“I think Ace’s idea is fantastic. You should hear him out. After all, you did come out all the way here…” Elizabeth said before she smiled at the chairman. “I don’t understand you two at all. He broke off his engagement with you and you’re still willing to cover for him?” the chairman asked Elizabeth with a suspicious look on his face. “I’m not doing this for him. I’m doing this for me…” she replied without backing down. The chairman was clearly surprised at Elizabeth’s response, and I had to admit that her words only made me more curious about what the two of them had planned. Everyone’s eyes were on Ace as we waited for him to explain everything. Ace was too calm and relaxed for my liking and he didn’t seem to be in a rush to ease the tension in the room. “This isn’t truly my own original idea. In fact, I’ve pretty much recycled your idea but I’m going about it in a slightly different way,” Ace began explaining. “My idea?” the chairman asked with narrowed eyes. “Exactly. I kno
“I can’t make a decision on this right now. I’ll need to think this through, and I’ll also need to meet with Elizabeth’s father to discuss this further,” the chairman finally said. “That’s good enough for now, I guess. I didn’t expect that you could decide right away. However, I just want to remind you that this will have to go through in some shape or form according to the deal that we’ve made,” Ace said as he stared directly at his father. “What deal?” the chairman asked. He can’t mean…“Don’t act like you forgot. The deal where I’m supposed to grow the company. If I remember correctly, and I’m quite sure that I do, when we made that deal you agreed that I could use whatever method that I wanted. You would allow me to do things my way to grow our company. I remember that the set timeline is three years. Good news is, with this, it won’t take anywhere close to three years,” Ace said with certainty. The chairman eye’s widened as if he finally fully understood what was really going
Ace must have gotten what he wanted because he pulled my hand into his and gave it a squeeze. That was the signal that we should both leave. Although I had a pretty good understanding of what had just happened, I still felt lost, and it was hard for me to digest everything. Figuring out how I felt about what I had just witnessed and heard was the biggest challenge for me and I doubted that I could get my feelings in order right away. “We’re leaving,” Ace announced as he stood up from his seat while pulling me up to my feet along with him. As far as Ace was concerned the discussion was over. Even though his father had not outright agreed to Ace’s proposal, it was clear that actions would be put in place to implement Ace’s plan. Elizabeth also stood up as if she wanted to leave along with us. “I should be leaving too. I think we’ve pretty much updated you on everything today. Thank you for listening to our selfish request,” Elizabeth said to the chairman. “I will talk to your father
I appreciated his concern and how he seemed to be composed and calm as always; however, that wasn’t something that I wanted. Putting this off would just kill me off slowly. “No, I think that we should talk right now,” I said before I would lose my resolve. “I should stop the car…” Ace said with a nod of his head. “Yeah…” I agreed softly. A moment later, Ace found a spot on the side of the road where he could stop the car. The fact that no one else seemed to be out during that time of night helped us a lot. It felt like we had the world to ourselves even if it would be just for a short while. “It’s late but I don’t really want to spend the night in that place,” Ace said as if he wanted to explain to me why we didn’t just sleep over at that large mansion. I figured that Ace must have been referring to that mansion that we had just departed from. Although I wasn’t sure if his dislike of the place stemmed from the fact that his father was there or if the place belonged to his father
I should have known by that time that stepping down from his position as CEO probably meant nothing at all to him, but I still felt like it was such a big deal. His decision would affect our lives, our relationship, and the direction that we would head toward in the future. At least, that was how I felt at the time. “Are you really fine with this?” I asked before I could stop myself.“Fine with what?” he asked like he wasn’t sure what I was referring to. “Well, quitting your job and letting Elizabeth take over. Also, merging the two companies together…” I replied while sounding quite troubled.I didn’t think my tone sounded troubled enough to accurately represent the amount of trouble and fear that plagued my mind. Perhaps I am someone unaccustomed to change. To put it in another way, I guess that I wasn’t a very adaptive person. Someone else might have reacted more positively and more optimistically than I did. “Well, I’ve thought about it a lot and maybe more than you may believ
“But the chairman did give you three years…” I murmured while still not quite getting why he was so rushed about this. If Ace didn’t truly like the idea of merging the companies together, I didn’t see why he had to rush things forward when he had close to three years left to come up with another plan. There was also the option of keeping that as his last resort in case all of his other plans did not work out. Ace was suddenly silent, and I ended up staring at him while wondering what he was thinking about again. For some unknown reason, my heart clenched in my chest as I waited eagerly for his reply. After a short moment that felt like it lasted so long, Ace turned to stare deeply into my eyes before his lips curved up into a very charming smile. The look in his warm hazel eyes was bright and for an instant, he looked very free of stress. A slight fluttering feeling overwhelmed my chest, and I had no idea why I suddenly felt a little excited. “I didn’t want to wait three years. It
I was supposed to remain calm just as he had instructed me to but how can he possibly expect me to remain calm and well composed after what he had just said? My heart raced dangerously fast in my chest again as I stared wordlessly at his handsome face. Ace’s face relaxed and he smiled at me again while my mind was lost in a daze. “I think keeping our relationship a secret will become increasingly difficult as time goes by. I find it suffocating that we can’t do everything that we want to do together and I’m pretty sure that you feel the same way. Actually, I think you’ve got it worse than I do,” Ace said before he reached out a hand and patted the top of my head. Frankly, I was still too shocked to say anything although I heard every word that he had just said to me. My chest just felt tighter and tighter with each word that he spoke to me as my emotions started welling up inside of me. The familiar stinging sensation at the back of my eyes told me that I was about to start crying.
“I know that I probably don’t have the right to say this but…I think the thought and effort really counts. It’s enough for me to know that you’re thinking of our future and thank you again for working so hard for us,” I said before showing him what I hoped would be a comforting smile. “Thanks, Rina…” he thanked me as well although I didn’t think that I deserved any thanks.Words were just words. My words are just words…Before my mind could process anything, my body seemed to have grown a mind of its own. I leaned closer to him and boldly pressed my lips against his. The soft warmth of his lips against mine made me immediately crave for more. What started off as a soft brush of our lips quickly turned into something much more. I pressed my lips firmly against his against and kissed him while moaning softly in my throat from the pleasure. I moaned louder when I felt Ace’s hand behind my head, pressing my face closer to his and crushing my lips more firmly against his. “Mhhmmm…” I moa