Chapter 6: His smile captivated me.

Got lost in his smile, till I snapped back.

With my phone slapped away from my hands.

I removed the little notepad in my pocket and wrote as fast as my shaking thumbs would let me.

I’ll clean your whole private suite, sir. Every room. Every day, if you want.

I held out the notepad to his face. My heart was pounding so hard.

Lazarus read it. Then he smirked evily and shook his head slowly, like I had said something that disappointed him.

“Too simple,” he said.

I stared at him. He stood too close, his hand resting firmly over my waist, firm and unmoving, as if he wanted me to know I couldn’t step back. I didn’t try.

I need something more daring, Delia.Your punishment shouldn’t be light, don’t you think?. “Think again.” He said.

Oh my Gosh he would be the death of me, I thought to myself

My mind raced. What does he want? What can I possibly give him? Definitely not sex. Inasmuch as his handsomeness do drive me crazy most of the times, I won’t ever want to be forcefully made to have s*x I have had terrible memories about being raped and touched by friends and family.

He sure looks like a dream but I won’t want to be with someone this deadly and dangerous to the environment. He looks like a sin, and like something hot to avoid if you want to live long in life and I do hope he doesn’t force me to have sex with him cause I would rather die.

I don’t mind fangirling over his beauty and how marvelous he looks and fights over bad guys, I thought to myself.

Then I remembered the study door, left half open that afternoon, and the voices on the other side. I wasn’t planning on bringing this up but now i‘d to choose them to save myself. If not, I don’t know what he would do to me and I wasn’t ready to find out.

So the last option came to my head and I wrote slowly this time.. 

I heard Vittorio was caught. But you still want one of his daughters, if not two of them,. held it up for him to see.

For a moment, his face didn’t change. Then his hand slid away from my waist, and he laughed.

It was a loud, real laugh, deep and rough, and it startled me so much that I flinched. It didn’t sound cruel. It sounded like a man who had just been handed something he had been looking for.

“Now that is what‘s called a mission” he said with a one sided smirk on his face.

I stared at him, confused.

“I was already thinking of it. “I just didn’t know if you could do it. A girl who flinches over any small movements, scared of the dark and a girl who cries when I read her diary.”

Heat rushed to my face. I looked down at the floor.

Look at me.

I looked up abruptly.

“Here is what I know about you.” He counted on his fingers, like a man listing assets. “You notice everything. You say nothing. Well cause you can’t, and again Nobody suspects you.” His mouth curved. That is a very useful combination.

He’s complimenting me, I thought. Why does it feel like a threat?

But I don’t accept failure, Delia. Not from my men, not from my enemies, and not from you. His voice was intense. So tell me honestly. Are you sure you can finish this mission?”

I thought of Sarah and Mia, two women I had never met, who had done nothing wrong. I thought of the guilt that was already waiting for me. I thought of Eliva, and the way she had said live for yourself. Well now I can’t. Not while being tangled with Lazarus.

Then I thought of the look in his eyes if I said no, I had no choice. He said he thought of handing the job to me already. So sooner or later he would have.

I nodded.

He didn’t smile. He pushed away from the desk and crossed the room until he stood in front of me again, so close that I had to tilt my head back. His gaze moved over my face, slowly, and I felt every second of it.

So you choose it over me proving myself physically to you about my sexuality, he said it in a mocking tone.

I thought you really wanted to find that out or are you shy? He said with a lifted eyebrows and a smirk.

Then he raised his hand and brushed a strand of hair away from my cheek.

I stopped breathing.

His touch was light and careless, and it made my whole body go still. He leaned down until his lips were beside my ear, and his breath was warm against my skin.

“You’re not free yet, Delia,” he said quietly in a low sexy thick, low Russian accent I was finally able to place. “Not from what you wrote about me. Don’t think you’re safe, you never will be..”his eyes staring deeply into my soul. 

A shiver ran down my spine, so strong that I couldn’t hide it.

Do this mission perfectly then maybe, I’ll consider us even. Fail, and well we‘ll have a very long night to talk about another punishment which would be much worse. He winked.

He stepped back, and the heat of him left the air.

You leave in two days, he said, already turning away, his voice cold and businesslike again. “Black will brief you. Don’t disappoint me.”

I stood there, holding the phone against my chest with both hands.

What did I just agree to?

I had begged for a chance to fix my mistake, and I had just volunteered to trap two innocent women. My stomach twisted with guilt. But under the guilt was something else, something I didn’t want to name. When he had laughed, his cute smile and wink, when his hand had brushed my cheek, a small, stupid part of me had wanted him to keep looking at me.

I hated that part of me.

I turned and walked out on shaking legs…

——

When the elevator doors opened on the maids’ wing, I stopped.

Leo was leaning against the wall in the hallway, surrounded by a few maids. As one of them walked past, he slapped her backside hard, like it was a joke. She yelped and gave a stiff little laugh, the kind people laugh when they know better than to complain. The others giggled nervously.

My stomach turned.

Doesn’t he have anything to do? I thought. Every other bodyguard was busy somewhere, at the gates or in the halls or behind Lazarus. Leo always seemed to be hanging around, with nothing to do except bother people. He wasn’t ugly, but that only made it worse. There was something rotten under his smile, and I knew it.

His eyes slid over to me.

He puckered his lips into a kissy face and winked.

What a freaking weirdo, I thought. A nuisance to this whole mansion.

Then I felt another pair of eyes all over me.

Tonia stood a few steps away, arms crossed, her lip curling. When our eyes met, she mouthed two words, slow and clear, so I couldn’t mistake them.

Mute rat.

The maids around her burst out laughing.

Let them laugh, I thought. They will pay for it sooner or later, I thought to myself. I just knew it in my guts.