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“It’s not like you’re going anywhere, are you?” she asked, crossing the bedroom to peck my lips. I tried to deepen it to convince her to stay, but she was quick to dart away, smiling and shaking her head at me. “We’ll see each other again, I’m sure.”
“Tonight.”
“Not tonight.”
“When, then?”
She looked over her shoulder at me and smiled. “Soon. You’re going to have to be patient like I was patient.”
She just loved to torture me.
“What am I supposed to do until then?” I demanded.
“Sleep,” she said.
But I couldn’t. Not when I knew what it was to sleep beside her. Sleep was forever ruined for me.
* * *
“Mr. Turgenev?”
I blinked as my attention returned — a little too late — to the meeting I was sitting in on. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention,” I said. What was the meeting about? I racked my brain, but all I could find were thoughts of Sadie. The little sighs she made when I was buried deep inside her. The way her body fit next to mine. The warmth of her in bed with me.
I was addicted to her, and I needed more.
Oh, yes. The meeting. There was a new potential business to invest in somewhere along the chain of designers, manufacturers, and retailers I already owned. “I’ll get back to you regarding my decision soon.”
Everyone who was physically present recognized my words as a dismissal, and pushed themselves away from the boardroom table. The individuals who had participated via video call left blank screens.
I was trying to focus. I really was. And keeping close control of all the different moving pieces of my company required all of my effort.
Sadie had upended all of that.
What the hell. I deserved a break. I’d done nothing but work for the past four years. I could afford to take a little time off to play. Especially when it had to do with Sadie.
“Clear the rest of my day,” I told my assistant, striding out the door. “And don’t forward any calls, no matter who it is.”
“Yes, Mr. Turgenev.”
If there were any emergencies, they’d come through Sergei. I’d always answer his calls. Otherwise, everyone else could find someone else to bother.
“What are you doing right now?” I texted to Sadie, walking to the parking garage to retrieve the Tesla.
By the time I’d seated myself behind the steering wheel, she’d answered. “Lunch prep. Why?”
I smirked. It was time to pay a visit to my alma mater.
* * *
“We are just so surprised — and excited, of course — that you’ve come back to visit us at Tides Academy, Mr. Turgenev,” the dean was saying, practically trotting alongside me with eagerness — and to keep up — as I walked down one of the hallways. “If you had given us a little more notice, we would’ve loved to set up a keynote address to the students. They would be so inspired to work hard here, learning from your success story.”
“I’m afraid they’d be shit out of luck in the inspiration department,” I said, not glancing back at him. This man was falling all over himself to fawn over me — and I was certain he didn’t even know or remember me from the time I’d spent here as a student. “I owe my success to inheriting my parents’ business. That’s all.”
The dean didn’t miss a beat. Overeager bastard. “Still, I’m sure you have some words of wisdom our students could glean about time management and business acumen.”
“I’m just here for nostalgia’s sake. And the tour.” The place hadn’t changed a bit. The hallways were long and twisting, still smelling of the same faint lemon cleaner they had when I’d lived here full-time. Students ambled around us, talking and shouting at each other, hauling book bags and sports equipment to their next destination. Had I ever carried that many textbooks around with me? I’d been much more interested in hanging out with Jonathan and seeing what kind of trouble we could get into. He’d made it impossible for me to feel homesick — we were too busy having fun. Sure, my parents had sent me to Tides to get an education, but the true purpose was for me to learn English and to be able to assimilate new surroundings and culture.
The earliest words I’d learned from my best friend might’ve been crude, but I believed my parents’ wishes had been fulfilled. My Russian accent when speaking English was so slight that business partners around the world always felt like they had to comment on it. Plus, I’d taken advantage of the resources at Tides to add more languages to my repertoire.
