Stingray Billionaire: The Complete Series (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) (57 page)

"Good, so now
that we have that straightened out, how about some of my fresh
vatrushka
? I just made it this
afternoon!" he said as he moved toward the counter where the pastry sat.
He looked at me expectantly. I nodded and watched as he expertly cut the sweet
treat into pieces and served one up. "We're family, Maksimka. We take care
of each other."

"I know,
Papa," I said as I accepted the plate and with it, the terms of my
father's agreement. I now had three months to make this work or I'd be sucked
into the seedy underbelly of the Russian mafia for the rest of my life. I took
a deep breath and ate my dessert.

CHAPTER
TEN

Lexi
10

I
called the number on the
sheet that Peter had given me as I walked down Wackier toward Madison. No one
answered, so I left a message with my number and let the man know I was on my
way to the shop. I had no idea who this man was; Peter had told me next to
nothing about him, so I imagined he was probably an older guy with a paunch and
a bald spot. He needed a pretty young woman to be the face of his shop and help
encourage men to buy more expensive pieces.

I had worked
retail before, so I knew how the sales process worked, and as I walked I began
creating a back-story for my sales character. She would have come from the
Chicago suburbs, gone to good Catholic schools and graduated from Northwestern
with a degree in Literary Studies. I tried to make the character mirror my own
background as much as possible so that I wouldn't have to remember too many
false truths. That was one of the things we'd learned in the acting classes I'd
taken with Josh. I inhaled sharply as I remembered that he was gone and then
swallowed hard to keep the feelings from boiling up to the surface. I was not
going to allow Josh to screw up this opportunity for me.

"Smile and
remember that you're playing a role, you don't have to know everything," I
muttered under my breath as I crossed over to Madison and followed it toward
Wabash. A man in a suit shot me a look as I reminded myself of all the things I
needed to do to land the role. I ignored him and kept reciting my character's
background. So what if people on the street thought I was crazy. So long as the
client thought I was sane and capable to playing the role he wanted me to play,
it was all good.

I arrived at the
small storefront on Wabash and tapped on the door. The place looked empty, so I
knocked a little louder. When no one came to the door, I pulled out my phone
and dialed the number Peter had given me again.

"Hello?"
the man on the other end said.

"Hello, I'm
Lexi," I replied. "Peter Baxter sent me over to meet with you about
the job?"

"Oh,
right," he said and then went silent.

"Are you in
the store?" I asked wondering if the guy was senile or something. He
didn't sound that old, and I wondered if he was busy with something else.

"No,
unfortunately I'm not there at the present time," he said and again,
silence.

"What would
you like me to do, then?" I asked.

"Can you wait
for me?" he asked. "I'm in a cab on my way back and should be there
in a few minutes."

"Yes, of
course. I'll wait here."

"Very
well," he said and then abruptly disconnected.

"Great,"
I muttered as I stepped away from the storefront and walked over to the planter
near the store and perched on the edge. "He's a geriatric space cadet who
can't remember that he asked to have an employee sent over. This is not good,
Wallace. Not good at all."

As I sat on the
planter waiting for my new boss to show up, I thought about all of the things
that this job would make possible. I could pay my rent out of one paycheck and
bank the rest as insurance for a few more months. Two paychecks and I'd have
rent covered for a while. I could use the other two to pay off my credit card
and buy a new laptop. If I was careful, I could invest in some new clothes for
the job and buy Anna a cute little kitty condo so that she could entertain
herself while I was working. I was so intent on ringing up all the benefits
this job would bring that I didn't notice the man who got out of the cab and
approached me.

"Ms. Wallace?"
he said. Startled, I fell backwards into the planter. As I lay there wondering
what had just happened, a handsome man leaned down and offered me his hand. I
took it and as he pulled me up, I gasped. He was so handsome I had to look away
for a moment. When I looked back, I inhaled deeply as I studied his face. He
had messy, medium-length, dirty blond hair, piercing blue eyes, and an
aristocratic nose. As my eyes trailed down his face, I couldn't help but notice
his lips – there was a tough sensuality about them, making it almost impossible
for me to stop staring. It was an absolutely irrational thought, but I
desperately wanted to chew on his bottom lip.

