Ace opens the door to his Lamborghini and helps me into his car. I can tell he is annoyed, but he's trying to stay calm for my sake. We drive away from the building and I place my hand on his shoulder.
'It’s okay, Ace. It could have been a lot worse.' I frown.
'A lot worse! Zurielle, they implied you were a prostitute. Who the hell would say such a thing?' He asks himself.
A few minutes of silence goes by.
'You are very quiet, is there something you know that I don’t?' He asks.
'I may have gotten into an altercation with one of your receptionists a while back, who suggested I slept with you for the job, and that I was here for your... pleasure. I was so angry and hurt, that I threw my cold tea in her face. It wouldn't surprise me if she contacted the media.'
Ace is quiet for a moment. I can’t bring myself to look at him; his knuckles on the steering wheel have whitened from gripping the wheel in anger.
'Her name?' He asks, sternly.
'C-Carol.' I stutter.
'Part of me always knew Carol would be trouble at some point. She is close friends with Grace. She may have instigated this for firing Grace. And because Grace tried to set me up with her last year and I turned her down. I will fire her first thing on Monday.'
'Are you sure that’s a good idea? Not that I want her working for you either. I just don’t want her to cause you or the company more issues out of spite,' I point out.
'We will sleep on it and I will decide whether or not to fire her when I speak to her,' he suggests. I nod in agreement.
Monday morning, we arrive at work together holding hands. As usual we can’t keep our eyes off each other, and the staff can’t stop watching us either.
Inside the elevator, it's just us two. As soon as the doors close, Ace pins me up against the wall and seductively kisses my neck and bare shoulder.
Jumping up, I wrap my legs around his waist, our kiss becomes more intense and more passionate. Ace's hand fumbles with the buttons until he finds and presses the Emergency Stop Button. The elevator comes to an abrupt stop, along with our intense kiss as we breathe for air.
Ace has a mischievous look on his face, his fingers trail up my legs, and he pulls my dress up around my waist. We keep eye contact and he pulls my underwear off and places them in the pocket of his jacket.
Kissing again, my hands make their way to Ace’s belt, and I unbuckle his pants and pull them down as quick as possible. I'm just as desperate as he is to have him inside of me. Ace unzips the back of my dress and pulls it down exposing my breasts.
He thrusts himself inside of me and my fingernails dig into his back, and he thrusts harder and faster. Our eyes are ablaze with passion, we both release, and I moan, helplessly.
Both panting, he tucks my hair behind my ears and kisses my lips. I caress his chest and enjoy the moment we are having. I unwrap my legs from around his waist and pull my dress back on. Ace fixes his clothes, I retrieve my black lace underwear from his pocket and put them on.
Once we’re neat and tidy again, he puts his hand around my waist and presses a button to activate the elevator. The doors ding open, and we find June standing there with a confused look on her face.
'I thought the elevator was broken. I have been pushing the button for the last ten minutes, but it seems to be working now,' she shrugs. We try to contain our laughter.
'I'll make sure to put it in the maintenance log,' Ace says nonchalantly. As soon as we close his office door, we both laugh and sit at our desks and begin our work.
An hour later, June enters the office with paperwork for me. Ace stops her before she leaves the room.
'June, can you find Carol for me, and send her up here for a meeting, please?'
'Yes, Mr Brightly,' she nods and leaves the room.
'How about you go make yourself a coffee, while I deal with Carol?' Ace suggests. I nod, stand up from my seat and leave the room.
In the kitchenette, I make myself a coffee. Carol exits the lift and walk towards Ace’s office. Twenty minutes go by and she is still in there. Tapping my fingers on my coffee mug, I decide to walk around and chat to my colleagues.
It's a good idea because I end up fixing some computer problems that some of them are having. Most of them congratulate me on my performance at the show and tell me how cool it was that I performed in Nessa Knight’s place.
'I watched the interview on the news. You’re so lucky to have a man who literally took a bullet for you. I never would have believed in a million years that Mr Brightly, who used to be so cold and arrogant would ever do such a heroic thing for another person. How did you do it? How did you change Mr Brightly? And make him care, and love?' Ally asks.
My colleagues look at me, curious for my answer. Did everyone really once think so harshly of Ace?
'Mr Brightly was always caring and loving. The problem was, no one gave him a chance. Everyone was cold and arrogant to him. He eventually just gave what he received, lost faith in humanity, and closed himself off. If people nurtured his kindness from the beginning, he wouldn’t have put on a cold, heartless front. All I did was bring what he already had back to the surface, and I intend to keep it that way.'
Everyone is taken back by my words; a lot of them look away in guilt. They had all purposely ignored him or avoided him before I came along. I used to hear them whispering negative untrue rumours about him, before I was properly employed here. They, and his family are all guilty to a degree, of making him that way. I can see their regret in their eyes.
