21
P ushing my office door, something akin to anticipation bubbles in my stomach. It has been increasing to the point that when I visited Dad, he looked concerned, sure that I was going to torture someone today.
Venezia giggles to herself in my office, placing something on my desk. She snaps up when she hears me walk in, her eyes wide.
“What have you done?” I keep walking, my steps precise until I am standing right in front of her. Venezia is holding her iPad for dear life like I might bite her.
I won’t.
Okay, maybe not yet .
“Just doing my job, Mr Gustav.” She narrows her eyes, emphasising on my name, which makes me smirk.
After the flight back to Edinburgh, I dropped her off before heading to my own home. A very quiet, dark, towering home. While I have invested quite a lot in AI technology to keep me and my home safe, it still feels a little too quiet. It’s a home very much built for someone who doesn’t trust a single other person in their home. It never bothered me until last night when I, for a very short second, imagined Venezia’s presence in the house, and it changed everything for me. I didn’t think I would actually enjoy someone else in my home aside from the small robots and my AI system.
Coming home to robots speaking to me through my ceiling speakers is definitely making me realise just how stupidly lonesome that seems. Even at my age of thirty-six, it isn’t necessary for me to have a home that big, but it’s a need to keep me safe.
“Doing your job, huh?” My eyes flit to her lips that I kissed only days ago, and now she’s here, in my office, a whole tease, and still up in her spirits.
“Yes, move before someone walks in and thinks I am trying to seduce you.” She rolls her eyes as if it’s a bother and not something she should hide, and that has my lips turning up.
“Why are you smiling? Let me do my work.” She pushes at my shoulder and starts to walk around me, but I grab her wrist and turn her around. Her breath hitches when she falls against me.
“Do you think I will ever be able to work now?”
Venezia hasn’t given me a reply, and instead chose silence after I expressed my interest in her. I’m not going to force it out of her, but I know I will need to wait. She’s hesitant and wary possibly because of something in her past. I intend to find out about it and take care of this hesitancy she has.
“You’ve got quite the experience, so don’t worry about that one.” She smirks, her eyes teasing.
“Oh? So now you are finally getting your jabs in, aren’t you? I knew the moment you badmouthed me in my own car that you aren’t as quiet and sweet as you make yourself out to be.”
Her eyes flare at my words. She swallows thickly, and that makes me want more of her genuine reactions without her keeping them locked away.
“You are hiding many things, but I will uncover it all. I know you are far more than what you portray yourself to be,” I murmur, dipping my face until my lips brush against hers.
Her hand in mine tightens into a firm fist while her breathing quickens.
“Rafael,” she whispers, a tortured sound escaping her.
Chuckling, I let her go, knowing she will be furious if she doesn’t get her work done on time.
She blinks, then looks up at me in accusation, but I only nod towards the door, hiding my grin when I turn around.
“If you keep doing that at work, I promise you, I won’t even walk into this office.” She stomps away, her hair whipping with every jerky step.
Quickly turning to the one-way wall, I grab my remote so I can watch her enter her office. She walks past my gift and sits down. Minutes later, she finally looks away from her computer screen and finds the vase full of fresh sunflowers sitting near her window on the small table. She gasps, her eyes flickering to this wall separating us as if she can see me.
She gets up, walks over to it, and reaches out to touch a delicate petal, a small smile gracing her lips.
When evening rolls around, the invitation set on my desk makes me sigh, but I know I need to go. It’s the perfect opportunity to set in motion what I aim to do.
“I’ll be clocking off for the day.” Venezia waltzes in my office, giving me a polite smile.
The minute my eyes fall on her, the atmosphere in the room becomes instantly charged. Venezia seems to notice it, too. She swallows thickly, her own eyes almost calling out to me, but she steels herself and turns and walks out.
I can’t even walk after her. My laptop pings the moment she leaves.
I run a hand through my hair. I could call her back, demand her to work on some project or draft a new plan, or even compile a list of new investment properties, but I am bound to my chair.
How the fuck did my brothers manage to arrive here together? What is so important that they decided to show up here and not my home?
Minutes later, I watch them all walk in, one after the other in crisp dark suits. Eiran, Mikko, and even Khyros, who is back from London, and they all look ready to kill.
I stand up, not knowing how to take this, but ready to support them no matter what.
Khyros slaps a paper on my desk with a picture of London’s mayor, followed by Eiran showing me his screen displaying an email where Hayes Lonan is very clearly stating he may cause harm to the Gustav name if he isn’t given authority over the ballroom we own, which is used for many social Elite parties.
Mikko crosses his arms, and his suit stretches across his muscles. He looks downright murderous. Out of all of us, he is the one who gets his hands dirty the most. He is the one who likes to get physical, and given his body strength, he causes quite the damage.
No wonder Liya fell for him when he beat up a thief who stole her purse in Milan. She’s a model, and they look perfect together. She has a fiery personality, and he’s ready to kill anyone who upsets her.
“I hope you know that you will be attending the next party,” Eiran grits out, the usual softness around him now gone. Instead, the Gustav anger that is instilled in every man with the surname darkens his face.
A smirk plays across my lips while I pocket my hands, my eyes running over the evidence and very clear threat against us.
“Oh, I sure will.”
Khyros nods in approval, his sharp features quite similar to my own. He has a lean body despite his successful boxing career.
“Do you have any news?” I ask Khyros. He nods silently, his eyes still fixed on Haye’s picture.
What is he thinking? I swear I never know with this man.
“Just a little whisper about the upcoming party and Remo’s confirmed attendance. You should take your assistant. It’ll be a good test of her loyalty. If she fails, Mikko can just take care of her,” he mutters, looking around the office, then settles his gaze on me.
“Who? Venezia? Are you doubting her?”
Mikko’s brows rise, and it even prompts Eiran to look at Khyros, who shrugs.
“Just being cautious.”
Mikko and Eiran look at each other, having a silent conversation about Venezia’s loyalty, and that halts my thoughts. In Greece, I asked her to trust me. I wanted her to truly know that she can count on me, but to be testing her like this?
It doesn’t escape me that Khyros has been right about my previous assistant. He leaked the location of the party I made him attend, a party that was for the inner circle of London, and Mikko had to take care of him.
I stiffly nod.
How will she feel if she finds out that she’s being tested when I am the one who wanted her to give us a chance? Give me a chance?
My two brothers may like her, but Khyros has always been hesitant around outsiders, and they haven’t met each other yet.
It puts me in between two parts of life, Venezia and my family, that I am trying to join.