Chapter 2

Bastard! Goblin! Thickheaded block of wood!.. Not only did he refuse to believe me, he also ordered me to keep my mouth shut and threw me out! Otherwise he would fire me or demote me to maintenance. Just try spreading rumors around the company, he said. I'll grab you by the scruff, and that will be the last anyone sees of you!

Isn't he an idiot?!

But I have already told you about that.

By the time I ended up under the desk a second time, three days had passed since the conversation in the utility room, and I had worn myself ragged with worry. Though I flinched at every rustle and clutched my heart, this time I really had been getting in little Nelly's way at every turn, guarding Voronov from her. Not letting the beauty get near the boss.

But the workday ended, the office slowly emptied, and it seemed to me that the displeased Man-Eater had gone home. After making sure the executive director's office was locked and that it had long since grown dark outside the window, I started getting ready to go home too.

It was already after seven in the evening, a little snow had powdered the icy road, and all I had left to do was hand the boss the stack of last year's contracts with private firms that he had demanded I pull.

Taking the documents from my desk, I knocked on the door and entered the general director's office.

Dark-haired and grim, with a straight back and broad shoulders, Voronov sat in the chair behind the massive desk, typing something on his laptop. Noticing me, he cast an irritated glance at the expensive watch on his strong wrist and then buried himself in the screen again.

"You're still here, Roosterova?" he remarked, sounding annoyed as always. "You took long enough. I expected to review those contracts an hour ago."

Calm down, Dasha. The main thing is not to react to other people's moods and to keep yourself in hand. Under the tsar, noblemen had their personal secretaries whipped with rods, so really, you are still lucky!

As a woman, I couldn't help noticing the shirt stretched across his broad shoulders and the jacket hanging neatly over the back of his chair. The sight told me Voronov was in no hurry to go home yet.

"An hour ago, Andrey Igorevich, you wanted coffee and a conference schedule. And then you suddenly needed all the plants in the office watered and a list of calls to reception. And incidentally, the workday ended a long time ago. But I am still here, and I brought the contracts, just as you asked."

"Do you always argue with your boss? Or am I the only one who has that effect on you, Roosterova?"

"I am Rooster. Excuse me?"

"Hypnotically. You force me to keep making excuses."

"Y-you mean?"

"If you truly wanted to leave earlier, Roosterova…"

"I am Rooster!"

"…Then you would not wait for me to ask. You would bring me coffee yourself. And you would have hurried up with the contracts!"

"You drink it six times a day! How am I supposed to know when you have a minute for it and when you don't?"

Voronov tore his heavy gaze from the laptop, lifted a hand, and wearily rubbed his temple with his fingers. He gave me an angry look with those icicle eyes, beckoned me closer, and took the documents from me.

"Thank you!"

"You're welcome! May I go?"

"Am I keeping you?" he asked dryly, and once again fixed his businesslike gaze on the monitor.

His handsome, tanned fingers fluttered over the keyboard. The look in his eyes said he really wasn't keeping me. I was the one running back and forth from reception to the office and back like a clueless daisy, distracting the man from work. As if I did not have a home and children!

Ugh! Why was he so difficult?

And the most insulting thing was that I did not even know how to answer. Should I start justifying myself, or should I go back to reception and keep sitting by his door, proving my loyalty to the company?

Try to figure him out. What did he want from me?

I froze in confusion, staring at Voronov.

"What is it, Roosterova?" The boss's dark eyebrow rose menacingly as he turned his face toward me. "Did you see something interesting in me?"

"No."

"So, something uninteresting?"

"Not at all!"

"In other words, you mean to say I am nothing to you?"

I only shook my head from side to side, my gaze locked on his cold eyes. What was happening?

"Andrey Igorevich, are you feeling unwell?" I tried to guess what was wrong, automatically laying my palm against the boss's forehead. Stepa also got delirious when he had a fever. But, coming to my senses, I quickly jerked my fingers away and stepped back. His forehead was warm and smooth. "I think it's time for you to go home and rest."

"She thinks… " Voronov grumbled. "God, you are so… intrusive!" he suddenly flared up out of nowhere, shoving the gadget away in irritation. "Nothing adds up worth a damn as it is, and then here you are! What, are you short on male attention? You won't find it with me, so don't get your hopes up! You brought the documents, and that's it. The door is over there. Goodbye! Personally, you don't interest me in the slightest, so stop with these tender little tricks!"

I simply froze. Honestly, what a frostbitten penguin. What kind of baboon did a person have to be to come up with that?

"You should be ashamed of yourself!" I protested, quite reasonably. "What tricks? I only wanted to check how you were feeling!"

"Next time, Roosterova, concern yourself with papers, not me! I felt perfectly fine. At least until I met you!"

"I am Rooster!"

"That explains why all your crowing gave me a headache!"

I was so hurt, it was awful. Here I was trying so hard for him, staying after work, and he… And He!

"You are rude! That's what you are!"

Oh no. Did I really say that?

Then again, he deserved an even worse insult! Who did he take me for? Who did he think he was?

"What?!"

"You heard me! I've had enough of your mockery. I quit! I'll write my resignation right now and… and you can manage here on your own, however you like! As if I were interested in you! I would rather be alone than… than…"

"Than what, Roosterova?"

However, after measuring the handsome man before me with an angry look, I did not immediately find an answer. Thanks to his glittering, ice-cold blue eyes, though, I got a hint.

"Than with an icy iceberg, that's what! Touch you and you'll be covered in icicles at once! If you don't freeze solid altogether! Brrr!"

I blurted all that straight into the boss's face and instantly felt better. Let him know what I thought of him! If I had to, I would crow it loud and clear!

Voronov looked at me and looked… huffed angrily through his aristocratic nostrils… and, as if nothing had happened, went back to work. His fingertips clattered over the keyboard as he opened the accounting program and simultaneously closed the reports he had reviewed earlier.

"Hey, Andrey Igorevich, do you hear what I said?"

Voronov heard perfectly well. He simply had no intention of answering. Pressing his firm lips together, he entered his password to access the restricted database, opened several windows, and pretended I did not exist.

Click, click, click…