Page 20 of We All Have A Heaven
Did he know about the accident? If it’d been months since I last remembered anything, he must have known I had been in the hospital.
I strolled down the hallway, glancing at the numbers on the doors until I stood outside the office with 400 on the plaque. Underneath it said, “Founding partner, Attorney Dimitri Volkov.”
I bunched my eyebrows together. My stomach dropped, along with my jaw, as it hit me.
Mr. Volkov was my boss?
I swallowed and rapped my knuckles against the wooden door.
“Enter.” Even though his voice was muffled, it still held authority, like he was used to leading people and being assertive. That man was cocky, and he knew it.
My pulse fluttered, and I hesitantly opened the door and slipped through a tiny crack, thinking it would make me small, like a child in trouble. My shoulders tensed and curled inward as I entered his office.
“You’re my...my boss?” I whispered.
Mr. Volkov’s eyebrow twitched, and his jaw tightened. He was facing the laptop on his desk and hadn’t looked away from the screen when I entered the office.
“Yes,” he said. “Since you don’t remember your duties, I’ll remind you again, but only once. If you can’t remember, then you are useless to me.” He turned his narrowed gaze to me, and his intense stare knocked the air from my lungs. “You’ll be here at seven a.m. sharp. You’ll go to the café down the street and—”
I scrambled to grab my phone and pulled up the notes app to write everything he told me. I didn’t want to lose my job, and I especially didn’t want to let him down by forgetting something so simple.
“You’ll buy a café au lait and a beignet every morning, then you’ll greet me with them. Do you understand?” I nodded and continued typing the rest of what he said. “You are to schedule my meetings with lawyers and clients, run errands for me, and do anything else I tell you to do. Do you understand, Ms. Hayes?”
I stumbled over a few words and finished typing out the list. Popping my head up, I looked at Mr. Volkov and nodded. “I think so.”
He stared at me with a blank expression, but I didn’t miss how his gaze dropped down my body like he was peeling back my skin and looking at my insides. I’d never felt so vulnerable before now. When he brought his gaze back to my face and frowned, I knew he didn’t like what he saw. I wasn’t appealing to some people, but with Mr. Volkov, it was like a punch to the gut. It was silly of me.
Swallowing hard, I averted my gaze. “I understand.”
“Good.” He turned back to his laptop and typed on the keyboard.
When I stood there, unsure what to do, he turned to me with a dark eyebrow raised, eyes full of malice.
“What are you doing, Ms. Hayes?”
“Um...” I nibbled on my bottom lip.
“Aren’t you supposed to be somewhere?” he said with steel in his voice.
I widened my eyes, and my spine straightened as his insinuation finally clicked in my mind. “Oh! Well, I can’t exactly get to the café because I...didn’t drive here.”
A corner of his lip twitched, and I realized then that he had been waiting for me to say something about it. He pulled out a drawer behind his desk and grabbed something. Sliding it over his desk, he revealed his keys. “I expect you back in fifteen minutes.”
“Okay.” I timidly approached his desk to grab the keys.
For some strange reason, I worried he’d grab my hand, haul me over the desk, and pull me onto his lap. My cheeks warmed with a blush as I stepped closer. Mr. Volkov gave me the impression that he wasn’t above punishing someone. My heart raced as an image popped into my mind: me bent over his lap, skirt raised to expose my bare bottom for him to spank me. My rear tingled like my body knew his harsh touch, and my clit throbbed with need, shaming me for feeling this way about him. Our eyes met, and I ducked my head, snatched the keys, and fled from the room.
Twenty minutes later, I was back in Mr. Volkov’s office. I held my breath and tried to still my shaking hands, hoping he hadn’t noticed I was five minutes late.
“Here you go, sir,” I said with a smile plastered on my face as I set his coffee and brown bag full of pastries on his oak desk.
If I smile, then it should be okay, right?
Mr. Volkov’s dark eyebrows lowered, and he tapped his finger on the desk. He peeked at me from the corner of his eye as he faced his laptop. “You’re late.”
I nervously giggled. “I was hoping you wouldn’t notice that.”
He exhaled through his nose and turned to me with a scowl. My breath caught, and I realized that I messed up. I had thought that if I were kind, he’d let it slide. It was only five minutes, for goodness’ sake!
