Alex’s POV:
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I woke up really early the next morning and couldn’t fall back asleep, I knew I’d be tired later but I could blame it on the jet lag.
Or that earth shattering kiss from last night.
Of course I couldn’t fall asleep, how could I when that moment kept flashing in my mind endlessly. I think my cheeks were tired of blushing and now they had taken up a perpetual candy apple tinge, and I probably resembled one.
The investors meeting was at ten in the morning and since I didn’t want to be late I was early.
Yes. I guess it’s the only way.
My outfit was a pair of formal grey pants put together with a white top and I held the file that had all the important documents inside with a firm grip in my hands.
Jensen looked really surprised to see that I was present in the lobby before him.
“It’s not that I’m always late.” I did not appreciate his honest reaction.
“I guess I’ll have to agree now…” He nodded at me, before I could get mad he added. “Let’s go…” as our car pulled up out front.
After a short ten minute drive we were entering a building that had an airplane logo with some words that had no meaning in the english language.
“Is everyone gonna be speaking French and eating croissants and calling them Krwa-san?” I asked, already dreading the answer.
“I don’t think so.” Jensen said, as amusement sparked in his grey eyes, “there are other foreign investors from Russia and Japan so… “
“Wow, more languages I know nothing about… how marvelous!” I said sarcastically.
Jensen chuckled. “They’ll probably just stick to english Alex, relax won’t you…”
“Easy for you to say, you’ll know if they insult you, but I can’t even call them a smelly dinosaur if they insult me.” I told him.
He smiled at that, “I’ll tell you if that happens, I’d very much like to witness, you calling someone a smelly dinosaur.”
I refrained from a smart ass reply since we just entered a room full of people. Most of them looked like they were middle aged, they probably looked older than they actually were because of the stress that comes with managing a business.
The younger men and women were scattered throughout the conference table and the person in charge was a man in his thirties who was talking with someone joyously.
Jensen walked straight to him and I kept up, next thing I know they were having a conversation in French and I was not amused.
When Jensen caught my eye in the middle of their talk he stopped short and said, “Mr. Dufort this is my business associate Alexandra Brook, You might wanna switch to English, her French is not very fluent.”
‘Not fluent’ was an overstatement.
“Bonjour, it’s very nice to meet you…” Mr Dufort said in a very thick French accent.
“It’s nice to meet you too Mr. Dufort.” I smiled as I shook his hand.
“It’s good to see someone with Jensen, ee’s usually alone in these investors meeting.” He said.
“I guess he has finally realised it’s good to share his workload…” I smirked at Jensen and Mr. Dufort chuckled.
After a bit more French/English conversation we took our seats and endured a fifty minutes long meeting with other equally baffled businessmen who were all trying to understand Mr. Dufort’s thick accent.
The presentation came to an end and all the investors including Jensen seemed pleased with the progress the aviation industry was making.
After conversing with others in broken english, another half hour later I walked out of the building drained out of my energy.
“Are all your business trips like this?” I asked as I got inside the backseat of the car.
Jensen chuckled, “It wasn’t so bad.” He said from next to me.
“Not bad, what do you usually deal with?” I asked and then quickly added, “No! don’t answer that, I don’t wanna know I’m too tired.”
He smiled and pulled my head to rest on his shoulder, “sleep for a little bit.” He said.
“I can’t sleep now, the hotel is just ten minutes away.” I said, although I relaxed against his side, resting my head on his shoulder as his arm wrapped around me warmly. God why does this feel so normal and so right?
“We’re not going to the hotel, besides if you fall asleep I can carry you to your room.” He said, with an amused smirk.
“Won’t that look interesting?” I rolled my eyes. “Wait, we’re not going to the hotel?”
“No.”
“Where are we going then?” I asked.
“You’ll see…” He said. After his vague answer I really shouldn’t have been surprised of our destination but somehow I still was.
I don’t know how we ended up here of all places but it was a cloudy afternoon and we were both looking down at the sprawling city from top of the Eiffel Tower.
A few minutes ago when the elevator reached the top, I walked out with a bunch of tourists. The weather was extremely windy and it seemed like it was going to pour. The place wasn’t as deserted as I imagined it to be.
I was suddenly not as tired as I felt a while ago.
“I guess it’s another thing off of your bucket list.” Jensen spoke from next to me.
“I guess it is.” I agreed, as I turned to look at him only to find him staring at me with a small smile.
We stayed up there for a while before getting ourselves back to the ground.
“Let’s take a picture!” I exclaimed happily and pulled my phone out.
“Give it to me, I’ll take it or you…” He offered as he reached for my phone but I pulled away.
“No! I want you to be in the picture.” I told him.