"Ms. Wallace,
are you okay?" he asked as I stood looking up at him, mesmerized by his
sensual good looks. Not even Josh, the aspiring Hollywood star, was this
handsome. What made this man even more handsome was the fact that he seemed
absolutely unaware of his intoxicatingly good looks. "Ms. Wallace?"

"Huh? Oh,
yeah, fine," I stammered as I tried to breathe evenly and focus on what he
was saying. "I'm fine, thank you, Mr…" I trailed of as I realized
that Peter had only given me his first name and I didn't feel comfortable
calling him by it when he was addressing me by my surname.

"Malin,"
he said as he held out his hand for a handshake. "Max Malin, but you can
call me Max."

"Hi,
Max," I said as I shook his hand and looked up into his eyes. "I'm,
um, Wallace, Lexi Wallace."

I could have
kicked myself for my awkwardness, but he just smiled and said, "Would you
like to come in and see where you'll be working?"

"Um,
sure," I said with a confused look on my face. "I thought this was an
audition, Mr., um, Max."

"Oh, you got
the job," he said as he unlocked the front door and led me into the front
of the store. The cases gleamed in the afternoon sunlight and looked ready to
be filled with merchandise.

"I did?"
I was stunned that he'd hired me after my back flip into the planter outside.
"Why?"

"You're just
who I need to help me get this place off the ground and running smoothly,"
he replied.

"But you
don't know anything about me."

"I know
everything I need to know." He smiled again and my breath caught in my
throat. I berated myself for already having a crush on my new boss.

"What will I
be doing?" I asked as I strolled around the small showroom and looked at
the cases.

"You'll be
out here on the sales floor showing the merchandise to potential clients and
selling the jewelry," he said. " Basically, Ms. Wallace, you'll be
the face of M. Malin. Do you think you can handle that?"

"Yes," I
said swallowing hard and looking back at him. His face was impassive and I
couldn't tell if he was happy or not. "But you can call me Lexi."

"Very well
then, Lexi, you will be the sales force at M. Malin," he said as he walked
to the back and pulled out a small box and handed it to me. "I want you to
wear this."

I took the box and
carefully opened the lid. Inside I found a solitaire necklace on a thin chain.
I gasped and looked up at him. "I can't accept this!"

"You have to,"
he said grinning. "I need you to wear the merchandise and make it look
good."

"So, you're
going to pay me an outrageous weekly salary and you're going to make me wear
gorgeous jewels in order to better sell them?" I asked.

"That sounds
like something I would do," he agreed as he turned and walked to his
office. He returned with a laptop and set it on one of the cases. "I'm
going to need to get some information from you for tax purposes, so could you
fill out these forms and then just hit enter?"

"Of course,"
I mumbled, still in shock over the unexpected opportunity that had fallen in my
lap. I filled out the paperwork, then turned and said, "What's next,
boss?"

"Now, I'm
going to need you to help me check in the inventory that we'll be putting out
tomorrow and the next day," he said as he headed for the back stock room.
"Follow me, please."

The jewelry room
was a space smaller than Max's office and with the two of us in it, there was
no room for me to look away. He began handing me boxes one after the other and
I took them and placed them on the counters out in the showroom. Once he'd
unloaded all of the merchandise, he led me back out to the showroom and said,
"Now, I want you to open each box and check the SKU numbers against the
inventory sheet. Once you've checked off every piece of jewelry, come let me
know and I'll give you another task. Okay?"

"Okay,"
I said staring up into his eyes. They were so blue that it was like looking up
at the sky on a cloudless day.

"Ms. Wallace?
I mean, Lexi?" he said.

"Mmm
hmm," I nodded. "I mean, yes? What do you need?"

"Nothing,"
he replied. "I was just checking to make sure you're okay."

"Oh
yeah," I said. "I'm fine. I'm so much more than fine."

"Excellent,
then when you're done, come get me from the office and we'll start on the next
project," he said as he turned and headed back to his office.

Watching him walk
away was an event in and of itself, and I had to tear my eyes away in order to
begin counting the boxes. I'd only looked for a moment, but the image stayed
with me all afternoon. Working for Max Malin was going to be an interesting
experience, indeed.

