Russian Billionaire’s Virgin Secretary(14)

The east coast division of VIC Enterprises was significantly smaller than the corporate office. Taking up one-half of a floor in a modern building near the financial district, Sarah was introduced to the office manager, Betty, a matronly woman who handled all the reception and basic office duties. Simon was in charge of business development and his current assistant, an intern from Columbia University, was a bubbly Clara. Marcus was responsible for procurement and he and his staff were at one of the business sites dealing with renovations. As Sarah followed Vitaly into his office, she was surprised again at the amount of open space. Since his office also functioned as meeting space, she set up her laptop at the conference table and prepared to get to work.

The next several hours flew by, as Sarah was engrossed in the work. Betty had lunch delivered in and other than the occasional interruption when other members of his team came in to discuss aspects of their projects; it was close to seven when Sarah realized that it was getting dark out. Even in school, she had never been so engrossed in her work before and she found that she enjoyed it immensely. Standing up, she stretched, arching her back as she relieved tight muscles.

As Vitaly caught her movement, he looked up to see her wrap dress, part in the front exposing her right leg almost to her hip. Not realizing that she was being watched, Sarah calmly adjusted her dress before looking at Vitaly. Tilting her head, she tried to get a read on what he was thinking, but was unable to do so. Before she could speak, they were interrupted by loud laughter as Marcus, Pete and Cindy came walking in.

They had spent the entire day down at the New Jersey Port prepping the small office and getting the remaining paperwork taken care of to begin offering freight and transport services. After their dinner the night before, Nico Demolios was the first to step up giving authorization for VIC Enterprises to conduct business there and the local union   was quick to agree. Cindy had stopped by the New York Port office and after considerable flirting, was able to get Steve Markos to agree. Of course, the box seats to the next three home games at Yankee Stadium did wonders in securing the deal.

As the team suddenly took notice of Sarah, all eyes were turned to her. Smiling, she held out her hand and introduced herself. Unsure what else to say, she stood their awkwardly before Cindy grabbed her arm.

“Come on, let’s go freshen up while Marcus talks about whatever he’s dying to talk to Vitaly about,” Cindy said as she tugged Sarah out of the room. As they left the room, Marcus turned to Vitaly.

“She’s cute.” As Vitaly stared at him, Marcus eventually broke eye contact. “So, there’s a cocktail party tonight that we really should attend. Took some doing, but I managed to get us on the list.”

“And why weren’t we on the list before?”

“It’s sponsored by Dimitri Nardiv. I ran into his PR manager at the gym this morning and let him know that it might be very bad for business if Nardiv insisted on excluding us from a charity event. He agreed. Mostly out of fear, I suspect.” Looking at his watch, “It’s already started. If you have other plans, we can go without you. I know how you feel about him.”

“Is this a formal function?”

“Oddly, no. And since I did manage to get a look at the guest list, at least some of us should be present.”

Vitaly stood up as the women came back in the room. “We’ll all go,” he stated flatly, as he reached for his bag. Seeing that they were getting ready to leave, Sarah put her laptop away and slipped the files back in her bag. As she turned to follow them out, Vitaly took her bag from her and slung it over his shoulder as they walked to the waiting car.

The cocktail party was a casual affair for industry professionals at a gallery on the west side. The student-created art showcased would be offered up in a silent auction and any money made from sales would go toward scholarships. When they arrived, Vitaly and Marcus quickly surveyed the room preparing to divide and conquer, as there were numerous vendors and potential customers that they were interested in doing business with.

Before Sarah realized what was happening, everyone walked off in a different direction. Unsure what to do with herself; she walked over to the bar. After accepting a glass of white wine, she turned to survey the room, bumping into a large body that had come up behind her.

Jumping back, she squealed as she spilled wine and a pair of large hands stopped her from further damage. As Sarah looked up to apologize, the man took the glass from her hand as he motioned to the bartender to refill before grabbing napkins off the bar and carefully wiping both his and Sarah’s hands.

“I’m so sorry,” she finally managed to say. “I wasn’t paying attention.”