“I still need your help,” he said softly, leaning in, and the soft tone he used was impossible to ignore. His voice tugged at something deep inside me and I would have given him anything he asked for. “I’ve been following your step father for weeks and the miserable excuse for a human being either doesn’t have a thing on anybody, or he’s hidden it too well to be found unless you already know where to look.”
I felt my jaw tighten. “He did the digging. His claims aren’t fraudulent. But I don’t know where he would have hidden anything. Is that what you’re asking me?”
Maxim nodded shortly and his lips pursed together, rounding in on each other. His large hands cradled the coffee cup and he set it down gently on the rough wooden table top. “We need you to search his agent’s office. And anywhere else you can think that he might have hidden a pen drive or a notebook. We need you to look on the computer he writes on. He doesn’t connect it to the internet.”
I felt my breathing level, steadying as I came to terms with what was being asked of me.
“And where will you be, while I’m going through all of his things?”
“Making sure he’s nowhere near you.”
“What if I say no?”
Maxim’s head tilted and his smile pulled thin and pained, eyes crinkling closed. “I really hoped you wouldn’t do that.”
“What if I do?”
He let out a heavy breath and folded his hands onto the table in front of him. They were powerful hands, hands that had probably strangled people, broken bones, maybe even necks, but right now they looked inviting.
“Then you need to know that Russia’s enemies are always dealt with, and that my loyalty is to the country of my birth, and my brothers who have given me the opportunities they have. That, above all other things, is what must drive my actions.”
He wasn’t looking at me, but I knew from the steady nature of his voice that he was deadly serious. If I made a move against them, I got added to the hit list. Whatever had already passed between us, he wasn’t going to make exceptions. And I respected that, even if I didn’t like it.
“Is that a threat, Maxim Toropov?”
“Only if you plan to be an enemy.”
His eyes flashed up to mine again. The thought of the world I was getting tangled up in was almost exciting. I had nothing left to lose, and while I knew that it was stupid not to be scared, it felt like this man would do anything in his power to avoid hurting me if he could.
I wasn’t the target, unless I decided to be.
I let out a slow breath of my own. “And after I help you – if I help you – what happens then?”
“We look after our friends, Ms Harrington.”
“Am I your friend, or their friend, Mr Toropov?”
Under the table, I nudged my leg against his, unmistakably pressing the warmth of my calf against his and Maxim’s eyes burnt into mine. I remembered the way he’d looked at me from the other side of the street. I was playing with fire and I liked it far too much to stop. My breathing visibly shifted as his hand left the tabletop and slipped underneath, resting solidly on my knee.
“It’s one and the same.”
“I don’t think it can be.”
“That is because you don’t understand yet. You will, soon enough.” Maxim leaned in closer, stretching an arm across the back of my chair and lowering his voice, his breath grazing over my neck. I closed my eyes as his hand smoothed along the inside of my thigh. “You shouldn’t start games like this, Elizabeth. When I get you alone, you’re going to regret it.”
I all but felt my pupils flare with lust as I opened my eyes. That was the kind of threat I didn’t mind at all. He was almost close enough to kiss, and I would have, except for his other hand on my forearm keeping me forcibly rooted where I was.
I loved the strength of him, holding me there, keeping me from tormenting him in front of all these people.
“I won’t regret a thing. I can’t wait to find out what you want to do to me.”
But he was right: I was acting fearless, but I didn’t know what game I was playing, or the rules to it. Flirting like this was all new and I didn’t really trust he wanted me, not knowing that he’d seen what Sutherland had done. I must have seemed pathetic to him. A spineless kid in need of rescue. If he saw me as a woman at all, he probably thought he could take whatever he wanted. And I didn’t want that kind of man. I promised myself I never would.