He laughed. “Yeah. I haven’t said anything to anybody yet, but it’s been happening for a bit. Since Giana accused you, I think.”
“You’re still mad at her, aren’t you?” I asked. While it was adorable and heartwarming that he had gotten so angry at her accusation, I was starting to get concerned at his inability to let it go. “Yeah. I don’t think I’ve ever been so angry at a chick for something she didn’t even do to me,” he said.
I stopped walking. We were both still catching our breath. “Misha, you have to let it go. Not for her, but for you. It’s one of the hardest things to do, but trusting that she’ll get her own Karma will make you feel much better.” He looked at me, then looked at the ground, like he knew I was right, but he still didn’t want to let go. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed this one, my adorable Russian guardian, but Karma tends to come down harshly on those that want to harm me,” I added, quietly. “You just have to be patient.” He raised his gaze, a sly smile stretching across his face. He put his arm around my shoulders as we continued our walk back to the house.
“I should listen to my own advice. I’m having the same problem, just with Armando,” I said.
“I can’t figure out what the deal is with him either,” Misha said. “I want to like him, but he said a few things when we first got to his house In Italy that I didn’t like.”
“Like what?” I asked. He’d never talked about this, so I was clueless as to what he was referring to.
“That first night, when it took you and Boss a little longer to come to dinner. We all knew it was because you could barely walk and told him as much. He made a rude comment about your se x life with Boss being the reason you couldn’t walk.”
I stopped walking again. “What did he say exactly? Do you remember?”
“Not exactly. It was something like if you were his girlfriend, you wouldn’t be able to walk much anytime. He said it quietly and I think only me and Ivan heard it. The other guys were standing far enough away that they missed it.”
“Shit. Sometimes I ha te being right,” I said. Misha looked at me, confused, but also a little concerned. “Have you heard him say anything else that was weird like that?” “That was the worst one, but then there was that really awkward toast he made to you. I didn’t think he knew you well enough to talk about you like that,” Misha said.
I smiled at him. “I just said the same thing to Adrik last night. That didn’t sit well with me, but it was covered up by the things that you guys said about me. Armando doesn’t know me well enough. He might wish he did, but he doesn’t.” When I had stopped walking, Misha removed his aim from my shoulders so he could look down at me while we talked. I grabbed his wrist and put his arm back around my shoulders to continue walking once again to the house. “Armando used to stay after the other hosses had left and he would help me clean up. I always thought he was trying to set me up with his son. He would ask me questions about my personal life, trying to find out if I was single, blah blah blah. I never told him anything of importance and I never really thought anything of it. I was just happy to have some help. When Adrik and I were talking about this last night, he pointed it out that he wasn’t asking for his son. He was asking for him,” I said. I looked up to see Misha’s reaction. His face scrunched up much like mine had the night before, I couldn’t help but laugh. “I had the same reaction. But if you take that into consideration and you also take into account that the other bosses had put Armando into somewhat of a leadership role while you guys were gone trying to get Viktor hack, it gives Armando a motive to be playing both sides right now. Adrik came back and basically in one night took back the city and took me away from Armando. Not that there was EVER a chance of that happening. For the record. I felt like that needed to be said out loud. Because gross.”
Misha laughed. “I don’t think anyone is worried about you leaving Boss anytime soon, gazelle. It’s obvious to anyone who sees. you two with each other that you belong together.”
As we walked up the steps toward the back door, Ivan was walking by toward the kitchen. He stopped and opened the door for us. “Once you guys get cleaned up, Boss wants everyone in his office,” he said.
“This sounds serious,” I said.
“We had a conversation about Armando while we were in the gym,” Ivan said.
“We had a conversation about Armando while we were walking back to the house,” Misha said.
“Which reminds me, why didn’t you tell me about the gross comment he made about me when we first got to Italy?” I asked Ivan as I smacked his shoulder.
He laughed, but tried to look apologetic. “I didn’t tell Boss what he said yet. I don’t know if I should tell Boss what he said. He might want to kill him immediately.” Ivan pulled me toward him, hugging me to him. “And I didn’t tell you, princess, because you were already handling all you could handle at the time. You didn’t need to worry about pervy old men on top of everything else.”
I sighed, resting my head against his sizeable chest. “I ha te that I can’t argue with you sometimes.” I felt his chest vibrate as he laughed at me. “Go get cleaned up, princess. Boss is going to need you to keep him from getting all murdery once he finds out what was said,” Ivan said pushing me toward the back stairs.
Sephie
I walked through the bedroom into Adrik’s office to find him at his desk. He was engrossed in the papers in front of him, so he didn’t notice me. I stopped at the doorway. We’d been able to feel each other enough lately that I wanted to experiment with it, just to see what would happen.
He had a hatred of shirts when we were at the house that I happened to love. I stood in the doorway, watching him contemplate whatever he was thinking about, my own thoughts turning to just how much I loved him. I felt the warmth start to spread through my body that was present anytime I thought about him and I pushed it to him, seeing if he would notice,
He inhaled sharply, then immediately looked up to find me. He noticed. I was still leaning against the doorway, a small smile on my lips while I experimented. As soon as he looked at me, the warmth grew to an intense desire for him, which I also pushed toward him. His sexy smirk told me he could feel it, loud and clear.
He stood up, closing the distance between us quickly. “Why do you pick right now to do this to me?” he asked. One arm went around my waist, as he pulled me with him. He closed his office door behind him as he walked us quickly to the bathroom. I couldn’t help but giggle. “I don’t like time constraints with you,” he said, his voice husky. “But I do like any chance I have to see you na ked.”
“We’ve already established that I’m terrible at denying you,” I said as I pulled my shirt over my head.
He cursed under his breath as I continued to shed my clothes. He walked to the shower, turning it on for me. “How was your run, love?” he asked as he jumped onto the bathroom counter to watch me.
“Good. We both needed it, I think,” I said, stepping into the shower.
“Yeah? How so?”
“Misha’s still mad at Giana and I’m mad at Armando. We needed the stress relief,” I said.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.