Page 5 of His Smile
“Twenty-million, the showroom currently has over twentymillion worth of product collecting dust,” he clarified with a slight teasingsmirk. Standing up, he extended his hand towards her. “Alexei Petrov, I’mRoman’s accountant.”
Taking his hand, Rahina felt like she was just now actuallylooking at the man. He was beautiful, too beautiful actually. She could tell bythe strength in his fingers that held hers and a cursory glance at his leanfigure, the man was just as in shape as she suspected Roman was. His face,however, was too beautiful, all perfect lines and angles nothing like themasculine hard edge of Roman’s face and certainly not the promise ofexhilarating danger that Roman’s smile offered.
“Rahina Chopra,” she replied. Tilting her head in thoughtshe asked, “is everyone here Russian?” Thinking of the guard at the gate andwhat her brother said yesterday.
Alexei just gave her a ghost of a smile.
“How did you get in here?” Roman demanded, pulling herattention away from Alexei.
Stepping boldly forward, she crossed the sitting area of theroom and headed towards his desk. Two dark gray couches sat facing each otheron either wall with a large glass coffee table in the middle. Directly ahead ofthe sitting area, were two modern leather and steel chairs. The silver steelgleamed as her eyes fell on the large Onyx desk. Stopping near the side of thedesk, she dramatically lowered the paper bag onto a clear spot on his desk andgave him a big grin.
“Dimitri let me in.”
Alexei said something in Russian as he smirked and neatlystacked his papers into his thin briefcase. Gruffly, Roman replied back with aneven faster string of unrecognizable words as Alexei silently left. Alone now,Roman began to smile. Rahina could easily see the evil gears working behind hisfog gray eyes.
Not giving him a chance to say anything she started talkingwhile brazenly halfway sitting on the edge of his desk. “You know, I had todance with this popular Russian dancer, Yuri Gosev, and he would occasionallyspeak Russian,” seeing that he wasn’t opening his lunch, she carefully reachedover and unpacked the sandwich and chips as she spoke. “And before I alwaysthought Russian kind of sounded terrible to be honest, but I have to say,” shepaused, midsentence as she flattened the paper bag neatly and used it as amakeshift plate for his still wrapped sandwich and chips. Scooting the nowpresented lunch closer to him, she gave him a beguiling smile and continued.“You make the language sound damn good.”
The menacing smile he was preparing to give her froze as heblinked a few times in recognition. “Is this your attempt at flirting with me?”
Lifting one eyebrow suggestively, she didn’t back down fromhis stare and bit back a laugh. “What says seduction more than a deli combo anda sultry smile?”
Laughter sparkled in her eyes as she spotted the hint ofsurprised amusement in his eyes before it was immediately crushed behind aniron wall of self-control and a deadpan stare.
“Get out,” he pointed to the door.
“Aw, come on,” she pouted. “I never got to introduce myselfproperly to you and thank you for getting me out of my dad’s officeundetected.”
Leaning back in his seat, her eyes couldn’t help but followthe movement. Noticing the way his ivory button-down shirt stayed close to theflat planes of his abs, and bulged around his swollen biceps. The top twobuttons of his shirt were undone and completely free of a tie, giving her thebarest hint of a tattoo peeking out from underneath. Instead of a tie, he worea brown leather chest holster for his gun with the straps going over each armand the powerful piece of gun-power dangling under his left arm.
“You have no idea who or what I am, Rahina Chopra, thirdsoloist of the Boston Ballet Company,” she knew he only added that in means toscare her or at the very least warn her, but all it sufficiently did was makeher feel a little special knowing that he researched her. Roman continued,giving her a silent, menacing stare. “But I can assure you that you are in overyour head.”
The warning was plain and simple, and if she was smart, shewould take it. This wasn’t like her, Rahina didn’t pester guys to pay attentionto her. Sure, she was goofy and terribly flirty with guys, but never this, shenever went after a guy like she was doing now. The problem was, he made herwhole world turn around on first sight. Roman Mashir was everything she wantedfrom the moment they met. Somehow, he was taller than her, insanelygood-looking, and had a killer smile. He was the ultimate bad boy package thatthankfully came in a deluxe size just for her. So no, she was not going to heedhis warning, she at least wanted to see where this could go first.
Sitting fully on the edge of his desk, she leaned back on toher arms. “I think I can guess what you are, judging by the gun, the obviouswealth,” she waved her hand out in gesture to the row of cars sitting in theback lot out his window. “And not to mention your conversation you had with myfather the other day.”
He didn’t say anything he just kept that enigmatic smile.
“I really don’t see the issue here, you’re single,” Dimitrimore than happily confirmed that fact. “I think you’re incredibly sexy and wehad a lot of fun yesterday. Besides, of course, the part where you cheated meout of an opportunity to upgrade my car,” she felt satisfaction when she caughtthe whisper of amusement pass through his eyes at the memory before he quicklyconcealed it. “I have to warn you Mr. Mashir,” she said, standing up now toface him, forcing him to look up at her. “I’m very persistent. I will get youto like me.
For a moment he said nothing, he simply glanced out thewindow towards the river before finally standing from his chair. Towering aboveher, Roman looked down at her directly.
“I can guarantee you, I won’t,” his deep accent purred atthe words nearly causing her to shut her eyes to savor the wonderful sound.
Rising to her feet until she was practically on pointedtoes, she stared at him nearly at eye level. “Challenge accepted.”
Chapter 3
Mosca Nobokev had been working for Roman for four years nowand not once had he ever seen the boss like this before.
Once the odd girl left, Mosca made sure to hang near Roman’soffice, partly because it was his job to be at the boss’s side, but mostly outof pure interest. In less than twenty-four hours, the young woman seemed tohave made indelible marks on Roman’s life. From escaping through windows,boldly arguing, and barging in unannounced, Mosca could safely say that RahinaChopra was nothing like any of the other women he had seen Roman with.
Standing silently down the small connecting hall that led toRoman’s office, it didn’t surprise Mosca that Dimitri suddenly appeared next tohim with an excited look of expectation. Mosca already knew the captain wantedto know what he overheard in Roman’s office. Normally, the answer would benothing, but since Alexei left the door ajar either on accident or on purpose,Mosca had been able to hear the full conversation. Still, Mosca didn’t say anything,his loyalty was to Roman first and foremost, not Dimitri.
Dimitri’s eyes turned murderous as he realized Mosca wasn’tgoing to speak. “If you don’t…”
“Come here,” Romans thundering voice from inside, stilledboth men.
The unspoken fear that jolted through them was for goodreason. No matter how many years either of them worked for Roman, they couldnever safely predict what the man was going to do next. Mosca always knew thesmile Roman displayed was tactical and intentional. Very effectively and withvery little effort, the smile threw people around Roman off their balance. Itwas creepy to watch someone as imposing as Roman give you a slow spreadingsmile that never seemed to stop. The simple tactic made Roman appear as amercurial madman with the power and authority that could rival a King.
