Katya
The Sorvino cover company provided financial services as its front. There was a general meeting for all the managers in the region.
That was the first thing my newly appointed secretary informed me of, even before I could step into my office.
It was a new front. There would be people who would have reservations about this decision, naturally, and I’d come prepared to handle them. Even as a Petrenko, it had been the same. I’d never been given an official office or position other than Don’s daughter, the princess, or the heir, and before I’d proven myself, there had been people who’d thought they couldn’t take me seriously.
That hadn’t lasted a week, this wouldn’t last one day.
I entered the meeting room and found it was packed. Heads turned, to watch me walk in, and I met as many eyes as I could meet before heading to take a seat at the front. The silence was brutal, as it should be, and I made sure to keep my head high.
I was the head of the Petrenko family now, and nobody would debase me.
They wouldn’t survive it if they tried.
Alex was in front, standing and watching me walk towards him. The seat I took was right beside him, the one with his name. He waited until I took my seat to continue, giving me a very entertained look. Not surprised at all by the move.
“I’m sure everybody is aware of my marriage,” he continued, casting a look across the room. “This is Katya Sorvino, the newest executive manager in our very humble company.”
He gestured toward me, and I leaned back into the chair, crossing my legs.
I liked that it made one corner of his mouth lift in an amused smile, and that it made his gaze darken.
Then he faced the room and became very serious. “All Petrenko activities are under her, along with two of our own projects. There will be no question to her authority and decisions,” he added with a very deadly tone, “otherwise, there will be dire, irreversible consequences.”
That took me by surprise. My father had allowed me to do the breaking, he didn’t step in for me, but I’d handled it.
“Now,” Alex said, “the reports.” Then he went to the other side of the table, to where my seat was and sat down.
My office was nice. Polished leather chairs, a beautiful pinewood desk, and velvet couches. I liked it, but was very glad I’d be outside most of the time. Working outside was what I preferred rather than just sitting in some airconditioned room.
A knock on my door, and my secretary opened the door and let in a group of people. I was given the employee records, and Alex allowed me to make my choice for my team from Sorvinos’ people too.
Some of the groups were people I already worked with, Petrenko people who didn’t need to be debriefed because they already understood the situation.
“Please take a seat, thank you all for coming. Lisa, some refreshments please.”
“Of course, Mrs. Sorvino.” I still preferred Petrenko, but I suppose that name was something I would have to start getting used to. I smiled at her from behind my desk and watched the group settle into the couches.
It was a big office, and there were two sets of sitting areas.
The bigger one of the two was directly in front of my table, a set of two three-seater couches on one side, two coffee tables, two loveseats, and two armchairs to balance the ratio on the other side of the coffee table. All of it set on an imported woven oriental rug.
The second sitting area was smaller and tucked to the side of the office-a set of one three-seater, a loveseat, one armchair, and a coffee table. The rug was very similar to the first, they had almost the exact same qualities, except that the second one was in a darker green shade, and it was smaller.
The sitting areas had different but overlapping themes. They were both elegant, but one was with a lighter, more gentle grace, and the other had darker, muskier undertones.
A very good office, I had to admit.
I introduced myself even though they all knew very well who I was and asked each of them to introduce themselves too, as we would all be working together.
Then, I started to discuss the work. The projects I needed to be supervised and the people I wanted to supervise them.
“You can’t do that,” Ackam David objected when I assigned his new role. “I have been the boss at the Hour-Glass Club for a decade now, you have no right to just waltz in here and change anything!”
I looked at the files, the one about the Hour-Glass Club he managed. It wasn’t because I didn’t already know what they said, I’d read through everything before this gathering, I just looked through it pointedly.
“David, do you know what it says in this file that I’m reading?”
Of course, he was quiet, but I stood up, carrying the file with me, and started to walk around my table.
“It does say that you’ve been manager of the Hour-Glass
Club for a decade. It says you were a supervisor in the building work, and naturally were appointed the manager when it was completed. Now, do you think I would be foolish enough to take you from this position if you were any good at it?”
He still said nothing, just glared at me from behind his round glasses.
I put the file down, rolled my sleeves, and perched on my desk to address t=everybody in my office.
“You did splendid as a supervisor for the construction, but not so great for the operational side. The monthly income statements are very disappointing, really. That’s why I decided to appoint you elsewhere, where you would be a lot more useful, instead of tossing you to the streets like a rag.” He opened his mouth, but I raised a finger to silence him.
“Hush. I will say this once to all of you. We will operate a friendly, one-screw up allowed policy. That means if you mess up one time, I will forgive you. But if you slip up a second time, I will not.”
The room was deathly quiet. I could hear the traffic outside and the whirring of the air conditioner.
“If you want to know what it looks like when I’m pissed off, then you can urge our friend David here to try his luck, he has already used his first screw up card.” My cold gaze washed over everybody in the room. “And if you think this is unfair, you are very free to complain, I promise I’ll forgive you.”
The first time.
Alessandro
My apartment was on the penthouse floor of a five-star building.
