Page 24 of Caught By the Bratva Boss

I was seriously out of practice.

Chapter Ten

Lily

He didn’t touch me again for the rest of the weekend. Even the weekend I had been dreading because we would be stuck in the same house together passed without incident. I’d spent it sunning myself and swimming in his pool.

There were worse ways to spend my free time, but I was constantly on edge, and that wariness grew even worse when I went back into the office with him on Monday morning. I’d noticed all of last week, especially after what had happened in the bar, but today, the animosity in the office was off the charts.

“Hey, does anyone fancy anything from the coffee shop down the road?” I called out when I went out for lunch, and not one person had answered me. I was pretty sure some girl from accounting had called me a slag under her breath, though.

Maybe I deserved everything they were saying behind my back, but it didn’t feel that way. It felt like I was completely alone. Sitting by myself in the small coffee shop, I nursed my coffee and half a sandwich and tried Greg’s number. I had been ringing him almost non-stop, but so far, I hadn’t been able to get through. It was Monday, so he had classes, but he should have time between them.

“Yeah, I saw him close the door when she arrived.”

I instantly recognised Claire’s voice. It wasn’t like she was trying to be quiet.

“She’s stunning, isn’t she? I mean, of course she is.” Claire’s laughter floated up. “Like Daniil Popov would ever be with someone who didn’t look like a model. That’s why I was shocked by all the rumours about him and Lily.”

My ears pricked up. So she was talking about me. I had a feeling that most of the office gossip was coming from my one-time friend, and this seemed to prove it.

“Not that Lily isn’t a beautiful girl, but she’s just not the Daniil Popov kind of beautiful,” she added quickly, but somehow that sounded like a put-down as well. Clearly, Daniil saw something in me that my so-called friends didn’t. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have pursued me so hard.

“I heard them mention the boy,” another female voice said.

“Yeah, little Timmy. Oh, I mean Timofey.” Claire put on a fake Russian accent, and her whole group fell about laughing. “Daniil’s prodigal son and heir.”

In my seat, half hidden behind a potted fern, I went completely still. My mind whirled as I tried to make sense of this new information. Daniil had a son? I lived in his home for over a week, and I did not see any signs of a child living there. Unless, of course, I wasn’t staying in Daniil’s actual home. Maybe he had more than one.

I rolled my eyes at my own foolishness. Of course, he had more than one. He was a billionaire. But if he had a son, did he also have a wife?

Suddenly feeling sick, I left my coffee and sandwich half-eaten and pushed my way back out to the street. My feet took me back toward the office, even though I still had almost an hour left on my break.

Claire and her cronies had said he was meeting with a woman now to discuss his son. Maybe if I was quick enough, I could catch him in the act. The act of what? My subconscious laughed at me. Daniil isn’t your boyfriend. He’s your boss and the man who sometimes fucks you until you can’t see straight. I had no right to be jealous.

But I was, and the moment I slipped into the office and saw him with the same woman as he’d been having dinner with that night, my jealousy intensified. She really was beautiful. Younger than I would have thought, but still stunning. I tried to always look my best, but next to her effortless glam, I felt dowdy.

“It’s not like that,” I heard Daniil say, exasperatedly.

“So you haven’t moved her in?”

“Anya,” he sighed.

Shit, I tried to busy myself so it looked like I wasn’t eavesdropping. They were talking about me.

Did Anya, his young and beautiful wife, know about me? And if so, why wasn’t she screaming at him? They clearly hadn’t been married long because she barely looked twenty. If I were in her position, I’d be throwing things at his head and demanding half of his fortune in the divorce.

“Look,” she sighed. “I don’t care, but we have Timothy to think about.”

“I am always thinking about Timothy,” Daniil snapped. “Everything I do is for him.”

I glanced up just in time to see him reach for her hand. There was a soft look on his face that I usually want to see there.

“For him and for you, Anya,” Daniil said softly.

Vomit rushed up into my throat, and I clamped my hand over my mouth before I could heave and throw up all over my shoes. He loved her, I could hear it in his voice. He loved his beautiful, young bride. They had a child together, and I was—

Shit, I was sleeping with a married man. I was living in his house. Turning on my heel I ran toward the bathroom. Quickly checking to make sure it was empty, I sank down onto one of the toilet seats and cried into my hands.