Chapter 9 Andre
ANDRE
The next morning came after a long night of lousy sleep. Although I’d made Sofia come, I bet she’d only allowed herself to feel good about it for a few seconds. In a twisted sense of annoyance, I got up and hoped that she’d struggled to sleep well too.
Why do you have to fight me?
Why are you being so difficult?
As I got dressed in casual, comfortable clothes for a day in my home office, when I was still technically on leave for the minor injuries I’d sustained over two weeks ago, I tried my best to ignore the memories of Sofia’s pussy squeezing my fingers as I played with her on the dining room table.
Then while I walked down to the kitchen for breakfast, I dismissed the sounds of her sexy-as-fuck moans and whimpers that kept replaying in my mind.
Passing the dining room was a test of my control.
I scowled. When she looked like she was tearing up, it had cut a deep chasm in my fucking chest. I’d gotten up to approach her and comfort her, not exactly intending to go so far in showing her how good we’d fit together.
How much we could make sense when we gave up denying this tension and chemistry between us.
How long will you push me away?
She wasn’t impervious to me. Her sweet, reluctant orgasm was proof of it. Now, we were just playing on another level of repressed attraction.
Will she try to hide from me now?
I sipped the coffee I'd brewed.
Would she go so far as to quit and escape?
I furrowed my brow at the possibility.
If you run, I’ll track you down, sweetheart. Try me. I will.
Looking for her wasn’t on the schedule, though. Because after I brought my coffee to my office, where she was supposed to meet me in five minutes, I saw that the door was already open.
I entered, raising my brows at finding her on her hands and knees, hurrying to straighten what looked like a pile of papers that had fallen over and scattered.
“What are you doing?”
She jolted with a gasp, looking up at me with wide eyes.
What the hell is that?
I frowned, pricked with suspicion at her expression of fear. Fear of me, or fear of being caught in here without my permission?
Why would she be so startled?
I didn’t want to think that she had anything to hide, anything that would warrant her freaking out like that.
Not once had she ever looked at me with terror in her gaze.
Not even when I’d shot Yusef in this very room.
When I beat that guard who bothered her, she’d given me a disappointed frown, but nothing like fear.
Or guilt.
“These papers fell over and flew out all over the floor, so I was trying to pick them all up and sort them into a pile.” She stayed on her knees, and a blush darkened her cheeks.
Or is she awkward because of what happened last night?
As sassy and confident as she could be, it seemed unlikely that she’d be shy about it. Sex was sex. She was young, but she didn’t strike me as a prude with how willing and eager she was to kiss me back and participate in our stolen moments.
“Oh.” I set my coffee down and moved to take my chair. Deciding to go easy on her for being in here before I’d told her to, I set my feet on the edge of the desk and got my phone out of my pocket. “Carry on.”
She ducked her head, peering at me with disbelief. “What?”
I gestured at her without pausing in reading the emails on my phone. “Carry on. Go ahead.”
“Go ahead with what?” she asked.
“You know, seeing as you were a maid before starting as my office assistant, I’d imagine you’d be quicker to understand the priority.”
She furrowed her brow.
“Go on and pick up. Organize. Make piles and declutter.”
“That’s it?” She raised her brows and set one hand on her hip. “Just a general expectation to make this room look like less of a dump? That’s what you want from me?”
I let a slow smile stretch over my face. “You know what I want from you.”
Scowling immediately, she narrowed her eyes.
“Have you reconsidered my offer?”
“To be your kept woman and pretend I’m happy to be your fuck toy?” She flipped me off. “No. I have not reconsidered.”
Ooh. Watch it, sweetheart. That fire is going to make me more addicted. “Then carry on.” I lowered my gaze again and gestured for her to organize the papers.
“Just like that?”
I nodded without looking at her.
“I’m sorry if I’m overstepping to speak freely.”
I glanced at her. “Giving me the finger wasn’t speaking freely?”
She winced. “Um. Right. It’s just that, um…” She nervously scanned the room. “I’m aware that you and your family are, you know, at the head of a dangerous criminal organization.”
She had my attention now. “Uh-huh.”
“I’m merely worried that if I pick up and declutter this chaos, I might see something I shouldn’t.”
I shook my head. “I wouldn’t put you at risk like that.
Nothing important is lying out. It’s mostly receipts and shit that the bookkeepers wanted me to approve.
” Shrugging to show how little I cared about this room, I resumed reading emails and messages.
When she didn’t move or speak, I held the device higher for emphasis.
“I prefer digital records. So once more, carry on.”
She did. Without another word, she gave the indication that my explanation could assuage her worries about seeing something incriminating.
Trying to tune out her presence as she sorted papers into neater piles, then to get a garbage bag to collect old containers and wrappers from when my cousins and I would use this room as somewhere to have a “working lunch”, I stayed put and went through what seemed most time-sensitive on my phone.
I was “off”, so to speak, but I never let my finger stay off the pulse of what was going on.
I couldn’t. Being an Orlov required that degree of commitment.
With Yusef dead and no new reports of interference from the Giovannis with the drug operation, I felt like there wasn’t even anything pressing for me to concern myself with.
Which led me back to the too-idle concept of this stubborn, sexy woman trying to reclaim and restore order in this room.
Thinking about Sofia was my favorite pastime, but being in here with her as she cleaned piqued my suspicion.
She’d put earbuds in to listen to music, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t watch her as she stayed busy.
I noticed that she’d organized papers by language, making me wonder if she was multilingual, and why.
I observed how she stayed away from the side of my desk where Yusef had fallen dead from my shot, and it worried me that she’d be scared or nervous about that up-close brush with violence.
But most of all, as I watched her from the corner of my eye, I tried not to let my frustration mount higher at her persistence.
She wouldn’t cave.
She wouldn’t even look at me or hold eye contact long enough for me to guess whether she was hoping we could be spending this time together in another way. That current of desire hadn’t been severed yet. It crackled and snapped, lurking beneath the surface, but she was determined not to give in.
Captivated by her defiance, I forfeited the game of guessing why she was so hard to win over, to impress.
Only a text from Oleg broke my stare on her.
Oleg: Where are you?
Andre: Office.
Oleg: You’re back to work?
I rolled my eyes. Even if I was off this supposed light-duty status Claire insisted I be on, there wasn’t anything major for me to stress about at the moment.
Andre: No. Not really. I’m just supervising my new office assistant as she cleans my office.
Oleg: I thought you agreed that you should be trying to push her away.
He could go right ahead and think that. We’d had a couple of drinks one night last week, and I might have given him the impression that Sofia was driving me insane with wanting her. He’d parroted my father’s line, reminding me that I would do well not to be too distracted by a woman.
The problem was that I couldn’t. Pushing Sofia away wasn’t something I could pull off. Not when her very presence was tantamount to being lured toward a forbidden treat.
I set my phone down and sighed, watching her while she kept her back to me. Her long brown ponytail swayed as she moved from side to side, sorting out files that were from reports years ago, boring financial shit to do with a few of our restaurants.
How long can this last?
I wasn’t sure how much longer I could stand to not have her, how much more torture I was due while I stayed on the path of letting her come to me rather than forcing her to compromise.