by Mia Faith
I stood quietly and took it all in for a minute. The walls were painted a deep burgundy and decorated with framed black and white photographs of the city as it grew and expanded over the past century. Plush white sofas situated here and there offered a comfortable place to sit and a gold engraved plaque on the wall listed the names of the companies that occupied each floor. There was a phone next to that to announce your arrival. I picked it up and pressed in the extension for Usmanov. There was a series of beeps and then a delicate female voice came on and said,
“Usmanov Investment Group, this is Marie how can I help you today?”
“My name is Jessica Johns. I have an appointment with Mr. Kosovo.”
“Yes, Miss Johns. Take the elevator to floor fifty. Mr. Kosovo is expecting you.”
“Thank you...” She already hung up.
I got on the glass elevator and pushed the up button. As I took me higher I could see most of the city. I loved the view from the top. One of these days I planned to sit in my own corner office and look down on the world from my pedestal.
The elevator came to a smooth stop on the fiftieth floor and the doors slid open…directly into a huge and elaborately decorated office. The floor to ceiling windows offered a view of the city in two directions. One of the two remaining walls was covered in bookshelves and the other held a huge oil painting of a simple vase with flowers…Van Gogh, I think. The dark cherry wood desk was huge and completely uncluttered, almost to the point of compulsiveness. There was a computer that sat atop a desktop calendar and next to that a leather bound journal. Behind the desk, a man rose from the soft-looking black vinyl chair he sat in and offered me his hand.
“Miss Johns?”
I smiled what I thought was my most dazzling smile. I was happy that I’d just whitened my teeth a few days before. I took his hand and said, “Yes, Mr. Usmanov, I’m so pleased to meet you.”
I realized that the man wasn’t wearing the classic suit and tie that one might expect from the CEO of a billion-dollar multinational company. Instead, he wore a loose blue silk shirt with silver cuff links and a pair of exquisitely tailored black slacks. His hair was mostly brown silver tipped the edges of his temples. He had thick, strong eyebrows and dark blue eyes framed with long black eyelashes. I was taking him in when I realized he was staring at my chest, and unabashedly so. I took another deep breath and was glad when he said,
“Please take a seat Miss Johns.” His eyes flicked up to my face when he spoke but as I sat I watched them drop to my legs. My skirt was short and rode up slightly to the tops of my thighs as I sat. The old pervert was taking in every inch of them. “Please call me Jessica,” I told him, only to attempt to draw his attention back to my face. I was beginning to get nervous about exactly what I was interviewing for. He smiled at me and for a second I got the impression of a predatory bird about to swoop down and use it’s talons to pick-up its prey.
“Jessica, thank you for coming and being so prompt.”
“I’m honored to be here,” I said.
He came around from behind the desk and sat down in the chair next to mine. Leaning back and crossing his legs he said, “So tell me about yourself, Jessica.”
“Well, I have a master’s degree in business…”
“No, I read all of that in your file. I want to know about you. Are you married Jessica? Involved with anyone?”
I was slightly taken aback by his personal questions. I’d never been to a job interview where the interviewer did that. I really wanted this job, though, which was sad because I still wasn’t sure what it was. I just wanted to work in this building so badly in the epicenter of the business world in the city. I wanted to go to a place every day where I was surrounded by opulence and men that wore three thousand dollar suits. I smiled sweetly and said,
“No Mr. Kosovo I’m not married nor am I currently involved with anyone.”
His smile seemed to grow broader but that could be because he was now focused on my cleavage. He wasn’t a bad looking man. In fact, he was quite handsome for his age. But that age had to be upwards of sixty. He was kind of giving me the creeps. “Please Jessica, call me Ivan. Why do you want to work here?”
“Well like I said, I am highly educated in…”
“I read that in your file dear. Why us? Why this company?”
“Well, I read the company bio and studied your website and I’m truly impressed and would like very much to be a part of it.”
“You like our building?” I nodded and he said, “We’ve been in this spot on Madison Avenue for over fifty years. I started here under the original owner. It’s passed through two generations since.” Maybe sixty was a low estimate of his age.
