Page 68 of Taken By My Grumpy Pakhan

Her smile had turned into a full-blown grin, progressing to light chuckles.

Something tightened in my chest, pulling taut on the muscles of my ribs. I turned off the screen, exhaling and lifting my eyes to find Svet watching me.

“…as we already know, honour is a code we stand by.” Svet’s uncle was saying when I tuned back in. “Holding a meeting far from home and on neutral ground is a testament to how much the event fractured the delicate trust. So I’ll suggest we hasten the bonding of the two families. That way, there’ll be no more sides, just one big family.”

His words settled with a tasteless flavour, eliciting no reaction from me.

I tuned out again, choosing to focus on the one thing that could pull millions of emotions from me by the simple act of sweeping her hair to the side and revealing her delicate neck, before moving to rub it with her head thrown back, eyes closed and lips slightly parted.

My cock stirred to life as I watched her undo the first two buttons of her shirt and kick off her shoes to reveal her hose-covered toes.

I’d been punched straight in the gut when she arrived in a fitted pencil skirt and shirt, but when my eyes trailed down to her legs covered in sheer stockings, my lungs emptied of air.

I wanted to follow the flimsy piece of clothing to the origin and find out if they were attached to a garter belt or if—God save me—I’d have to rip them open to reveal her ass.

As if her body responded to my will, she shifted, raising her knees and granting me a view of tulle disappearing into her skirt.

I stifled a groan, feeling my pants tighten.

Thirty minutes. Thirty fucking minutes and I would be out of this damned place and exactly where I wanted to be.

Who knows, I might just have to get Nikolai and Lev a different plane to get back.

I was finally forced—albeit with much reluctance—to tear my gaze from the screen for the final parts of the meeting.

Vasily and some of the men in his family would escort me to the port in Russia to investigate the situation.

The meeting concluded on mutually beneficial ground and I was ready to bolt, but the devil had a different plan.

“Hot date?” Svet fell into step with me.

“Green is not a good look on you.”

She let out a low laugh. “I prefer curious.”

“Good thing I don’t have to answer to you.”

“Matter of fact.” She abruptly stopped. “You sort of have to.”

I regarded her for a moment, doing the math of what it would cost to discard her for getting in my way and deciding she wasn’t worth half the price.

“What do you want to know?”

Her tentative smile returned. “The woman you left the gala with.”

“Genevieve. She’s my personal assistant.”

Her perfectly arched brows rose. “You’re on a first-name basis with your assistant? By the way, I thought you hated those?”

I held my fingers from curling into fists. Svet was a snake and the last thing I needed to give her was an emotion to work with.

“Do you have anything of actual importance you wanted to discuss?” I replied in a bored tone.

She studied me for a moment before asking. “Are you fucking her?”

Although I’d seen the question coming, it still caught me off guard.

The room was almost empty, save for the staff who came to clear the space, but I still looked around.