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‘The place is in panic!’ Kate gave a little giggle. ‘I had a frantic call from Reception to alert me you were on your way up, and then the place just exploded! I even saw Nina running for the first time.’
‘Running to delete all the files she is so busy corrupting,’ he said cynically.
‘She wants Kolovsky to do well.’ Kate frowned.
‘Money is her only god.’ Aleksi shrugged. ‘Three more months and there would have been no more House of Kolovsky ,’ he sneered. ‘Or not one to be proud of.’
‘Things aren’t that bad,’ Kate answered dutifully, but she struggled to voice the necessary enthusiasm. On paper everything was fine—fantastic, in fact—but since Levander had returned to the UK and Nina had taken over things were fast unravelling. ‘I should never have called you.’
‘I’m glad that you did. I’ve been on the phone with Marketing—“Every woman deserves a little piece of Kolovsky!”’ Aleksi scorned. ‘That is my mother’s latest suggestion. Apart from tampering with the bridal gowns and Krasavitsa, she is considering a line of bedlinen for a supermarket chain.’
‘An exclusive chain,’ Kate attempted, but Aleksi just cursed in Russian.
‘Chush’ sobach’ya!’ He glanced down at the coffee and found she was setting out an array of pills beside it. ‘I don’t need them.’
‘I’ve looked at your regime,’ Kate said. ‘You are to take them four-hourly.’
‘That was my regime when lying on a beach—here, I need to think.’
‘You can’t just stop taking them,’ Kate insisted. She had known this was coming. Even in hospital he had resisted every pill, had stretched the time out between them to the max, refusing sedation at night. Always he was rigid, alert—even when sleeping.
So many hours she had spent by his bed during his recovery—taking notes, keeping him abreast of what was going on, assuring him she would keep him informed but that surely he should rest. She had watched as sleep continually evaded him. Sometimes, regretfully almost, he had dozed, only to be woken by a light flicking on down the hall, or a siren in the distance.
She had hoped his time away in the Caribbean would mellow him—soften him a little, perhaps. Had hoped that the rest would do him good. Instead he was leaner and if anything meaner, more hungry for action, and, no matter how he denied it, he was savage with pain.
‘Get my mother in here.’
‘I’m here.’ Nina came in. She was well into her fifties, but she looked not a day over forty—as if, as Aleksi had once said to Kate, she had stepped straight out of a wind tunnel. She had lost a lot of weight since Ivan’s death, and was now officially tiny—though her size belied her sudden rise in stature at House of Kolovsky. Dressed in an azure silk suit, her skinny legs encased in sheer black stockings and her feet dressed up in heels, with diamonds dripping from her ears and fingers, her new-found power suited her. She swept into the room, ignoring Kate as she always did. Lavinia came in behind her.
‘It is good to see you back, Aleksi,’ Nina said without sentiment, and Kate could only wonder.
This was her son—her son who had been so very ill, who had clawed his way back from the most terrible accident—and this was how she greeted him.
‘Really?’ Aleksi raised an eyebrow. ‘You don’t sound very convincing.’
‘I’m concerned,’ Nina responded. ‘As any mother would be. I think that it’s way too soon.’
‘It’s almost too late,’ Aleksi snapped back. ‘I’ve seen your proposals.’
‘I specifically said you were not to be worried with details!’ She glared over to Kate, who stood there blushing. ‘Leave us!’ she ordered. ‘I will deal with you later. I assume this is your doing.’
‘It was your doing,’ Aleksi corrected. ‘Your grab for cash that terminated my recuperation. You may leave,’ he told Kate, and she did.
It was a relief to get out of there, to be honest.
And oh, so humiliating too. Before the door closed she heard Nina’s bitchy tones. ‘Tell your PA she is supposed to remove the coat hanger before she puts on her skirt.’ Kate heard Lavinia’s mirthless laugh in response to Nina’s cruel comment and fled to the loos, but there was no solace there.
Mirrors lined the walls and she saw herself from every angle.
Even her well-cut grey suit couldn’t hide the curves—curves that wouldn’t matter a jot anywhere else, but at the House of Kolovsky broke every rule. She turned heads wherever she went, and not in a good way. And by the end of the day, no matter how she tamed it, or smothered it in serum or glossed it and straightened it, her hair was a spiral mass of frizzy curls. Her make-up, no matter how she followed advice, no matter how carefully she applied it, had slid off her face by lunchtime, and her figure—well, it simply didn’t work in the fashion industry.
Kate pretended to be washing her hands as an effortless beauty came in and didn’t even pretend she was here for the loo. She just touched up her make-up, hoiked her non-existent breasts a little higher in her bra and played with her hair for a moment before leaving.
She didn’t acknowledge Kate—didn’t glance in her direction.
Kate was nothing—no challenge, no competition. Nothing.
If only she knew, Kate thought, watching in the mirror as the trim little bottom wiggled out on legs that should surely snap.
