Page 9 of Frequency of Attraction

“You like my tenacity, or so you’ve told me.”

The man chuckled. “You’re stubborn like a bull, it’s true.”

The waiter set a cut-crystal glass of icy, clear liquid in front of Vadim and tawny liquid in front of Dante. His would be scotch. Vadim was sure his was Blazh, the top-shelf Geier vodka. It had been Dante who had turned him on to all the finer things he now enjoyed. The man had given him a fucking Rolex for Christmas like such a gift had been nothing. He could have paid his mother and sister’s rent for years for the price of that watch.

“Your stubbornness will serve you well out there, Vadim. It will serve you well in all things but one.”

Smooth, ice-cold vodka sluiced down his throat. “What’s that?”

Dante’s cheek dimpled. “Women. With women, it’s wise to give and keep giving.”

He did. But not in the way Dante meant. “You know me better than that.”

“I know that you don’t know everything.”

He tried to combat the discomfort that gripped his belly. OrbitAll was a whole new world. Not only a new company in a new country, but new tech, new procedures, new people. Like the little blonde who spent way too much time in his thoughts. Her curves and French lilt had kept him company in the shower that morning. After today, his life would be very different. Mostly, he couldn’t fucking wait.

Dante sipped his scotch and exhaled loudly, sounding satisfied. “There it is. I see that determination in your eyes. Don’t forget that,mijo. The only thing that can get in your way is you. If you cock this up for yourself, you call Dante. I’ll talk you back up.”

Vadim smiled. “Yes, sir.” He downed the rest of his vodka. “Thank you.” He left off “for everything,” but he knew Dante heard it.

A few days later, Vadim pulled into the lot at OrbitAll in a rental car much more appropriate for his size. The sleek black car was loud like him. His veins coursed with excitement as he made his way into the yawning hangar. He was supposed to check in with Luz, the receptionist, but he needed a moment alone with the spaceplane, his new Mount Everest, before he got bogged down with first day basics.

No one stopped him as he approached Stratos. Most people waved and smiled or paid him no heed. Vadim slowly circled the shining spacecraft. In a few months, the beautiful piece of machinery would be an extension of his body and mind. After that, she would start delivering dreams—his and dozens of others. Hundreds of people had conceived of Stratos and the parts that made her capable of that. Vadim’s job was to continue that work. He closed his eyes for a brief second and visualized breaking through the thin blue line separating this world from the blackness that held all others. He envisioned inconceivably large swaths of blue ocean below him. He tried to imagine what the guests would say.You and me. We are one. And we’re going to the stars.

“Are you lost?”

The French-tinted voice yanked him back down to Earth. Vadim’s gaze snapped to the little blonde, tucked into a curve-hugging red dress this time. A strange feeling stirred in his blood. Lost? No. Possibly for the first time, he was right where he was supposed to be. But that had nothing to do with her.

“You offering to get me where I need to be?”

She sniffed. “Not really part of my job description.”

Aside from frequent blinking, she seemed easier in his presence this time. Vadim moved closer. She sucked in a breath and seemed unable to let it go. Easier but not easy, he smirked to himself.

“No? What do you do here, blondie?”

She stared at his chest for a long moment before looking up. Vadim’s muscles felt restless under her scrutiny.

“I’m head of PR. Do you know what PR is?”

He did, but he was determined to rattle her out of that condescending tone. She was shaken by him and trying to cover it up with sass. He wouldn’t let her. “You don’t want me to guess. Promise.”

She backed up a step. “We have a meeting at noon. I hope you’ll behave.”

“No, you don’t.”

He could have sworn she growled as she stalked away. As if she didn’t like being teased. Chuckling, Vadim gave Stratos one last look and went in search of Luz, who brought him to Sarah, the human resources woman, with whom he spent the next three hours reviewing the employee handbook and watching safety videos. Riveting.

He ditched Sarah at noon for the “experiential planning meeting,” whatever that meant, with Tate and company. He heard the little blonde’s French tones as he approached Elle’s office. “Have you met the new pilot? Hot as hell, but just as annoying. And he has tattoos on hisface.”

He snickered out loud. He’d found the woman on the company’s website while Sarah had been on the phone. Quinn Geier, Director of Public Relations. The little blonde didn’t just work for the Geier Group, she was part of the dynasty. Her job was making the company look and sound good to the masses.Hot as hell. He’d be tucking that away for later.

“They’re not on my face,” he intoned, sauntering in. Even when he ran out of skin elsewhere, imminently, he wouldn’t touch his face. He was not that dumb.

Quinn startled in her chair and turned to glare at him, her cheeks scarlet stains. Vadim fought a cackle. God, this was going to befun.

They talked “guest experience” for the next hour. Elle’s job, he learned, was imagining the guest journey from the first moment to the last and figuring out ways to make it special. She was brilliant. But part of him couldn’t help but wonder why they put so much thought into these details. The guests would get to go to space, an unknowable territory that had captured the human imagination for millennia. What could top that?

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