Chapter 11 #2
He walked up to the bar, pulling out a glass for himself. “So you were watching?”
I held back the urge to punch him. I didn’t sleep in the guest room with the most painful boner, work out for two hours and leave my house in a haste to be confronted by conversations about the same woman responsible for all of it.
“We have a no-fraternization rule.”
He cocked a brow. “Really? Does that apply to you too?”
Caroline’s entrance saved his face from getting impaled on the table.
“We’re ready for the presentation, Sir.”
“I requested a couple of files from Genevieve, but it seems she had a busy night.” Nikolai glanced at me. “Could you retrieve those before the meeting?”
“Sure. You’ll have it before the meeting starts.”
“Thank you, Caroline.”
The door had barely shut when I turned to him. “You do know you can get your own PA?”
He got off the chair, stretching like a wild cat. “Yes, but I like yours.” He sauntered off. “See you at the meeting.”
I bore holes through his retreating back. The idiot was baiting me, it was what he did best, yet I was letting myself get caught like a stupid fish.
I helped myself to another glass before heading to the general conference room.
We were about thirty minutes in when Genevieve slipped in, taking care to not disrupt the room as she made for the chair closest to the door.
I could’ve easily let her go, but the twitch in Nikolai’s lips and the way everyone held their breath told me my leniency would not go unnoticed.
“I’m glad you finally found the meeting worthy of your presence, Miss Sinclair.”
She froze, her face immediately turning bright red. “I’m sorry, sir, I had uh… a thing.”
I relaxed into my chair, enjoying the way her blush climbed to the tips of her ears. “A thing?”
“I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.”
“Of course it won’t, but if you’re going to be…” I made a show of looking at my watch. “Thirty minutes late to an hour meeting, you should have a reasonable explanation.”
Her eyes flashed. The change was so fast I would’ve missed it if I weren’t watching. Her hands curled on both sides. “I had a family emergency.”
“And you couldn’t send a notice?”
She did look like she arrived in a hurry. Her hair was a bit wild, her makeup lightly done and there was a sheen of sweat on her forehead. All things that should make her look less attractive but somehow, my cock thought differently.
“It was a mistake, sir.” Her voice was hard. “It won’t happen again.”
“Incompetent.”
Her eyes lifted. “Huh?”
“Incompetent, not a mistake.”
I gestured for the presenter to continue, letting him run for a minute before returning my attention to the woman who was staring daggers at me.
“Sit.”
If Nikolai was smirking before, he was straight up grinning, while the rest of the staff looked like they were barely perching on their seats.
The distance between Genevieve and me was about ten seats, but I could feel the heat of her stare from my chair. I’d pushed too hard.
“…we have concluded all system runs and are ready to launch.”
The intern presenting concluded, pulling my attention from Genevieve.
It was a nice concept but I wasn’t satisfied. A lot of security models sounded good till you adapted them to day-to-day activity.
The life I lived required ironclad-impenetrable security, and my lack of trust in others prompted Nikolai and me into building one for ourselves, and somehow, it became a global enterprise.
So I always considered myself the first-line customer of every product, and if it didn’t give me a sense of security, it wouldn’t hit the market.
“Run it over one last time, fix every loophole and release it to beta users for three months. Report findings.”
The intern's proud smile faltered, but he nodded regardless. “Yes, Sir.”
The meeting was dismissed with Nikolai pointing out weak codes and firewalls and getting a copy of the product to run through his computers.
The room slowly began to empty of staff. “Miss Sinclair.” I called when she got to the door. “Coffee.”
She didn’t look back, but I saw her head bob before she exited the room.
She arrived with the coffee shortly after I entered my office.
“Your coffee, sir.” She placed the steaming cup on my table. “Is there anything else I can do for you?”
I ignored the cup in front of me. Frankly, I had no use for coffee after two glasses of liquor. “How was your night?”
“It was fine, sir. Thank you for asking. Is there something else you’d want?” she repeated, still not looking at me.
“Any details of your night or the morning after you’d like to share?”
“I believe those are hardly appropriate questions, Mr. Ivanovich.”
I couldn’t help the twitch of my lips at her formality. It was almost amusing to watch. “Mr. Ivanovich?”
“Unless your employers have been deceived with an alias, I believe that is your name.”
“How long are you going to keep up with this?”
She maintained a straight face. “I have no idea what you speak of.”
“I’m sure you do, Genevieve. No one forgets dry-humping their boss's thigh overnight.”
Her countenance faltered. Her eyes flashed with a retort but calmed, deciding against it. “Why didn’t you wake me?”
“You looked tired.”
Her eyes finally landed on me. “So you left me sleeping in your room because I looked tired, knowing full well there was a meeting?”
“I instructed my driver to take you home and bring you to work.”
I let out a breath of disbelief. “And you couldn’t make the same request after waking me on time?”
“You looked tired,” I repeated.
“Clearly not tired enough to be publicly embarrassed.”
“You were late.”
Her lips parted and closed. She took a deep breath, and when her eyes reopened, the storm was gone. “Is there something else I can do for you?”
The look washed over me with a quiet revelation—I went too far. “You can tell me how to make it up to you.”
“Nothing.”
“There has to be something,” I pressed. “Say it and it’ll be yours.”
“You’re already incapable of giving it.”
I rested my elbow on the table, supporting my chin with my hands. “And what would that be?”
“Respect? Consideration for my person? Not bringing me to parties where you parade other women, taking me home, abandoning me in your bed, and humiliating me the next morning. Can you give me that much?”
I was rendered speechless. My expectations swung within the lines of a new car, jewelry, a Birkin, a free trip or some days off from the office. Those I could easily give, but this?
When moments passed and I was yet to say a word, she nodded.
“I thought as much. Have a nice day, Mr. Ivanovich, and let me know if you require my assistance at any point.”
She didn’t walk into her office.