"what the hell is wrong with you? How am I scaring you?"
"Please just leave."
"But I want you and I know you want me too. I can't just go after what happened. Your warmth and your juices are... " and I hear him take a deep breath and a sound of sucking before he continues, "are exquisite."
Oh my God! Did he just suck his coated with my juices fingers? What is doing to me?
"Again, I am sorry. I never wanted this, I don't want any relation right now."
"Who said anything about a relation, I don't want one either."
"Ok then, we both don't want relations, and for women it also means we don't want sex either. Most of the time at least. "
There was a long silence and then he said.
"I will go but listen to me carefully you little tease. Stay the fuck away from me."
"Right, consider it done boss."
As soon as the word boss got out of my mouth I bit my lower lip. I stopped myself from saying anything further in order not to make it even worse for myself.
I heard quick steps and the sound of my door slammed shut. The sound made me jump. After some minutes, that I had purposefully taken inside the bathroom to brush my teeth and to make sure he really was gone, I left the bathroom and went to sleep.
CHAPTER TWO
It is eight o'clock and I am at the limit of my ability to stop myself from going downstairs and having breakfast. To hell with it, I am not here to reach my goal weight. I am more than happy with my curves, and right now this feeling of self-satisfaction is enhanced by my nagging hunger.
I put on the same blue tee-shirt and jeans of yesterday, when I intended to buy lunch, and head to the kitchen.
Now in the light of day and in the absence of a certain distraction, I am able to take in the gigantic kitchen. It had many tables with a long counter and a big island in the middle.
I can't tell on which table we had our little incident of last night. At that thought, I felt my cheeks turn pink. I stop myself and concentrate on food.
The breakfast is apparently served in a buffet style. Everyone just grabs what they like and sit to eat. There were a few people now eating on different tables. I first saw my mom sitting next to Boris. On the table next to them, I finally spotted him. Luckily he wasn't looking at me. I avert my eyes, walk directly to a stack of dishes, grab one and head to the island to choose my breakfast.
The variety of food is mouth-watering: crepes, croissants, cereals, fruit, salads, cheese...
I take a hot almond croissant, cereals and pour honey on top of them instead of milk and a cup of juice.
I sit next to mom and Boris.
"Good morning. How was your night love birds?"
"Great honey, how was yours?"
"Fabulous, I can see that you are almost done with your food. Now, I need you both to eat really slow so that you can enjoy me company."
I take in my first bite of the croissant after I smeared it with some honey from the cereals. For a person whom his last meal was the breakfast of the day before, the flavor of an upstanding croissant mixed with authentic honey exploded in my mouth. It was beyond delicious, exquisite couldn't cut it. It was pure euphoria.
Without noticing I let out a loud moan.
"Mmmmmm, This is what I call food."
Some of the men on the other table turned and looked at me in amusement. all that stopped when the person at the head of that table stood up abruptly toppling the chair in the process.
The sound made the entire kitchen go silent as they followed Dimitri's exit from it.
After two or three seconds the room resumed its low humming, and I my eating.
My face was burning, but I kept it down. Boris put his hand on my mother's shoulder in a reassuring jester and followed him.
"I wonder what is wrong with Mr. Ptroviskov." My mom says.
"Yah, that was weird."
"Why do I have a feeling that you have something to do with it?"
"yes, why do you?"
"Whatever it is, we need him on our side sweetheart and not as our enemy."
"Don't you think I know that mom? God! I hate your husband so much."
"At least we agree on that." My mother said with a sad smile on her face.
In these instances of sadness about her husband, she seems older and hopeless. Luckily, she doesn't linger in her bitterness and swiftly regains her smile and love of life.
Boris comes back through the door in a hurry and heads for us.
"Dimitri has arranged a call with the right hand of the Italian boss. He needs us in his office right now."
The pleasure of the idea of a second serving was taken away from me. We need to go to the office right now. I stand up with sadness.
My father always manages to ruin my life even from miles away. He deprived me from a really delicious breakfast and now he is pushing me into the company of a man I need to avoid.
Apparently the man's need to get rid of me is as great as my need to stay away from his tempting body.
We all head towards the room with the strong-looking door. This time we enter it. It is the office.
It is big like any other room in this castle. On the right, there was a big table for meetings with many comfortable-looking leather chairs. On the left there was a big glass desk behind which Dimitri was sitting. In front of the desk on the right, there was a chair next to it a two-seat sofa. On the left there was only one chair. Next to the chair were two closed doors.
Boris took the single chair on Dimitri's right, while my mother and I shared the sofa opposite to Boris. After I sat, I noticed that on the right of Dimitri there was a French door opening to the pool.
That is how he saw me swimming then, he was right to think I was seducing him.
Dimitri takes one of three cellphones set on his desk, dials a number and waits.
"Good morning Giorgi, how is it going?"
He presses loudspeaker and we hear.
"Not so good, mio vecchio amico, not since I got the news you are helping someone who stole from us."
"I was the one who told you that news in my message, but clearly you misunderstood. We are not helping the person who stole from you, in fact if I got him I would have sent his head to you as a gift. We all hate thieves in this line of business."
"You are helping his family in my book that is helping the scumbag."
"Again I am not helping anyone except my good friend Boris by arranging this meeting. He is the one who has the family and wants to make a deal with you. My job is just getting him heard."
"There is no deal. We want the wife and the daughter, we need to make an example out of them."
"There is no harm in listening to his offer. It might be compelling."
"Go on."
"First by killing the women, you would do the exact thing the bastard wants you to do. He actually doesn't care about them. Surely you can tell by the way he just left them for you. He has got a bad relationship with them, it would only make him happier if you did them."
"It doesn't matter. It is not about them, it is about saving face."
"I know that, that is why Boris is offering money. How much did the scumbag steal?"
After a short silence.
"One hundred thousand dollars."
My mother and I gasp at the same time. Dimitri gives Boris a hard stare. The latter turns to us, shakes his head and puts his index on his mouth in a sign for us to be quiet.
"Come on Giorgi, do you think we wouldn't do our own homework? I have it on good authority that the amount is exactly fifty eight thousand six hundred forty three dollars and eleven cents."
"It is one hundred after interest."
Dimitri visibly relaxes. Why is that? What did he understand that we didn't?
"I guess the women are worth the same?."
"Yes, three hundred thousand dollars. One hundred thousand for each."
"Fair enough, except that we don't want to pay for him. Boris is only paying for the family."
"You need to pay for him as well."
"No I don't and even if my man is willing to, I won't allow it. We don't bail thieves. Our only and final offer is two. I need you to bear three things in mind. First, we will make the women disappear. You can say you killed them. Second, you get something out of it not just a useless killing of two innocent lives. Finally, you would be doing us a favor and you know what that means for people like us. What goes around comes around."
"I need a minute to think, hang on?"
"You have got all the time in the world, call me when you make up your mind."