It was the whole floor.
My mother had resisted us moving out, her theory had been because our family home was so large, and us staying together was safer. Yet, all of us had a place. Even Arianna, and she was our mother’s favorite.
However, since I’d become Don of the Sorvino family, I had basically moved out despite her reservations.
It was grand and worth millions of dollars, I’d picked it out to be on my own, but there were times when I didn’t mind company.
Katya and I were having dinner together. We had been married for days now, but she had her living arrangements, and I had mine.
I hadn’t expected her to agree without putting up a fight, but that was exactly what had happened.
So far, though, we hadn’t said a word to each other.
I wanted to change that. “I’ve given it some thought, and I think that it would be best for you to move in with me, Kitten.”
“I think that you should stop thinking then, Ales.”
I reached for my wine glass. “Again, with my name, would it not be better to call me something…sweeter?”
Her eyes flickered up to glare at me from across the table, and I winked at her.
“I can call you Alex or Mr. Sorvino. You can pick.”
I chuckled and put down my cutlery. “I suppose Alex will do for now, then. When do you plan on moving in?”
“I’ll set my calendar to remind me next century. I don’t know what part of this arrangement is difficult to understand. It is a marriage of convenience. We married for business purposes, and it was bad enough that I took your surname, I will not move in with you.”
“You changed your name by your choice, Katya, I had no hand in it.”
“Really?” She put her cutlery down and glared at me full on. “Are you sure you did not…I don’t know, go behind my back to speak to my father?!” This was really getting to her.
I couldn’t stop myself from smiling. For the shit she’d started the morning after our wedding, I didn’t know how this evening would turn out.
I leaned forward with my elbows on the table, pretending that I was trying to remember. “I cannot say that I did you know.”
“Oh please!” she scoffed, reached for her glass of wine, and downed it.
“Well, I didn’t talk to him about the surname, but I will say something to him about us living together.”
“You will do no such thing.” Her eyes narrowed to slits.
I scoffed and raised a brow. “No?”
“My house is enough for me, thank you.”
“The house you continue to live in because your father sometimes sleeps over?” She gave me a look, and I shrugged. “I had a…an investigation done when you tried to steal my property…the first time.”
“My god! You-” she was losing her head, but just then, Katya caught herself and gave me an inquiring look.
She caught me, that I was purposely pushing her buttons, and she laughed. Throwing her face to the side for a moment.
“This fucking shithead.”
“Come now, Kitten, you need to lower your voice even more if you don’t want me to hear what you’re saying.”
She sighed and turned back to me, giving that smile that told me it was on.
“Fine. I stay there because it is my family’s house. I still won’t move, Ales, nothing you say here will change that.” She was smiling, drumming her fingers on the table.
“Katya, must we do this? I suggest we move in, and you disagree. I know I can’t make you do anything, so I go to Yuri, who has a very soft spot for me, and we both know what you will do after that.”
I liked that she was strong against everybody but her father. For him, she would do many things.
“A marriage of convenience, Ales, means that the parties involved do not have to do anything that was not agreed to beforehand. All I agreed to, in this case, was to marry you. Which I have rightfully fulfilled.”
“Kitten, I already said that I had no intention of keeping this marriage strictly…for convenience.”
“Oh? Well, you also said something about being a master seducer so that I can add that to your list of lies.”
I stood up as she spoke to walk around to her side of the table. Pushing her plate aside and gently placing the wine glass further away. I settled to perch on the edge of the table.
“Baby, I have you in my apartment, alone with me.” I placed a hand at the back of her chair and leaned closer, so we were at eye level. “It’s only a matter of time before I have you in my bedroom.”
She smirked. I could smell the wine off her breath as she spoke. “But not in your bed.”
I chuckled. “I’m sure I will have you against the door, or the wall, or the floor, before we make it to the bed.”
Katya considered me for a moment. “You seem very confident.”
The games we played were fun, they kept things interesting, but my eyes were made for telling and I wanted her to see everything I wanted to do to her. I wanted her to see herself bent over my dining table, ass in the air while I ate the rest of my dinner off her back.
A shiver ran through her, this up close, I caught it as it did. I smirked.
She must have seen it.
“I would rather not waste any of our times, Kitten, we are both very busy people after all. One way or another I will have you living with me. From there, it will be only a matter of time, and you know it.”
Heat passed between us, and after a moment, Katya rose from her chair. Standing up with her nose pressed against mine.
“I’m very sure I can make you reconsider my moving in. Don’t you agree?”
“That would depend on what you plan to negotiate with, Kitten.”
She started to move, to undo the button of her suede blazer. I pushed the chair away and held her hand in place.
“After that shit you pulled this morning, Kitten, anything you start, I’m not going to allow you to leave until you finish.” With her eyes still on mine, Katya stepped closer, pressing into me with her body and scent, making me lean back again.
Her hand snakes up my chest, and she fingered the button of my shirt.
“That’s a coincidence, Ales, because what I plan on starting, will end with the both of us finishing.”