Chapter 13 - Clem
If I had been on the verge of freaking out about making out with Rurik with absolute abandon, it was quickly thrown to the wayside. The deal with the Koboyashis might have been a stroke of luck, but when I got to my new apartment, everything went wrong.
It made the unparalleled mistake of making my boss seem like next to nothing in the scale of things to worry about.
None of my furniture or clothes had been delivered, and the key I’d been given for my new apartment didn’t work.
When I got through to someone on the rental office’s emergency line, the bored-sounding person told me that the place wouldn’t be ready for another month.
“It’s beyond our control, and we only found out ourselves,” she said, briefly explaining some major damage from the previous tenants who moved out the day before. “You weren’t scheduled to arrive until this weekend…” she trailed off, as if it was all my fault.
When I looked at my phone, there were several missed calls and frantic messages from both the rental manager and the moving company.
My stuff was in storage, and at least a bit of good news—the movers managed to get my car running, and it was parked down the road in a spot where it should have been safe from being towed.
It was cold comfort that I was getting my deposit back until my new move-in date, and they’d hold the apartment for me if I still wanted it then.
Not looking forward to going back to my dingy little shoebox of a place, especially now that it’d be empty, I found my car and headed back anyway, nowhere else to go.
Actually, nowhere to go, period. The shoebox was already occupied, the lock changed, and the brand-new tenants were not at all happy to have someone rattling their door at that hour. I took off, not about to try to reason with an irate man who was twice my size and had more gang tattoos than skin.
It was four in the morning, close to dawn, but ages away in terms of being stuck in my rattletrap car on the curb in that shady neighborhood. Still pitch dark, it was a scary enough area when I was tucked indoors with a hammer on my bedside table for protection. Desperate, I reached for my phone.
My finger hovered over the number for a split second before I tossed it onto the passenger seat.
What the hell was I doing, about to call Rurik and ask for help?
I was supposed to have it together, not be huddling in my car that could break down again at any moment, sniveling about having no place to go.
There were plenty of places to go. Choosing to remain the confident, competent assistant who was on her way to bigger and better things, I checked into a cheap hotel and fell into the lumpy bed as if everything was fine. I was tired enough at that point to believe it.
The next morning, something like dread filled me that had nothing to do with my current circumstances and more to do with the main reason I didn’t call Rurik for help last night.
How could I face him after that makeout session?
No, I couldn’t think about it. I had to think about the possible aftermath.
Losing my job in my current situation would be the end of me.
One kiss, maybe even two, when the Koboyashis weren’t around to witness them, could be written off as excitement about getting verbal confirmation that the contract was ours, but last night… Last night was unforgettable.
“Well, you have to forget it,” I told myself firmly, pulling into the parking garage next door for the first time.
It was nice of the movers to tinker with my car enough to get it off the lot at the old apartment, but it wasn’t enough to make me forget the churning in my stomach as I went up the elevator to my office.
Feeling like I couldn’t breathe, I made Rurik’s coffee and placed it on his desk, scurrying away as usual, before he could mention how bad it was.
“Thanks, Clem,” he said absently.
I snuck a peek behind me. He hadn’t reached for it and was engrossed in something on his computer, not looking up at me at all. Weird, but not really. He was acting like everything was completely normal. Like we were never locked in an embrace, I could still feel every inch he touched.
This was great, wasn’t it? No awkward conversations, just pretend it never happened.
There was plenty to do, so I got to work, shoving any confusion out of my mind. We had the verbal confirmation, which should be as good as a signed contract as far as the honorable Koboyashis were concerned, but anything could happen before their names on paper actually made it official.
We were both so busy, with Rurik spending most of the day on the floor below with the accountant, and me tying up loose ends that got ignored while I was devoting all my time to the Koboyahis, that I didn’t see him again until the end of the day.
“Goodnight, Clem,” he said, already checking his phone as he hurried past my outer office.
