“And a baby. Or three,” Kirill says with a little smile.
A family. That sounds lovely. “Okay, but a maths club and a computer geek?—”
“Nerd, I prefer nerd,” he corrects me.
“Seems like a perfect match. Why do you need a fake date?”
“They’re not actually a real maths club. Mostly, these men have wives. I think it will go better if they think I’m attached. I’ll be less of a threat. You know.” He shrugs, and his tone goes ironic. “Softer. More human. Relatable.”
“You’re relatable,” I protest. “You don’t need?—”
“I’m a solitary computer hacker with murderous tendencies. I tortured one of the members of this club, I’ve pissed off half of them by refusing to be their pet IT consultant, and I’ve stolen money from the rest. Some of them are even smart enough to know it was me. Others, I left a calling card.”
“That’s…” I’m not sure what that is. A bit unhinged. A lot of cool. I kinda like that Kirill is powerful and rich, and doesn’t give a flying flamingo what anyone thinks.
“Yes. So, I need a girlfriend to show I’m not actually an irredeemable arsehole,” he says with a twist of humour. “Because I want them to help me.”
I think I must be as crazy as he is, because the idea of pretending to be Kirill’s girlfriend makes me all warm and gooey. He’s the sort of man people are scared of. Hell, only days ago I was terrified of him. But I’ve seen another side to Kirill… A man who held me, gave me a chance, bought me not just the essentials of life but the things that would make me happy, even though he kidnapped me.
Most importantly, he seems to want me.
He’s honourable, in his own twisted, anti-social way. And he’s wickedly smart.
I think I’d be proud to be his partner. I’m absurdly pleased to be his fake girlfriend, there’s a possibility I might explode with joy if I actually got to call this man mine.
“I do realise that the irony of having kidnapped a girl to be my girlfriend to show what a great, upstanding person I am is off the scale.” He gives me a wry smile.
“Is that why you kidnapped me?” I ask. “I thought it was because I saw your face.”
“Maybe it’s because I sawyou.” I’m about to ask what he means by that when he continues. “There’s something more important to do before we arrive, lapochka.”
He leans across and cups my face with his hand, cradling my jaw and watching my response.
My mouth falls open in surprise.
“We should practise kissing,” he says huskily.
I nearly point out that we’ve kissed before. That he kissed me to claim his favours, and that we almost kissed when I was on his lap. But I stop myself in time, because I’m absolutely not going to allow a detail like that to interrupt.
“That sounds sensible,” I agree, probably far too eagerly.
“I don’t want them suspecting anything, and since neither you nor I have had a relationship before?—”
“How do you know that…?” And has Kirill really never had a girlfriend before?
“Unless you have some experience you’d like to tell me about?” he adds casually. “Offline perhaps?”
“You looked at my messages…?” Of course he did. A thrill goes down my spine. I’m slightly outraged, but also weirdly flattered.
“I went through everything the computer algorithm flagged up as potentially a relationship, and they were, without exception…” He brushes his thumb over my cheek delicately. “All about yourbookboyfriends.”
I flush hot with embarrassment.
“I know you investigated me, but that’s an invasion of privacy!” Mainly, it’s mortifying.
“It was an education for me, lapochka. I’m aware I have some big skates to fill.”
I wince.
