The Russian's Stubborn Lover (The Fedosov Family Series Book 1) (2 page)

Dmitry Fedosov exited the elevator, focused on gaining the privacy of his office so that he could privately vent his frustration over the morning’s negotiations.

DAV Mining was one of the world’s largest producers of gold and platinum. With holdings all across Russia, they had the latest technologies and the world’s leading chemist and geologists working for them.

With the sudden death of Anton Fedosov, the patriarch of the Fedosov family, Dmitry had assumed the reins of the company and all the problems that went with it. That had been ten days ago, and sometimes it felt like years. Dmitry had arrived back from his trip to the US, anxious to get back to work, but had been met at the airport with the news that his father had passed away while Dmitry and his brother were still in the air.

Right before his father’s untimely heart attack and death, negotiations had been underway between an American mining company and themselves. The negotiations revolved around a proposed intellectual sharing process whereby three members of each company would travel to the opposing country for a period of one year. The owners of the American-based company were old classmates of Dmitry from his time in the US attending college. Like himself, they had inherited their father’s businesses upon their deaths and were not trying to continue to international, cultural exchange program begun by their fathers many years ago.

Each company was to send a financial analyst, a senior member of the research and exploration team, and a supervisor from an active mining operation. Notes would be compared, business practices would be analyzed, and new technologies would be shared in an effort to help both countries stay ahead of the Chinese.

Dmitry was all for the exchange, and had already chosen the three men which would be heading to America at the end of the week. The problems had arisen when the American company had identified their exchange personnel – two men and one woman. The woman was the problem in Dmitry’s opinion. She was barely twenty-five, and while her dossier was impressive and her accomplishments many, her picture alone had set of warning bells in his head.

Her picture showed a young woman with golden hair and the brightest blue eyes he had ever seen. Her facial features looked somewhat familiar, but then so did many American women. Dmitry had been more interested in her training, than her looks.

As the financial analyst of the team, she would be working closely with him and his board of directors. The directors of the DAV Mining company were old school gentlemen who believed that women belonged at home, nursing babies, and doing the laundry. Not in the boardroom of multi-billionaire companies!

The notion might be considered old-fashioned by some, but that was the way it was in Russia and Dmitry had just spent the last three hours trying to pave the way for this unknown beauty.

He had seen the appraising eyes of the board members as her picture had flashed across the large screen in the boardroom. Many of the members believed that a wife was to be cherished and cared for, but keeping a mistress around was also an acceptable way of life and as long as everyone was discreet, no one would complain about it. The status quo would remain untouched.

Dmitry’s own father had kept a mistress in St. Petersburg, and his mother had known, but pretended otherwise. The woman had been bold enough to attend his father’s funeral, and he had stifled the urge to have her bodily removed when his mother had made a point to quietly speak to her and offer her sympathy. Dmitry and his younger brother, Alexey, had been floored to say the least.

Dmitry had quickly moved the woman from his father’s apartments, settling a nice sum of cash upon her and advising her to disappear. She had thanked him kindly and three weeks later, Dmitry was pleased to have heard nothing more from that quarter.

Entering his office, he slammed the door shut and jerked at the tie that wrapped itself around his neck like a tourniquet. He had left the boardroom in a fury, demanding their compliance and assistance with making the American woman feel comfortable in their midst. He had also advised anyone who was unable to do so, to step down from his seat at the table.

He hated having to pull rank on people who had known him his entire life. However, he desperately wanted access to some of the American technologies and the only way to gain that was through this exchange program.

His chairman had taken the opportunity to remind Dmitry that he needed to settle down and find a nice, conservative wife; one who knew her place and would be an asset to the company. Since returning to Russia, he had dealt with his father’s death and tried to assert his authority in all parts of the company – and it was working. All except his single status.

The board had been monitoring his activities carefully, more so because his younger brother had simply thumbed his nose at their directives and left to party it up in Moscow. Alexey should be by his side, helping navigate the massive company they had both inherited, but at the age of twenty-two, he was sowing his wild oats. Dmitry had strongly suggested he do so out of the knowing eyes and ears of the directors, and Alexey had willingly headed to Moscow.

Dmitry planned on letting him amuse himself for a few weeks, and then reeling him back in and making him work for a change. Their mother was caught up in her own activities, and couldn’t be bothered with anything her sons were doing. Dmitry checked in on her every couple of weeks and did his best to make sure her lifestyle didn’t suffer with his father gone.

Flinging himself into his chair, he turned and looked out over the expanse of the city. St. Petersburg was one of the world’s greatest cities in his opinion, and he wondered if the American woman would be suitably impressed upon her arrival. The two other Americans would be travelling into the mountains and spending their stay at the various mining operations scattered there.

The woman, Maria Julia Thompson, would be staying in St. Petersburg. Dmitry had arranged for her to stay at the family estate, as single young women did not live alone in this part of Russia. Not if they didn’t want every man within a ten-mile radius knocking upon their door. Russia still held to many old world principles, and the protection of one’s young women was high on the priority list.

He hoped that she was not one of those partying girls he had witnessed on his various trips to the US.  Dmitry had travelled throughout the US and Canada, observing various mining operations and taking notes to bring back to Russia. He had spent the majority of his early twenties observing first-hand how American young women acted.

As most single young men, with a healthy sex drive, he had frequented the local nightclubs and been a willing participant in many one-night stands. The American women had flocked over him and vied for his attention. He had enjoyed their companionship, but that was America.

Here in Russia, single young women did not visit nightclubs by themselves, nor did they sleep with a different man each night of the week. Modesty, decorum, and self-control were the mottos of every Russian woman, and failure to conform would find the trespassers labeled as loose or worse. His board of directors would be watching her actions, just waiting for her to mess up so that she could be sent back home. He didn’t intend to give her the chance to mess up.