He shot me a look that said ‘why ever would you want that?’. “You go on….I don’t want to” he denied and crossed his arms indignantly.
“You don’t want to take a picture with the Eiffel tower?!” I asked incredulously. “What is it not worthy enough?”
He darted his eyes towards me at the obvious sarcasm and told me sternly “I don’t want to take a picture at all.”
“I don’t care, I want to take a picture with you and the Eiffel tower, whether you like it or not.” I started tugging at his shirt sleeve.
“I don’t like to be Photographed” He told me honestly.
“What? But why? How else am I gonna brag to my friends about this…” I fake complained, making him crack a smile. “please Jensen, just one picture.” I pouted and looked up at him innocently.
I could see he was about to give in, he had that….’How was I supposed to say no to that?’ Look on his face. My puppy eyes can never lose!
He sighed and finally gave in as he nodded. I smiled happily at getting my way and angled the phone camera, with the Eiffel tower standing proudly in the background “now smile!” I said.
He didn’t ‘smile’. Actually he probably did a mental eye-roll.
I checked the picture and then scowled up at him “you were supposed to smile at the camera, not glare at it till the lens cracks!” He still looked attractive though, in a don’t-mess-with-me kinda way.
“That’s all I could manage” He shrugged.
“Let’s try again, and this time you better smile, you grumpy-old-man!” I tried to act all angry, but probably only just managed to look a little red in the face.
He shook his head at my name calling and ignored my words “you’re wasting your time” He mumbled.
I met his grey eyes, frowning at his stubbornness, and bribed “If you….if you co-operate, I would get you an ice-cream!”
His eyebrows raised in disbelief “are you seriously trying to bribe me with an ice-cream right now? What do I look four?!”
“You sure sometimes behave like a four year old.” I muttered.
“You can’t just call me a four year old and an old man in a span of a minute!” He pointed out.
I groaned at his technicalities, “you’re impossible!”
I quickly moved closer to him and clicked a picture while he wasn’t even looking at the camera.
I checked it to see a picture of me looking at the camera with a mischievous smile while Jensen was looking at me with wide eyes that held surprise. He looked cute.
“Delete that right now!” He instructed as he looked at my phone over my shoulder. I rolled my eyes.
After pocketing my phone I started walking, pulling him along with me. “Let’s go.”
“But you said we’ll get me ice-cream…”
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A few hours later I was laying on my bed in my hotel room not at all feeling sleepy. I guess it was just the boring French people meeting that was infusing lethargy in my otherwise spry body and that little outing helped a lot.
Jensen was laying next to me, and I knew something like this should make me anxious or awkward but surprisingly there were no such feelings inside me.
Was this normal?
Or am I weird? Why am I not freaking out?!
When the hell did I start behaving so domestic?
We both had changed into more comfortable clothes. I was wearing my shorts that I usually sleep in, but that meant my legs were bare and I’ve caught Jensen staring at my legs more than a few times now, I smirked to myself, but I didn’t call him out.
I felt at peace just staying there next to him, he had his arm under my head and his fingers played with my hair as we both watched some French show on the wall mounted flat screen, while Jensen translated it for me since there were no subtitles.
Well, he was trying to but was failing at keeping up with the pace of the show and so I have completely lost interest in it but I still listened to him and chuckled whenever he said something funny because I liked listening to his voice.
He was warm, smelled nice and I could feel the vibrations from his voice every time he spoke or laughed as my hand was casually resting on his muscular chest.
“You aren’t actually following what’s happening, are you?” He asked out of nowhere, obviously talking about the show.
“I’m still kinda confused who the main characters are….” I answered honestly.
He chuckled, “Actually there are five main characters so far…”
“No wonder I was so lost.” I admitted looking up at him.
He smiled and then picked up the remote to switch off the tv, the room suddenly plunged into a comfortable silence.
He pulled me closer and wrapped an arm around my waist.
“Who knew Jensen black likes to cuddle.” I teased smiling at him.
“Do not speak of this to anyone, ever!” He said seriously, making me grin.
“Your secret is highly unsafe with me” I smirked, as I looked up in his mesmerizing eyes.
He raised his eyebrows, frowning in my direction “You can’t be serious.”
“Why yes I am! And while I’m at it, I might spice it up a little bit you know…add how Jensen Black refused to acknowledge the childish part of his perso-“
I stopped talking because suddenly he was on top of me, looking into my eyes, his lips hovered over mine, precariously close.
His arms rested on both sides of my face, and held himself up in a plank position above me. My heart was pounding so loud that it was the only sound I could feel reverberating in and around me as I froze.
“You can’t just go around spewing lies, I won’t allow you to tarnish my reputation like that.”
