I passed him by and felt something. Like a crackle of electricity. It went right through my body. Doing my best to remain calm and composed, I turned around and faced him. I felt he could see right through me, even though I knew better.
“May I see the notes my niece gave you?”
He both intimidated and enticed me. Silently, I held out the crumpled papers in my palm.
He took them without letting our skin touch and glanced at them. His other hand came up to stroke his chin.
I stared at him.
When he looked up, his sensuous lips quirked upwards. Yuri Volkov smiling was another matter altogether. He was beautiful in the way a growling panther was. “I’ve reconsidered. I might have been too hasty in dismissing your services.” His voice was so smooth and controlled no one would have believed that only minutes ago his tongue was in my mouth and I was mindlessly sucking on it.
“I’m afraid so have I,” I said, relishing the new and heady power I held in my hands.
A flicker of annoyance crossed his expression. Something he put away very swiftly. It was clear he didn’t have to deal with insubordination too often. As a matter of fact, he probably never had to deal with it.
“I’ll double your salary.”
“Thanks, but I think I’ll pass.”
“Name your own price then.”
I wanted to remain impervious to all his offers, but my eyebrows shot upwards. “Are you serious?”
“Of course.”
I didn’t have to think about it. “No. You know it’s not the money,” I bit out.
“Then what would cause you to deny a child in need?”
“It’s you,” I said simply. “I couldn’t possibly work for a man like you.”
“Why not? You were perfectly willing a few minutes ago.”
“That was before you forced yourself on me.”
“I kissed you because you forced the issue. You wanted to know why I didn’t want to hire you so I showed you why,” he defended calmly.
“Well then, surely nothing has changed from a few minutes ago.”
“A lot has changed. I take my responsibility for my niece very seriously. Nothing is more important. Yulia’s needs have to be placed before mine at all times. Yes, I am sexually attracted to you, but I can get a woman from anywhere. She chose you, so her need to have you overrides mine.”
For some strange reason the statement of how he could get a woman from anywhere cut me.
“As you are already aware from the job description,” he continued, “my niece hasn’t spoken a word for six months. No one, not even her psychiatrist knows why she won’t talk. Neither has she made any attempt to befriend anyone. You’re the first person she appears to have connected with and show a need for, so I will move heaven and earth to see that she gets what she wants. I believe you might hold the key to her coming out of her shell and talking again.”
I could tell he was telling the truth and I believed him when he said he was putting her needs before his. I even felt a touch of admiration and yet…I stared at him.
I felt torn. On one hand, I wanted to stay. I could still see the fear in his niece’s eyes. It’d taken a lot for her to approach me and yet she had. It seemed important to her to make me stay. Why me I didn’t know. But I wanted to get to the mystery of why she had chosen me. I wanted to help too. It was what had drawn me to this job in the first place.
On the other hand, some instinct for self-preservation told me to get the hell out of here. This man could be very dangerous to my sanity. Within minutes of being in his presence he’d made me lose control and behave in a fashion, I had never before even imagined acting. I never dreamed I could be provoked to hurt another human being.
“You can be certain if you take the job you will have no unwanted advances from me,” he added, as if he could read my mind.
I bit my lip uncertainly.
“Please, Miss Winters,” he said softly, persuasively.
I could see how fiercely intense his desire for me to stay and help his niece was.
To hear this powerful man plead was something else. I realized he must really love his niece. “Do you promise that you will never again pull another stunt like that?”
“You have my word.”
I nodded slowly. “All right, Mr. Volkov. I’ll stay and see how it goes, but if you ever—”
“I gave you my word. If anything happens between us, it will be because you initiated it.”
“It will be a cold day in hell before that happens.”
“Then you have nothing to worry about. Will you be able to start tomorrow?”
“I guess so.”
“I will send a car around to pick you up.”