Free His Ward by Lena Matthews

not going to discuss this right now.” Misha picked up his remote and pivoted his chair completely around so he was facing the back wall. He clicked a button on the remote, which caused the wall to slide apart and reveal a large screen. “We have work to do. Everything else can wait until later.” When work wasn’t pressing and he was a hell of a lot calmer. Tionne was getting a reprieve…be it ever so brief.
    * * * *
    Several hours and two tense phone calls later, Misha stood outside Tionne’s condo doing something he hadn’t done ever since she’d lived there. He was knocking at her door and doing his best to wait patiently for her to answer. The key was practically burning a hole in his pocket, mocking him for not using it, but Misha hadn’t come to fight. He wanted to talk, and even though it went against his baser urges, he waited the two minutes it took for her to finally open the door.
    When she did, it wasn’t all the way, just enough so he could see her, but not enough for him to come all the way in. Despite it being only a little past nine, she was dressed as if she were ready for bed, in lime-green shorts covered with coffee cups and polka dots paired with a coordinating hot-pink tank top with the same coffee cup design. If it weren’t for the pissed-off look on her face, Misha would say she looked downright adorable.
    “Wow.” Tionne clasped her hands together. “I suddenly feel the need to pray.”
    “Why is that?”
    “Because the world must be coming to an end. You didn’t barge in.”
    “If quitting was your way of trying to get my attention, it worked.”
    She placed one hand on her hip and the other on the doorknob. “That wasn’t the point, but I’m not going to say I’m sad about the outcome.”
    “Are you going to invite me in, or do you really want to do this in the hallway?”
    Tionne stepped back. “Of course you can come in. You do own it, after all.”
    The bitterness she used to fling his words from the previous night back at him hit their mark dead-on. “If ownership is the only reason you’re allowing me to enter, it might be best if I stay out here.”
    Tionne released her hold on the door and turned around and began to walk farther into the room. “If you want to come in, come in. It doesn’t really matter one way or the other to me.”
    Misha bit back a curse as he came in the room. If this was a sign of what he would have to deal with for the next hour or so, it was safe to say it wasn’t going to be a pleasant conversation. Irritated, he shut the door behind him but didn’t lock it. With his guards stationed in the hall, he knew they’d be fine, but he shut it so he and Tionne could have some privacy. He followed her into the living room, where she took a seat on the couch. He watched as she picked up the remote control and pointed it at the TV. For a second, he thought she was going to turn up the program she’d been watching in an attempt to tune him out, but to his surprise, she turned it off instead, then set the remote next to her and looked over at him with clear disdain in her eyes. “Well?”
    Misha had been prepared to deal with a yelling Tionne or a pouting one, not this cool person in front of him. It threw him off a bit. “You want to tell me why you quit?”
    “I thought it was pretty obvious. I don’t want to work for you anymore.”
    “That part was obvious,” he agreed as he slipped off his suit jacket and folded it in half. He laid it over the back of her armless slipper chair, then placed his hands in his pockets as he faced her. “But I want to know why.”
    The look she shot him was scathing. “Because you’re a liar, and I don’t want to work for a liar.”
    “Then that leaves every job in the free world out.” Misha held his temper in check, but just barely. “Planning on opening your own business now?”
    “Is everything a joke to you?”
    “Do I look amused?”
    “No, you look like an asshole.”
    Misha ran his hand