CHAPTER
ELEVEN

Max

As
I gave Lexi instructions
about what she was to do, I tried very hard not to stare at the strategically
draped fabric of her bright green blouse. She was a sensual woman, and I could
feel myself responding to her beauty in a way that confused me. I had always
appreciated beautiful women, but unlike my brother, I'd never looked at them as
solely for my pleasure. I had been attracted to many women, but although I'd
never tell my brother the truth, I'd had sex with very few of them.

One of the reasons
was that I'd watched my brother and vowed never to be like him. Kristov had a
new woman every night of the week. He would woo them and make them think they
were the most important thing in his life just to get what he wanted, and once
he did, he discarded them quickly and moved on. He liked the thrill of the
hunt, but once it was over, he was on to the next challenge.

I, on the other
hand, liked the challenge, but preferred to actually like the women I had sex
with and that took time to figure out. Kristov would mock me for being a wimp
or a softie, so I'd learned to brag about my many conquests just to throw him
off my scent. The reality was that I liked strong, smart women and they weren't
easily fooled by a slick talking, good-looking guy with money. They wanted
something more, and I was willing to give that to the right one. And so far,
Natalia was the only one who'd managed to hold my interest. I knew she wasn't
in love with me, or I with her, but we had a solid friendship and a mutual
understanding about how things worked; so far, it had worked perfectly.

So as I sat down
at my desk and started going through my email, I reminded myself that Lexi was
my employee and that having a crush on her would be highly inappropriate and
bad for business. I tucked the memory of the way her skirt curved around and
hugged her body away in the back of my brain and tried very hard to focus on the
work at hand.

An hour later,
Lexi entered my office and said, "I'm done with the check-in, boss! What's
next?"

"We need to
put everything in its proper tray for display," I said. "Do you have
any experience with displays?"

"Nope, not a
bit, but if you give me the stuff, I'm sure I could figure it out," she
said confidently.

"I'm sure you
could, too, but let's cut down on the learning curve," I laughed as I got
up and followed her out to the showroom. I swallowed hard as I watched her hips
gently swinging from side to side as she walked and I tried not to picture her
doing the same thing without any clothes on. It proved impossible and I felt a
surge in my groin that I knew I had to tame before she noticed. I conjured up
images of dirty dishes in Babi's sink and the smell of the back room in my
father's bar. It worked, for the moment, and I was able to stand near her as I
showed her how each piece had to be displayed. She nodded as she listened and I
felt another rush of desire rip through my veins as a stray lock of hair
slipped out of its place and gently floated down to frame her face.

"Do you
understand?" I asked as I cleared my throat and tried to ignore the
shapely curves of the woman standing a little to close to me.

"I think
so," she said looking up at me with her intense brown eyes. "I put
the necklaces on these, the earrings on these, and then the rings on
these?"

"That's
right," I said. "But don't forget the bracelets. They go on
these." I held up a small t-stand that had room on it to hang several
bracelets.

"Oh, right,
sorry, I forgot," she said as she took it from me. Her fingers lightly
brushed mine and I felt a jolt of electricity shoot through my body. I jumped
back and looked at her with surprise. She stared back and asked, "Did I do
that?"

"I think it
was the carpeting," I told her, despite the fact that I had on leather
soled shoes and the carpet was an anti-static brand designed to fight just the
thing she thought had happened. "No worries."

I beat a hasty
retreat to the back room and sat there wondering how in the world I was going
to work with this woman. I'd already altered my last name on the advice of her
agent and now realized just what a good idea it had been. The idea for the name
of the company had come to me while I was on a buying trip. I thought about all
the best jewelry stores and how they had short names that didn't involved the
world jewelry. So, I chose the easiest thing I could think of: first initial,
last name. And, it seemed to work. The electrician had hung the sign a week
before, and now I needed a professional to come in and paint the store name on
the front window. I wanted it to look classy, not trashy. I wanted M. Malin to
stand out from the other stores on Wabash, and I knew that the sign and my new
employee were going to give me the edge.

I also had a
feeling that my new employee was going to keep me on edge.