Defiant. Sweet. Alluring.
A business deal gone wrong brought me to her doorstep.
She's everything I shouldn't want; everything I was against after watching my mother's obsession destroy her.
Still, I can't stop myself from craving her.
I should know...
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A WEEK HAD GONE by since the incident in my bedroom, and things between Aleksei and I had been cordial since then.
We weren't exactly friends, but we ate breakfast and dinner together every time with Mikhail present, of course. I wasn't confident enough to be alone in a room with Aleksei yet. My nerves wouldn't let me, and the last thing he needed to see was me puking my guts out because my nerves had gotten the better part of me. They could be that bad.
Oh, and back to eating together, he always pulled my chair back for me if he arrived before me which was every time.
Things were almost too peaceful that I was waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Cynical? Yes, but I was never one to believe in fairytales in the first place.
A knock on the door pulled me out of my thoughts. I turned in my vanity stool just as the knob turned before the door opened and Aleksei walked in clad in a tailored tux that stretched over his broad shoulders and molded against every inch of muscle with perfection.
I wasn't the biggest fan of the opposite sex, but even I could admit he was handsome.
"You're drooling," he said with a smug smile, gesturing at his mouth. "You might want to wipe that off."
I reached up to wipe my mouth like he'd said before I realized what I was about to do, and I glared at him.
He chuckled. "I come bearing a present."
That was when I noticed the huge, rectangular jewelry box in his left hand.
"I forgot to hand this to the stylist when she brought your dress and shoes over."
That was another thing to get used to.
A personal stylist he'd employed to get me ready for events like this, namely a birthday party of a high-profile politician Aleksei was acquainted with. It would take a while to get used to his lifestyle. He didn't hide in the shadows like my family did.
He plopped down on the foot of my bed. "Come on. Aren't you excited to see what your present is?"
I rose to my feet, my curiosity more than piqued as I made the short distance to him. I stood between his parted thighs, gesturing for him to open the velvet box. He did a second later. I didn't realize the gasp had come from me until Aleksei spoke.
His eyes were filled with amusement when he glanced up at me. "I didn't grant you eternal life. It's just jewelry."
Yeah, jewelry that cost thousands of dollars.
"Are you taking it, or do you want me to toss it out?" He asked dryly. He sounded serious with the question, too.
I gasped again, snatching the box out of his hands. Not because the necklace was so beautiful and I genuinely wanted to keep it, but because he was going to throw it out. Yeah, it was definitely not the former. I was doing him a favor here.
