The Last Kolovsky Playboy. Carol Marinelli

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…’