Where the Snow Falls (Seasons of Betrayal #2)(65)

Still, Violet sighed.

Happy.

Blissed.

Content.

Yeah, she didn’t mind doing this for the rest of her life.

“Oh, my God—love that,” she mumbled.

Kaz chuckled. “I’d make you get on your knees and return the favor, but …”

He trailed off with a nod toward the clock on the bedside table. Violet scowled, silently refusing to move. Why should she move when he’d done this to her?

She was perfectly happy right where she—

“You’re going to be late for your appointment, and you’ve got a meeting with admissions at the college at twelve. Get up,” Kaz said.

Violet turned her scowl on him. “But I don’t want to move.”

She let her fingers wander down the side of his face, stroking his jaw before skipping over his neck. Kaz only offered her a smile, and then he was pushing up from the bed and away from her.

It was impossible to ignore the bulge in his boxer-briefs, but he’d already turned his back to her as he headed for the bathroom.

Clearly, he was not going to indulge her this morning.

Just as he disappeared into the bathroom, he turned back around, leveling her with a grin and a wink. “Next time, it’ll be a bucket of ice water instead of my tongue. Get up, Violet.”

“Ass,” she uttered under her breath, sure he wouldn’t hear when he turned back to the bathroom.

“But it’s a nice one.”

Fuck.

Violet was not a morning person, and she didn’t pretend to be. Kaz, on the other hand, would wake up if the floorboard creaked, and he didn’t look worse for wear if he’d only slept a couple of hours.

She took her sweet-ass time crawling out of bed, slipping into the shower just as Kaz stepped out with another one of his smug smiles, and then getting ready for the day. By the time she was ready to leave the apartment, he’d been in his office and on the phone for a good hour.

Standing in the doorway of the office, Violet shifted her bag on her shoulder, waiting for Kaz to end his call. It was hard to tell if it was business or personal, given he spoke in Russian, and his features betrayed nothing.

“I’m heading out,” she told him as he hung up the call.

Kaz nodded, but his attention was on the screen of his laptop as he ran a finger over the mouse pad. “Don’t wander the streets, yes?”

Violet’s brow furrowed. “It’d be easier if I just walked from the clinic to the admissions office. It’s not that far to the college. Like five blocks. It’ll take me longer to find a damn parking spot.”

“Violet,” he said, gazing turning on her.

That was it—that was all he said.

Just her name.

And with that alone, she knew better than to argue because it wasn’t something he was going to debate.

“Not that it matters,” Kaz added, going back to the laptop, “but I do have someone keeping an eye on you while you’re out, for reference.”

Violet’s eyes narrowed. “Really?”

“Safer.”

“So someone is babysitting me? Who?”

Kaz shrugged. “Someone—you won’t see him unless he needs you to. It’s non-negotiable, krasivaya.”

“When will I not have a babysitter?”

He stilled at the desk, eyes cutting to her again in a blink. “Never.”

Well …

What in the hell could she say about that?





It wasn’t even ten in the morning, and Kaz was already over the f*cking day.

Five minutes into his conversation with Boris, he found that the politics of being the boss would be what he hated most. It wasn’t as simple as going to a warehouse in the middle of the night and breaking their nose to get them to cooperate.

Now he was expected to talk.

Not even a full two months into his position and he was already over it.

Once Violet was out the door, Kaz put the phone on speaker, tossing the device on his desk. Boris was still droning on as Kaz grabbed a pair of jeans and pulled them on. Back in his office, his gaze shot to his phone as another call popped up.

It was a number he didn’t recognize, but nevertheless … “I have another call.” Clicking over before the other man could respond, he answered, “Kaz.”

“I hear congratulations are in order.”

Vasily.

Kaz had given considerable thought to the day he finally crossed paths with his father. The tables had turned, after all, and with the Bratva at his back, he’d been ready for that day to come. After all, Kaz was no longer the one with a target on his back.

It would have been simple.

But as he heard his father’s amused voice over the line, he didn’t feel that sense of calm he thought he would.

His skin was crawling.

“You’re a dead man,” Kaz said even as he walked out of his office, going over to the window to look down at the street.

The car he had ordered to take her to her appointment was still idling at the curb, meaning Violet had yet to make it downstairs, but one glance at his watch told him that she should have already made it downstairs by now.

Wait …

Hadn’t she said something as she was leaving?

“Have I taught you nothing, Kazimir?” Vasily asked, sounding like he was walking, the wind blowing. “You never leave a problem unsolved.”