If only they knew her secret.
That sometimes…Kate stared in the mirror at the glitter in her eyes, a small smile on her lips as she recalled the memories she and Aleksi occasionally made. Sometimes, when Georgie was at her grandparents’, Aleksi would come to her, would leave the glitz and the glamour and arrive on her doorstep in the still of the night.
They never discussed it. He was always gone by the morning. And it wasn’t as if they slept together. In fact in their entire history they’d shared just two kisses—one when Georgie was born; one the night before the accident.
And, yes, a kiss from a Kolovsky meant very little. It was currency to them, easily earned, carelessly spent, but for Kate it was her most treasured memory.
Oh, if only they knew that sometimes, late in the night, Aleksi Kolovsky came to her door, wanting her company.
‘You’re to go in.’ Lavinia sat scowling when Kate returned, clearly annoyed at having been asked to leave the meeting.
Stepping into the room, had she not known, Kate would never have guessed the two people in there were mother and son. The air sizzled with hatred, and the tension was palpable. Aleksi was on the telephone, speaking in Arabic—just one of his impressive skills—but when he replaced the receiver he wasted no time getting straight to the point.
‘Nina has agreed to delay a formal proposal to the board for a fortnight, but she will then propose her takeover of the company, with the board to vote in two months.’
Kate couldn’t look at him as he spoke, so her eyes flicked to Nina instead—not a muscle flickered in her Botoxed face.
‘My mother says the board is concerned by my behaviour, and that she is worried about my health and the pressure.’ He dragged out each syllable, his lips curling in distaste, but still Nina sat impassive. ‘I want Kolovsky and Krasavitsa to be treated as two separate entities in the vote. In return, Nina wants the full trajectory reports for Krasavitsa, along with past figures…’
Krasavitsa meant beautiful woman, and was a clothing and accessories range aimed at the younger market. The garments and jewels were still extravagant and expensive, still eagerly sought, but not, as was Kolovsky, exclusive.
The idea and its inception had been Aleksi’s. In fact it had been his first major project when he had taken over the helm. The launch had gone well. Krasavitsa was the toast of Paris—and every young, beautiful, rich girl, according to their figures, surely by now had at least one piece in their wardrobe, or in their underwear drawer.
And when that beautiful young woman matured into full womanhood, as Aleksi had said at numerous board meetings, she would crave Kolovsky.
It had been Aleksi’s pet, and he had nurtured it from the very start—but, it would seem, not satisfied just with Kolovsky, Nina wanted Krasavitsa too.
‘Nina has all the figures,’ Kate said, and then swallowed as Nina snorted.
‘The real figures,’ Nina said. ‘Not the doctored version. I want the real figures.’
‘It might take a while.’ Aleksi’s voice was tart. ‘There are other things I need to sort out before I go through figures. The call I just took was from Sheikh Amallah’s private secretary…’
Kate watched as only then did Nina show a hint of nervousness, her tongue bobbing out to moisten her lower lip.
‘It would take thousands of the cheap, rubbish wedding dresses you have in mind to match the price of his daughter’s Kolovsky gown.’ Even though he wasn’t shouting, it was clear Aleksi was livid. ‘Yet you couldn’t even be bothered to meet her at the airport!’
‘I had Lavinia go!’ Nina said defensively.
‘Lavinia!’ Aleksi gave a black laugh, then whistled through his teeth. ‘You just don’t get it, do you? You really don’t understand.’ He looked over to Kate. ‘Arrange dinner, and then tell them Nina is looking forward to it.’
‘I’m not going to dinner tonight!’ Nina spoke as if he’d gone completely mad. ‘You go,’ she said. ‘You speak their language.’
‘I hardly think the Sheikh will want his virgin daughter going out for dinner with me!’ Now he shouted. Now he really shouted! ‘For now, I’m in charge, and don’t forget it. For now, at least, we do things my way.’
‘Well, I want those figures by next Monday.’ Nina glowered at Aleksi. ‘Only then will I make my decision.’
‘You can fight me on Kolovsky,’ Aleksi said. ‘But I will never concede Krasavitsa. That was my idea.’
‘Krasavitsa would be nothing without my husband’s name…’
And that, Kate realised as she watched a muscle leap in Aleksi’s cheek, was what appeared to hurt the most. A blistering row with his mother didn’t dent him, but the insinuation that without Kolovsky he was nothing was the thing that truly galled him.
‘You have no idea what you are doing.’ Aleksi stared at his mother. ‘Follow your plans and the Kolovsky name will be worth nothing in a few years.’
‘These are tough times Aleksi,’ Nina stood to leave. ‘We have to do what it takes to survive.’
He just sat there when she had left.
‘Is Kolovsky in trouble?’ Kate couldn’t help but ask.