“Watch me!” I leaned up and whispered in his ear mockingly. “Kate and Nick are not going to believe some of the things I’ll tell them, but I have photo evidence so…
“You are going to do no such thing” he said slowly, as if to warn me.
“Ooh, but I am!” I said simply. He was making such a fuss about clicking pictures the whole day, but I knew he secretly liked it. Men are so weird…
“I’ve got a reputation to uphold you know?” I lifted my hands to his face, touching his jaw lightly, my other hand disappeared in his thick hair. I could feel him shiver and smiled.
“You sound no less than a psychopath…you know?” I replied, not really intimidated by him.
He grew amused “your smart mouth is gonna get you in trouble one day.”
“Well, it gets me out of trouble most days… once in a while it’s alright. ” I shot back.
“It’s hard to argue with you.” he sighed.
“Then don’t” I wanted to say it with defiance but it came out sounding breathy.
He didn’t speak, for a moment just silently looked at me and then whispered “I don’t really want to.”
“I know a pretty great way of stopping arguments….” I said.
“You do?” He said, humouring me and I nodded.
And then without another word, I closed my eyes and leaned up so that my lips touched his, making that familiar tingling spread all over my skin. He dipped down kissing me harder, I was cold and warm and burning up all over as the kiss rose in intensity and I felt light headed with a racing heart and ragged breath. He settled his weight on my body, not too heavily, and I found it pleasant as my hands fisted into the fabric of his shirt.
His lips shifted, wandering down to my throat and then lower to my collarbone before his mouth returned to my lips and caressed softly and then firmly. His fingers ended up twisting in my hair as he continued to kiss me so thoroughly until I could have no coherent thought.
When I pulled away and looked up at him to see glazed eyes staring back at me, I smiled. I was probably blushing up to my ears.
“Is that how you generally end arguments?” He asked, still a little breathless from the kiss we shared.
“Is that a bad thing?” I asked.
He shook his head, “I must admit, it’s pretty effective.”
“I know…”
“You’re just, not supposed to argue with anyone else but me.” He added, making me burst into laughter as he kissed my cheek and fell back next to me on the pillows watching as I shook with laughter.
Silence enveloped us like a warm blanket a few minutes later as he continued to gaze at me, I had a shy smile on my face, aware that he was looking at me like he hasn’t seen me in days.
“What to do now?” I wondered aloud, after a few minutes passed.
“I don’t know, I was kinda waiting for you to do something more…” Jensen said, smirking suggestively.
I played innocent and asked, “Something like?”
“I don’t know, figure it out, I made up an excuse to get in your bed now you should take advantage of that…” He suggested making me laugh.
“Most people would be opposed to that notion.” I said.
“Well, I think differently.” He clarified. “I want to be taken advantage of as much as possible.” I couldn’t help but laugh.
“I should have known your intentions were immoral.” I mused, as I ignored the wild blush that climbed up my face.
“Nah that’s not quite right, I was actually hoping that your intentions would be immoral.” He explained.
“You’re incorrigible.” I rolled my eyes.
“Yeah?” He said sarcastically, “what gave it away?” He raised an eyebrow suggestively.
I narrowed my eyes at him, “Whatever your fantasies are, they are not coming true Mister.”
He waved his hand at me in dismissal, “A guy can dream…” making me roll my eyes.
We stayed in my bed for the majority of the day, cuddling, talking in between kisses and enjoyed each other’s company.
I told him I liked walking under the moonlight and listening to sad songs even when I’m not sad.
He played with my fingers and told me he wanted to become a musician and if it wasn’t for his business he would have done so.
In turn I told him about the time when I doodled on Kyle’s face before he went for an award function and when I lost my fish in the swimming pool. He laughed.
I wanted to tell him so much more, I wanted to lay my heart bare and share every good and bad thing I’ve been through, but I decided not to. The mood was pleasant and I didn’t wasn’t to ruin it.
He looked so happy, I didn’t want to wreck that with my sob story. Next time, I convinced myself as I told him another funny story and watched him shake with laughter.
As much as I didn’t want to attend the business party, there was no backing out.
Jensen and I stretched it for as long as we could but then, when we realised we’ll get late we reluctantly agreed to get ready and meet in the lobby.
He left after kissing me on the forehead, making me smile like a lunatic.
I gave myself a few minutes to freshen up and then pulled on my maroon dress and quickly started working on my hair, I tied them up in a bun with some strands falling off to frame my face and I didn’t wear any accessories except for earrings. After a light makeup I was good to go.
It was just a formality, we had to show up, smile, engage in trivial conversations, meet the host, maybe drink a little bit before leaving.
I looked at myself one last time after I pulled on my heels.
Let’s get this over with.
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