Page 2 of His Smile
“Because you’re the car connection guy,” she said as if itwas painfully obvious. “And if you do it, I’ll be sure to talk you up to my dadso he will use your services again in the future.” She wiggled her eyebrowssuggestively as if she really just offered something deal-breaking. Finding thekey, she wanted with a satisfied smile, she sat it down on the edge of the desknear the tea tray and stared back at him with a waiting smile.
Narrowing his eyes, Roman tilted his head back and studiedthe girl. There was something about her that bothered him. Her denim overallslooked as if she stole them off some farmer and cut off a portion of the pantsjust below the knee. Her nails were cut short and blunt, and her hair was messyas if she had just been running down the street. She was nothing like the womenhe was used to. The fact she could give him such a large vibrant smile after givinghim such a ridiculous offer told him she was nothing like the shy, demure wivesof his fellow business partners in his organization. Five minutes in the girl’spresence was starting to feel like five minutes of defusing a live bomb.
“You’re implying you hold some real weight in your dad’sdecisions?” Dimitri asked.
Turning those large almond-shaped eyes from him for thefirst time, she looked to Dimitri and smirked, waving a hand dismissively atthe doubt in his voice. “Of course, I do.” Turning back to Roman, she gave himan eager look, waiting for his decision.
“Then why are we having this conversation instead of yousimply speaking to your father and more importantly, why are you whispering?”Roman couldn’t help but ask.
Leaning further back against her father’s desk, she foldedher arms as her eyes filled with the spark of challenge. “Because I feel thatsome arrangements deserve a little bit of discretion, Mr…” She let the end ofher statement trail off as she looked at him expectantly.
“Mashir. His name is Roman Mashir,” Dimitri offered, far toohappily. “My name is Dimitri.”
Ignoring his captain’s flirtatious smile, the girl lifted onejet black eyebrow back at Roman demandingly. “So, are you going to play ball oram I going to have to do this the hard way, Mr. Mashir?” Her tongue rolled theR to his surname perfectly.
The girl had no idea who she was playing with right now.Casting a glance towards Dimitri, Roman watched as his captain’s eyes widenedwith shocked delight as he hid his grin by taking a sip of his tea. Lookingback to her, Roman smiled, a large toothy smile of genuine enjoyment. A smilethat usually sent a clear message of absolute warning to people on thereceiving end.
Normally.
What he did not expect was her own smile to widen and hereyes to fill with anticipation. Hell, the sudden eager look in her eyesthreatened to make his own smile falter. Leaning forward, she was opening hermouth to speak when they all heard the sound of the doorknob turning. Her eyeswent round in fear as she stood up straight from the desk and looked around ina panic. Both Roman and Dimitri waited as the seconds ticked before she madeher seemingly ultimate decision.
It turned out to be a poor decision.
With a skilled vault, the tall girl was up and over thelarge wooden desk within seconds. As the door to the office opened, Romanwatched her drop to the ground in a blur completely disappearing on the otherside of the desk.
“Ah, here we are gentlemen,” Mr. Chopra waved a manilafolder in his hand as he stopped next to Roman, handing him the documents. “AndI see that Rahina brought the tea, good.”
Rahina, the name echoed in Roman’s head as he mentallyrepeated it. Opening the folder, Roman passively glanced at the data as hesurreptitiously watched the older man walk around his desk to sit down.
“As you can see Mr. Mashir, our numbers show that we arepulling in a considerable profit and a steady flow of valuable information.”Mr. Chopra glanced from Roman to Dimitri with a plastered on confident smilewhile unbeknownst to him, his daughter rolled silently from underneath the deskand crouched just below the long front overhang of the desk and at Roman’sfeet. “I hope that you are prepared to offer a reasonable offer in terms of apartnership today.”
With her knees pulled up to her chest, Rahina gave him athreatening glare as she pressed her finger over her lips in a signal to saynothing.
“And what do you consider a reasonable offer?” Roman askedwithout missing a beat.
“Well, you see Mr. Mashir, you must understand my position,”getting up the older man gave him and Dimitri a far-off look before he began.“When I came over from Bangladesh, I had nothing. I…” The man began to set uphis back story for his pitch. Normally, Roman would have cut the man off, buthe was far too preoccupied with the young woman huddled at his feet.
A bold gleam glittered in her eyes in warning before shelowered herself flat to the floor and looked beneath the desk toward theposition of her father’s feet. Currently, the man was standing at the windowwith his hands clasped behind his back as he droned about his immigration toAmerica. Seeing that he was turned around, she sat back up and stuck one handboldly over the edge of the desk and blindly felt around. Roman watched withinterest as her hand neared the Mercedes fob, she had purloined earlier fromthe velvet tray. Catching her eye, he held her gaze boldly as he reached forthe fob and moved it far out of her reach.
Shocked outrage colored her gaze when she realized what hehad done.
Dimitri covered his laugh with the clearing of his throatbefore interjecting on the old man’s story. “Regarding the offer, Mr. Chopra,”he reminded the man impatiently.
Roman halfway listened as Amin spoke with Dimitri, he wasmuch more interested in the phone screen the girl was thrusting angrily towardshim.
“Text me!” Next to the all caps demand was a ten-digitnumber.
Pulling out his phone, Roman texted the number.
(What?)
“Give me the key.”
(You want the key or do you want to escape?)
She shot him another glare as her thumbs tapped furiously onher screen. “Both!”
(You get one.)He gave her an amused smirk.