Smiling I said, “Yes I read that on your website. That’s amazing.”
“Yes, it is.” His blue eyes roamed my body again. Involuntarily I shivered. I felt like I was sitting in front of him naked. “Would you be available to start right away?”
“Yes sir, absolutely.” Start what, exactly?
“Good, well Jessica thank you for coming in…”
I interrupted him before I caught myself. I couldn’t help it, I was in shock. “Wait, that’s it?”
“Was there something else?”
“I’m sorry, I’ve just never been to an interview that was so quick.”
“We do a thorough check of your background and references prior to you coming in. This interview is just cursory…a face to face meeting so to speak.”
“Oh, okay. May I ask a question Mr. Kosovo?”
“Ivan.”
“I’m sorry, Ivan.”
“Of course.”
“The job posting was very vague. It stated they wanted someone young, energetic and female. It didn’t really clarify what the job would entail…or even the job title.”
“Right,” well if you’re hired Jessica you will be given a full orientation. I have one more girl to see but so far you are the best fit for what I’m looking for. We’ll be in touch either way.” I was being dismissed. Confused and more than slightly disappointed I stood up and forced a smile. “Thank you so much for your time, Ivan.”
“Not at all,” he said. He took my outstretched hand and held it just a little too long. Once again I shuddered.
CHAPTER TWO
IGOR
“This is ridiculous.” Igor Usmanov, the most powerful man in the Russian syndicate pouted at his desk. Ivan stood over him with that fatherly look that only served to piss him off. Igor’s father was dead, shot in the chest repeatedly with an assault rifle as he left his niece’s baptism in Russia. Ivan and his father had been friends since they were in diapers so unlike almost everyone else he wasn’t intimidated in the least by Igor’s moods.
“It’s necessary, Igor. You’ve only stepped into your father’s shoes and people are waiting to see if you can fill them or if you will fail. Unfortunately, many of them are rooting for you to fail.”
“And how the hell does being married to an American woman keep me from failing?”
“A lot of the men who will be expected to take orders from you are old school. They don’t trust a playboy not to get himself into a situation with an opportunistic woman who might be willing to sleep with you long enough to gain your trust and your secrets.”
“And what keeps the American woman I marry from doing that?”
Ivan looked like he was doing his best to remain patient as he said, “First of all the women you’re about to meet have all been closely vetted. None of them have so much as a whisper of scandal in their background. None of them have ex-husbands or children. None of them have any connections to law enforcement of any kind. Second of all, in America, a wife cannot be compelled to testify against her husband.”
“It sounds like you plan on me getting arrested.”
He sighed heavily. I had already accepted that I had to do this, but I was pissed and Ivan was the easiest scapegoat. “You and I both know it could happen at any time. If and when it does we don’t want someone waiti
ng in the wings dying to testify against you. We want a loving wife who wants nothing more than her husband to come home to her. Igor…if you refuse to do this, they’ll back Andrei instead of you.”
Andrei is my adopted brother. He and I are close but this business is in my blood, not his. “They can back whoever they want. This is my family’s business and they’ll take orders from me whether they like it or not. I’ll just have to be sure and set an example for the first one that refuses to do as I ask.” I had no problem with death. Death has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I think I was five years old the first time I saw someone die in a drive-by shooting in Moscow.
“You already have a war with Rapava, do you want one within your own family as well?” Rapava ran the second most powerful family in Russia. One of our gun shipments was stolen just outside of Georgia last month and two of my best men were killed. Rapava’s calling card, a white feather, was left in the hands of the dead men. I sent my own men after them and in the crossfire, Rapava’s young, teenaged brother was killed. He’s out for blood now but only mine will satisfy. My head was beginning to pound.
“Fine, I’ll meet these women but all at once. I don’t have time for you to parade five of them through here one at a time.”
Ivan raised an eyebrow but he knew we were at an impasse. He nodded slightly and pushed the intercom button. “Marie are all the women in the conference room?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Thank you.”
