He had a knack for business. Marketing came easy to him, and when he put his mind to it, he could be very charming. He was good at making sales and he fostered great relationships within the realty community. His agency grew, and his reputation even more so. He was a train of success that couldn't be slowed down. Couldn't be stopped. Couldn't be derailed.
Though if he was completely honest with himself, an intriguing little baker was coming the closest, of anyone or anything, to doing all those things.
He was playing with fire where she was concerned, he knew. Wulf rarely dated, and when he did, it was for one purpose only. Women were just another business deal to him. Sex was a transaction, and sometimes that took work. Katya was just another transaction. Sweet, innocent, former girl-next-door, Katya Tocci.
Only, she'd surprised him. No, not with her boldness – he'd been expecting that, he paid attention. It was the woman herself. She wasn't scared of him. Nervous, maybe, but not intimidated like some women were. She also didn't give two fucks about his money or his reputation. She was more interested in talking about their families, asking after his sisters, curious about his time in school.
It was kind of a novel experience. She was genuinely interested in him. She was nice to him. And sometimes she looked at him with so much fascination and adoration, it stole his breath away. Like he was a present for her.
He'd never felt that way before – like he was a gift to someone. Like a money train, yes. Like he owed something, like he could do something, like he was a trophy, or a prize, sure. He'd grown up with his father treating him like he was an afterthought – then when he'd become a successful adult, as a business partner. His mother loved him, but she was always so concerned with his sisters, so worried about if he was eating right, if he was going to settle down, if she needed to be doing something, saving someone, mothering everybody. His partners, the women he slept with, most of his friends, they were all more interested in what he could for for them. How he could help them.
But to Katya, he was just Wulf. Just a pleasant surprise, in her somewhat dull life.
She had no clue that she was turning out to be exactly the same for him.
Not good. Not good at all. He didn't want to look at her with fascination and adoration. He didn't want to think of her as a gift. She was a sexy mystery that he was helping to unravel. Seeing how far she was willing to bend for him, before she broke and realized what an asshole he really was – then life could return to normal.
A sexy mystery, Tocci. That's all you can be to me.
10
Katya spent her first day off with Tori, avoiding both the new men in her life. Not that she got a chance to ignore Wulf – he didn't call or text. After she remembered that he didn't have her number, she checked at the bakery to see if he'd called there, and she told them to let him have her number if he asked.
He never did.
Liam texted often. Her lack of responses didn't seem to deter him whatsoever. She got pictures of food, dogs he met on the street, and even a naughty one of a couple at his club. Tori tried to steal the phone so she could send a response, but Katya managed to wrestle it away from her. She needed some downtime. One day without men and without sex wouldn't kill her. She'd gone eight months without it, she could certainly go twenty-four hours.
The next day, she had the apartment to herself. She called her mother and checked in with the family. She was an only child, and though she was now realizing that her parents were prim-and-proper to the extreme. She and her mother were particularly close. After an hour long talk, they made loose plans for her to visit them. Her baking schedule didn't usually allow for a lot of traveling, but she'd purposefully scheduled some vacation time for herself.
She also went back to the strip-aerobics class. She went to an earlier one, it started around eleven o'clock. She had to admit it, she liked Candi-with-an-i. They got along surprisingly well. Not a lot of people showed up, so the two of them chatted for a while, before and after the class. By the time Katya left, she'd made a date with the other woman to go shopping. She felt like Candi would know a thing or two about spicing up a wardrobe.
Katya was feeling so good about herself that when she got a text from Liam during her bus ride home, she decided to get off at the next stop and she caught a bus to his work. He'd sent some rambling message about needing tacos to survive, so she stopped in at the first Mexican restaurant she came across and ordered several different kinds. She was still carrying her gym bag and she lumbered along with that and the tacos for the next several blocks, trying to remember exactly where his club was; her memory of that night was blurry at best. She finally found her way into the alley and the same big bouncer was in front of the same door with the same neon sign. The Garden.
“Hey! Good to see you again!” the bouncer called out jovially. She was surprised at the reaction, since they'd been face to face for maybe five whole seconds.
“Hi, uuhhh ...” she struggled to remember his name.
“Jan,” he said, and she barely stopped herself from laughing. A mountain of a man, and his name was Jan. “You don't remember, do you?”
Oh god.
“Um, no, I'm sorry. Remember what?” she asked.
“You were pretty lit, little girl. Your taxi took a while to show up that night – you helped me check IDs, showed me what I'm doing wrong with my lemon meringue pies. We danced right over there, you're good at two-stepping,” he said, gesturing down the alley. Katya couldn't help it, she had to laugh at herself.
“Well, at least I'm a fun drunk.”
“You sure are. And you made boss man smile – a real smile – which don't happen too often. You're always welcome here, as far as I'm concerned.”
“Thanks, Jan.”
“You're welcome.”
He held the door open for her, and she surprised him and herself by standing on her toes and kissing his cheek. Then she wondered how she'd find Liam's office – her hands were full and her cellphone was now buried in her gym bag. But the bartender recognized her right away, even gave her a hug, thanking her for the big tip she'd left him.
Please, please, let him be talking about money.
Tim led her downstairs, chattering the whole way down. The upstairs bar opened at noon, but downstairs was still closed. There were people moving around, cleaning and setting up for the coming evening. Tim showed her down the long hallway with all the doors, then gestured to an offshoot, telling her it was the last door.
As Katya walked down the hallway, she became aware of voices and she stopped moving. Liam's, loud and laughing, as usual. Then another voice – someone was in his office with him. A man, by the sounds of it, but speaking so low she couldn't make out the words. Hmmm, she didn't want to interrupt him if he was busy, but she did have her hands full of tacos. Liam lived and breathed for tacos. Figuring he couldn't get mad at free food, she started for the door again, deciding to just drop off the goods and offer to meet up with him later. She knocked on the slightly ajar door.