Page 120 of Taken By My Grumpy Pakhan

“Isn’t there?” She sat down on my couch, crossing her legs like she was settling in for a while. “You’ve been sleeping with my fiancé for months now. I’d say that gives us plenty to discuss.”

The word landed like a slap. “Fiancé.”

“He didn’t tell you.” She smiled, this time, satisfaction rolling off her in waves like she got the effect she desired. “Of course he didn’t. Kazimir has never been one for inconvenient details.”

“You’re lying.”

“I’m a busy woman, Genevieve, and while that might be a strange concept for you to grasp given…” she looked me up and down, her gaze dragging to my open laptop on the dining table and back to me, “the nature of your job, I wouldn’t take the pain of coming to this side of town to bluff.”

“Then you wouldn’t be offended if I asked you to return to your very busy schedule.” I tried to steady my voice, but I couldn’t hold back the slight tremble.

Fiancé? What was she talking about?

“So innocent.” She tsked. “I tried to warn you, but like the rest of them, you were so in over your head over the attention. At least the rest were wise enough to get their pockets filled. You, on the other hand…”

I squared my shoulders, swallowing the nausea climbing my throat. It was one thing to accost me in a mall, it was another to insult me in my home regardless of the situation.

“Thanks for your visit, Svetlana, but everything I have, I worked for, and I do not take things that are not for me. I suggest you direct your speech to the appropriate parties since you’re well-versed in the topic of Kazimir’s love interests.”

Her eyes flashed like I’d visibly struck her. Then she let out a chuckle that sounded nothing like the polished woman in front of me. “Kazimir, quite the way to refer to your boss, eh?”

“Svetlana—”

“Still think I’m lying?” She reached into her bag and pulled out her phone, tapping the screen a few times before turning it toward me. “Perhaps you’d like to hear it from him directly.”

I didn’t want to listen. Every instinct told me to throw her out of my apartment before she said another word, but my legs wouldn’t move and my hand had already reached for the phone before I could stop it.

Kazimir’s voice came through the speaker, low and clipped, the way it sounded when he was annoyed and trying not to show it.

“She’s my assistant, Svetlana. That’s all this is.”

“Is that so? I’ve been led to believe otherwise.”

“She’s just a warm pussy, fun. Nothing more. You know where my priorities lie.”

The recording clicked off, but I hit replay, needing to hear the words again.

Svetlana waited for me to take it in before she retrieved her phone and slid it back into her bag like she hadn’t just detonated something in the middle of my living room.

“I’m sorry,” she said, and she almost sounded like she meant it, which was somehow worse. “But I thought you deserved to know the truth before you got in any deeper. We’ve been promised to each other since we were children. It’s not something either of us can walk away from, however entertaining his little distractions are.”

“Get out.” My voice came out smaller than I wanted it to.

“Genevieve—”

“Get out of my apartment.”

She stood, smoothing down her coat, entirely unbothered. “I’ll leave you to think it over. I do hope you make the sensible choice.” She paused at the door. “For what it’s worth, I don’t blame you. Men like Kazimir are very good at making a girl feel special right up until she isn’t useful anymore.”

The door clicked shut behind her and I stood frozen in the middle of my own living room, one hand pressed flat against my stomach like I could somehow shield what was growing there from what I’d just heard.

The nausea I’d been holding back won, rocking my gut like a tornado and sending me straight to the kitchen sink.

I emptied my gut and then some. Then I kept retching till my throat hurt and tears seeped through the corners of my eyes.

Even when my stomach cramped and I felt a little movement inside me, I couldn’t stop. I continued till the only thing coming out of me was saliva and my throat was too raw for another gag.

I don’t know how long I sat in the kitchen, but when I got back on my feet, the cold breeze outside had changed to warm sunrays.