Page 1 of Caught By the Bratva Boss

Chapter One

Lily

“Miss Ridgeway?”

The voice was deeply masculine, but there was a note to it that made me shake my head. Pushing my hair from my face, I glanced up from the computer screen where I had been staring blankly and met the deep, almost bottomless dark eyes of my boss.

Well, my boss’s boss’s boss, anyway.

“Sir?” I was half out of my chair before I knew what I was doing. Not that I really had a plan. It just seemed the right thing to do. Daniil Popov was the king of New York, and you rose in the presence of a king, right? Or maybe you bowed.

I didn’t know.

“Miss Ridgway.” He said again, more firmly this time, and I realized that I had been standing there, half crouched, with my mouth swung open like a moron.

But that was just the effect he had on people. When Daniil walked into a room, his very presence made people go gaga, and I was no exception.

He was just too damn handsome for words. Drool worthy. Without meaning to, my hand went to my lips and came back dry, thank god for that.

“Sorry, Mr. Popov, you startled me.”

His eyes, which were so dark they were almost black, narrowed. “Because you were so intent on your work?”

Before I could stop myself, my eyes darted down to my screen, where the empty body of an email lay open.

How had he seen what I was doing? It took me exactly two seconds to realize that the screen was mirrored in the glass of the office behind me.

“I-uh,” suddenly, my tongue felt too big for my mouth. It was so thick that I couldn’t get the words out.

Daniil’s dark eyebrow shot down. It gave him a look that was hard to describe—partly angry, partly amused, but mostly brooding. My boss could brood better than any other man I had ever met, with his dark eyes and even darker hair swooped back from his forehead like he was a male model—the mature kind, who got more handsome with age.

“You’re new here, aren’t you?”

Again, I had to shake myself. “On this floor, yes. I usually work in marketing, but they needed someone to cover Mrs.—” I faltered here.

What had happened to his usual personal assistant had been awful. She was literally gunned down outside this very office. Everyone said it was because she knew things about the Popovs’ other business deals—the ones that weren’t entirely on the up and up. Some people even thought it was Daniil himself who had done it.

But I didn’t want to believe that. My boss might be a little scary, and he had a reputation, but if he shot his personal assistant because she wasn’t doing her job properly, that was one hell of an employment review.

“Marketing?” Strong, tanned fingers stroked over his chin, the thick silver ring glinting on his index finger. “Well, that is— interesting.”

He continued to stroke those tanned fingers over his chin, brushing them against his full, pink bottom lip, and like every female in the city, I was completely mesmerized. What would it feel like to have those lips on my body as his fingers stroked inside my body?

Need spiralled in my lower stomach, tightening to a knot.

Daniil’s gaze turned even darker. Scanning over me in a slow, lingering sweep, and I almost whimpered.

How long had it been since Greg, my boyfriend for four years, had looked at me like that—like he was slowly undressing me with his eyes. Has he ever? If he had, it hadn’t been recently.

Things between us this last year had been decidedly dry. And not from lack of trying on my part. He just didn’t seem that interested anymore, but anytime I brought it up, he brushed my concerns away.

He was just tired from grad school. Just busy. Of course, he loved and wanted to be with me. I was beginning to realize that he was just too busy for me.

“Miss Ridgeway?”

Shit. I snapped my eyes up to meet his. Jesus, how tall was he? I was wearing heels, and he was still a good foot taller than my five three.

“Is that understood?” The hot look was completely gone from his face. Now he just looked pissed.