‘It will be.’ Aleksi shook his head in wonder. ‘We are doing well—but she strikes fear where there is none.’ He rested his elbows on his desk and pressed his fingers to his temples. ‘Belenki has suggested these off-the-peg bridal gowns and the bedding range. It is supposed to be a one-off—just for a year—with ten percent of the profits going to both our charities: his outreach work in Russia and the orphanages my mother sponsors.’ He looked up to her. ‘What do you think, Kate?’
He’d never asked her opinion on work before, but before she could reply he did so for her.
‘It sounds like a good idea,’ he said, and reluctantly she nodded. ‘But I know it will be the beginning of the end for Kolovsky. Belenki surely also knows that; exclusivity is why Kolovsky has survived this long. I don’t like him…’ He halted, then frowned when Kate agreed.
‘You said you didn’t trust him.’
Aleksi’s eyes shot to hers. ‘When?’
‘The night before the accident…’ Her face was on fire. ‘When you came to my home.’ But clearly he was uncomfortable with the memory, because he snapped back into business mode.
‘Get the figures ready for me,’ Aleksi said. ‘The real figures. But don’t give them to Nina until I’ve gone through them.’
‘She’ll know if you change them.’
‘She couldn’t read STUPID if it was written in ten-foot letters on the wall,’ Aleksi said. ‘Just get them ready for me.’ As she turned to go, he called her back. ‘You’re in or you’re out.’
‘I’m sorry?’ Kate turned around.
‘You’re on my side, or you pack your bags and go now.’
She frowned at him. ‘You know I’m on your side.’
‘Good.’ Aleksi said, but he didn’t let it drop there. ‘If you choose to stay, and I get even a hint that you’re looking for work elsewhere, not only will I fire you on the spot, don’t even think to put me down as a reference—you won’t like what I say.’
‘Don’t threaten me, Aleksi. I do have rights!’ Her blush wasn’t just an angry one, it was embarrassment too, because, given the conversation they’d just had, she’d already decided her night would be spent online, firing off her résumé. But he had no idea what she was going through right now—no idea just how dire her finances were at this moment.
‘Exercise your rights.’ Aleksi shrugged. ‘Just know I don’t play nice.’
‘I don’t get your skewed logic, Aleksi.’ Kate was more than angry now. ‘All you had to do was ask that I stay, but instead you go straight for the jugular each time!’
‘I find it more effective.’ He looked over to where she stood. ‘So you weren’t considering leaving?’
‘Not really.’ Kate swallowed. ‘But if Nina does win…’ She closed her eyes. ‘Not that she will—but if she does…’ Hell, maybe she wouldn’t get an award for dogged devotion to her boss, but it came down to one simple fact. ‘I’ve got a daughter to support.’
‘Then back a winner.’ Aleksi said. ‘Are you in or out?’
God, he gave her no room, no space to think. But that was Aleksi—he hurled his orders and demanded rapid response.
‘I’m in.’
‘Good,’ Aleksi responded. ‘But if I find out—’
‘Aleksi,’ Kate broke in, ‘I’ve said that I’m in, that I’m not going to look for anything else. You’re just going to have to trust me.’
His black smile didn’t even turn the edges of his mouth. ‘Why would I?’
She just loathed him at times.
Back at her desk, she loathed him so much she was tempted to have a little surf and find a job—just to prove him right!
Just to prove her word wasn’t enough.
Just to convince him that his eternally suspicious mind was again merited.
And then he walked past, his leg dragging just slightly, and she watched as Lavinia gave him an intimate smile and tried to engage him in conversation that would be fed back to Nina.
His own mother was trying to destroy him.
Why would he trust anyone?
Why would he even contemplate trusting her?
All Kate knew was that he could.
Chapter Three
RIMINIC IVAN KOLOVSKY.
Aleksi put the name into an internet search engine and got nothing.
He didn’t really know where to start, and then he glanced over to his mother, who was going through the messages on her phone, and toyed with flicking the name on an e-mail to her, just to watch her reaction—except Lavinia was buzzing like an annoying fly around him, asking for a password so she could get some figures that were needed for tonight.
‘Kate will sort it out,’ Aleksi uttered, without looking over from the computer, saying the same words he spoke perhaps a hundred times a day.
It was Friday afternoon, but there was no end-of-week buoyancy filling the building. Aleksi had been back for a week now, and had made it exceptionally clear that, whatever Nina or the board might think, for now he was certainly in charge.
There had been several sackings—anyone who had dared question him had been none too politely shown the door—and everyone was walking on eggshells around him.
Everyone, that was, but Kate. She had long since learnt that Aleksi smelt fear like a shark smelt blood, and she refused to bend to his will.
Refused to be beholden to him.
It was the only way she knew how to survive.
‘I really need to get things prepared for your conference call with Belenki,’ Lavinia insisted. ‘The meeting won’t be till six p.m. our time, and Kate leaves at five…’
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