I smiled as I looked down at my tied hands on my laps and did a little victory dance in my head. The meeting had officially ended and I was more than eager to just get the hell out of this crappy conference room. I didn't know how, but I made it through and thankfully nobody asked me anything and it was Mr. Rhodes taking the lead so I was more or less fine at the moment.

"Well that's a new face."

I turned around and saw a man who looked in his early thirties or late twenties, God knew, giving me a creepy smile standing at less than an arm distance from me. He was another one of a billionaire from what I had gathered from the meeting.

"Good Afternoon," I gave him a polite smile and ran my eyes all around the room to spot Mr. Rhodes because I didn't exactly know if this guy and Mr. Rhodes were in good terms and if I was supposed to be talking to him.

"I'm Steven. Steven Edwards," he took a step forward towards me and I involuntary took one back.

"Isabelle Reinhart," I gave him a tight lipped smiled, my eyes searching for my boss who didn't seem to be anywhere in sight.

"Well Isabelle, you're—

"There you are," Mr. Rhodes cut him off and came and stood right beside me with a smile on his face that made me even more confused.

"Yeah..." I trailed off, not sure how to respond to that.

"Ace Rhodes," Steven said and nodded his head with a not so pleased face.

"Steven. Nice to see you," Mr. Rhodes lied.

Oh how I knew that he was lying? It was written all over his face.

"Likewise. I was just here introducing myself to your secretary, I presume?" he brought his eyes back to me and I nodded and looked down at my feet.

Talk about awkward.

Mr. Rhodes clearly didn't like this guy and call me judgemental or what but this man just gave me a weird vibe and I would much rather prefer leaving this damn room and never see his face again other than witnessing this staring competition between the men standing on my either sides.

"Yeah...my secretary indeed. Now if you'd excuse us. We have somewhere to be," Mr. Rhodes gave him a fake smile as he put his hand at the small of my back, leading me out of the room filled with millionaires and billionaires and what not.

As soon as we were out of the room I looked at him and said, "What was that about?!"

He looked a little taken aback by my choice of tone and I regretted saying it the second it left my mouth, I bit my tongue and closed my eyes.

"Um..sorry I didn't mean to..." I trailed off, not knowing what to say and how to react to the fact that his hand was still on my back.

"It's okay. Let's just say that I saved you from a world class dick," he said, his voice wasn't angry or annoyed. If anything, he sounded rather amused.

"Um...yeah...thanks?"

Was I really this stupid or was this man driving me crazy?

"Come on let's go," Mr. Rhodes chuckled and led me out of the skyscraper.

As we were going back to what I assumed was our hotel, Mr. Rhodes spoke up and I almost choked on oxygen.

"Let's have lunch somewhere."

Yes. Definitely hallucinating.

"Yeah...sure," I looked at him weirdly and he narrowed his eyes at me and tilted his head to one side.

"What is up with you?" he asked and I was convinced that some spirit had possessed Mr. Rhodes.

"What do you mean?" I asked in a low voice. Mr. Rhodes looked ridiculously happy today and let's just say that I wanted to keep it that way.

"You're acting strange since yesterday," he stated and looked ahead,opening the buttons of his coat and loosening his tie.

Woah woah woah what is happening?

"Am I? Haha. I don't know. Probably the nervousness," I looked out of the window and closed my eyes shut. God knew there was nothing I wanted more than this conversation to be over.

He didn't say anything and looked back at me. I wasn't looking at him but I was pretty sure that he was staring and I was seconds away from bleeding from my lips because of biting it too hard.

"Conduire au restaurant le plus proche," he told the driver and although I did not know French, I was pretty sure that he told him to stop by a restaurant or a diner.

Well here goes nothing.

**************

The lunch was awkward.

I mean come on what else was expected when you go out on lunch with your boss who happened to be bipolar and had mood swings worse than a pregnant women. Not to mention who was also extremely sexy and every time you saw him all you could think about were his lips which look m—

Woah.

What the fuck.

Mr. Rhodes ordered for me because according to him what I had ordered for myself wasn't enough. We ate and all I could think about was what got into my boss to bring him in such a great mood.

I noted to call Alex and ask if Mr. Rhodes had episodes of happiness or something the first thing when I got home.

The car came to a halt and pulled me out of my thoughts as I opened the door and circled around the car to walk to the entrance lobby, following Mr. Rhodes.

We didn't talk much to the way to our rooms and honestly, I was thankful for it. I wasn't as nervous around him now as I was yesterday and in the morning. Maybe because I was pretty much on his side the whole day and my brain had finally gotten used to being around his extremely good scent.

I bid him a goodbye and entered my room and the first thing I did was take my heels off and throw them as far away from me as possible.

I put on my pink crocs and made my way towards my bed and stopped short in my tracks as I saw a box sitting on my bed. I narrowed my eyes and took a step back, pulling off a detective face.

There could be a freaking bomb in that box for all I knew and I wasn't just going to go and open it and die without even marrying to the love of my life yet.

I paced back and forth and thought about it for a few moments. I could go to Mr. Rhodes but honestly, I've had enough of his presence around me for the day.

I stood there, thinking. The box was golden coloured and it seemed pretty. Who would possibly put a bomb in a box like that? But then again, you never know about those psycho serial killers now do you?

After thinking and moving back and forth for a while and establishing the fact that doing that was not getting me anywhere I rolled my eyes and went near to the box, opening the bow and taking off the lid.

What I saw inside was the least expected thing. There was a dress. A very pretty royal blue coloured evening dress. There were a pair of heels with it too.

No matter how much I was just itching to let it out and try it on, I shook my head and took a step back as I made my way towards the phone to let the management know that they delivered the gift at the wrong room.

I called them and what I got to know shocked me even more. They said that they delivered it at the right room. It was supposed to be delivered at room 117 which was mine.

Can this day get any weirder?

I finally decided to talk to Mr. Rhodes about this. I mean he could have a solution to this because there was no way in hell was I keeping somebody else's gift if the management refused to accept their mistake. The girl must be waiting for it for all I knew and I couldn't just break someone's heart like that.

I knocked at his door and waited for him to come out as I started fidgeting with my fingers again and mentally smacked myself for acting like a total idiot in front of him.

He opened the door and leaned against the door frame as he once again checked me out from head to toe and his eyes stopped at my pink crocs and an amusing smirk made its way on his lips.

"Yes Miss Reinhart?" he brought his eyes up to me and lifted an eyebrow.

"There's a parcel in my room. It's a dress and the management refuses to accept their mistake that they delivered it at the wrong place."

"Oh yeah...wait you called the management?" he asked and his expressions stated that he was surprised but hey, I wasn't that dumb mister. I knew what was wrong or right.

"Well of course. I couldn't keep anything that's not mine," I stated as a matter of factly and he just rolled his eyes and looked at me with an expression that said 'are you kidding me?'.

"Miss Reinhart, I forgot to mention that but we're going to a party tomorrow evening and you're my date."

************

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