Chapter 3

The twinkle of the door bell caused Ivy to jerk away from the wall she had been leaning on and stare into the shocked face of her father.

"Daddy! Daddy I can explain. Just um..." Ivy swallowed hard as she looked at her father.

"I don't think I really need an explanation, but an introduction would be nice. He must be important to you if you're willing to risk leaving the door unlocked." Her father crossed his arms as he spoke.

Nikolai went ridged at the sound of Cole's voice and knew there was no way to get out of this one. Christ if he were in Cole's shoes he would have already killed the guy standing between his daughters legs. Speaking of legs, Ivy's were still wrapped around him.

Great. He thought as he untangled himself from her death grip. Turning slowly from Ivy, Nikolai faced his friend and occasional business partner.

"Niko? Ivy what the hell is going on?" Disbelief and anger colored Coles voice as his eyes bore into Ivy.

"Don't you take that tone with her Cole." Growled Nikolai. "This whole mess is my fault and I fully take the blame and any ass kicking you feel like dishing out." Nikolai said as he ran his hand through his recently disheveled hair.

"Wait. You two know each other?" Ivy said in confusion as she hopped down from the counter.

"Of course we do. Niko and I are friends, not to mention he's your silent backer for this place." As Cole spoke he turned his head in Ivy's direction.

Ivy was stunned into silence at hearing her father's comment. Nikolai looked away from Cole at Ivy when she didn't immediately start screaming at him for being the biggest prick she has ever met.

As Nikolai looked into Ivy's eyes he watched as if in slow motion as Ivy's gold flecked brown eyes were slowly taken over by the gold, leaving her eyes an eerie catlike yellow. Just as he was about to try and explain things to Ivy he heard Cole swear under his breath and knew things were about to get ugly.

"Let me see if I've got this straight..." Started Ivy with a forced smile.

"Well, kids as much as I would love to stick around and see Niko have his skin flayed from his bones, I'm going to let you two deal with this on your own." Said Cole as he turned and walked out the door.

"Cole wait! Don't you even want an explanation?" Questioned Nikolai as he watched Cole shaking his head as he walked away. Somehow he knew that Cole leaving as quickly as he did was not a good sign.

Nikolai slowly turned back towards Ivy as the heavy feeling of guilt began to weigh him down. Facing her made it no easier for him. Ivy was like reading an open book. Her beautiful face holding every damning line that he just helped write.

"Why did you come here? Is this some kind of sick way you get off or do you not understand the meaning of silent-backer?" Fumed Ivy.

"I came here because I was curious about the little bakery that had suddenly tripled its revenues. It was never my intention to get physical with the owner of the bakery. Besides I had no idea what the owner even looked like before now." Explained Nikolai.

"So what, you thought that you would come in here and start making changes? That I would just lie down and let you fucking take over my company? No wait, you didn't expect me to lie down at all. You just put me up on the counter and waited for me to spread my legs for you. Well congratulations you almost succeeded." Ivy breathed out roughly as she finished in embarrassment.