Page 28 of Inked Adonis

“I’d have to check my schedule?—”

“Great, thanks.”

I watch as she slides her phone into a tiny designer crossbody. Finally—finally—she looks at her dog. But it’s not even with disgust. Just apathy. She doesn’t care enough to despise him.

“He’s just so… energetic,” she sighs, like it’s a character flaw. “I haven’t had time to walk him myself lately. I’ve been in Paris, New York, Milan…”

She keeps going. I stop listening. Meanwhile, Rufus is practically vibrating with joy just from finding a stick.

I think of the empty food bowl I saw in her entryway last week. The unused dog bed still wrapped in factory plastic. The way Rufus practically explodes with happiness every time someone—anyone—pays attention to him.

Eight thousand dollars. And she can’t spare eight minutes.

But Hope’s voice echoes in my head:Don’t blow this.

So I swallow my pride, my dignity, and what feels like a whole flock of angry birds.

“Six days works for me.”

A flash of movement across the park catches my eye, and my heart does that stupid flutter thing before I realize it’s just another suit heading to work.

Not him.

Not Samuil.

Thank God, because the last thing I need right now is Rufus losing his mind over his Armani fetish yet again.

But now that I’ve let my guard down, the memories flood in.His hands spanning my waist in my tiny bathroom. The way he snarled against my neck. How he picked me up like I weighed nothing and?—

“Are you even listening?”

Katerina’s sharp tone snaps me back to reality. She’s staring at me like I’m something sticky on the bottom of her designer sneakers.

“Sorry, I was just thinking about Rufus’s training schedule,” I lie, my face burning. I was absolutely not thinking about the way Samuil Litvinov’s mouth felt on my?—

“As I was saying,” she continues, already back to her phone, “I’ll need you to pick up his new supplements from Gold Coast Veterinary. They’re three hundred dollars a bottle, so try not to drop them.”

I can only sigh. At a certain point, someone this repulsive just becomes amusing, right? Like, a funny caricature of a bad person? I hope so. I don’t have enough hate in my body for her.

Rufus bumps his big head against my hip, and I scratch behind his ears. At least someone here appreciates me.

“Take him,” Katerina commands, shoving Rufus’s Gucci leash into my hands. “I have a call with Tokyo in ten minutes.”

She’s already walking away, her perfect blonde hair swishing like a shampoo commercial, when she turns back.

“Oh, and Nova?”

My name sounds wrong in her mouth, like she’s tasting something bitter. “Yes?”

“I expect excellence from the people I employ.” Her smile is all ice and warning. “I’d hate to have to tell Hope that her little business venture isn’t up to snuff.”

The threat slides across my skin like oil. “Of course, Ms. Alekseeva.”

She’s gone before I finish speaking, leaving nothing but a wake of expensive perfume and unease.

Rufus whines beside me, his tail drooping. I kneel down next to him, pressing my face into his warm fur.

“Don’t worry, buddy. We’ll figure this out.”

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