Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 45444 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 182(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45444 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 182(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
“To good business,” I say.
Flavio does the same. All the men follow suit, picking up their glasses and raising them to the strobe-lit air, the pumping lights bouncing off the glasses and moving all around us.
“To good business,” they echo.
I sit in the passenger side seat as Kesha guides us away from the city, through the countryside, toward my estate.
We’ve been working all night, trying to sort out the mess Flavio made, and now my body is clothed in a layer of exhaustion.
The sun rises over the hills to our left, bruising the sky blood-red.
“Do you think he’ll stick to his word?” Kesha murmurs.
“He better.” I sigh. “For his own sake.”
“Don’t forget you’re interviewing the dog handler when you get back.”
I groan. “Fuck, that slipped my mind.”
I was planning on sitting in the sauna for an hour, sweating out the stress of not being able to wring Flavio’s neck like I’d prefer, but Lucky needs a special handler. The poor dog has diabetes and he’s skittish around most people.
I need somebody with a delicate touch.
“Did you find somebody who fits the criteria?” I ask.
Kesha nods. “No family, no friends, no connections. She’s agreed to stay at the estate if you find her suitable for the position. She was working in a veterinary clinic in town, doing a great job by all accounts. If you like her – if Lucky likes her – I think she’ll work fine. You never know…”
He smirks across at me, and I flip him the bird.
He doesn’t have to finish the sentence. It’s an old joke of ours, Kesha bantering that one day I’m going to find a woman to puncture my gruff exterior and make me realize what it feels like to care about a woman, to become obsessed with a woman, to need her every waking second of my life.
But he’s wrong.
I’ve never felt anything close to what I’d need to fully commit.
I’ve never even felt an ember.
I stopped expecting that burning closeness a long, long time ago.
Somehow I doubt this veterinarian’s assistant is going to be any different.
Chapter Two
Daniella
I sit in the office with my hands in my lap, wringing them together as nerves work their way through my body, making my heart thud in my chest and sweat pour from my body. I try to fight away the waves of sweat – I don’t want my potential new boss to think I can’t handle stress – but the room is warm and my nerves are flaring.
I look around the cavernous office, at the conference table and the large oak desk.
My mind is still reeling from the drive up to the estate, through the tall metal gates and down the long gravel path, past the huge glistening fountain, and up to the tall front door.
I’ve never been in such an opulent property before, and it’s making me feel poor and inadequate like any second somebody is going to kick the door down and roar at me to get the hell out of here.
I imagine a security guard aiming his fist at me, his body trembling with rage.
“You poor pathetic orphan,” I imagine him roaring. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing in here? What is wrong with you? Get back to the slums where you belong.”
I push that thought down, trying to tell myself I’m so much more than my orphanage origins, that I worked my butt off to get the job at the veterinary clinic, and this… an opportunity to bond one-on-one with an animal, for amazing pay, with room and board included, it’s too good to pass up.
I’m not naïve.
I know my possible new employer is either paranoid or involved in some kind of criminal activity. The walls around the estate are tall and imposing, with armed guards manning lookout towers at the corners, watching for any assailants.
“Dominik Dudnikov,” my boss said to me when she brought me the job opportunity. “He’s not a man you turn down. I think you should go to the interview at the very least.”
There was something in her tone that discomfited me, and a passing look in her eyes like there was something she wanted to tell me but she couldn’t quite force the words out. I try to tell myself I’m being paranoid, but then the door opens behind me and I leap to my feet.
I curse myself for such a stupid overreaction, taking a deep breath and turning to face whoever this is.
My breath catches mid-inhale when I lay eyes on him, on all of him.
He’s six and a half foot, maybe even taller, towering in the doorway as he stands there staring at me. His eyes are a shade of brown so dark they’re almost black, and his hair is silver, the same shade as his suit. His suit jacket hugs onto his behemoth arms and his chest swells as his intense eyes flit up and down my body.