Not Just the Boss's Plaything(12)

"Clearly not," Charlotte agreed. And then laughed.

And that was it. No request that Alicia pack up her things or don a    scarlet letter. No summons to present herself in Daniel's office to be    summarily dismissed for her sexually permissive behavior with the    fiercely all-business CEO of their new celebrity partner foundation. Not    even the faintest hint of a judgmental look.

But Alicia knew it was coming. She'd not only seen the way Nikolai had    looked at her, but now that she knew that he was Nikolai Korovin, she    was afraid she knew exactly what it meant.

He was utterly ruthless. About everything. The entire internet agreed.

It was only a matter of time until all hell broke loose, so she simply    put her head down, kept off the internet because it only served to  panic   her more, and worked. She stayed long after everyone else had  left.  She  stayed until she'd cleared her desk, because that way, when  they   tittered behind their hands and talked about how they'd never  imagined   her acting that way, at least they wouldn't be able to say  she hadn't   done her job.                       
       
           



       

Small comfort, indeed.

It was almost nine o'clock when she finished, and Alicia was completely    drained. She shrugged into her coat and wrapped her scarf around her    neck, wishing there was a suit of armor she could put on instead, some    way to ward off what she was certain was coming. Dread sat heavy in  her   stomach, leaden and full, and there was nothing she could do about  it   but wait to see what Nikolai did. Go home, hole up on the couch  with a   takeaway and Rosie's usual happy chatter, try to ease this  terrible   anxiety with bad American television and wait to see what  he'd do to   her. Because he was Nikolai Korovin, and he could do  whatever he liked.

And would. Of that, she had no doubt.

Alicia made her way out of the building, deciding the moment she stepped    out into the cold, clear night that she should walk home instead of    catching the bus. It was only thirty-five minutes or so at a brisk  pace,   and it might sort out her head. Tire her out. Maybe even allow  her to   sleep.

She tucked her hands into her pockets and started off, but had only made    it down the front stairs to the pavement when she realized that the   big  black SUV pulled up to the curb wasn't parked there, but was   idling.

A whisper of premonition tingled through her as she drew closer, then    turned into a tumult when the back door cracked open before her.

Nikolai Korovin appeared from within the way she should have known he    would, tall and thunderous and broadcasting that dark, brooding    intensity of his. He didn't have to block her path. He simply closed the    door behind him and stood there, taking over the whole neighborhood,    darker than the sky above, and Alicia was as unable to move as if he'd    pinned her to the ground himself.

She was caught securely in his too-knowing, too-blue gaze all over    again, as if he held her in his hands, and the shiver of hungry need    that teased down the length of her spine only added insult to injury.    She despaired of herself.

If she respected herself at all, Alicia knew with that same old kick of    shame in her gut, she wouldn't feel even that tiny little spark of    something far too much like satisfaction that he was here. That he'd    come for her. As if maybe he was as thrown by what had happened between    them as she was...

"Hello, Alicia," Nikolai said, a dark lash in that rough voice of his,    velvet and warning and so very Russian, smooth power and all of that    danger in every taut line of his beautiful body. He looked fierce. Cold    and furious. "Obviously, we need to talk."





 CHAPTER FOUR

FOR A MOMENT, Alicia wanted nothing more than to run.

To bolt down the dark street like some desperate animal of prey and hope    that this particular predator had better things to do than follow.

Something passed between them then, a shimmer in the dark, and Alicia    understood that he knew exactly what she was thinking. That he was    picturing the same thing. The chase, the inevitable capture, and then...

Nikolai's eyes gleamed dangerously.

Alicia tilted up her chin, settled back on her heels and faced him,    calling on every bit of courage and stamina at her disposal. She wasn't    going to run. She might have done something she was ashamed of, but  she   hadn't done it alone. And this time she had to face it-she  couldn't   skulk off back to university and limit her time back home as  she'd done   for years until the Reddicks moved to the north.

"Well," she said briskly. "This is awkward."

His cold eyes blazed. He was so different tonight, she thought. A blade    of a man gone near incandescent with that icy rage, a far cry from the    man she'd thought she'd seen in those quieter moments-the one who had    told her things that still lodged in her heart. The change should  have   terrified her. Instead, perversely, she felt that hunger shiver  deeper   into her, settling into a hard knot low in her belly, turning  into a   thick, sweet heat.

"This is not awkward," he replied, his voice deceptively mild. Alicia    could see that ferocious look in his eyes, however, and wasn't fooled.    "This is a quiet conversation on a deserted street."

"Perhaps the word loses something in translation?" she suggested,    perhaps a shade too brightly, as if that was some defense against the    chill of him.                       
       
           



       

"Awkward," he bit out, his accent more pronounced than before and a    fascinating pulse of temper in the hinge of his tight jaw, "was looking    up in the middle of a business meeting today to see a woman I last  laid   eyes upon while I was making her come stare right back at me."

Alicia didn't want to think about the last time he'd made her come.    She'd thought they were finished after all those long, heated hours.    He'd taken that as a challenge. And he'd held her hips between his hands    and licked into her with lazy intent, making her writhe against him   and  sob....

She swallowed, and wished he wasn't watching her. He saw far too much.

"You're looking at me as if I engineered this. I didn't." She eyed him    warily, her hands deep in the pockets of her coat and curled into  fists,   which he couldn't possibly see. Though she had the strangest  notion he   could. "I thought the point of a one-night stand with no  surnames   exchanged was that this would never happen."

"Have you had a great many of them, then?"

Alicia pretended that question didn't hit her precisely where she was the most raw, and with a ringing blow.

"If you mean as many as you've had, certainly not." She shrugged when    his dark brows rose in a kind of affronted astonishment. "There are no    secrets on the internet. Surely you, of all people, must know that. And    it's a bit late to tally up our numbers and draw unflattering    conclusions, don't you think? The damage is well and truly done."

"That damage," Nikolai said, that rough voice of his too tough, too    cold, and that look on his hard face merciless, "is what I'm here to    discuss."

Alicia didn't want to lose her job. She didn't want to know what kind of    pressure Nikolai was prepared to put on her, what threats he was  about   to issue. She wanted this to go away again-to be the deep, dark  secret   that no one ever knew but her.

And it still could be, no matter how pitiless he looked in that moment.

"Why don't we simply blank each other?" she asked, once again a touch    too brightly-which she could see didn't fool him at all. If anything, it    called attention to her nervousness. "Isn't that the traditional   method  of handling situations like this?"

He shook his head, his eyes looking smoky in the dark, his mouth a resolute line.

"I do not mix business and pleasure," he said, with a finality that felt    like a kick in the stomach. "I do not mix at all. The women I sleep    with do not infiltrate my life. They appear in carefully orchestrated    places of my choosing. They do not ambush me at work. Ever."