Claimed

April 2008

Prologue: Introductions

It had been a stressful day at the firm. His personal assistant, Michelle Renee, had been more of a flirtatious mess than usual, and a client had confessed to her crime in court that day, falling to pieces and ruining his case completely. The woman had quite obviously been the murderer of her husband and child, but he had been sure he could convince the jury otherwise. Unfortunately, Mrs. Delaney had not been able to hold out under the stress. She wasn't a born killer the way that most of his clients were; she had just been angry that the husband was having an affair and happened to take it out on her son as well.

The crime itself was heinous, and he had had to admit to himself that it had been difficult to work with. Fortunately, Mrs. Delaney was a beautiful specimen of woman and the jury turned out to have more men the woman in an event of good luck.

Good luck, indeed. She had castrated both her son and her husband after trying them up in a fit of rage. They had both bled to death while she left the house in a fit of tears. Later the police were called and she had been found hugging her dead son, crying. He still wasn't quite too sure how he was going to push it from homicide to manslaughter in the case of the court; he was hoping to merely wipe her slate clean by relying on the fact that she was obviously a raving lunatic.

And an undisputed man-hater, he mused. She certainly hadn't been trusting of him at first, either, but he had been very reassuring that she would get away with her crime with his help – and she would have, if she had been stronger.

"Mr. Romanov?" came a nasally female voice.

His head snapped up from the deep thought he had been in, eyes almost narrowing into a glare that would kill before he recomposed himself. He wasn't sure why he even had a personal assistant like Michelle. To him, she was repulsive. She was giggly, unattractive, and not exactly intelligent. It was no wonder her boyfriend had left her after he had impregnated her. Who would want to have a child in the image of this woman?

"What is it, Ms. Renee?"

"I was wondering..." Now she looked nervous. Pathetic. "My daughter can't get home from school today, and I was hoping she could come to the office." She noticed his disapproving look and continued quickly, "It would only be for a few hours! I promise she won't get in the way!"

Frowning, he weighed the cons, as there were no pros to the situation. Naturally, the daughter would be annoying and probably just as stupid, and he couldn't have a ditz running around the office with all these important files and clients. He also couldn't have Michelle distracted because if she was, her slacking would skyrocket to whole new levels.

"No," he responded curtly. "I can't have her distracting you."

"Please?" Michelle batted her eyelashes in an attempt to be seductive, but it just made her look like she had something in her eye. His anger flared, but he kept himself calm. He couldn't have his anger float around and start a bad reputation. This woman was a gossip, and would probably tell anyone who set eyes on him everything she knew concerning him.

"No," he repeated. He decided to change the subject. "Did you finish filing the clientele papers?"

"Yes, sir." Michelle was pouting, her lip sticking out in a childlike manner. It worked in to the contrary by annoying him even more. "Sir, please let my daughter come by. She doesn't have a house key!"

It wasn't that he was giving in, but he was getting thoroughly annoyed and he wasn't quite sure how he was going to fend her off without losing his patience. He knew that if he let his true feelings for his personal assistant show through, it would become very difficult to find another one if she quit.

"Fine. But if she knocks even a single sheet of paper onto the floor, she's never coming by again and you'll be in a hell of a lot of trouble."

"Thank you, Mr. Romanov!" she exclaimed, giggling as though she was a child who had just received candy. "Thank you so much!" She batted her eyelashes again, as though that had been the deciding factor in her triumph.

But it wasn't really a triumph for her, was it? It was he who had won, because she had just left the room and he no longer had to deal with her.

He wished he could fire her, he really did. He would have if he could, but unfortunately, she could easily get him in trouble and he knew it. He had always been nothing short of cruel to her and paid her minimum wage, even though she could easily make twice as much at another firm. However, it wasn't those factors that enabled her to ruin him – it was the fact that she knew one of his nasty little secrets.

She had walked in on him with a client and found them having sex. He had allowed the woman, who had been poor, to pay him with her body. While Michelle didn't know the full story of it all, it would be enough to get him out of practice for a while. He had convinced her to stay quiet by having sex with her later – although it had been the most disgusting experience of his life. However, if Michelle had liked him before the incident, she loved him now.

