Chapter 4 - Yefim

The gorgeous intern has captured my attention in a rather dangerous way. I'm struggling to focus on much else and find myself watching her whenever I'm sitting at my desk.

She has the really cute habit, when she's deeply focused on the work she's doing, of sitting at her desk and twirling her hair in her fingers. I smile, watching her do this right now. Her head is tilted to the side as she reads her laptop screen and makes a note on the paper next to her.

I want to know everything about her. I have to. I have to know who she is, where she came from, why she's working here, who her friends are. Everything.

I have two of my guys investigating her right now, and by the end of the day I should have a lot of information to go through.

I can't figure out what it is about her that has drawn me in so much.

It's not just her beauty.

It's something in the way she smiles. The way her eyes are filled with mystery and mischief when she looks at me. The way she is so dedicated to her work and how driven she is.

She impresses me, and that is not easy to do.

A knock at my office door has me turning away from the window. Oleg, my younger brother, steps into my office.

"What is going on with you, Yefim? Are you watching her again?" His tone is serious as he raises his eyebrows towards me. He's concerned.

"Who? Watching who again?"

"Oh come on, don't even try and pretend. I've noticed how you are around the new intern. I know she worked late with you the other night, which you are fully aware no one would be happy about."

"She was in my office, out of the way."

He shakes his head and glares at me. "It's too risky, Yefim. You know this. She isn't from our world."

"So? People can learn and adjust. We didn't know anything about our family business until we were old enough. It wasn't until after our parents died that we became aware of what our family was involved in. Leon. Leon was the one who taught us everything we got roped into later in life, and we learned as we went along. It was a shock at first, but look at us know. We learned—she can learn."

"You want to bring some outsider into our business? I won't allow it. She's too innocent. She will cause trouble. Report us. You are putting our family in danger. I know if I brought this up with the cousins, they would say the same thing," Oleg snaps angrily.

I want to tell him he's wrong, that I see something else in her, but he looks so upset with me that I decide now is not the right time.

Oleg starts pacing in front of the massive window. His eyes are on Tia, and I don't like it.

"What if she sees something, Yefim? You know what we will have to do. We can't have witnesses."

"She won't see anything. I will make sure of it."

"You can't promise me that. Just make it clear to her that she can't be working overtime. Ever . There is a rule in place for a reason. And stop spending time with her."

I practically snarl at the last comment. Who the hell does he think he is, telling me not to spend time with her? I'll spend time with whoever the hell I want.

"You are worrying too much, brother," I say, trying to hide the anger in my voice. I don't want to get into a fight over her, but I also won't let him think that he has that kind of control over me.

Oleg shakes his head one last time and shoves his hands into his pockets. His dark eyes lock onto me, conveying an unspoken warning about the trouble I am causing for our family. I feel a twinge of guilt because all I ever do is work hard to make things better for my family. I don't want to bring trouble for them.

But—I can't let go of Tia. It's too late for that.

I'm too far down this rabbit hole. No matter what my brother says, I won't stop seeing her or spending time with her. I'll just need to be more careful about having her working late here with me.

Oleg's expression is tight, perhaps with disappointment, or perhaps just concern. His jaw muscles feather as he looks at me one last time—then he turns to leave my office.

I do have to be more careful.

I won't stop seeing her or letting her work overtime with me, but I do need to be more careful about making sure she doesn't see something she's not supposed to see.

***

Later that day I get the call I've been waiting for.

"Mr. Dubrov, we have that information you asked for. Do you want us to deliver it in person or send it over e-mail?"

"You can e-mail it. Same address as always. Are you sending it now?"

"Yes, it'll be with you in two minutes."

I hang up the phone and immediately open my inbox and refresh it. I've been looking forward to this.

I refresh again, and it comes through.

All the information my investigators found on Tia Lawrence.

I take my time, scanning through each document, each list, each record of what they've found out about her.

Her mother is dead, and her father is living in Boston, but it looks like he hasn't been in her life since she was a baby.

Gambling debts.

Interesting. Very, very high gambling debts.

Oh, I see. They are in her mother's name. I guess the books were transferred to her after her mother died. That's unfortunate for her.

Study loans, too.

She's in quite a lot of debt. Maybe that's why she works so hard. I know she also mentioned two other jobs.

Here we go.

Dog walking and editing for a local company.

She's a very driven young woman.

Her GPA is perfect. Mm. I see. The internship will affect those if she doesn't maintain a perfect record with this company.

I take in everything my investigators found out about her, the things on public record, the things that would otherwise be very private, and the things they found out by snooping around.