“Goodnight,” I said, hearing the bitterness in my voice. He was already halfway down the hall.
Did I hope he’d ask how the new apartment was so I’d have a reason to spill my woes to him? And then what? Did I really wish he’d invite me back to his house again? With burning cheeks and way too many mixed emotions, I went back to my hotel and ate greasy fast food for dinner.
Pretend it never happened. Yeah, right. Tell that to my dreams.
The next few days were exactly the same, both of us too busy to say more than a few words to each other.
He was in his office, but so wrapped up in paperwork and phone calls that I didn’t dare ask him if he wanted to have lunch with me.
Nor did I have a reason to have lunch with him anymore.
Did I miss all those close discussions we had over the last few weeks? Or did I just miss him?
A courier came with a thick packet addressed to me, so I decided to eat lunch at my desk and see what it was, not at all hoping that Rurik might invite me somewhere on his way out.
I forgot food altogether when I saw that the first papers inside were name change forms, referring to my marriage to Rurik.
Funny. Maybe he wasn’t so busy after all if he was playing jokes on me.
But it wasn’t a joke because there was also a marriage certificate inside, much too official-looking, with my signature at the bottom next to Rurik’s.
After way too long on hold, I finally got through to someone at the courthouse, and then, after a lot longer while she looked it up, she came back on the line.
“Yes, it’s official. Rurik Fokin and Clementine Gardner.” She rattled off the date it was filed and hung up.
Grabbing the papers, I stormed into Rurik’s office. The look on my face made him end his current call and raise his eyebrows at me. I shoved the papers under his nose.
“What is this?” I demanded. “Because it looks like we’re married.”
He barely glanced at them and grinned up at me. “That’s because we are.”
“What?” I sputtered.
“You read the papers when you signed them, didn’t you? I was very clear that you should carefully read them.”
That notoriously busy day. The stack of papers I couldn’t have gone through in a week, let alone half a day. All those other tasks piled on top of it. No one could have read all those papers. And yet, I pretended I did, and had them notarized as well. My mouth fell open as I looked at my boss.
“We’re married, Clem,” he said.
I was stunned, almost off my feet as he unfolded his big body from his chair and came around to my side of the desk. This was the first time I had ever seen him so happy, and with a devilish glint in his eyes.
Shaking my head, I jumped back a half a foot. “But, why?”
He filled the distance I created between us, towering over me. His hands smoothed up my arms to settle on my shoulders. “Because I wanted you,” he said, sending a jolt of heat through my veins. “And now you’re mine. Mrs. Fokin.”
Lightheaded under the feel of his hands on me, heart racing at the force of his possessive growl, I ducked out from under his hands and took off.
Out of the office, down the stairs, no way I was waiting for the elevator.
Adrenaline kept me running, ignoring the shocked faces of someone from marketing returning with his sandwich.
Out of the office and into the parking garage, I slammed into my car and fumbled the key into the ignition with shaking hands.
Married? To Rurik? Legally bound?
“Damn it,” I cried, slamming my hands against the steering wheel when, of course, the car refused to start. Nothing but a weak chug before it clicked silent, no matter how many times I turned the key and pumped the gas. “This can’t be real.”
There was no way I was really married to Rurik, right? Fury rose up as I recalled that busy morning, obviously orchestrated for this end. But again, why? Because he wanted me? Because I was his? I held onto that anger, blotting out the shock, staving off the fear.
What the hell was I supposed to do about this?
How about living with him?
The intrusive thought panicked me more than the realization I had been tricked into marriage.
Yes, my situation was currently pretty messed up.
Yes, the idea of letting Rurik make all my troubles go away sounded like a dream.
But dreams turned into nightmares all too easily.
No way in hell I’d ever let anyone control me again.
One thing was certain: I’d never set foot back in Gavrik Imports. I tried grinding the key in the ignition once more, desperate to get away. Nothing.
I was out of a job, basically homeless, and now my car wouldn’t start.