“What about your amazing ivory tower penthouse apartment? You're just gonna leave it empty so you can slum it down here with us plebeians?”
“No. As it so happens, I've already found the perfect tenant to sublet it,” he said. She barked out a laugh.
“Please. You wouldn't even let me into your precious sanctuary, you expect me to believe you just let some stranger live there?” she asked.
“While it had been some time since I'd last spoken to her, my sister is hardly a stranger,” he replied.
“Vieve? You got Vieve to move in!?” she was shocked. It was hard to picture his soft spoken younger sister taking part in one of his dastardly schemes.
“She's been there for the last week. When I finally got the Hans out of their place, I gave her the keys to mine.”
“You can't,” Katya stood away from the back of the sofa. “You can't do this. First Liam showing up last night, now – oh my god. Did you two plan this!? He distracts me at speed dating so you can move the Hans out without me knowing!?”
“Oh sweet jesus, don't tell me you did something as desperate as speed dating.”
The night before, Katya'd had some long conversations with herself. About growing up and being mature and analyzing her emotions and actions. Not being so rash or hotheaded. But it all flew out the window and she started swinging her heavy tote bag, bashing it against Wulf's side.
“No! Speed dating was just for fun! Going to the swingers' orgy afterwards was the act of desperation!” she yelled at him. Unlike Liam, he didn't make a move to stop her. He took the blows as if nothing strange was happening at all.
“I always knew you were holding back,” he sighed. “But to answer your question, no. I knew you weren't in the building. I had no clue where Eden was, he and I haven't spoken in a while.”
“He doesn't know you're just … moving people around and moving in?” Katya asked.
“Why should he? He's not involved in the rental process at all,” Wulf said.
“He's gonna be pissed if he finds out you moved in!”
“I don't care.”
“But he's the owner – he has some say in who does or doesn't live here. I'll get him to make you leave,” Katya threatened. Wulf laughed.
“Go ahead and try. I have an iron clad contract with him that entitles me to any and all business decisions for these buildings, short of remodeling or selling, as well as a lease for that apartment. I'm not going anywhere, Tocci.”
“Then I'll move out.”
“And I'll sue you for breach of contract,” he warned her.
“You wouldn't dare.”
“Test me. I have an entire legal department that would love to have something to do.”
Katya felt like she was drowning. She just wanted to get on with her life. After two weeks of feeling sorry for herself, she had felt like she'd begun to make some headway. Had started to heal. Then boom, she'd gotten knocked down by Liam, then bowled over by Wulf.
“Why can't you just leave me alone?” she whispered, desperately trying not to cry. He sighed and stepped up close to her. It wasn't like with Liam, though. She wasn't comforted by Wulf's presence. She wasn't sure she ever had been. Being close to Wulf was like being full of static electricity and standing too close to something metal. She could feel the charge, was bracing herself for the shock.
“Because. We made promises to each other. I intend to keep them,” he whispered back. She glared up at him.
“You never made any promises,” she hissed.
“Not out loud,” he agreed. “But they were made. You felt them.”
She lurched away from him. The last time they had spoken – really spoken, not just her screaming at him in the rain – it had been intense. Almost life changing. She had felt herself really falling in love with him. Then a day later, she'd found out it had all been a lie. So yes, there had been promises made. Made with lips and tongues and hearts and souls. Which made the fact that he'd broken them all that much worse.
“I am not okay with this, Wulf. I can't be won back by intimidation and stalking. I can't be won back, period,” she warned him. He smirked and stepped up close again.
“See, there's one problem with that statement,” he said.
“What problem?”
“I don't have to 'win you back'.”
“Excuse me?”
“Because I don't think I ever lost you.”
Katya didn't say anything. She just turned around and walked out the door, not even giving him a backward glance.
*
Katya was able to keep her mind clear for almost two solid hours. She poured every ounce of her concentration into her work, finishing the last of the edible flowers and pinning almost half of them in place on the actual cakes. She was hanging the remaining flowers in an airtight cabinet when the events of the past eighteen hours finally caught up with her. She hurried into the break room, then screamed into her heavy jacket.
She wasn't sure she could ever forgive Liam Edenhoff for his part in what they'd done to her, but she was positive she wouldn't ever forgive Wulfric Stone. He didn't know what compassion was, or empathy, or sincerity. He didn't have normal human emotions. He didn't deserve forgiveness, nor did he probably care if he ever got it.
I'm just a challenge to him. That's what it is. The one that got away.
With that thought, Katya finally stopped screaming. Wulf wasn't used to losing, and he'd been so close to winning her. To have that victory ripped away, it must have really stung.
Over the past two weeks, she'd had a lot of time to think about her predicament and the men that had caused it. To go over all the signs she'd missed, all the ways they'd tried to one-up each other. Liam, giving her a pool on the roof. Wulf, driving her home to her family.
Even when she'd thought Liam hadn't known who she'd been seeing, she'd been able to sense a feeling of dislike from him. And his disdain for his “business partner” had been clear and palpable. Liam had spent most of his life feeling second best to his twin brother – it was obvious Wulf inspired similar feelings. That had fed into Liam's drive to win her over.
But a desire to prove himself to an absentee father was what Wulfric's foundation was built on. He did not come in second, and especially not to a man like Liam Edenhoff. Wulf was rich and smart and intelligent and, if truth were told, a total snob. A slacker who'd come into an inheritance? Wulf had probably taken delight in helping Liam, and had most definitely rubbed his encounters with Katya in the other man's face.
She paused as she started putting on her jacket. If that were all true – which she thought it was – then it would also kill him if she started speaking to Liam again, but kept refusing to speak to him.
She shook her head and finished gathering her stuff. She wasn't like that, Liam was right. She didn't do things out of spite or anger. Not even new-Katya – she may have been a sex kitten, but she wasn't a raging bitch.