The woman was so stupid. If only she knew that he would never care about her, ever – he would probably dispose of her before actually getting into a committed relationship with her.

After the door shut, he sighed and went back to his paperwork. He had more cases to review than he had had in a while. Not only did he have to take care of this disaster of a trial, but he had court again on Monday to try and reduce a man's sentence.

At about half-past five, he was ready to leave despite that his work had not been finished. It had been too long of a day and he wasn't interested in dealing with anybody for a long time. It was a Friday and he was anticipating relaxing over the weekend.

Just as he was packing up, the golden door to his office creaked open. He turned, expecting it to be Michelle. However, it was most certainly not that cow of a human.

A raven-haired girl, looking to be sixteen or seventeen stood in the doorway. She had beautiful light-olive skin and silver-green eyes that were widened in surprise. She was short, perhaps 5'4 and not quite done growing vertically yet, although her body was developed to satisfaction. Her chest was well-defined despite the fact that she wore a turtleneck shirt and her legs were long and curvy for her size, tightly outlined in her denim jeans.

"Oh! I guess this isn't the bathroom, then," the girl said, looking slightly embarrassed. "Sorry."

He allowed himself a smirk as he replied. "Not a problem. It's down the hall and to the left."

"Thanks," she responded, not even glancing at him. It wasn't a submissive attitude – it was just simple distraction.

As she was turning to leave, her cell phone rang. As the door shut, he heard her say, "Hey, babe!" Her tone was excited and happy, but exuded a calmness and maturity that he'd never heard in a young girl before.

As he left the office, his mind wouldn't stray from the beautiful girl he had just seen. He had never seen her before, so he assumed it was Michelle's daughter. A girl that young would have no other reason to be in the firm.

He found himself facing Michelle, who was hurrying around, eyes searching frantically.

She noticed him and suddenly slowed down. Her worried expression melted and she asked him, now sounding almost unconcerned, "Have you seen Cecilia?"

So that was her daughter's name. Cecilia. He liked it – much prettier than Michelle.

"No," he lied. It was just to make Michelle's life harder – he knew full well where the girl was. She was still in the bathroom, now washing her hands. It was as though he could sense her and her movements.

"Could you help me find her?" the older woman now asked. She was obviously taking this as an opportunity to bond with him, talk to him – maybe even give him the impression she was a good mother.

His first instinct was to say no and just leave, but he was curious about this girl he had just met, whether they had been introduced or not.

"Yes. Why don't you look outside? I'll look around the office." He knew he was deliberately misleading his personal assistant, but he found it rather amusing when she nodded.

As he began to walk in the direction of the bathroom, moving slowly so that she would leave before he arrived there, he wondered why she hadn't just called her daughter on her cell phone. Even if Michelle herself didn't have a cell phone, she could still contact her daughter using the office phone. It wasn't like she was deprived of the necessities of work.

He saw Cecilia coming before she saw him, and he again was surprised at how beautiful she was. He wanted her, he realized, for his own pleasure. It was unfortunate she was so young, because at this point even if she was willing anyone who knew would be able to file a lawsuit. Of course, if she were older and her mother wasn't in the picture…

She was looking something up on her phone as she walked and she didn't notice him until she bumped straight into him. He let it happen on purpose, but was nonetheless still surprised when he felt her body collide with his. Electric shock coursed through his body where they had touched.

He immediately caught her shoulders, as if to hold her against his body, but instead forced himself to simply catch her before she felt back. The phone clattered to the floor and the backing broke off, but she seemed more upset that she had run into him.

"Oh! I'm so sorry," she said, flinching at his touch. When he hesitated to release her, she squirmed for a split second before he realized what he was still doing and let her go.

"It's quite alright. Your mother was looking for you. I think she went outside."

"Thanks," Cecilia replied. "Alright, well, sorry again!" She picked up her phone and then quickly ran around him and towards the exit, calling for her mother as she went.

As he observed her leaving with her mother, he knew he had to have her, if only once. He wouldn't let himself live as long as he was going to live without having that body for himself.

However, he was positive he wouldn't be satisfied with just one time.