Page 45 of Control: XXX Vadim 1
“You aren’t bored?”
“No,” I admit truthfully. It shouldn’t be this damn enthralling just ogling someone as they go about their simple routine.
His smirk returns, and he downs the rest of his orange juice before standing.
We cut through the back of the house, passing through a doorway that opens into a spacious garage containing three vehicles in varying degrees of flashy. The most conservative is a black van. Then a gray compact car, and then finally the cherry red sports car he drove to his brother’s house. In some ways, they remind me of three distinct personalities. The surly, mysterious Vadim, the cold Vadim, and the warm, slightly unpredictable daredevil who spanks women in one moment and manipulates them the next.
“After you.” He ushers me into the passenger’s seat, and within minutes we’re heading toward the city.
Our first destination is a tall, sleek office building in the heart of a mass of skyscrapers clawing at the sky. A simple logo adorns the front façade—three emerald-colored circles interlinked beside a crisp font readEingel Health Industries.
“Is this your company?” I ask as he parks in a reserved space at the heart of a parking garage at the base of the building.
“One of them,” he says. “I no longer have a role in the day-to-day operations, but my share of the stock allows me to utilize an office in the American headquarters whenever I’m in town.”
“A hotel room in California. An office here in Fair Haven. It seems as though you bounce from city to city, Vadim.” Though the woman from his meeting yesterday did mention that he only recently bought his house.
“I’ve yet to find anything worth keeping me in one place for too long,” he admits while we enter a polished lobby and take an elevator to the top floor. As if in afterthought, he adds, “Anything that requires me, anyway.”
And yet, all of a sudden, it seems, he’s gotten the urge to buy a fake wife and purchase a sprawling mansion near his estranged brother? I contemplate asking him as much, but I can almost see the invisible bricks of his wall threatening to fall into place the second I push him too far.
So I bite my tongue and follow him down what appears to be an executive suite guarded by a single secretary seated behind a desk. She eyes Vadim and then does a swift doubletake, nearly falling off of her chair.
“M-Mr. Gorgoshev! We weren’t expecting you. It’s been so long since your last visit—”
“Over a year, I think,” Vadim says with a charming grin. Jealousy prickles through my belly, though when I scan his expression, it’s the neutral detachedness I’ve come to expect from him.
“Yes, a year,” the secretary says solemnly. “Your office is just as you left it. I’ll have fresh coffee sent in immediately.”
“For two,” Vadim adds before taking my hand. I warily follow him past the secretary and into a spacious office that looks fit for a CEO—not a “casual investor” who hasn’t bothered to visit this place in over a year.
“Were you on an extended vacation?” I ask him playfully as he claims a leather armchair placed before a polished wooden desk while I collapse into a matching seat before him.
“Something like that.” He looks away.Thunk.Before I know it, the wall has come down between us. I’m surprisingly stung—more than I should be. Cracking him takes so much effort. I’m not used to being the aggressive party in any relationship.
Not that this is a relationship.
Still. I can’t resist testing one of his invisible bricks for any hint of weakness.
“How long were you in Cali for?”
He frowns, stroking his chin. “A month? Two months? The days tend to blur together. I was here not too long ago, but that trip was not for business.”
Ah. I nod. “So, what made you want to come back now?”
Especially after a year of absence.
His smile turns cold. “One could say…complications within my family. But I’m here for good. At least if…”
“If?” I prod, leaning forward. We’re in a tug of war, I sense—fighting over the position of one of his bricks. I’m pushing hard, but he’s fighting just as relentlessly to keep it in place. With a sigh, he sits back, and something gives.
I win this round.
“There is something I want,” he says carefully—deliberately vague, but it’s a start, so I bite my tongue. After a few tense seconds, he rewards me by speaking some more. “Something I want enough to fight for, even if it means staying in this God-forsaken place. I won’t let anyone stop me. This time, Maxim won’t drive me off.”
A stupid, careless part of me wants to suspect that he means a relationship. A relationship he might have spontaneously discovered with a certain redhead. But that’s not it. His expression radiates emotion for once—a raw, feral energy that makes me shudder. Whatever his goal is, it requires him to fake a wife and risk living within his brother’s volatile orbit to attain it.
And maybe I’m a teensy bit jealous.
