Soon after sharing a moment, the couple was forced to join the rest inside once again. Unlike before, there was an eerie silence looming over the hall. Even the bright fairy lights gleaming in the distance couldn't help in overcoming the gloominess.
"This is it." Ayla mumbled under her breath as she took a step forward to stand right beside Claude. His arm came to snake around her waist right away as if it was the most natural thing to do. "I hope they don't break into a war against you right away." She muttered out in a low whisper, leaning into his side for comfort.
"They wouldn't dare to. It's the old man's birthday. He chose just the perfect day to announce this." Claude let out a soft chuckle before pressing his lips against the top of her head. He could feel her tense muscles relaxing into his embrace, calming down his own fretting nerves.
Their attention was drawn to the other side of the room where hi
"I am going to miss you." Claude mumbled again her skin as he buried his face in the crook of her neck, not wanting to let go of her."You were stuck with me for three days. I am shocked that you aren't already bored with my existence." Ayla couldn't help the laughs that escaped her lips. She was trying her best to not make fun of him, but it was really hard since Claude was behaving like a child.The duo had made it back to Los Angeles after spending another day at the old mansion which somewhat belonged to Claude now. Though he intended on keeping it under the name of his grandfather."I am just glad that it's over now even though I am going to get buried under tons of paperwork." He complained to her as he withdrew his face."It didn't go too bad." Ayla shook her head, finding his pursed lips rather amusing. "Who am I kidding! It went so much better than I was expecting." S
[One month later.] As the days passed by, Claude and Ayla only grew closer. They were doing much better now, taking one day at a time in building their relationship up. Though they didn't have a good start, both of them were willing to work for it. Neither wanted to already give up and stay stuck in a relationship that was only there for appearances sake. On a lighter note, Ayla had managed to graduate with a good GPA. She wasn't the smartest of them all, but she managed to finish college amongst the top five students of her class. Moreover, she had a stellar performance when it came to the clinicals. She was hoping her records would help her in landing into her desired field. But one could only hope for things to turn out better and for life to not mess up the plans. ---------------- "Claude?" Ayla's soft voice rang through the empty corridors as she made her way down the stairs with a sprin
Ayla could only shake her head given the situation. She knew better than to push the man into doing anything at all, but how was she supposed to hold herself back when it came to his well being."Hey, hey, hey…," Claude shifted in his place and tilted his head to the side so that he was having a better look at her. "I may be working more than necessary, but I am not overworking myself. I would never do that to myself again, or to you." His eyes turned heavy as he recalled the event.----------------Claude was leading a meeting about one of their ongoing projects, taking in the numbers which were projected in big, bold text. He was having a splitting headache which had been annoying him since he woke up that morning. Well, if someone was to call the two hour nap he had, sleeping. Instead of getting himself checked, he downed two painkillers and took the help of coffee to keep himself up.It wasn't until
[Present] "Don't think about it." Ayla could see the conflict in his eyes as they glazed over. "How could I not when I made you worry about my careless ass so much?" Claude gave her a sad smile. "It was two weeks ago, Claude. There's a reason we started coming over here in the first place." She reminded him but only saw him shaking his head helplessly. "And here I am, still working." "When did you hear me complaining about your work when you keep yourself in check?" She rolled her eyes. "And before you go about the no work on weekends rule, I do study to brush over somethings, no? You can check on your company just the same. I trust you enough that I know there won't be a repeat of last time." She gave him a small smile, but it was a genuine one. "Thanks, love." Claude leaned in and kissed the corner of her mouth. "Wh
"Nobody saw me like this." Aylal finally managed to mumble out a reply in a breathy voice. "The place was as deserted as a graveyard when I came down, minus the gravestones…"Claude hummed in response as he eyed down the beauty who was struggling in his hold. "That's a good thing then. Because otherwise I would have had to punish you for roaming around like this." He spoke slowly into her ear, his warm breaths tickling her already sensitive skin."Punishment?" Ayla failed to understand where he was getting at. "What do you mean by-"The rest of her words turned into a surprise yelp as a stinging sensation rang across her backside. It took her a couple of seconds to realize what had happened when the same spot was being massaged slowly to help ease the weird sensation."Claude!" She threw the man a warning glare, only to get a cheeky smile in return.
"Sometimes I wish that we could just stay here without having to return back to the mansion." Ayla mumbled under her breath as she snuck a glance at her man."Why is that though? I thought you loved your studies and all that." Claude spoke up in the same low tone as the duo enjoyed the warmth of the sun rays lying next to the pool. It didn't go unnoticed by him how she had used the term mansion for the place he grew up in. Neither did it come as a shock to him. He had rarely ever heard Ayla referring to the place as a home. As much as he would prefer it happening, he knew that it was up to him to make her feel at home within the four walls."I don't know." She shrugged her shoulders before shaking her head as her thoughts drifted deeper and deeper. "It's nothing much to be honest." She gave him a weak smile before turning her eyes away from his resting figure.The couple was back outside, enjoying the w
"What about you? Do you want to bear my children?"His words sent Ayla's mind into a frenzy as she took her time to process them properly. She didn't know why, but he managed to tug at something deep inside her chest. Though his words left behind a certain heaviness in their wake."Breathe, love." It only took Claude a couple of seconds to register her shock. He ran his palms along the sides of her arm and back, trying to calm her jittery nerves down. "You don't have to answer it. I only brought it up for the sake of the conversation since we were already on the topic." His words came out in a whisper as he tried his best to bring her mind to ease."I-I…," Ayla drew in a deep breath or two, trying to keep her stuttering in check. "I don't know what to say to you." She finally spoke up after what seemed like an eternity to both of them."You don't have to say anything, wife." Claude rubbed comforting circles into her back. He was c
It didn't take long for the couple to dive back into their old, hectic routine once they returned back to the city.Claude got caught up with meetings after meetings as if he wasn't away just for the weekend. The company's work caught up with him along with taking care of other familial businesses which were all now under his supervision. If he could, he would just merge it all under one name so that he could hire people to take care of the mess his beloved family members loved making out of simple deals. It wasn't that he didn't have people looking into things, but it was more subtle than obviously done since the subsidiaries and companies had to be owned by someone he shared familial ties with. It was one of the reasons he didn't like taking over, not that he had a say in the matter.Hence, he decided to focus on the thing he was good at. That was to take care of the problems.As for Ayla, she passed