Page 24 of Blood Mosaic

“Dinner,” Oleg barked.

Elene lifted her chin and looked at Oleg, her eyes shouting at him.Then she turned back to Tatyana and smiled. “I’ll be in the office at nine.”

“I’ll see you then.”

Oleg held out his hand, snapping his fingers at Tatyana, who nearly jumped at the sound.

Elene barked at him in her native Georgian. “Don’t be a barbarian.”

He responded in the same language. “I am a barbarian, remember?” He turned to Tatyana. “It’s late and you haven’t eaten. You’re pale.”

“I’m always pale.”

She wasn’t afraid of him now that she had her computer under her arm and business with Elene to discuss. Good. He didn’t like people who were afraid of him. They were useful but boring.

Oleg hated to be bored.

Chapter Seven

“Do you generally order your employees’ food for them?”

Oleg sipped the glass of red wine the sommelier had just poured for them. “I know what’s good at this restaurant. You don’t.”

“That didn’t answer my question.” She was sitting across from him, her hair a little bit loose around her face, in the steakhouse around the corner from her hotel.

The host had seated them in a velvet booth in a corner of the restaurant after he recognized Oleg, assuring him that they would have the most private corner of the restaurant.

Tatyana looked at the full tables on the far side of the room. “Are the tables near ours off-limits?”

“I prefer privacy when I’m eating.” He’d ordered both of them steaks and told the waiter to bring a variety of side dishes for the table.

“Do you always order for your employees?” She wasn’t giving up.

“I don’t. I do order for women though.”

She leaned back and lifted her chin. “I am not your woman.”

He felt that annoying twitch under his eye again. “It’s a courtesy. As I said, I know this restaurant; you do not.”

“What if I’m a vegetarian?”

Your blood doesn’t smell like a vegetarian, but you are iron deficient.

Probably best not to answer her that way. “You don’t eat meat? Is that why you’re so pale? You ordered a full breakfast at the hotel this morning.”

Her eyes went wide. “They told you what I ordered?”

Oleg picked up his wine again. “I didn’t ask. It was a guess, but I was right, wasn’t I?”

That brought some color to her cheeks. “I would prefer to pay for my own lodging and meals while I’m here.”

He swirled the bright red wine in his glass. “It’s part of your employment since you’re required to be in Odesa while you work. The advance is for…” He waved a hand. What did humans have to pay for? Rent. Car things. She wasn’t spending her money on red meat, that was for sure. “…your personal expenses. No need to lose your residence in Sevastopol because you’re working here.”

“That clause wasn’t specifically in my contract, and I checked,” she said. “Staying in Odesa the entire contract time isn’t going to be possible. Iwillhave to go back.”

He took a gulp of wine and poured more into his own glass and then into hers even though she’d barely touched it. “Why?”

“Because I have family obligations.”

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