Page 47 of The Billionaire's Vow

And that made her blood run cold.

Chapter 20

Dimitristeppedintoheroffice that evening and paused, watching her for a long moment.Giselle sat at her desk, fingers flying over the keyboard, muttering under her breath as she fixed whatever error she had just made.The tension in her shoulders, the tight line of her mouth—she was wound up so tightly that he could practically see the stress radiating from her.

"Giselle," he said.

She jumped, whipping around in her chair, eyes wide with alarm."Sir!"she gasped, pressing a hand to her chest.

Dimitri chuckled, closing the distance between them.“Nothing is going to happen tonight, Giselle.Let’s just have dinner and talk.Like last night.”

She exhaled heavily, relief flashing across her face before she nodded."That would be really nice," she admitted, and that was exactly what he had wanted to hear.

"Come on," he gestured for her to shut down her computer."You can update me on your progress while I make you chicken parmesan."

Her eyebrows lifted.“Isn’t that difficult to cook?”she asked as she locked down her computer, then gathered her purse and phone.

“Not if you know what you’re doing.”

He held the door for her as they stepped into the hallway, and together they made their way toward the penthouse stairwell.Dimitri noticed that she was more relaxed than the evening before.Was she getting comfortable around him?The thought pleased him more than it should have.

Giselle was unlike any woman he’d ever known.Feisty yet reserved, independent but too easily manipulated by the people who claimed to love her.She was an odd contradiction, and she fascinated him in a way he hadn’t expected.His world was ruthless, filled with power plays, deceit, and violence.He dominated it because he was more merciless than those who tried to challenge him.

But Giselle?She was different.She didn’t fit into that world.She was warm, generous, and far too willing to give.She had no idea how much of herself she sacrificed to keep the peace with people who didn’t deserve her loyalty.

His thoughts were interrupted when her phone rang.

The sound echoed through the stairwell—"Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall…"

Dimitri snorted, amused.Giselle scrambled to pull her phone out of her purse, checked the screen, and rolled her eyes while silencing the call.

“Your father?”he asked, arching an eyebrow.

“Yeah.”She shoved the phone back into her bag with a heavy sigh.“I took your advice and told my mother this morning that I wasn’t going to pay her credit card bill.That she needed to return the items she bought if she couldn’t afford them.”

Dimitri’s smirk faded.That small admission held so much weight.He knew it was the first time she’d ever drawn a hard line with her family.His chest filled as he watched her, reading the mixture of emotions on her face—guilt, defiance, exhaustion.

“Interesting,” he commented, then began pulling ingredients from the huge fridge.“What did she say?”

Giselle settled onto a stool, primly folding her hands onto the countertop.“I didn’t really give her a chance to respond, but I have several text messages from her.I’m guessing they are all about how I was such a difficult birth, all the ways she sacrificed herself for me during my younger years, how I’m a horrible daughter who doesn’t respect her parents and…well, a lot more along those lines.”

“Does she bring out the emotional manipulation often?’

Giselle looked at him curiously.“Only when I don’t give in to her requests.”

“Is it always money?”

“Yeah.”She pressed her lips together, nodding her head slightly.“That’s pretty much all she needs from me.”Then she perked up.“Correction.She loves to call and complain about my dad and how he drinks all the time.Or when he doesn’t come home for dinner because he’s at the pub down the street.”She shrugged.“It’s a dysfunctional family at its best.”

He started pounding the chicken with a mallet.“All families are at least slightly dysfunctional, Giselle.”He tossed spices into a flour mixture.“You just happen to be the only sane one in yours.”

Giselle tilted her head.“Am I though?”

He started cracking eggs.“What do you mean?”

Dimitri’s scowl deepened as he processed her question, but he kept his hands steady, slicing through the chicken with controlled precision.The rhythmic motion should have been calming, but the anger simmering inside him only grew stronger.

“Elliot grabbed me today while I was taking a walk during my lunch break.He said he just wanted to talk.”