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When Katja reached for her purse, I said, “Whatever she wants, put it on my tab.”
Catarina gave me a quick nod. “Of course, Mr. Barychev.”
Katja quickly objected. “Oh, no. That’s not necessary.”
“Catarina,” I said, effectively dismissing her.
“Uh…thank you,” Katja muttered, and I noticed how her hands shook a little as she put her wallet back in her purse.
Interesting.
“Not a problem,” I replied smoothly. “As archaic as it seems in this progressive world of ours, I still believe in men still opening doors, paying for dinner, and everything else that used to be seen as simple manners.”
Her eyes shifted a bit before she said, “While you may have a point, allowing a stranger to pay for my drink could also send a wrong message, and a woman can never be too careful.”
I leaned my arms on the table. “Unlike most men, I don’t place the value of a woman’s company at the same price as a glass of wine, Katja,” I told her. “If I am going to pay for pussy, then I would hope that the woman would possess enough self-respect to charge me more than the price of a drink.”
Katja’s cheeks immediately turned pink, but she didn’t cower. “Do you pay for sex often?”
“I have never paid for sex,” I informed her. “Whatever money that has exchanged hands, it was to pay for the peace and quiet afterwards.” I leaned back in my seat. “Men do not pay for sex, lyublyu. They pay for the uncomplicated departure afterwards.”
Her fingers started to fiddle around the stem of her wineglass as her eyes started to dart around again, and I’d give my fortune to know what she was really thinking. She was obviously nervous, but she wasn’t getting up to leave or asking me to leave, so it had me wondering what her agenda was. At this point, I had no idea if she was attracted to me or not, but whatever had her still seated in her chair was intriguing me more and more.
Suddenly, those brilliant eyes of hers looked my way. “Would you excuse me a second?” she asked politely. “I’d…I just need to go freshen up a little.”
Since she’d just gotten here, she didn’t need to freshen up, so this was obviously an attempt to escape the uncomfortable turn that our conversation had just taken, or else she was going to go to the restroom to give her some time to come up with an excuse as to why she was going to have to leave.
“Of course,” I agreed easily, already knowing that I was going to shoot Bogdan a text to do a background check on her as soon as she headed towards the restrooms.
Giving me a tentative smile, she grabbed her purse, stood up, then headed towards the back. What she didn’t know was that she only had five minutes before I was going to make my way back there to see just what in the fuck she was about.
Chapter 8
Katja~
I felt like my heart was going to beat clean out of my chest. As soon as the restroom door shut behind me, my nerves ran free, and I could feel myself shaking everywhere. I was toying with the Russian Bratva, and I could see the lights of the freight train heading straight for me.
After Klive had left me with all the proof of how he could ruin my life, I’d taken the envelope back to the office with me, but I hadn’t looked thoroughly through it until I’d gotten home that night. Of course, as soon as I’d gotten off work, I’d gone straight to Windmill Gates to check on my grandfather, and I’d never felt so relieved and so panicked at the same time.
It hadn’t been until I’d gotten home and locked the front door behind me that I had opened the contents of the envelope, then had gone through every picture and piece of paper. As suspected, Klive had done a thorough background check on me, and while I had no idea how he’d gotten so much information on me, he’d had, and that wasn’t the only thing. To my surprise, he had also included a picture of Maksim Barychev, but that picture hadn’t done the man justice.
Armed with knowing what he looked like, I’d known that it was him the second that he had walked up to the table, and I hadn’t been prepared for just how big the man was. He easily stood at around six-foot-four, and he had dark brown hair that looked like the smoothest chocolate, plus matching brown eyes that looked like demons resided in them. Most men with brown eyes had that hooded bedroom look about them, but not Maksim Barychev. His dark eyes were sharp, cold, and intelligent. Nevertheless, there was no denying that he had to be one of the most gorgeous men that I’d ever seen.
Then there was that body of his. Even with a jacket on, you could tell that he was ripped from head to damn toe. If there was even an ounce of fat on him, I’d sell my soul to Satan himself. Plus, if that weren’t enough, the man had enough tattoos to make a woman drool, and the way that they peeked out of his shirt collar was sexy as hell. For all that he was a ruthless killer, it was easy to fall under the spell of his looks. Never mind that his voice sounded like it was made for sin. It was low, raspy, and sounded like someone might have stepped on his larynx at some point.
At any rate, it’d only taken five minutes in his company to recognize that I was way in over my head. I had no idea what to do, and the reflection in the mirror above the sink had no answers for me. Klive had made a good point about how Maksim may kill only me, but how he would kill both me and my grandfather, so the choice was an easy one, though the execution harder than I’d expected.
There was also the fact that I hadn’t even had time to prepare myself for tonight. When Klive had called me from an unknown number earlier today for my answer, I hadn’t expected a second call from him so soon. However, that’s exactly what had happened when he’d called to tell me that Maksim was at The Swan, and that I’d better hurry and make something happen. I hadn’t even had time to ask him how he’d known where Maksim had been, but if Klive had no problem spying on me, then I could see him stalking Maksim for whatever reason.
At any rate, my nerves were practically fried, and I had no idea how I was going to pull this off. As I thought about running, there was no guarantee that Klive wasn’t watching from a dark hole somewhere, waiting to see if I was actually going through with my promise to help him. It also didn’t help that I found Maksim extremely attractive, adding another complicated element to an already jacked-up situation.
However, before I could give it any more thought, the door to the women’s restroom swung open, and my eyes widened as I saw Maksim’s reflection in the mirror. I had no idea what he was doing in here, but I whirled around to look at him, positively stupefied.
“What…what are you doing in here?”
Instead of answering me, Maksim grabbed my hand, and I barely had enough time to reach for my purse before he was dragging me out of the women’s restroom. I became even more confused when he pulled me into the men’s restroom, instead of taking me back to our table, and I couldn’t help but blush at the startled faces that looked over at us.
“Get out,” Maksim ordered, and I’d never seen men scurry around so quickly.
