"No way!" I screamed at the top of my lungs and jumped up and down, looking at a not-so-calm Emily sitting right in front of me.

"I don't know, I don't know, I don't know," she said and started pacing back and forth as I realized that my reaction wasn't helping either.

"Oh, dang. Okay... Emily, it's okay. I'm sure we can manage it all in time it's not that big of a deal..." I said but when I saw the expressions on her face, I soon realized that I just made it all worse.

"Not that big of a deal?!"

Great.

"It's my freaking wedding!" she said in exasperation, and I nodded my head and looked around for anything that would help. Of course, I didn't find it.

"I know, but what I meant is that we have a lot of people to help us out so it won't be a problem!" I held both of her hands in mine and made her stop pacing as she looked at me with eyes wide and cheeks flushed.

"Okay...we can do it. It couldn't be that hard, right? RIGHT?!"

"Yes, absolutely!" I nodded my head and that seemed to calm her down as she sat back on the couch and started sipping from her smoothie.

I didn't know how, but somehow, Noah had announced to hold the wedding right after three weeks from today, and I didn't know how, but somehow, Emily had also agreed and now I was experiencing her third freak out session of the day. Sort of.

I gulped down the remaining contents of my cold coffee as we saw Alex making his way inside the room with a not-so-happy expression on his face.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" he asked as soon as he approached us.

"EXACTLY!" Emily agreed and Alex looked at her with weird eyes before putting both of his hands on his waist.

"Guess who's the freaking best man?!" he asked and I bit my lip as I realized what he was mad about.

"Yeah, I've—wait, what?" Emily frowned and I rolled my eyes as I looked at the two of my best friends acting like some kindergarten children.

"Ace! Noah. Made. Ace. His. Best. Man."

"And that's what you're worried about?!" Emily looked at him with disbelief in her eyes and I bit the inside of my cheek to keep myself from laughing.

"I was supposed to be the one! Ace doesn't even know how to give a freaking speech!" he exclaimed and picked up Emily's smoothie from the table before gulping the entire thing down.

Uh-oh.

"Firstly, what the hell do you think you're doing, and secondly what are you!? Twelve!?"

"You know what, I think I'll just uh—go now. Bye!" I said and ran out of the room because who was I kidding? The drama had just begun.

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

I walked into Ace's office. After our date the other day, things had been...well different at the office, too. I mean, it wasn't like I was getting favoritism or I was neglecting my work, it was just that whenever him and I were in the same room...he couldn't keep his hands off me which resulted in me throwing my worries and sanity out of the window and making out with him.

On his desk.

Pretty much every day.

I knocked and entered inside when I heard a 'come in'. I bit my lip nervously as I advanced towards his desk. Even after all that we had been through, his mere presence still made my mind go haywire.

"I don't understand why you still bother knocking," he smiled as he looked up from his laptop.

"Old habits, I guess," I shrugged and sat down on the seat opposite to him.

"You called me, did you um...need something?" I asked in a small voice.

"Can't I call my girlfriend in 'cause I feel like it?" he rested his head on his hands and looked straight at me.

"I'm sorry," I broke into fits of cough. "GIRLFRIEND?!"

"Yeah...?" he stated in a duh tone as I tried to compose myself from his words.

"I thought we were keeping a low profile at the office and you never officially announced it so I..." I trailed, not sure what to say.

"Isabelle," he sighed. "I told you that day that I want you. I want all of you and what part of 'I love you and I want you to be by my side through it all' did you not understand?"

"I um...wasn't sure if you wanted a relationship right now," I said as he wrapped his hand around mine.

"I want anything and everything with you, Princess," he kissed my fingertips and warmth spread through my body as a grin made its way on my lips.

"Girlfriend it is," I said with a cheeky smile and he chuckled lighty.

"Now I wanted to talk to you about something," he said in a serious tone and I nodded my head.

"Why do I get a feeling that I won't like this," I said with narrowed eyes and he shrugged.

"You might or might now."

"Continue."

"Isabelle, I want to give you a little promotion..." he trailed.

"What kind of promotion...?" I was sure this conversation wasn't going to end well.

"I want you to be a shareholder of this enterprise," he stated clear and cut and once again I wanted to snatch my hair out of my scalp.

"Ace I...I can't accept that," I sighed and said in a low voice.

"Why not?"

"Look, just because you love me and you want me to—"

"Okay, stop right there. First, I'm not offering you this position because I'm simply in love with you or I want to make you happy or something. Isabelle, I've seen you work, the devotion, the hardwork, everything that you put in is extraordinary. Even when I wasn't here all those months, I've looked at all the stock rate and it's incredible how much we've grown in the past few months and all the credit goes to you Isabelle...and well a little to Alex too but that's not the point here. I am asking you to step this up because you deserve this. Looking after an entire business as big as this isn't easy, trust me I know, but the way you've handled it, I can't have you working as my PA or secretary anymore that's like wasting a—

"But people are gonna—

"Who gives a fuck about people, anway, Princess? Look it isn't like it's mine right now so it isn't yours. I can simply fire you from here and ask you to sit at home and watch Netflix all day but I know you're an independent woman, baby, and I know how much working means to you. And well I like watching you work but let's just not go there right now. I don't want to hear any excuses, Isabelle. You're taking over some of the shares of this company and you are now the new CFO of this enterprises and that's final."

"And what if I disagree?"

"Then you're sitting at my mansion all day," he said with a straight face and I rolled my eyes.

"Fine but I still need some time to think," I said and he nodded understandigly.

"Take your time," he stood up and circled around the desk.

My breath hitched in the throat as he placed on hand at the back of my chair and the other on the desk so that his mouth was extremely close to my ear, "One more thing."

I maintained my composure and tried not to give in, "I already hate you enough right now. Don't make me hate you eve—". My sentence got caught in my throat as he took my earlobe between his teeth.

"What was that?" he said in a low voice as I clutched the armrest of the chair harder.

"I hate—uh..." I knew what he was doing to me yet I couldn't keep myself from submitting. He held this power, this dominance over me that I couldn't shake.

He started trailing a series of kisses from my jaw to my neck and a shiver ran down my spine as I felt him sucking at a sweet spot right below my earlobe, "Tell me you hate me, baby. Say it."

"Oh, my God, Ace," I gave in as I turned my head around and pulled him in for a kiss.

And that was how I knew how much helpless I became when it came to this one person.

***********

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