Pushing his intercom button, he waited for his secretary to answer, “Mrs. Rusnik? Could you please come in here for a moment?”

“Yes sir.”

Dmitry waited for his ever-efficient secretary to enter. She was an older woman, in her early forties with two teenage children and a husband who also worked for the company in human resources.

In an effort to ease the communication gap between themselves and the American headed their way, he had asked everyone in the office to start using English amongst themselves in the office. It had been viewed as a great hardship to some of the older workers, but his secretary had seen it as a challenge and had been doing a remarkable job so far.

“Sir?” Mrs. Rusnik asked, taking the seat in front of Dmitry’s desk.

“We have received the information about the Americans who will be arriving in the next few days.”

“Good. Would you like me to arrange a private office for him sir?”

“That was what I wanted to speak with you about. As you know, I spent the morning in the boardroom with the directors.”

“Yes, sir. You were in there quite a long time. Was there a problem?”

“That would depend on who you asked. The American who will be joining us is female. A twenty-five year old. Single. Female.”

Mrs. Rusnik said nothing as she let the significance of that information sink in. “So, not a private office.”

“No. I would like her to have an office where she can work, but where you can also keep an eye on her. I hate to impose, but I believe she may need a babysitter while she makes an adjustment to how women comport themselves here.”

Mrs. Rusnik nodded her head, “I understand. Having two teenage daughters at home sir, I will do my best to steer her in the proper direction so that her time here is not filled with conflict.”

“Thank you. I trust you will let me know if there are any problems.”

“Yes sir, I will certainly do that. Would you like for me to arrange to meet her at the airport myself?”

Dmitry hadn’t thought about the airport yet and nodded, “Yes, I believe that will give you a chance to observe her and start her out as she needs to continue.”

“I’ll make the arrangements. If you could forward the flight information to my terminal, I’ll take care of everything.”

“I’ll do it now. I’ll be heading up to the mines for the next few weeks. I want to make sure the other Americans are situated and given access to the information they will need. I would tell you to contact Alexey if any problems come up, but you might be better off calling my father back from the dead. I swear, I don’t know where his head is sometimes. He seems more interested in playing around than working.”

“He’s young and I don’t believe he ever saw himself as an integral part of this company prior to your father’s death, God rest his soul.”

“Well, that was then. Now, I need his help. I’m going to have a long conversation with him upon my return. That is, if I can actually get him into the office at the same time I am.”

Mrs. Rusnik smiled, having known the brothers for many years. She wasn’t the least surprised that Alexey was more interested in playing than working. The younger brother was full of life and energy, with a different model on his arm each week, and his face plastered across the tabloids for his outrageous acts.

Dmitry on the other hand was the reserved brother; always following in his father’s footsteps and way too serious most of the time. Mrs. Rusnik headed back to her desk, wondering just what it would take to wake up the sleeping beast that she could sense lie beneath his calm exterior. Dmitry Fedosov needed something to joust him from his routine, boring life and force him to act like the twenty-eight year old, single man he was.

Chapter 3

Julia Thompson stepped off the plane in St. Petersburg and inhaled her first breath of Russian air. She had always wanted to travel the world, but had never left the states until now.

When the exchange program had been first advertised, she had jumped at the opportunity and had only secretly hoped that she would be the one they picked. Her counterpart, David Jenkins, was not at all happy about the company’s choice and had made the last three weeks hell for her at work.

He had even gone so far as to follow her home one afternoon, trying to get her to withdraw her name so that he could be the one picked to spend the next year in Russia. Julia had all but laughed in his face.

At the age of 25, she was brilliant and had made the company more money in the two years she had been working there, than the nine years David had worked for them. Unfortunately, David thought of himself as a walking God amongst women, and Julia had discovered first-hand that keeping him at arm’s length was the only way to stomach the obnoxious man.

He had asked her out repeatedly, and it wasn’t until she had pointed out the section in the employee handbook about fraternization that he had backed off. That had not won her any points in his eyes, but Julia could take care of herself and she found that she enjoyed gaining an advantage over the man at every chance given her.

Thank goodness she wouldn’t have to put up with him for the next twelve months!

As she walked off the ramp and into the concourse, it suddenly occurred to her that all of the signs were written in Cyrillic – problem number one – Julia didn’t read Cyrillic. She didn’t even speak any Russian.

It had been a whirlwind of activity, from the time she was notified she had been chosen, right up until the day she got on the plane. She would have loved to spend several months taking one of those
Rosetta Stone
language courses, but there had been no time.  The company had approved a Russian tutor or interpreter for her if she felt she needed it to complete her job.

They had assured her that Mr. Fedosov, the owner of DAV Mining, had been pleased to inform them that all of his key employees spoke English and would be happy to communicate with the Americans using their own language.

Julia was always up for a new adventure, and looked forward to learning all kinds of new things. She started following the mass of humanity, hoping that they were all headed towards the baggage claim and possibly a bathroom. As she descended the escalator, she was pleased to see an older woman standing right there holding a sign with her name on it:
Maria Julia Thompson.

Julia approached her and pointed to herself and then the sign, “That’s me.” She smiled at the woman who promptly smiled back and shook her hand.

“Welcome to Russia. I am Mrs. Rusnik and I am here to pick you up and help you get settled.”

“It’s very nice to meet you. Let me collect my luggage and then I’ll be ready to go.” She was amazed at how well the woman spoke English. She hoped other’s would be so accommodating as she sensed learning to speak Russian was going to take a lot of time and practice.