Chapter 4
ANTON
Vivid red pulses at the center of a blob as it drifts from west to east. It freezes on the screen, but the glitch is short-lived. The weather radar map restarts, and the angry red middle seems even larger and wider, with rings of orange, yellow, and green around it.
It paints the same picture though.
A storm is passing through. And it’s bringing a lot of snow.
“Ice, too,” I mutter, working my head side to side to get rid of the kinks. Driving out of the city usually calms me. Or rather, Viktor driving my car out of the city does. It’s an escape, and I sure as hell needed one after this shitty morning.
Elena showed up at my office. That was the first sign the world was against me. She begged to talk, and I slipped out a side door rather than dignify her popping in.
Then I got the news of a failed shipment. That was a time-consuming pain in the ass to contend with, even though I personally didn’t need to do anything while my men handled it.
After that, Roman wanted to visit me since he and his girlfriend were in the area. Like I had the fucking time to chitchat and socialize with my inept son.
More issues cropped up over the course of the day, but the text from Elena was what pushed me over the edge.
My patience was shot. All goodwill vanished.
She sent me a selfie of her holding up an invitation to the Grayson Ball, a gala and fundraiser I always make an appearance at.
Her caption that suggested I would take her pissed me off even more, and that was when I called Viktor to prepare for a few nights at the vacation home upstate.
A little spell of distancing myself can’t hurt.
This storm means I’ll be out here for as long as Mother Nature decides. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.
Exhaling a long breath, I pace back through the large lounge at the back of the house. Floor-to-ceiling windows reveal the wintry beauty. Glass panels curve upward and present an all-encompassing view that reinforces what the radar shows.
Lots of snow. Falling so thickly that it’s impossible to see the forest beyond.
Standing still to watch the snow sheet down, I feel alone.
And lonely. It’s not just that I’m out here far from the city.
It’s the isolation that cuts me, the ache of having no one, sharper on days when I can’t tell a soul how shitty my day was.
Scowling that I could be this vulnerable, I stare into the darkness peppered with white.
Fuck. I’m in my head too much.
But it’s not only my head. This loneliness I never asked for is in my heart, too. It’s a deep hole in my soul that I doubt anyone will fill. A missing piece I sincerely don’t think I’ll find in anyone I’ll meet in this life—
The sound of a door opening and slamming shut yanks me out of my reverie. I spin instantly, hearing the commotion of someone entering.
Who the hell is here?
“Easy,” Viktor warns. “Don’t—”
“Ah!”
“—slip,” he tells the woman who cries out in alarm.
“What the…” Cutting across the room toward the foyer, I shove my phone in my pocket.
I round the corner, frowning at Viktor holding on to a woman. Blonde hair covers her face in disarray, but she’s still limping—or slipping—as he assists her toward the nearest loveseat.
Viktor nods at me as a greeting, proving he’ll never lose that uncanny awareness of when I’m near and when he needs to explain. “She was driving along the road and skidded off it just now.”
She jerks her head up, realizing he’s not speaking to her, but someone else. With how quickly she lifts her face, though, she winces in pain. “Ow.”
“Are you all right?” I cross the marble floor, ready to assist. Viktor can manage.
There’s nothing he can’t figure out how to handle, but something about the twisted pain in her delicate expression gets to me.
She’s not gasping like she can’t carry on.
She’s not wincing like she’s about to keel over or pass out.
Instead, as soon as her wince of pain comes, she shakes her head and scowls, like she’s annoyed.
“Yes. I’m fine. I’ll be absolutely fine—” She sucks in another hiss as she takes a step away from Viktor, seemingly to prove that she can stand on her own. “Ah!”
Now she presses a hand to her back, arching it like she’s in more distress.
“Doesn’t seem like it,” I comment, reaching for her right arm, shooting my hand out to brace her so she won’t fall.
At my touch, she bucks forward again and hisses. The wet back of her shirt confuses me, but I’m too caught up in the way she jolts through another stiff attempt to stand straight. And a whine of pain. Or maybe it’s a growl of frustration.
“Ice,” she states quickly. She reaches the back of her shirt and tugs at it. “Sorry. I’ll clean up this mess.”
“No worries, miss,” Viktor says as he stays close to keep her upright.
“I’ll mop it,” she says, letting his reply go in one ear and out the other. “I don’t want you to slip.” Finally turning to face me, she frowns slightly. “Or you. Sorry to barge in here and make a mess and…”
“Barge?” I glance at Viktor.
“No, you’re not barging,” my assistant tells her.
“Okay. Not barge,” she amends sheepishly, still pulling her shirt away as bits of ice and snow fall from the gap.
“I had to firmly insist that I could assist her,” Viktor reports.
