Page 27 of Pregnant By the Russian Pakhan

As soon as the sour-faced woman was before him, he knew his instincts were right because she couldn’t meet his gaze.

“Someone told Alena about my marriage of less than a day, and someone told Mira to wear Alena’s clothes exactly when Alena was arriving, so she would recognize them and humiliate Mira.”

To her credit, the woman didn’t deny it, petrified though she was. She lifted her chin and declared, “Alena gave me this job.”

He nodded. “Yet I pay your salary.”

“I’ll leave now,” she said.

“Not so fast. You’ll tell me everything you revealed to Alena and any of my other enemies and how many times or so help me, I’ll forget you are a woman and send you to my torture chambers.”

She blanched and began to confess.

Mikhail leaned back against the chair and began to listen to her litany of wrongdoings.

From the corner of his eyes, he caught a flash of movement as though someone had been listening at the door and had moved away to steal up the stairs. He couldn’t be sure, but he could have sworn the figure that had moved so stealthily was Mira.

Chapter 17 - Mira

Mira’s marriage was an unending source of contradictions and confusion to her.

Before the wedding, when Williams had walked in on them in the library, Mikhail had acted as though he couldn’t get enough of her. Then just when she’d thought she couldn’t take anymore, he had let her go and never shown any inclination of wanting to touch her in the two weeks since then. He had never attempted so much as a kiss or hug, never mind more intimate touches. For all the indifference he put up, she might as well have been a log of wood dressed in fancy clothes.

Speaking of clothes, she hadn’t had any clothes and he’d bought her such expensive and beautiful clothes that she didn’t even miss her wardrobe at home. But whenever she wore any of those clothes, Mikhail couldn’t even be bothered to work up a compliment, although his eyes followed her everywhere she went.

Then whenever she went to use his library to read and at least keep her mind occupied since she couldn’t go out for now, he was very welcoming. But always, without fail, he left the room within seconds of her arrival.

Seated now in the library, her hands shook a little as she considered the fact that she had been in the room for almost thirty minutes and he hadn’t left. What was going on with him? Perhaps he’d decided to stay with her today?

She didn’t care whether he stayed or not, she assured herself. She only needed him so she could keep an eye on him so she could find out what he truly knew about her mother’s death.

Then why were you almost blind with jealousy when you saw that woman in his arms? a naughty voice whispered inwardly.

She sighed. “I wasn’t blind with jealousy.”

“Did you say something?” Mikhail asked from his position behind his desk.

He was looking particularly delicious today, dressed in a navy-blue turtleneck thrown over a pair of black pants that emphasized his deep tan. Mira kept looking at his Adam’s apple as it peeked out just a little above the turtleneck, and she couldn’t help wondering what he would do if she crossed the room and pressed a small kiss to the bulging point.

He would probably have a stroke and accuse her of offending his modesty and “tender sensibilities,” she thought with a grim chuckle as she borrowed one of Sarah’s favorite phrases from her Regency romance novels.

“You’re doing it again,” he said softly, leaving his seat to come and sit beside her.

She looked up at him. “Doing what?”

“Holding an entire conversation in your head and leaving me out,” he complained.

She shook her head. “That was never my intention, I swear. I thought you were busy with your work.”

His proximity was starting to affect her again. Every time he came near her, she forgot that she feared he might know some secret about her mother’s death.

He was watching her intently with banked fire in his dark gaze. “You seem as though you want me to…to kiss you.”

She didn’t bother denying it. She kept staring at him. Then she shrugged. “You haven’t touched me since the wedding.”

“You told me not to, right after you called me a lecherous old goat,” he reminded her.

Horrified comprehension dawned and she buried her face in her hands as she whooped with laughter. So that was why he’d been staying away from her? The man had the instincts of a true gentleman, despite being a mafia lord. “That’s not true. I didn’t use those exact words.”

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