smother as quickly as it appears.
“We still have to be awarded the actual bid. It’s not done until it’s done,” I growl, turning on my computer as I reach for the plain manila folder my assistant, Anya, left on my desk. On it, she’s placed a sticky note that says only “Found Him” in her neat handwriting.
Dmitri’s grin falters, and then he rolls his eyes as he pushes himself up from my desk. “You can’t give yourself one moment of peace, can you?”
“My job isn’t peace. My job is to ensure the continuation of the Bratva.”
Dmitri doesn’t look surprised by my response, and just as he’s immune to my glare, he more often than not knows what I’m going to say before I say it. There are only two others in the world who know me as well.
“Okay, well, on that note?—”
I’m about to flip open the folder from Anya when Dmitri reaches behind him and slides another under my nose.
“What’s this?”
“It’s the information on the shitheads fighting in my club last night,” he says.