Reluctantly I got up and followed Ivan down the hallway and into the conference room at the end of it. There are two big tables in the room. At one table sat four women. Each of them was beautiful in her own way but none of them really reached out and grabbed my attention. The truth was my reluctance to take a wife came from the strong sexual desires I had inside of me and what it took to satisfy them. I wasn’t happy with simply one woman. I rarely had the same woman twice. Sometimes I took more than one woman at a time and sometimes…often, I shared the woman I was fucking with my brother Andrei. Any woman I married would have to at least agree to that. Although the women at the table each looked like they might be fun for one night, they all seemed a little stuffy and uptight. I doubted that any of them would be up for the ménage.
The women stood up and I felt eight pairs of eyes boring into me as Ivan introduced each one. Bored, I glanced to my right and realized there had been another woman at the second table. This one was petite and blonde with a sexy, curvy figure and dark green eyes that were at that moment sending heat in my direction. I completely forgot anyone else was in the room. The blood in my head was already racing towards the head in my pants and I was envisioning all of the dirty things I wanted to do to her.
“Igor?” Ivan was trying to get my attention. Annoyed, I tore my eyes from the sexy vision in front of me and looked at the four anxious women.
“Ladies thank you for coming. I’m sorry to tell you that none of you four made the cut. See my assistant on the way out and she’ll be happy to refer you to other companies that are currently hiring.”
“Igor…” I ignored Ivan and led the women to the door. I watched them all slowly file out and then glanced back in the direction of the blonde goddess. Smiling is not something I do often. It just doesn’t feel right on my face. I managed one for her however and said,
“Igor Usmanov, who might you be?”
She looked like a nervous wreck as she approached me. I saw her shiver and it prompted a vision of her tied to a bed naked and cold with goose bumps all over her lovely white skin and her hard nipples standing straight up and begging to be sucked. I felt another surge as my cock hardened even further. Another inch and my trousers weren’t going to be able to hide it. “I’m Jessica Johns,” she said. The sound of her voice was smooth like honey and I wanted to hear it as she whispered desperate, dirty things in my ear while I fucked her.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Jessica. I guess you realize that you’re the one I’ve chosen. The next step is to decide if we have an actual wedding or just an extended trip to Las Vegas.”
Her green eyes suddenly looked confused and slightly panicked. “Wedding?” she looked from me to Igor. “What is he talking about?”
“The job,” Igor said. “Is to become Mr. Usmanov’s bride.”
She choked out a laugh. “You’re kidding, right? Is this a practical joke of some kind?”
I glared at Igor. He was supposed to handle the details. The last thing I wanted was a hysterical female on my hands. “I didn’t tell you, Miss Johns, because I was concerned you might not show up today for the second interview.”
Jessica looked incredulous as she picked up her bag and said, “Your concerns were not unwarranted. Thank you both for your time, but I have to be going now.” She made it as far as the door.
“Jessica.” She stopped dead in her tracks at the sound of my voice. I liked that. I decided to see how far she would go. “Turn around and look at me.” She slowly spun around and with a tilt of her chin she locked those pretty green eyes into mine. I liked submissiveness, but spunk was okay too when it was called for. “I understand your confusion and why you would be upset. I apologize that Igor did not explain to you what it was we were doing here. If you wish to leave that is of course up to you, but I’d like very much to spend some time just getting to know you. Will you consent to just having one drink with me? You won’t be obligated to do anything beyond that.” Not obligated but I know women and I’d be willing to bet that her panties are already wet. She looks a little bit intimidated and definitely pissed, but there is also an undeniable trace of attraction in her eyes when she looks at me. I’m sure once I had her alone I could convince her that my cock was exactly what she wanted.
“One drink,” she said. I smiled. Igor smiled. Jessica looked like she might be sick.
“One drink,” I told her. “I’ll get my coat.”
