Page 23 of Auctioned to My Bratva Boss

"Don't take what she said to heart." My voice softened. "You just need to adjust your clothing size."

"Thank you for the reassurance... Mr. Bykov." She dabbed at her eyes lightly.

The smile she forced was too strained, the moisture in her eyes still there. She shouldn't cry over this. She should only cry in my bed—begging, breaking apart.

I took a deep breath. A proper boss didn't stand in front of his employees thinking about fucking one of them.

I leaned down, mouth near her ear.

"Crybaby." I fought the urge to pull her into me. "You know what? That damn good body of yours is wasted in this ill-fitting uniform."

"Sir..." Her voice trembled.

That "Sir" was more seductive than any dirty talk. I almost bent her over her desk right there.

Fuck, what spell had I fallen under?

Listen, this was just novelty. Once I'd had my fill of her, everything would go back to normal.

Chapter Seven

Riley

Matvey left, but his scorching breath still lingered by my ear.

"Crybaby. That damn good body of yours, all wasted in that ill-fitting uniform."

"Oh... God." I rubbed my hot, tingling neck and bent over my workstation to continue sketching.

But then disaster struck—I couldn't even hold my pencil steady.

My heart was doing trampoline exercises in my chest. It bounced off the bottom, then lodged in my throat, making it hard to breathe. Over and over.

This was going to give me a heart attack.

Matvey Bykov! He had to be God's punishment, or why else would I nearly lose my mind with excitement every time I saw him?

"Riley, you're the one who ratted to Mr. Bykov, aren't you?" Kate slammed a box down hard on my desk.

I looked up at her. If looks could kill, she'd have torn me to shreds by now.

"I didn't," I tried to keep the satisfaction out of my voice. "I didn't do anything."

That was true. I didn't think Matvey would fire someone over something I said. But whatever—she was gone now, and nothing felt better than this moment.

"Then what was Mr. Bykov whispering in your ear just now? I saw it from the office when I was packing." Her brow furrowed, her voice rising shrilly. "You two... It's not like that, is it?"

My coworkers, who'd been stealing glances before, suddenly exchanged looks like they'd received a signal.

"You got fired because of yourself, didn't you?" I met her resentful stare. "Kate, if you could stop blaming everyone else for everything, maybe you wouldn't have gotten canned. After all, Mr. Bykov keeps business and personal matters very separate."

"Riley! You—" She clutched her box, breathing hard. "You just wait!"

Okay, I'd wait. I watched her disappear through the glass door with her box. I shrugged and buried myself back in my sketchbook. Who cared? She was fired!

The office returned to normal, the whispering starting up again. Sometimes I really wondered—did my coworkers do anything besides gossip all day?

"You think she really has something going with Mr. Bykov?"