Then I look up from my desk, out over the crowd of employees moving around on the ground floor, and spot her easily. She stands out. She catches my eye and grabs my attention.

She is talking to Eric, standing facing my window. Her smile lighting up the entire ground floor.

The debt collectors must be hounding her constantly. My investigators informed me that she is behind on her payments. For some reason, this information is satisfying to me, because it is something that I can use.

So is the internship information.

Tia, sensing my eyes on her, looks up towards my office and grins, then quickly looks away again, returning her attention to the conversation she is having with Eric.

I smile as I return my own attention to my laptop, closing the e-mail of information I have about her and getting stuck in my own work.

Oleg is already unhappy with my distraction or mild obsession with, Tia—I can't fall behind on work and give him more reason to come knocking at my door complaining.

The day moves along, and soon the office starts emptying out. People pack up their desks, grab their bags and start filing out of the doors one at a time until almost no one is left.

I stand up from my desk and stretch my arms above my head, hearing my shoulders crack. I tilt my head left and right, stretching my neck and hearing it crack as well.

I hate sitting down that long. I need to move and get the blood flowing.

My thoughts are still on the schedules I was creating just now. I had to rearrange some shipments after one of the boats got flagged for inspection. Thank goodness our inside informant told us in time before we lost massive amounts of product, which would have been confiscated.

But that means that we'll have to keep those products on the floor here at work for longer than we usually do. We prefer to have products move in and out on the same day, as quickly as possible.

I'll figure it out, though. I'll find a new ship to get it on and have it moving by Monday.

I walk over to my office door and pull it open, heading over to the coffee machine. As I walk along the balcony, I glance across the office space and see Tia's light on. She's here.

Alone.

I need to get her out of here—especially after Oleg's lecture today.

I just don't want to cause shit for her or myself.

I forget about the coffee and head downstairs to talk to her.

"Hello, beautiful," I say, walking up to her desk.

She jumps a little and spins her chair around. "Oh my goodness. Don't sneak up on me like that." She giggles, and I want to grab her and press my body against hers. That sound, her lips, the way her eyes light up.

Everything about her makes me want to possess her in all kinds of ways.

"Why do you insist on disobeying me, Tia?" I say with a dark suggestiveness in my voice.

"Disobeying you?" she repeats, shifting nervously, the smile brushed off her lips.

"I know I told you not to work here alone. You should be working up in my office if you want to be here late."

She stands up, shuffling the files on her desk. "I didn't realize it was this late. Um. I can—I just needed to finish—"

I step closer to her and the heat from our bodies mingles.

She turns to face me, awkwardly trying to figure out what to do with her body. She's gripping the binders in her hands as I reach out and wrap my fingers around her jaw, forcing her to look up at me.

"I don't really want to hear excuses. What I want to hear is ‘yes, sir.'"

She spots the slight smirk on my face and realizes that I'm teasing her.

Even though I'm not.

I would love to tell her to bend over that desk right now and hear her respond with nothing but ‘yes, sir.'

My body shivers with delight at the images flashing through my mind.

Tia seems to notice the shift in my body language, and her lips part as she takes a sharp breath.

I brush my thumb over her lips.

I shouldn't be doing this.

Not here, especially not here, but in my attempt to tease her, I've teased myself.

I lean my face closer to hers, our lips almost touching. She doesn't try to stop me. She doesn't protest.

Gripping her jaw tighter in my hand, I press my lips against hers and kiss her.

She steps closer to me, and our bodies are tight against each other.

I wrap my hand around her thick waist and feel the full curves of her body.

My cock begins to stir and throb. I have to stop. I have to get control of myself right now, because if I don't, I will have her bent over the desk in a few minutes.

I pull away from her.

She looks up at me with those dark chocolate pools. She bites her lower lip, her lips shining from the kiss.

She licks them.

Fuck. She is gorgeous.

I release her jaw, stepping back, forcing myself to move away from her.

"You need to go home, Tia."

She nods, without breaking eye contact.

"I should go home," she replies absentmindedly.

"Tia, I mean it, though. If you work late again, you need to come and find me. Work in my office. I'm serious about not staying here after hours."

"Why?" she asks innocently.

"Because I said so, that's why," I snap, knowing I can't tell her the real reason, wanting to protect her from her own curiosity.

I didn't mean to talk to her like that.

I take another step away from her, then turn completely away from her.

I need to leave, right now.

All want to do is keep her safe, but can I keep her safe from myself?

Without looking back over my shoulder, I head back upstairs to pack my things. I need to get home, too.

I have to have a cold shower, or a drink. I'm too worked up after that kiss.

What the fuck is that girl doing to me?