“No, don’t do that I’ll get here on my own.”
“As you wish. My secretary will take it from here and get you to sign the necessary paperwork.”
“Fine.”
“Thank you, Miss Winters.” He nodded formally, distantly, then went to open the door for me.
I was frozen to the spot.
“Until tomorrow, Miss Winters.” He looked at me with the politeness of a stranger. It was as if a door had closed and a part of me grieved. Before this agreement, he was a man and I was a woman, now he was my employer and I was his employee.
I walked away from him and I couldn’t shake the feeling I had lost something important. I told myself I was being silly. I should be happy. I got the job I wanted, but inside me there was an ache, a longing for something I, myself had thrown away too hastily.
Chapter 4
April
“He did what?” Charlotte, my roommate, popped her head out from the bathroom door, a green sheet mask on her face.
Charlotte and I were school friends who became teachers, didn’t really like it, and waded into the nanny business together. Between us, we’d changed a truckload of diapers, been peed on by countless infants, had innumerable encounters with smirking, badly behaved toddlers; and dealt with a few jealous wives and their overly-friendly husbands into the bargain.
In temperament though, we are chalk and cheese. I’m a calm, cautious, thoughtful redhead, and she’s a risk taking, energetic, fiery blonde. Her temper is legendary. Back at school, she used to terrify even the boys, but what they didn’t know was underneath it all, she had a heart of gold. She is the most loyal, kind, and supportive friend one could ever hope to have.
“You heard me,” I said, kicking off my sensible pumps and heading for the fridge.
“No I couldn’t have, because I thought I heard you say Yuri Volkov kissed you.”
I opened the fridge and turned to look at her. “Yeah, that’s what I said.”
Her mouth opened in astonishment, and the mask started to slip.
The sight registered as comical even on my tightly strung nerves. I had to laugh.
“Why exactly are you laughing?” she demanded.
I grabbed two bottles of beer. “That mask! You look creepy…and a bit insane!”
“Oh,” she acknowledged. Realigning the cutouts to fit over her eyes, nose and lips, she came over to the living room, took the beer I held out, and plopped unto the couch beside me. “Let me get this straight… you went for an interview to be his niece’s nanny and he kissed you!”
“Uh, huh.”
Charlotte toasted me with her bottle. “What do you mean by kissed? On the cheek like the French and Italians, on the forehead like fussy grandmothers, or…”
“On the mouth,” I finished.
“Whoa!”
I took a sip of cold beer and savored the sensation of it sliding down my parched throat.
“Okay, so tell me exactly what happened.” She grabbed a half-eaten container of Pringles off the coffee table and popped one into her mouth.
With my eyes to the ceiling, I began, “It was a hot summer’s day—”
She threw a Pringle at me. “Stop deflecting!”
I fished the fluffy chip off the couch and munched it absently. “To be honest, it’s all kind of blurry right now. One minute we were talking in his expensive study and the next he’d come around and—”
“Oh my God,” she spat. “What a bastard. You should report him to the police. That’s sexual harassment right there.”
“It wasn’t as bad as that, Charlotte.”
She waited for me to explain, but when I didn’t, she frowned. “What do you mean it wasn’t as bad as that? You don’t think it’s harassment when a complete stranger who is supposed to be interviewing you for a job to take care of his niece, jumps on you like that?”
“I’m not sure what I think exactly.”
At her dumbstruck gaze, a mad giggle escaped my lips. I was probably still in shock. Nothing I’d learned and known about myself in my twenty-six years had prepared me for the way my body reacted to Yuri Volkov. For heaven’s sake, I didn’t even like the man. Yes, he was physically beautiful, but he was too hard and cold. I liked my men warm and caring. This was my first experience with pure lust.
She put the tub of Pringles down and folded her arms across her chest. “I have ten more minutes before I have to take off this mask. You better make me understand what happened, or I’m doing everything I can to get him thrown in jail, and you perhaps…into a psychiatric ward.”
“What did I do?” I cried, trying not to laugh at how angry she was becoming on my behalf.
She glared at me. “You can laugh and pretend all you want, but your eyes give it away. You look haunted, young lady. I’m not playing this game. What did that monster do to you? Spit it out.”