Page 30 of Little Blue

“Mmno.” I shake my head, then take another long sip. Sigh. “I love coffee.”

He sits back in his chair, blue eyes attempting to strip away the layers of me. “You didn’t have any in your apartment.”

It shouldn’t surprise me he knows this, considering his comment about the peanut butter, but it does. “Coffee is expensive. At home, I drank tea.”

A muscle in his jaw throbs. “Tea is less expensive?”

“If you buy it in bulk and drink it black, like I did, yes.”

I think I’ve displeased him. Maybe, realizing the severity of my poverty might have him changing his mind about keeping me, after all.

A girl can hope. Until then, I’ll just sip the best coffee I’ve ever had in my life.

I think I’m happy in silence until Polina returns to the table with two plates. I shift uncomfortably as she slides an omelet in front of me, muttering, “Thank you so much.”

The fire of embarrassment burns my cheeks and the tips of my ears.

I’m not used to having someone serve me. I don’t think I like it.

“You’re very welcome, my dear.” With a pat of her hand on the table, she turns to leave me to eat with Ilya. Alone.

I clear my throat. “You know I’m going to lose my job, right?”

Blue eyes fix on mine. He chews, swallows, and replies, “I will provide for you.”

Tension spreads through me. “What am I supposed to do with myself?”

“What do you like to do?”

Well…

“Ilya, that’s not the point.” I wave my hands, before bringing them together in a sign of prayer. I implore him to understand. “This is my life you’re messing with.”

“Your life is now with me.”

I close my eyes for a beat, willing myself to center. My calm is quickly disintegrating. Inhaling through my nose, I release from my mouth. I open my eyes. “What happens when you tire of me?”

His eyes sharpen on my face. His head cocks to the side, and slowly, agonizingly slowly, he takes me in. He cuts another chunk of his omelet, sliding it into his mouth. He chews and swallows, all the while studying me. When I think he’s not going to reply, he says, “I won’t.”

I grit my teeth, but since there’s no reasoning with him, I’m simply going to have to resolve myself to the fact I’m going to have to drive the lunatic even more loony than he already is. As an introvert, that’s not an easy feat. I find it excruciating—the idea of presenting myself so wildly that he’ll decide I’m not worth the trouble, and return me and Lucy to our previously glum, soggy ceiling, peanut-butter-eating, existence. But at least it was an existence where we had free will. Or I did.

Poor Lucy never did get to chase his birds.

“So, I’m supposed to sit here all day while you—” I frown at him. “What do you do?”

“I own multiple businesses across Russia, the United States, and Europe.”

I feel my eyes bug. “I’m sorry, what?”

“I have many men to oversee these businesses for me, but I travel a lot. I like to be a—presence—within my companies.”

My mind can’t process the magnitude. I swallow another bite, washing it down with a sip of my nearly finished coffee. “Again, what am I supposed to do while you’re off galivanting the world?”

He appraises me for a long moment. When he rolls his lips, my heart quickens. “I’ll be working from home for the foreseeable future. Until you’re—more accepting of your place in your new life.” He tips his head to my cup. “More coffee?”

Fourteen

Ilya

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