“Okay, okay. Calm down. First of all, he’s not a monster. It wasn’t like that.”
“Then tell me how it was before I explode.”
“Okay, I arrived at his house. Actually, calling it a house is like calling Kim Kardashian a housewife. It was a very grand, nouveau riche mansion. It even had a massive bodyguard called Brain—”
“Are you trying to be funny?” Charlotte interrupted, rising angrily from her seat.
Charlotte’s rage made me feel bad. She couldn’t help it. She flew into a temper if she thought anybody was trying to take advantage of me. In remorse, I pulled her back down. “Relax, will you? There really was a bodyguard called Brain, and I am getting to the important bits. It’s just that my brain is a bit fried so it helps to try and recall the details—”
“Why is your brain fried?”
“Yuri Volkov kissed me,” I reminded her flatly.
Her eyes narrowed to slits, a feat considering how enormous her eyes were. “I thought you weren’t feeling harassed about it.”
“It depends—”
“On what?” she flared up again, hands on hips.
“On your definition of harassed. Anyway, can I just get through my story without being constantly interrupted?” I glanced at my watch. “I believe I have seven minutes left.”
“Fine. Carry on.” She reached for her Pringles.
“Where was I?”
“A bodyguard called Brain. I assume he was as thick as two short planks,” she said sarcastically.
I grinned. “He did give the impression intellectual pursuits were not his thing.”
She smiled, relaxing a little. “Before you carry on, did you meet the child?”
I nodded and frowned, remembering Yulia’s silent, but desperate plea.
“Did you find out why she won’t speak?”
I shook my head. “No. Apparently, no one knows, not even her psychiatrist. She seems to communicate by writing on her notepad.”
For a second, my train of thought returned to the ivory marble room with its intricate Persian carpets, golden side tables, and gigantic vases of exotic flowers. In all my life, I’d never felt my heart beat so frantically as I strode through it. And then that moment when I went from shock, sexual arousal, horror, and confusion to looking into the deeply troubled eyes of a sad, little Princess. She didn’t smile. She didn’t speak. She didn’t need to. Her eyes said it all.
Charlotte took an agonized breath and nudged, “Earth to April…”
I lifted my gaze to hers. “Sorry. Her name is Yulia. It was the weirdest thing but she ran up to me after I left Mr. Volkov’s study and put her hand in mine. Then she wrote on her pad, Don’t go and gave it to me.”
Charlotte’s eyes were as wide as I’d ever seen them. “Good heavens, that’s like something from a Disney movie. What did you freaking do?”
I took a sip of beer as I thought about the strange, surreal moment. “Nothing at first. I was too stunned. I didn’t think I could work for her uncle. Not after I slapped him.”
Charlotte clapped her hand on her mouth. “You slapped him. Okay, back up, back up. Let’s go back to the uncle and the kiss.”
Chapter 5
April
Charlotte gulped down her beer and watched me with unblinking attention while I told her about the shortest, strangest interview I’ve had with the most mysterious man I’d ever met.
“He sounds creepy,” she decided.
“Trust me, creepy is the last word anyone would use to describe him.”
“What word would you use?”
“I don’t know if I can describe him with one word. To start with, he was extremely difficult to read. Like trying to suss out the Mona Lisa or the Sphinx.” I shook my head. “No, that’s not quite right either. The whole episode was almost like a scene from The Interview With A Vampire. The whole time there was an underlying dark sexual tension.”
Charlotte leaned forward. “Really?”
“Well, for all the five minutes I was there anyway. Then he informed me the interview was over and his PA would contact me with me the result.” I crinkled my face. “Basically, don’t call us, we’ll call you.”
“Why? He didn’t even give you a chance.”
“That’s exactly what I thought and it made me so angry at the arrogance with which he was dismissing me that I forced him to confirm I didn’t have the job.”
Charlotte’s eyes widened as she slipped a Pringle into her mouth. “Go you! Then what happened?”
“The next thing I knew he’d left his seat, come around to my side, and grabbed me. He has very strong arms, like steel bands.”
“I’m sure he has,” she murmured staring at me.
“Before I even knew what was happening I heard him say, ‘because of this.’ Then his mouth swooped down on mine. I was too shocked to do anything about it.”
As I spoke, I remembered the burn of his cold eyes, and the fiery sizzle of arousal in the air. I felt his sensuous mouth on mine, the hardness of body pressed against mine, and the vortex of desire that I fell into. Clearly, I recalled the glint of triumph in his eyes as my hand connected with his cheek. As if he’d wanted me to slap him. Which of course, was madness.