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.
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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
"I wanted to know how you can make yourself go to a high class event dressed in those rugs…"Ayla threw her mother-in-law a questioning glance as she failed to understand her line of interrogation."What event are you talking about?" Not long after, she voiced her confusion. "I was just going out…," she trailed off, not wanting to give away her destination. She knew that she would receive an earful if her mother-in-law found out that she was heading down to the company since the old woman was big on appearances."You don't know." It was more of a statement that left Sylvia's lips before she pursed them together."I wouldn't be standing here, utterly clueless, if I had known, Mother-in-law." Ayla didn't know whether to cry or laugh at her own misery. She was never one to disrespect her elders or even talk back given any situation, but Sylvia was clearly making it hard f
"How else was I supposed to know where he was if he wasn't with you or at the company?" Ayla shrugged her shoulders as if it wasn't that much of a big deal. "Plus, I had to know for sure about his whereabouts before I went on a shopping spree with you…."Ayla had really thought it through before pulling the stunt off. She had asked Ethan about Claude's whereabouts first before making a call for his assigned driver for the day. It took a lot of persuasion from her side for him to agree with having one in the first place. He didn't want to be dependent on someone else for something so small as driving around. Reluctantly, he gave up before his wife because she didn't like the idea of him having to drive when he was so tired out. Who knew that it would come so handy in a situation like this?It had only taken her a single phone call to know about Claude's whereabouts. And it only fueled the fire burning inside her which was lit by her beloved mother-in-
"Oh, hey, Nova. Almost didn't see you there…"Ayla gave her one of her full blown smiles as if she was genuinely pleased by seeing her when in reality that wasn't the case at all."Ayla." Nova gave her a curt nod in acknowledgement to keep up appearances."Don't you look lovely tonight." Ayla threw in a praise, keeping her lips strained in the same position. "Doesn't she, darling?" She turned her attention to the man she was clinging to like her life depended on it. Blinking her eyes a couple of times, she tried her best to come off as innocent as she could manage to. But it was pretty much impossible to fool Claude as he saw right through her.Smiling down at her, Claude decided to play along."Of course, she does." He gave a small smile to Nova who was now only observing their exchange from where she was standing. "When does Nova don't look gorgeo