Page 43 of Diamond Don

“I have not,” I protest with a scoff. Maybe a little too emphatically.

Nik glances at me, an eyebrow raised.

“Of course, we were also getting to know each other better. I figured that was a good idea since we’ll be seeing so much of each other. You don’t mind it, do you, Nik?” Dmitri asks the man at my side, a teasing glint in his eyes.

Nik shoots him a stern look. “Dmitri…” he says after a long pause. “Don’t you have somewhere to be this morning? Last I checked, I don’t pay you to stand around and drink my coffee, bothering my guests.”

“I wasn’t bothering her. Kat was enjoying herself. Weren’t you, Kat?” Before I can answer, Dmitri asks, “You don’t mind if I call you Kat, do you? You can call me by my nickname, too. It’s Dima. Or you can call me D.”

“Dmitri—” Nik says in warning.

Dmitri winks at me. “See you later, Kat.”

I raptly watch him leave. I must know what he looks like from behind, but most importantly, I want Nik to see me studying Dmitri from behind.

Nik remains silent.

“Wow,” I say, breaking the silence once Dmitri is out of sight. “Just—Wow.”

Nik sighs wearily. “Sorry about Dmitri. He can be a lot sometimes. I let him get away with way too much, and he knows it. I’ll make sure he doesn’t bother you from now on.”

“No need for that,” I say with a smile. If he can be civil after yesterday, then so can I. “At least not on my account. I haven’t laughed this much in a while.”

“Oh, is that right?” he asks, loudly setting his coffee mug down.

“Yeah, I think he’s wonderful. Please don’t punish him because of me. I’d love to chat with him again, so don’t tell him to stay away from me or any nonsense like that.”

“Wonderful, huh?”

“I thought so.”

“Right. Well, I hate to disappoint you, Kat, but you and Dmitri are here to work for me, so I’m afraid you won’t get a chance to—how did you put it?—chat again. I expect you both to do your jobs to the best of your ability, which won’t leave you much time for chatting.”

I shoot him a displeased look. The nerve of this man. He might be able to force me to work for him, but that doesn’t give him the right to dictate how I spend my free time or who I socialize with. If he thinks I’ll let him keep me on a short leash like that, he is in for a surprise.

I smile even more sweetly at him. “Sounds good to me, Nik. I wouldn’t want to waste any time I could spend working, trust me. After all, the sooner this job is finished, the sooner we can go our separate ways.”

“My thoughts exactly. Glad we’re on the same page,” he says in the same tone.

“You bet. It’s not like there won’t be plenty of time for Dmitri and me to chat after this job is done, right? I’ll give him my number so he can reach me.”

The look he gives me could burn through stone. Undoubtedly, Nik hasn’t forgotten I refused to give him my number and name when we first met.

“I hope you aren’t too preoccupied daydreaming about Dmitri to do your job properly, Kat. As his boss, I can tell you he’ll be too busy to chat with you in the foreseeable future. As your boss, I can say you will be, too.”

“That’s okay, Nik. For someone as wonderful as Dmitri, I can wait.”

“He’ll be busy indefinitely.”

“Forever?”

“If that’s what it takes, sure.”

Forcefully setting my cup down, I turn on my seat to face the infuriating man next to me fully. “What the hell is your problem today? Do you get off on antagonizing me or something like that?”

“I could ask you the same thing. And for your information, not everything is about you, Kat. You might be surprised to learn this, but my life doesn’t revolve around your wants and wishes. I run a tight ship around here. Get used to it.”

“Right. It’s all about efficiency with you. That’s all you care about, of course,” I say, sarcasm dripping from my every word.

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