“Uh-huh.” It’s all I can utter, too confused. Yet, I can already tell she’s stubborn. Oddly independent, too, fussing about the floor being wet or messy due to her entrance rather than emphasizing she was hurt. “Are you hurt?” I ask again.
“No.” She shakes her head but winces again. “Uh. No. A little whiplash, but I think it’s more the adrenaline and shock of hitting that car.” Her face falls with guilt. “Your car, probably.” She swallows, and I can’t help tracking the flex of her neck. Smooth skin. Flawless, unmarred.
“Can you sit?” Viktor asks.
She shakes her head, tearing her blue gaze from me. “No. I don’t want to be a bother.”
I huff a laugh. “It’s a bother to sit but it’s not a bother to hit my car?”
Freezing in place and cringing, she faces me and sighs. “Look. I’m sorry. It’s my fault.” She lifts her hands like a truce. “I’m sorry I caused damage, and I’ll pay for it. All of it.”
“It sounds like an accident,” I reply, studying her some more. She’s young, no doubt about that, but so damn…
Fuck.
She’s breathtaking. And scared, the way she keeps apologizing. But tough, too. Each time she faces me head-on and locks that dark-blue stare on me, it pierces me and pins me to the need to look my fill of her again. Not once has she shied away or cowered, bravely owning up to the crash.
“I didn’t mean to hit your car.”
I almost smile. It’s somehow pleasing that she’s not shoveling blame on anyone else like so many others do. “That also sounds like the definition of an accident.”
She nods, but it’s too curt and polite to come across as an overeager agreement to appease me. “It is. It was.”
“But why are you here?”
“Oh.” She closes her eyes and shakes her head.
“Sorry. Of course you’re confused. I recently stayed here as a guest over the holidays and I left some belongings.
I came to collect them, but with the snow and how icy the road is…
” She lets her shoulders fall. Her gray scarf that’s loosely looped around her neck drops more.
“The weather sort of changed my plan to step in and get my things and go again. In and out.”
“You can’t be out now,” Viktor says.
She resumes trying to shed the snow under the back of her shirt. As she opens her mouth to reply, he shakes his head and faces me. “Her car is totaled.”
“I’ll pay for it,” she cuts in. “I mean, obviously. I’ll pay for my car. And yours.”
“I mean it’s not drivable,” Viktor says.
I watch her, still piecing it together. “I’m not following. Where’s your coat?”
She clamps her mouth shut.
“She used it to punch the glass out,” Viktor states. “The security cameras aren’t picking up motion with the snow. I think she was out there for a while before I realized it.”
I raise my brows. Tough and gorgeous. Something about her seems familiar, perhaps her voice. With this immediate attraction charging my blood and waking me up fast, I know that if I’ve ever met her before, I wouldn’t have forgotten her.
“Yeah. I, uh, I was stuck. My door wouldn’t open with how I crashed.
I tried to lower the window and crawl out, but the battery was dead.
So I punched the window until it gave way, and I crawled out, hence the snow down my shirt, and then he came out and…
” Peering up at me as she trails off, she pauses.
I blink once. “You couldn’t have just opened the passenger door?”
She shakes her head. “When he said I totaled my car, he meant I really crumpled it.”
I resist the urge to laugh. She’s flustered, distracted, but not freaking out. It’s been a while since I’ve met someone this down-to-earth, able to roll with the punches. It’s been even longer since I’ve met a woman who doesn’t trip over her own feet and gawk at me.
“So, again. I’m sorry. I’ll cover the damages, and if I can get service and reception out here, I’ll call for a ride and be out of your way.”
Viktor holds up his phone. “Not getting anything yet.”
“I imagine you’re not,” I reply. “The weather app was glitching on me, too.”
“Oh.” She tucks her long golden hair back behind her ear. “Well, um, as soon as I can, I’ll—”
“You’ll relax,” I declare. “You’ll stay here and relax, Miss…?”
“Baranova. Liliana Baranova.” She furrows her brow. “I don’t want to be a bother.”
“You’re not.” I look her over once more, taking in her disheveled appearance.
Wet boots, scratched-up black tights, a short skirt, and a white blouse that’s more wet and transparent than not, giving me a preview of the lacy bra she seems to think is enough to hold in her generous breasts.
Her scarf droops further, as if to demonstrate how much of a mess she is.
Taking her hand, I’m annoyed by how cold her soft skin is. The streaks of blood peeve me too.
“You’re not a bother, and I insist you stay.” I press my thumb on her palm.
She tugs her hand free and frowns. “No. I’ll be fine.”
I reclaim her hand, wanting that zing of attraction to light me up again. That jolt that hit me at first contact. “I insist,” I repeat, catching the first flicker of her submission as she studies me with a mix of confusion and alarm.