Josie's POV
All eyes in the room swung to this new unexpected entry. He was tall, pale, huge and intimidating. Male virility oozed from his every pore. Where Grayson made me feel like making slow love, Vladimir put me in the mood for hard, sheet burning, bed breaking fvcking. I'd made a step toward him before I knew it, only mother's painful grip on my wrist stopped my momentum.
What was wrong with me?
"You're here? Oh, please do come in." Mother rambled fearfully, her words barely making any sense as she pushed herself into his line of sight, effectively hiding me behind her.
"How are you here? You shouldn't be able to step foot on this property without permission." Grayson exclaimed, his eyes murderous.
Okay, who was this man that raised Grayson's hackles just by being in his presence and simultaneously elicited such fear from my mother? Could he be.... Vladimir? Wasn't he supposed to be out of the country?
"The maid let me in." He answered smoothly before turning to mum. "Mrs Braille, it's lovely to see you again and yes, I would love to come in."
He prowled into the room. No other words could qualify it.
He prowled into the room like a predator and owned the room. He surveyed the lowly humans beneath him, dismissing the presence of each person before cold and mystical azure eyes locked on me, holding me captive in their aura. My breath froze as those penetrating orbs stole every rational thought I ever had.
Submit. Submit. Submit. It was more than words, more than unvoiced commands. it was an overriding emotion that wanted to crumble my very will until I was nothing but a puddle of subdued bones on the floor.
I whimpered in confusion, not understanding why I wanted to kneel at his feet so badly. If I was a dog, I would have shown him my belly the second he walked in.
"Who are you?" Anna asked suspiciously.
He turned to smile at her and thankfully, the weird connection was severed once I was no longer staring into his eyes. "Vladimir Sedof, at your service miss. Although, if your sister's press conference is to be believed, we are family friends." He threw a wink in my direction.
I sighed loudly, gulping in breaths as the battering ram that was damaging my psyche was lifted. Who the fuck was this man? I glanced at him surreptitiously but made sure not to lock eyes with him. His eyes were deadly weapons and I couldn't afford to be ensnared by them again.
He turned to face me fully, summarily dismissing Anna. "Josie Braille, I believe?" Smooth, intoxicating voice announced eerily. Even his voice made me feel drunk.
He walked to me and held his hand out, I didn't reciprocate. Mum blabbered some words, something about me being aa silly child, but we both ignored her as we continued our weird stare off. He stared at me with curious eyes and I glared fiercely at his well defined chest. Focus Josie.
"Your press conference was....interesting." He stated blandly and my chest clutched.
What if he was here with the paparazzi? Was he trying to catch me out in my lie and discredit me them? They were the only leverage I had against him and I couldn't lose my credibility before them.
Raising my chin, I raised my eyes to his square, neatly trimmed jaw and replied as steadily as I could, "Yes Mr Sedof, it's nice to see that you cut your trip short because of my family. You have brought me news of me father, I hope?"
I saw his eyes flash and a smirk graced his lips briefly before he said sardonically, "No Miss Braille, I'm afraid not. Unfortunately, I have no news of your father at the moment. I will be in my establishment at seven pm tomorrow, I want you to be there as well." Shockingly cold fingers placed a black square card in palm. "I feel like we can discuss my findings a bit more.....freely then. I'm sure we'll be able to find a solution to the problem at hand." He turned around and left the house just as I collapsed to the floor.
Oh God.