Not Just the Boss's Plaything(11)

And remember. Dear God, what she remembered. What he'd done, how she'd    screamed, what he'd promised and how he'd delivered, again and again  and   again....

It took her much too long to recollect where she was now.                       
       
           



       

Not in a club in Shoreditch this time, filled with drunken idiots who    wouldn't recall what they did, much less what she did, but in her    office. Surrounded by every single person she worked with, all of whom    were staring at her.

Nikolai's gaze was so blue. So relentlessly, impossibly, mercilessly blue.

"I'm so sorry to interrupt," Alicia managed to murmur, hoping she    sounded appropriately embarrassed and apologetic, the way anyone would    after slamming that door-and not as utterly rocked to the core, as lit    up with shock and horror, as she felt.

It took a superhuman effort to wrench her gaze away from the man who    stood there glaring at her-who wasn't a figment of her overheated    imagination, who had the same terrifying power over her from across a    crowded room as he'd had in his bed, whom she'd never thought she'd see    again, ever-and slink to an empty seat in the back row.

She would never know how she did it.

Down in the front of the room, a phalanx of assistants behind him and    the screen above him announcing who he was in no uncertain terms,    NIKOLAI KOROVIN OF THE KOROVIN FOUNDATION, she saw Nikolai blink. Once.

And then he kept talking as if Alicia hadn't interrupted him. As if he    hadn't recognized her-as if Saturday night was no more than the product    of her feverish imagination.

As if she didn't exist.

She'd never wished so fervently that she didn't. That she could simply    disappear into the ether as if she'd never been, or sink into the hole    in the ground she was sure his icy glare had dug beneath her.

What had she been thinking, to touch this man? To give herself to him so    completely? Had she been drunk after all? Because today, here and  now,   he looked like nothing so much as a sharpened blade. Gorgeous and    mesmerizing, but terrifying. That dark, ruthless power came off him  in   waves the way it had in the club, even stronger without the  commotion of   the music and the crowd, and this time, Alicia understood  it.

This was who he was.

She knew who he was.

He was Nikolai Korovin. His brother was one of the most famous actors on    the planet, which made Nikolai famous by virtue of his surname alone.    Alicia knew his name like every other person in her field, thanks to   his  brilliant, inspired management of the Korovin Foundation since its    creation two years ago. People whispered he was a harsh and demanding    boss, but always fair, and the amount of money he'd already raised  for   the good causes the Korovin Foundation supported was staggering.

He was Nikolai Korovin, and he'd explored every part of her body with    that hard, fascinating mouth. He'd held her in his arms and made her    feel impossibly beautiful, and then he'd driven into her so hard, so    deep, filling her so perfectly and driving her so out of her mind with    pleasure, she had to bear down now to keep from reacting to the memory.    He'd made her feel so wild with lust, so deliciously addicted to him,    that she'd sobbed the last time she'd shattered into pieces all  around   him. She knew how he tasted. His mouth, his neck, the length of  his   proud sex. That angry, tattooed monster crouched on his chest.  She knew   what made him groan, fist his hands into her hair.

More than all of that, she knew how those bright eyes looked when he    told her things she had the sense he didn't normally speak of to anyone.    She knew too much.

He was Nikolai Korovin, and she didn't have to look over at Daniel's    beaming face to understand what it meant that he was here. For Daniel as    president, for making this happen. For the charity itself. A    partnership with the Korovin Foundation was more than a publicity    opportunity-it was a coup. It would take their relatively small charity    with global ambitions and slam it straight into the big time, once and    for all. And it went without saying that Nikolai Korovin, the  legendary   CEO of the Korovin Foundation and the person responsible for  all its   business decisions, needed to be kept happy for that to  happen.

That look on his face when he'd seen her had been anything but happy.

Alicia had to force herself to sit still as the implications of this    washed through her. She had betrayed herself completely and had a tawdry    one-night stand. That was bad enough. But it turned out she'd done it    with a man who could end her career.                       
       
           



       

Eight years ago she'd lost her father's respect and her own self-respect    in the blur of a long night she couldn't even recall. Now she could    lose her job.

Today. At the end of this meeting. Whenever Nikolai liked.

When you decide to mess up your life, you really go for it, she told    herself, fighting back the panic, the prick of tears. No simple messes    for Alicia Teller! Better to go with total devastation!

Alicia sat through the meeting in agony, expecting something to happen    the moment it ended-lightning to strike, the world to come crashing to a    halt, Nikolai to summon her to the front of the room and demand her    termination at once-but nothing did. Nikolai didn't glance in her    direction again. He and his many assistants merely swept from the hall    like a sleek black cloud, followed by the still-beaming Daniel and all    the rest of the upper level directors and managers.

Alicia told herself she was relieved. This had to be relief, this sharp    thing in the pit of her stomach that made it hard to breathe, because    nothing else made sense. She'd known he was dangerous the moment she'd    met him, not that it had stopped her.

Now she knew exactly how dangerous.

She was an idiot. A soon-to-be-sacked idiot.

Her colleagues all grimaced in sympathy as they trooped back downstairs.    They thought the fact she'd slammed that door was embarrassing  enough.   Little did they know.

"Can't imagine having a man like that look at me the way he did you," one said in an undertone. "I think I'd have nightmares!"

"I believe I will," Alicia agreed.

She spent the rest of the afternoon torn between panic and dread. She    attacked all the work on her desk, like a drowning woman grasping for    something to hold. Every time her phone rang, her heart leaped in her    chest. Every time she heard a noise outside her office door, she tensed,    thinking she was finished.

Any minute now, she'd be called up to Daniel's office. She could see it    spool out before her like a horror film. Daniel's secretary would    message the salacious news to half the office even as Alicia walked to    her doom. So not only would Alicia be dismissed from her job because of  a   tawdry one-night stand with a man most people would have recognized   and  she certainly should have-but everyone she worked with and   respected  would know it.

It would be as it had been that morning her father had woken her up and    told her what he'd seen, what she'd done-but this time, far more  people   would know what kind of trollop she was. People she'd impressed  with  her  work ethic over the years would now sit about imagining her  naked.   Having sex. With Nikolai. She felt sick even thinking about it.

"I warned you!" Charlotte said as she stuck her head through the    doorway, making Alicia jump again. A quick, terrified glance told her    that her supervisor looked...sympathetic. Not horribly embarrassed. Not    scandalized in the least. "I told Daniel you were on a call that ran a    bit long, so no worries there."

"Thank you." Alicia's voice sounded strained, but Charlotte didn't seem to notice.

"Nikolai Korovin is very intense, isn't he?" Charlotte shook her head. "The man has eyes like a laser beam!"

"I expect he doesn't get interrupted very often," Alicia said, fighting for calm. "I don't think he cares for it."