Surprise colored her face but she nodded nonetheless. "I'll get it done as soon as possible."
"Thank you."
"I'm sorry for whatever problems I've caused tonight."
"You didn't cause them. This was all me."
He prayed Lena would forgive him and give him a chance to try again. Thankfully, he had a trans-Atlantic flight to figure out a way to make this right.
Chapter Six
It had been the longest flight of his life. Now sitting in the backseat of his car, Yuri rubbed the back of his aching neck. He had a few short minutes until they reached Lena's apartment. He still had no idea what the hell he was going to say.
On one hand, he was irritated that she had jumped to such a nasty conclusion. Did she really think so little of him? Did she honestly believe he could be so cruel?
On the other hand, he had seen the glossy photographs posted to his company's social media pages. They didn't look very innocent. Though he considered Tanya a friend, it was clear from the expression on her face that she thought differently. It wasn't difficult to understand how Lena had arrived at her conclusion.
He could only imagine how hurt she must have been to sit at that damn restaurant waiting for him. He still didn't understand how she had missed the email from Anna but it wouldn't be the first time correspondence had disappeared into the online ether. How she'd ended up with Ty Weston still confused him. He hadn't even realized they were friends. It occurred to him there was a lot he didn't know about Lena Cruz. Hopefully Anna's dossier would fill in those blanks.
Picking up his phone, he tormented himself again by scrolling through the photos on her timeline. She'd been a very busy girl last night. The photo of a half-naked, tattooed male dancer licking lime and salt off her neck drove him crazy. It had been snapped at a gay bar but the way the man looked at Lena told him he wasn't playing for the home team. The man looked like he wanted to flip up her skirt and fuck her right there on the bar.
The photos of Lena knocking back shots with a group of friends would have been amusing if he hadn't been so worried about her. He cringed at the idea of how much alcohol she must have imbibed. Only the knowledge that Vivian would never leave Lena in danger soothed his raw nerves. If there had been any question of Lena's health, Vivian would have demanded Nikolai take them to an emergency room.
But Vivian's text from earlier had assured him that Lena was home and in her own bed. The short, snippy tone of Vivian's message told him he was on her shit-list. Getting off of it wouldn't be easy. She was so damn loyal to her friends. It would take a miracle to convince her not to hate him for hurting Lena.
The car pulled into the parking lot of the complex. He exhaled slowly before unlatching his safety belt and climbing out of the backseat. Derek stood at the ready and glanced around the quiet complex. "You want me to come in, Boss?"
Yuri shook his head. "I should probably do this on my own."
"I don't know. If Lena wings you, Dimitri is going to have my ass." The bodyguard said it with a joking smile but it didn't ease Yuri's anxiety any.
Yuri clapped Derek on the arm and walked toward the building. Jake followed him down the sidewalk but stayed back from the front door, giving Yuri some privacy. He was suddenly very glad he'd had a non-disclosure agreement inserted in their contracts. Lena was probably going to tear into him when she came to the door.
Gathering his courage, he knocked three times and stepped back so he could be seen clearly through the peephole. He heard the deadbolt flip and his heart raced. The door opened to reveal a frowning Vivian. For a long time, they stared at one another. Finally, she sighed dramatically and stepped aside. "You'd better come in."
"Thank you." He entered the apartment but didn't dare go farther than the entryway. Glancing around, he noticed the bohemian décor. Everything looked so cozy and welcoming. Unfortunately the look on Vivian's face wasn't.
"You're a real jerk." She addressed him in Russian. "I don't know why you led her on like that but it was cruel and mean. I've never seen her cry like that. Never."
Yuri winced. "It wasn't like that, Vivian. It was a mix-up. An honest-to-God mistake."
"Well, don't tell me! Tell her."
"Will you see if she'll speak to me?"
Vivian glanced at the hallway. "She's going to be a real beast with that hangover but I'll see if she'll talk to you."
Vivian left him standing there and disappeared into the room on the left. He strained to hear but their voices were muffled by the half-closed door. When Vivian came out some time later, she gestured to the couch. "You'd better get comfortable. It's going to be a while."
He didn't think he could sit still so he paced instead. Vivian grabbed some books from the coffee table and stuffed them inside her backpack. "Are you leaving?"
"I'm not sticking around for this shouting match."
He knew enough about Vivian's family history to understand why she was sensitive to couples yelling at one another. "I'm not going to yell at her."
"I wasn't talking about you." She hefted her bag onto her back. "Just a fair warning—Nikolai is in a really bad mood after last night. He was groped and kissed and had his ass smacked by about five different drunk guys before we got Lena out of there. It was mayhem."
"Shit." Yuri closed his eyes and wondered if this situation could get any worse. With Nikolai's background, he could only imagine the awful memories being groped and manhandled had dredged up for his friend. "I am sorry that you two were dragged into this."
She stared at him for an unnerving moment and then left without a word. It was another five minutes before Lena finally emerged from her bedroom. She looked like hell but he wasn't about to tell her that. Her dark hair was pulled into a low, messy bun. A rumpled cotton camisole and stained, ripped yoga pants completed her ensemble.
Her angry gaze seared him. Gulping, he took a step toward her but no more. "Yelena, please, let me explain."
She held up a hand. "I need coffee and something for this damn headache before you start with the groveling."
A flutter of hope invaded his chest. "Where do you keep your coffee?"
"You can manage that on your own? Are you sure you don't need to email one of your assistants for help?"
The barb hit its mark. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have left it to my assistant. I wasn't—"
She put up her hand again. "I said coffee and pain killers first."
"Right." He followed her into the kitchen. While she dug around in a basket for some acetaminophen, he found the little cups for the coffee maker. She hadn't been far from the mark with her assistant come-back but he did still remember how to make a cup of coffee.
While she washed down the tablets with some water, he made two cups of coffee and carried them to the dining room table where she waited for him. He found a spoon in a drawer and a bottle of flavored creamer in the refrigerator
Sitting across from her, he watched her stab her spoon into the sugar bowl on the table and dump the heaping scoops into her steaming hot cup. She splashed in a liberal amount of creamer and stirred the syrupy sweet slurry. He wasn't sure how anyone could drink coffee that sweet and sipped his cup of strong black coffee.