Contract Marriage: Married to My Ex-Husband's Alpha Stepfather [BL]

Chapter 179: I Still Look At You With Eyes That Want You

[FROLO]

Katya looked at the alpha like he had heard something that he shouldn’t have. Yet the man stared at him, a soft smile playing on his lips like he was not playing games with Katya. This wasn’t something that Katya had ever thought of, honestly.

And frankly, the omega was glad of it.

"You can’t back out after this, Vladimir," Katya reminded, as if he was making sure the man knew that there were no take-backs to this little agreement they were making on such a horrifying day.

"I know," Sergei began, looking at Katya like he needed to make sure the omega trusted him this time.

"I’ll go to the event, Solnyshka," Sergei added, and Katya let out a sigh of relief.

"Awesome... now that we are here, I have something I wanted to ask," Katya trailed off, the uncertainty on his face making Sergei sit up.

He didn’t want Katya looking like that, but he couldn’t exactly tell the omega what to feel and what not to feel. Maybe there was more to this, right?

"Are the trolls still after you?" Sergei asked suddenly.

Katya stiffened.

"How do you know about that?" the omega asked flatly.

"Yaroslav mentioned it once in passing," Sergei said, like it was nothing. Like he hadn’t just given himself up in the dumbest of ways.

Katya had assumed that Sergei had been the one to deal with the trolls, and a part of him always had wanted to say something.

But now hearing it like this?

It was different.

The man was confirming what Katya had been suspecting for weeks and months, yet hadn’t had enough proof of.

"Oh," Katya said, not delving further.

He didn’t want to think of that part of his life, not here. He had just started to be happier again, and to dive back in would just make him sadder than he could afford to be. He couldn’t waste his second chance at life.

"What is it you wanted to ask, Solnyshka?" Sergei encouraged, not pushing the troll agenda.

He could see that Katya was trying to move on, and frankly, Sergei was happy about that. It was enough that one of them was happy and living life well.

"It’s about work," Katya said, and Sergei’s face didn’t change.

Instead, he just looked at Katya, listening, waiting to hear what the omega had to say.

"Am I incompetent?" Katya asked suddenly, his face so serious.

Sergei snorted, hard at that.

"I’m sorry, but where the fuck did you hear that?" Sergei asked, trying to hide his smile.

It was almost hilarious to imagine that Katya Romanov, the man who showed up working late nights, would ever be considered incompetent. It just made no sense.

But clearly, the question stemmed from nowhere.

"Did Anya say that to you?" Sergei asked, amusedly, as if it were a non-issue.

And truly, it was.

"No... You did," Katya said.

Sergei froze.

"What?" the alpha breathed like he was trying to remember when he had ever said that to Katya. He’d never complained about the omega’s work, so where the hell was he getting such stupid assumptions from?

"Me?" Sergei asked as he looked at Katya, confused.

"You keep taking on my workload, yet my pay is still as high. I mean, get it, you own the establishment and can decide what to do and what not to do.

"But if I’m incompetent, I’d much rather have you fire me or demote me instead of hearing all my work," Katya complained, and Sergei smiled.

The alpha actually smiled at the annoyed chairman in his office.

It was almost hilarious how things had been happening lately, and what a switch today had been.

The alpha still had his own delusions about the lunch pack, and now he was getting a Katya who was thinking he was incompetent because of something Sergei was doing, and it was interesting.

"Solnyshka..." Sergei trailed off, but seemingly, Katya wasn’t done.

"I feel like a wallflower in this building. I come to the office, just to find all my work sorted. I try to get them back, and there’s nothing it can do to get them back, so I just stay straight reports that I should have written be published.

"...Work that I should have done, completed. Even in meetings feel like I’m just ornamental. I’m not complaining, but you know what I mean," Katya said flatly, like he couldn’t believe that this was happening.

But again, deep down, he knew that he would probably never get the chance to speak to Sergei this openly.

The man was a ghost even when he was at the office through and through.

Katya had noticed he never left the office early, and each time Katya came as early as he could, the alpha’s office was always having its lights on.

"You’re not a wallflower, Solnyshka. You’re not ornamental either," Sergei said with conviction that had Katya raising a brow at him.

His words and his actions were certainly different because that was what Katya had been feeling these past weeks.

Maybe he needed to do better, but where the fuck was he supposed to begin when the man who was supposed to mentor him or let him do his work was doing it all on his own?

"Righttt," Katya said, like he didn’t believe a word the man was saying.

"I’m sorry," Sergei said, and Katya stared at him, surprised.

It wasn’t as shocking as the first time Sergei had apologized to him, but it certainly was something that Katya was not expecting.

"I just... You had a lot going on in your life these past few months. The divorce, the heat, everything else. I was just being a good boss," Sergei said, adding the last bit quietly.

And Katya looked at him, trying to understand.

This man had already saved him, more than once.

He had already fixed whatever was wrong in Katya’s life. Yet he was still determined to keep fixing it for him?

"Do you not trust me?" Katya asked genuinely, and he could swear he saw the pure look of horror flash into Sergei’s eyes for a split second.

It was not what Katya had expected, but then again, maybe he could add it to the shortlist of things Katya Romanov hadn’t been excited to deal with today.

"I do. Never question that," Sergei said suddenly.

Katya stared at him blankly.

"Well, you sure have a good way for showing Vladimir," Katya retorted, before he realized what he’d said and how he’d said it.

His shoulder slumped suddenly, and Sergei just sighed.

"I won’t hoard your work anymore, Solnyshka," Sergei said casually, like the omega hadn’t almost snapped at him. If anything, his insistence on the term hoard had Katya glaring at him unamused.

Sergei stared at Katya for a long second before it finally dawned on him just how ridiculous this conversation was.

Then unexpectedly, Sergei burst out laughing.

Katya watched, confused, before he joined in.

Because really, what was the worst that could happen?

"I really won’t, I promise. But your workload will still be lower than the usual volume. Not because you are incompetent or because you think I don’t trust you. But because I am back to work.

"I can’t let you do all the work while I stay here for nothing now, can I?" Sergei said he was presenting a reasonable defense.

Katya just stared at him, like he didn’t trust a word this man said, even when he already did.

"But—"

"I trust you, Solnyshka. I only ask that you trust me, too," Sergei said.

Katya stared at him, his eyes softening for a moment.

"I trust you. I have for a while now," Katya said calmly.

Sergei let out a breath of relief, like he had managed to cross the starting line of a war with so many battles lined up for him.

Maybe it wasn’t as bad a journey, right?

"Anyway, I have to get back to work now. See you at the event, and try to not to look like Sergei Moskowsky," Katya said, getting up.

The alpha stared at him, confused about what that meant.

"I’ll only bid on Vladimir," Katya reminded.

Sergei smiled warmly, watching in silence as Katya left his office.

The office grew quiet after, and Sergei leaned back into his chair, a sincere, warm smile on his face.

"Vladimir," the Alpha repeated, fiddling with the chopsticks on the empty lunch pack.