My mood was lifted by a recent major deal-one that wasn't just profitable, but truly interesting to me. Our firm had finalized it only a couple of days ago, and it involved some very influential people.

As an inventor, I thrived on complex tasks and challenges. My mind was constantly buzzing with projects and ideas for such assignments.

While mulling over yet another invention that could be improved, I drove myself to MoTech-my brainchild. I had a personal driver and security detail, of course, but whenever I needed time to think, I preferred to get behind the wheel myself. My men always followed in another car and had long since grown used to my quirks. Though, why call them quirks? I bought expensive, sometimes exclusive cars, and I enjoyed driving them myself, feeling the raw power of the machines.

Driving helped me think. In fact, whenever ideas came to me, I could fixate on almost any action just to hold on to the thought and work through every detail. Once, I stood frozen for an hour in a shopping mall in front of a glass waterfall installation. That was when the idea struck me on how to enhance smartphone camera resolution at night.

Those close to me-both family and trusted employees-knew about this trait of mine. Nothing surprised them anymore, and they had also learned that it was best not to disturb me in those moments.

Pulling into the company's underground parking lot, I spotted my longtime colleague, Nicole. She waited until I parked the car, and together we headed to my office to discuss the recent contract. Not many employees know the kind of agreements we sometimes sign, or the sort of people we deal with. Only a few are privy to such things-and Nicole is one of them.

Strange as it may sound, this redheaded beauty is one of my best developers. She was practically one of the very first I started working with many years ago, back when everything was just taking shape.

Naturally, at the beginning, I even tried to make a move on her, but she turned me down-politely. And I'm glad she did. Surprisingly, her refusal never affected our relationship; instead, we grew to be very close friends. In hindsight, it's for the best that nothing happened between us. She's far too valuable as an employee, and together we've brought many projects to life.

Walking through the sleek corridors, we took the elevator up to the top floor. Exchanging only a few words along the way, we entered my reception area.

And that's when I was greeted with an utterly unexpected sight.

Before me was the very tempting view of someone's shapely backside! At that moment, all the blood from the upper half of my body rushed downward so quickly that my pants became unbearably tight.

Whoa. That was a first. It seemed today I had broken the record for fastest arousal-reacting like a teenager stumbling upon a lingerie magazine.

The owner of that elegant backside must have heard the door open and tried to jump up quickly, but instead she banged her head rather loudly against the desk. Despite that, she managed to spring to her feet and turn around.

For a moment, I was completely captivated. Her chestnut hair, styled in a simple manner, highlighted her light-gray eyes, in which I caught flickers of golden sparks. Her small, slightly full lips gave her face an almost angelic look. And the way she looked at me... I instantly imagined those lips, only on another part of my body.

Damn.

To shake off the sudden vision, I turned to Margo and asked,

"Margaret, what exactly is going on here?"

"Good afternoon, Konstantin. This is an interview for the position of my assistant. This is-" But before she could finish, she was interrupted.

"My name is Victoria," another voice chimed in, and that's when I realized there was a second young woman in the room. She eagerly stretched out her hand toward me in greeting.

This girl wasn't shy in the least. With her body language alone, she was already flirting with me. I might not have minded spending some pleasant time with this Victoria under other circumstances, but now she was practically about to become my employee. And I had one rule: no intimate relationships with subordinates.

Knowing Margarita, I could tell that the little curtsy from the girl had clearly annoyed her.

"Yes, this is Victoria," Margarita said, glancing at Vika with obvious displeasure. "And this is Dana," she added, pointing toward the first girl.

Our eyes met again, and maybe it was just my imagination, but for a brief moment I thought I saw sadness flicker in hers.

I couldn't linger long in the reception area-not with the urgent need to calm down my "friend." And Dana's tempting neckline, though not even that deep, certainly wasn't helping the situation.

Nicole and I headed into my office, where we quickly immersed ourselves in discussing our project. Still, from time to time, the image of the new employee's perfect backside would pop back into my mind. Strange. As if I hadn't seen beautiful women before? I'd seen curves far juicier, but for some reason this one stuck in my head. I should have at least touched it-pinched it maybe. The thought made a foolish grin spread across my face as I pictured the reactions of everyone in the room if I had actually done that.

"Kos, are you daydreaming again?" Nicole asked with a smile. "New ideas?"

"Something like that," I replied, trying to change the subject. "What was it you wanted to talk about? We still need to go over a few points from the contract."

"Yes, that's exactly what I wanted to discuss. I think we could offer our client more advanced options for some of the positions. I sketched out a few possible improvements, and I need your opinion." Nicole pulled a folder with drawings from her bag and handed them to me.

"Perfect, let me take a look."

And just like that, our workday began.

Nicole left my office closer to noon, while I remained at my desk, completely absorbed in work. I was so focused that I had to order food delivered straight to the office.

All day long, I kept catching myself thinking about Dana. Her image lingered in my mind, distracting me from work.

My eyes grew tired, my back and neck stiff. Glancing at the clock, I saw the workday was nearly over. I packed up and stepped into the reception area. Scanning the office, I found only Margo there. A faint pang of disappointment hit me. Really? Was I hoping to see someone else? Curiosity got the better of me.

"Are you alone? Where are your assistants?"

"I let them go early today. Enough for the first day. Why, did you need something?" Margo asked, narrowing her eyes with curiosity.

"Tomorrow we need to get in touch with our client and arrange a meeting. We managed to improve several positions in the contract, and I think they'll be interested."

"Yes, this contract is a real step up, isn't it?" Margarita said with a smile. "I'll make sure to inform them tomorrow."

After saying goodbye, I headed home.

Two nights in a row, I dreamed of Dana. My imagination ran wild, and the things that happened in those dreams messed with my head all day long. Getting rid of that morning hardness became a real struggle. Since that day, I hadn't seen her in the office, but it didn't make things any easier.

I needed to release the tension in my pants. Time to call Olivia. She was excellent at dealing with that kind of problem. I didn't have a girlfriend, and I never built serious relationships. I was too busy for that kind of nonsense, and honestly, I had never met a woman who made me even consider it. People called me a die-hard bachelor-or, in some cases, a womanizer. But that wasn't quite true. I simply wasn't interested in relationships, and I saw no reason to refuse when a very attractive woman offered herself to me on a silver platter.

I always set my boundaries clearly: after intimacy, there would be no romance. Women knew what they were signing up for. And there were plenty who were perfectly happy just spending some pleasant time together without obligations. Olivia was one of them. A nymphomaniac by nature, she was always quick to answer the call of my body. Encounters like that left everyone satisfied-and everyone happy.

Chapter 7 7

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