'Maybe next time you walk past him, say hi and smile for a change. Or stand in the elevator instead of scattering away like mice...' I frown. Some of them nod, and Carol finally leaves Ace’s office.
'Anyway, I’ll see you around. I need to get back to work.' Closing Ace’s door behind me, I walk around his desk and sit on his lap.
'How did it all go?' I ask.
'At this point in time, she is not fired. I’ve given her a warning. She denied spreading the rumours to media. She was extremely nervous and couldn’t stop stuttering,' he frowns.
'Well at least she is aware you know about it. That will be enough to stop her spreading false rumours around.'
'True. It’s lunchtime, and I am famished for you.' He whispers in my ear, nipping my earlobe.
'Ace.' I giggle, take his hand, and pull him from his seat.
'Let’s go have a proper lunch.' I smile.
As we leave his office, he scoops me up.
'Ace, put me down.' I giggle.
'We are going out for lunch!' He yells, beaming, while everyone looks on, humoured. In the elevator, he gently places me down, and I slap his shoulder.
'Did you have to do that in front of everyone?' I giggle.
'Yes, and I intend on doing it again, sometime,' he grins. I roll my eyes.
'Where are we going for lunch?' I ask.
'Cafe Charm,' he smiles.
'Great! I’d like to see Hailey and Mr Fulton.'
'I thought you would,' he smiles.
Hailey’s face lights up when she sees me enter the cafe; she runs up to me and almost knocks me over.
'It’s sooo good to see you,’ she smiles.
'I’m happy to see you too.'
'Hello, Mr Brightly,' she smiles.
'You know, you can just call me Ace,' he frowns.
'Yeah, but it sounds so much sexier when I say Mr Brightly. Does Zurielle call you that in the bedroom?' She asks.
'Hailey!' I growl, and Ace tries not to laugh. My cheeks are flushed with embarrassment. I turn to face Ace.
'Don’t encourage her behaviour by laughing,’ I growl at him, and he instantly contains his laugh and tries to stop smirking.
'That’s better...'
Upon waking, the room is full of smoke I wave my hands around trying to fan the smoke away from my face. I'm coughing. I realise I'm in my bed. Quickly, I jump out and open the door, where flames are blazing throughout the house.'Mum! Dad!' I scream. Their bedroom door is locked. I use my body weight to bang into the door. I fall to the ground when I force it open. When I look up, I'm no longer in my house. I'm surrounded by trees.'Zurielle!' Ace calls out. I stand up. It's dark, and all I can see are trees.'Ace!' I call out to him. Relief washes over me as, Ace steps out from the trees, we smile at eachother, and suddenly a gunshot goes off.The colour drains from Ace’s face as he presses his hand against his abdomen. Removing his hand, he looks down. Blood. He has been shot.'Ace!' I scream as I run towards him. He falls to his knees, revealing Red Back standing behind him with a gun.'No!' I scream. He grabs me by the hair and pushes me back. Instead of landing on dirt, I land i
We tell the story of how Ace and I met and our other run-ins. Libby laughs at our regular run-ins, especially at me kneeing Ace in the balls in the stairwell.'This is a very romantic and hilarious story. It sounds like this is also new to you, Ace; learning to socialise and being in a relationship. Is there a reason why you stop pursuing relationships with people?' Libby asks, focusing on Ace.Placing my hand on Ace’s back, I give him a nod and an empathetic smile.'It’s not just me who needs to heal, Ace,' I say reassuringly.He nods and sighs, and tells Libby about the horrible upbringing he had with his mother, and his first serious long-term relationship with Ava, who his mother convinced him to date. Then how after a while his mother convinced him to propose to her, only to find her cheating on him. And then how his mother passed away, but not before reminding him he was a disappointment to her.'Since that day, I haven’t pursued a relationship; friendship or romance,' Ace expla
The next day, I'm head-deep in my work. It’s almost lunchtime.'I have a, um... meeting. Will you be fine for a few hours?' Ace asks.‘Yep. I want to catch up with Cleo at some point. I’ll find her and have lunch with her.' I smile. Ace kisses me on the forehead and leaves. I have been going to all his meetings. Strange he doesn’t want me to attend this one.Stretching my arms out, I stand and take the staircase to the ground floor. I'm not comfortable being in the elevator on my own; the stairs will be the better option for now.Cleo runs up to me and embraces me in a tight hug.'Funny, we work in the same building yet we never see each other,' she jokes.'We have to make more of an effort to see each other. Also that's why I'm here. I'm hoping we can have lunch together.''Sure. I’m having lunch with the receptionists and a couple of models across the road. Come with me. You know the models. Have you met the receptionists?' She asks.My mind flashes back to when I threw cold tea at
