I didn’t see Viktor all night. I waited for him in between bouts of fitful sleep, but he never came in. The next morning, I had breakfast alone. Followed by lunch alone. At dinner, I was fit to be tied—and not just with plastic cables.

I was bored, irritated, and sexually frustrated.

I just wanted to talk to him, but if he didn’t come home he knew he wouldn’t have to answer any of my questions. Like why had he fucked me, and then disappeared? Did he not like it? Was he regretting it?

I felt like I was back in school, crushing on some older boy. In fact, he was more like the teacher or the principal. He was supposed to be off-limits, but it just made him hotter to me. Suddenly, I wanted him more than I’d wanted anyone, or anything.

I wanted him more than my own safety. It occurred to me that Viktor was more dangerous to me than his boss, because the latter couldn’t hurt me nearly as much as Viktor was, right then, with his avoidance.

I decided to fix this myself. I wasn’t under lock and key, I was only held here because he wanted me to be. No one was going to stop me when I left.

I dressed in my prettiest, most risqué black dress with a see-through back, grabbed my highest black studded heels, put on red lipstick and curled my hair. I added a silver pendant necklace, approved the way I looked in the mirror, and headed out the front door to the only one of Viktor’s drivers who would listen to my fairy tale.

When I got in the back seat, I leaned over and told the driver to take me to Viktor. He nodded, shutting the back glass and pulled out of the driveway.

I relaxed back in the seat, waiting for the confrontation.

By the time we pulled up in front of a big glass building, my lipstick had been nervously chewed off and my hands were clammy. I went to get out, accepting the driver’s hand. When he didn’t release it immediately after I’d gotten out of the car, I looked up at him, surprised.

He was reasonably good looking, with a crew cut and friendly eyes. He leaned into me, saying quietly, “Are you being held against your will?”

Shocked, my mouth gaped. “What?”

He looked around and, apparently satisfied that we weren’t being listened to, asked again, “Are you being held against your will? Tell me the truth and I can protect you.”

I couldn’t even completely formulate a sentence. “Who… what… Are you…?”

He grabbed my purse out of the back seat. I’d forgotten it. Handing it to me, he said softly, “I can help you if you’re in trouble. I can help you, Anya.”

I shook my head slowly. “I’m not in trouble.”

He looked at me like he didn’t believe me but he let me go. “Just remember, I can help you. I don’t have to ask any questions. We’re not after you. We’re after Viktor and his sector of the Russian mafia as a whole. He’s a RICO case waiting to explode.”

We? RICO?

I couldn’t say anything else, just stumbled away, walking into the lobby of the gleaming glass office tower. I told the receptionist at the front desk that I was looking for Viktor and she walked me to an impressive bank of elevators, pressing the twentieth floor button.

When the bell dinged, I walked out of the doors and into a beautiful office suite filled with granite tops and black sleek desks. At the biggest desk in the corner office, there sat Viktor. My breath caught with how handsome he was, sitting there in his wrinkled suit. He’d clearly not been home, not done anything besides shower in his gorgeous office.

He saw me walk up. I saw the flash of surprise, then fear in his eyes. He stood, letting the chair roll back unattended. “Anya? What’s wrong?”

I walked up to him, brushing his arm with my hand. “Viktor, everything is basically fine. I mean, mostly. I just want to fix this between us.”

His entire body relaxed, his breath flowing out with a whoosh. “Then why are you here?”

I shrugged. “I needed to see you, and you weren’t coming home anytime soon apparently.”

“You’re not supposed to go out.” He lifted my chin with his fingers, giving me a hard look. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were asking for trouble.”

Yes, please. But I merely asked him, “Are we fighting?”

He chuckled. “We’re not fighting, Anya. I’m just busy.”

“You’re not busy. You’re avoiding me, avoiding home.” I propped my hip on the corner of this desk, enjoying the way his eyes draped over me, heating up. “We need to talk.”

“What do we need to talk about?” he asked, walking towards me.

“Nothing specific,” I admitted. “Although, something just happened…”

Viktor grabbed my arm, feeling my skin. I shivered. How could his touch affect me so? He looked deeply in my eyes. “What, what happened?” He frowned. “Who brought you here?”

I took a deep breath, but the words didn’t come out.

Suddenly, I realized what the mystery man had just offered me. A fresh start. Protection from the mafia. Protection from Viktor. If Viktor was involved in a federal RICO case, I knew what that meant. They would pay me for intelligence, offer me protection and likely security in the witness protection program. They would take anything I would give them.

Viktor was waiting on my answer but I didn’t know what answer I wanted to give him. Not yet at least. I didn’t want to give up my way out until I was certain that Viktor was who he said, and to figure out exactly where we were.

After all, I was married to a stranger.

“Never mind. It was just…I almost left my purse in the car on the way here. Can you imagine? That’d be terrible!” I lied through my teeth, hoping that Viktor wouldn’t recognize the fact that I was a terrible liar, who flushed instantly when it passed through my lips.

“Yes, I can’t imagine anything worse than that,” he agreed, smiling idly. When his eyes dropped down my body, other parts of my body began to heat up. “Anya…”

“What?” I asked innocently, dragging my fingertips down his arm to his hand. I intertwined my fingers through his.

“I’m at work. We can’t do this. We can’t do this anywhere, much less at work. Come on, I’ll take you home,” he offered, allowing our fingertips to stay wrapped around each other.

I tried to brush off the feeling of disappointment. He was a busy man. I knew this. Why had I dressed up and tried to seduce him at work? Well, technically seduction had been second in my mind. First had been to yell at him for leaving me at home like an elderly grandparent.

He gathered up his things and headed towards the elevator, looking back at me. “Well, are you coming?”

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. Patient, he was not. “Yes, I’m coming.”

He held out his hand, and I forgave him for being so pushy. That and the fact that he looked so good in his day-old shirt.

We got into the elevator. He pushed the button to take us down. As soon as the elevator started to move, I began to inch closer to him under the guise of fixing my shoes. There wasn’t much to adjust but he didn’t seem to mind it. I stepped out of each one and back into them, noticing that his posture and breathing had altered.

Oh yes, he was definitely affected. He could act like my outfit wasn’t turning him on, but I could see by the bulge in his dress pants that it was. I smiled a secretive smile, enjoying the turning of the tables.