Page 20 of Owning Him
But Viktor isn't thinking about a kiss. He is completely feral. His lips are pulled back, his teeth showing in a snarl as his eyes track the fleeing car. The muscles in his back are completely locked and hard. He looks ready to sprint down the avenue and tear the vehicle apart with his bare hands.
"Let me go," I whisper, my voice tighter than I want it to be.
He slowly releases his iron grip on my waist, stepping back just enough for me to breathe, though his attention remains fixed on the street.
My eyes narrow as I look at the dripping yellow mess on my lobby windows. I already know exactly who this is. Noah Davisand his stupid, pathetic little entourage. Insecure, fragile little boys throwing a literal temper tantrum because their subpar tech startup got rejected by a woman.
My lead security guard rushes over, his face full of eggs. "Ms. Blackwood! Marcus got a photo of the license plate. Should we chase them down?"
I lift a single manicured hand. "No. Do not chase them. With traffic cameras and a clear plate, chasing them through midtown is stupid."
Viktor snaps his head toward me. "They attacked you, Valentina. They need to be broken."
"It was eggs, Viktor," I say, rolling my eyes as I step around the yellow puddles. "I am going to have them punished for their little tantrums, but I am not their mommy, and I am certainly not their poor wives. I don't have time to handle this middle-school bullshit myself. My lawyers will deal with them."
Viktor still can't calm down. His large fists are clenching and unclenching.
"You need to calm the fuck down," I murmur to him. "This is just a desperate man crying because he lost his money."
We reach the bank of elevators, and Viktor steps inside with me. But when the elevator dings on the top floor and I move toward the glass conference room, I turn around and place a hand against his hard chest.
He tries to push past me to enter. I shake my head.
"You stay out here with the rest of the security entourage, Viktor," I command. "Some of the things in this room are confidential—things you have no business hearing."
Viktor scowls down at me, his eyes dark with frustration, but he remembers the rules. He takes a step back into the hallway, standing right outside the glass doors.
Viktor might just be the clingiest man on planet Earth.
Chapter Thirteen
Valentina
The meeting is a pitch from an outside digital distribution conglomerate—essentially, middlemen who control how our products get shipped to overseas retailers.
But dealing with outside executives is always hectic, and I’m sitting across from a particularly smug senior partner named Harrison Vance.
Harrison wears a condescending smirk that suggests he thinks he’s the smartest man in the room. He’s been looking at me with amusement ever since I walked in, clearly having caught the tail end of the egg fiasco.
"Well, Valentina," Harrison drawls, spinning a pen between his fingers. "That was quite a show down there."
The rest of the board members stiffen. Through the glass walls behind Harrison, I can see Viktor standing guard, his eyes locked onto the back of Harrison’s head.
It makes me feel even more confident. Safe.
"That is what happens when you refuse to fund a little boy’s sub-par project," I hum as I sort through the papers in front of me. "They throw tantrums. Let’s hope that’s not what happens to you by the end of this hour, Harrison—although I’d like to assume you’re old enough to act better."
A few of his junior executives look down at their tablets, suddenly very interested in whatever is on them.
"Of course, of course. Just a bit of light office humor," Harrison mumbles, his eyes sliding past me to land directly on Viktor. His smirk turns ugly, dripping with misogyny. "Though,I must say... it seems that ten-million-dollar boy toy you picked up from the auction block has his benefits."
I try to control my anger. But it’s hard.
"Harrison, let’s be entirely clear about something," I hiss. "I don’t enjoy a middleman with a bloated overhead and a hair-plug prescription being this obsessed with my personal life. You seem to have forgotten that the only reason you are sitting in my chair is because I haven’t decided to replace your entire distribution network yet."
Harrison’s face goes from tan to a blotchy red. "Now see here—"
"We are done," I interrupt, slamming my laptop shut.