Halfway through the work day, I suddenly remember Cora’s offer about having a girl’s weekend away glamping.'Ace, do you have anything planned for us this weekend or next weekend?''Not yet. Do you have something in mind?' He smiles.'Cora invited me and some of the other ladies to a weekend away glamping.''Glamping?' He says and raises an eyebrow.'Yeah. It’s camping, except we do girly things like paint our nails and have facials.' I laugh.'I’ll make sure you have the weekend free to join them, but I’ll organise a bodyguard or two to go with you. I’ll ask them to watch from a distance, so it will be less noticeable. I don’t want paps sneaking around, or potential threats anywhere near you.''Potential threat?' I ask with worry.'I don’t know Mark’s whereabouts, or if he plans on staying true to his word by staying away from us. My being a billionaire puts you at risk of being ransomed by thugs.''Oh... you know what? Don’t worry about it. I think I’ve changed my mind.' I say with
Hailey is literally sleeping on top of me, like I'm some kind of teddy bear. I can feel her drool dribble down my neck. I push the strands of her brown hair off my face and roll away from her. A moment later Hailey snuggles into my back and mutters something meant for Jack in her sleep. I try not to laugh and eventually fall asleep.'Rise and shine my Queens!' Cora stands in front of our beds looking like a soldier. She is wearing cargo pants with black boots and a green tank top.'Oh... were we meant to bring clothes like that?' Hailey asks, as she pulls out ten different little dresses from her bag.'Don’t forget swimwear underneath your clothes. Unless you prefer to swim in your birthday suit and wear solid shoes and pants, or your name is Hailey, and you didn’t bring any.' She laughs, and Hailey rolls her eyes at her.'I brought a couple sets of trackie pants. Here, you can wear these.' I say, handing her a pair.I'm wearing trackie pants and a crop top with boots, and my bikini u
As the sun rises, the sound of a helicopter is heard hovering in the sky. We jump up and down, and wave our arms in the air, trying to get the pilot’s attention.We slump in disappointment, as it flies past us. Sighing, I lean against a tree.‘I’m so tired, and so hungry I can barely stay awake.’ I sob.‘It’ll be okay.’ Hailey says and hugs me. I bury my face in her shoulder and look up to see Carol giving me a sympathetic look. I grab her arm, and pull her into us, hugging them both.‘I’m sorry I slapped you, Carol.’ I cry.‘No, I should be the one apologising. To both of you. You might be a little on the crazy side Hailey, but you’re quite fun to be around and you’re definitely not a bitch. If anything, I have been the bitch. Zurielle, I’m sorry about what I said about you and Ace. I was jealous because I had a crush on Ace and he turned me down a couple of years ago,’ she confesses.‘I had no idea that you liked Ace that way. He hasn’t mentioned it.’‘I used to like him. I moved on
We arrive at the penthouse, where, Martin, our chef is in the kitchen with heaps of already-made food for me to eat. I eat more than two meals. After I’ve finished, Ace suggests a shower before I sleep.‘Do I have to? I can barely keep my eyes open,’ I grumble.‘You have a bird’s nest in your hair. You don’t want the dirt on your face going onto your pillow. I’ll help you wash, then you can stay in bed and rest for as long as you want to.’ He smiles.‘For a whole week?’ I ask, and he laughs.‘If that's what you wish.’ He takes my hand, leads me upstairs, undresses me, and I step into the shower and instantly relax under the hot water. He rubs soap all over my back and down my arms. I apply double the amount of shampoo I usually would to get all the dirt out of my hair.After rinsing out the shampoo, Ace applies the conditioner and runs his fingers through my hair, to remove knots and twigs. I wash the rest of my body while Ace gets a fresh towel for me. I step out and accept the towel
I spend the next two weeks working from home until the media storm dies down.On Friday, Ace returns home, and it's the same routine as always: I stop what I'm doing, run to the door and jump up for him to catch me, and wrap my arms around his neck, and kiss him passionately.Some days he carries me straight to the bedroom where we ravish eachother, or sit on the balcony with coffees, and chat, or relax on the couch and watch a movie. Yesterday afternoon we didn’t even make it to the bedroom. We ended up halfway up the staircase completely nude. Thankfully, Martin and Belinda had gone home.‘You might want to change out of your track pants. Not that it bothers me, but, I’m taking you out tonight.’ He smiles.‘Where are we going?’‘I think it’s time we visit your friends and have some fun at the Snake Pit. What do you say?’ He asks with a grin.‘Yes!’ I run upstairs, excitedly, and step into the shower. I run into my walk-in wardrobe and toss different dresses around, trying to choose