CHAPTER THREE
JESSICA
As soon as he walked in the room I had a hard time catching my breath. I’d heard of someone sucking the oxygen out of a room but I’d never experienced it before. I had time to observe him as he looked at the other women. He didn’t seem to know I was there and for that I was grateful. I actually thought about slipping out before he noticed me. I knew as soon as I lay eyes on him that I was in really big trouble.
His skin is a light olive color and his hair thick and black and of course, wavy. Two seconds after seeing him my fingers were itching to wrap up in it. His eyes were the best, though, or maybe the worst depending on how you look at it. They’re a deep brown, like milk chocolate, and framed by the longest, thickest eyelashes I’d ever seen on a man. As if all of that weren’t enough he had a pair of full lips that looked like they were made to be kissed and he wore a suit that appeared to be tailored to hug every ripple of every hard muscle in his perfect body. When he finally noticed me and his eyes locked into mine my body reacted with a deeply aching twinge between my legs and a fire that raged deep down in my core. He completely unnerved me yet I could already picture myself unbuttoning that silk shirt and running my hands across his chest.
When he spoke it was like liquid testosterone and every raw nerve in my body reacted to it. Saying my name when he asked me was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Then suddenly I was being told that I was here to marry this man…this perfect, gorgeous, obviously rich and powerful man. I thought it was a joke and when I realized it wasn’t and started to storm out he said my name…and all bets were off. My insides turned into hot, molten liquid and my panties could no longer hold the moisture that seeped out of me. I’ve never had such a strong, primal reaction to a man before and if I was smart I would have kept going. Instead, I find myself sitting on the balcony of a fifth avenue penthouse sipping champagne in the moonlight and dining on fresh caviar. My rational thoughts had all been replaced by my completely irrational physical response to this man.
“So Jessica Igor tells me you have a Master’s degree in Social Sc
iences. You must be a very smart woman.”
I smiled. “I like to think so. I studied and worked hard for it. Igor…You understand that I simply thought I was applying for a job. I’m still having trouble imagining that a man like you would need to arrange a marriage with anyone.”
He smiled and anything solid left in me was turned to liquid just like that. “It’s complicated, Jessica. A man in my position has to be careful who he lets into his life. People like Igor are in place in my life to do what I don’t have time to do. Igor checks out the women I date and he comes back to me with a report. Let’s just say that so far none of them have passed the test.”
“I guess I understand that. I do know women that will date a man strictly because he’s wealthy or powerful. The part I’m having trouble with is why you would want to marry someone you don’t even know.”
He leaned back in his chair and crossed one leg over the other. Every movement he made was sexy and my body felt like it was burning up from the inside out being this close to him. I should have objected to having that drink at his penthouse. I don’t trust myself to be able to say no to any offers he might make.
“Think about the American president for a minute.” I raised an eyebrow but remained silent as he went on. “In over two hundred years, not one president has been elected that didn’t have a wife. People have a tendency to trust a man much more when he’s settled down into a traditional family. Some of my business associates have difficulty accepting me simply because of my…active lifestyle. Igor thinks that getting married to an American woman might change that. He’s been an advisor to my family for decades and he’s seldom wrong…although to his face I’d never admit that.” He leaned in then and across the small bistro table until his gorgeous face was merely inches from mine. I could smell the champagne on his breath and feel the warmth of it as he spoke. “Look, Jessica, being my wife might not be what you’ve dreamt of since you were a little girl. I have a voracious sexual appetite and some pretty…unconventional tastes.” I felt the warmth of the wetness seeping out of my panties now coating my thighs. “I don’t know that I’d ever want children. There’s nothing warm and fuzzy about me. My business will always come first. But with all of that being said, my wife would be well taken care of. She’d never be abused. She’d be satisfied sexually unlike anything beyond her wildest dreams. She’d have access to her own private bank account and never have to want for another thing in her life. I believe the benefits of marrying me will most definitely outweigh any drawbacks. If I’m not wrong the hitch in your breath, the look in your eyes and the smell of your desire says you want me as badly as I do you right now. I say we get naked right now and find out just how compatible we are. If you still want to leave afterwards the door is wide open. If you stay, we announce our engagement as soon as possible.”