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I hoped to God that he would listen to them and go and leave me to my misery, but he didn’t. Instead, he headed in, and when he turned around to see that I hadn’t followed along, one sharp, angry gaze from him, and I knew I was on the verge of being yelled at. He had never done so before, but I knew that look in his eyes. He was rapidly losing his patience.
And so, I headed in, and he quickly introduced me, most probably to dispel that I was the alleged fiancé.
“This is my secretary, Miss Parish - Madison Parish.”
"It's incredibly nice to meet you, Miss Parish," I had greetings from all over. I turned to accept some hands while others it was simply impossible to. As the elevator began to head down, soon enough, we arrived at the lunch networking venue. It seemed there were even more people here than those who had actually attended the conference, which was quite amusing to me, but it was to be expected. Free food always drew a crowd like nothing else in the entire world.
We soon found our seats, and once again, I wasn’t seated at his table. However, the way we were positioned, I was directly in his line of sight at the next table. He watched me while I turned away, unable to bear it. Soon, the event started with some gorgeous musical performance, and I focused my attention solely on the food and the entertainment.
Chapter Seventeen
Hunter
She was avoiding me, there was no doubt about it. She seemed embarrassed for what she had done, for all the things she had done so far that she couldn’t meet my gaze. In a way, she looked so sad, and it worried me. She watched the performance and even smiled at random times, but I could tell that there was no truth behind her smile and enjoyment of it. She was just trying to pretend just long enough for me to figure it out. I had thought of waiting till we returned to the hotel to ask her about what was going on, but I knew then that I couldn’t. I was too antsy; I was beginning to care.
"You told everyone I was engaged?" I sent her a text.
At first, she pretended to ignore it, and then I sent another.
She looked down then, and though she didn't lift her head to meet my gaze. I shook my head.
"I'm so sorry, Sir. I, uh... the message was actually meant for a friend of mine. She wanted to write it to someone else but wanted me to check how it sounded, so I edited it and mistakenly sent it to you."
This almost amused me. Almost. But I hated the fact that she was lying to me. There was nothing I hated more than people lying to me, and so I found that I couldn’t quite accept this or even continue on with the conversation. I had wanted to chat casually with her, but instead, I put the phone away and focused instead on what was happening in the hall. There was more than enough conversation around to distract me, but before we could even be served, the Swedish man, I think his name was Felix, came over once again. He lowered to speak to me, and I made sure to glare at him very clearly, revealing my displeasure that he was truly irritating.
"Mr. Swift, I know we have some wrinkles to iron out, but the officials at the table over there have invited you over. They're seated, and they're very excited about working with you. I truly hope that you will honor their invitation so that a relationship and a further partnership and development with the government can blossom.”
His words were incredibly attractive, and I couldn't quite say no. So, without a further word, I nodded and rose to my feet.
He was all smiles, so I turned away from him and focused instead on heading over to the officials' table to speak to them. This was what was important. This was one of the major reasons why I had chosen to attend this conference, but I couldn’t help but feel as though I was getting distracted.
She was distracting, but maybe this was a good thing?
I mean there were other ways for an exit. We could enjoy ourselves and our vacation together in every sense of the word to the minute, and if we discovered later on that we weren’t a good match, then I could have her transferred to another department and to ensure she didn’t get the short end of the stick, her pay would remain the same.
And if she chose to remain as my secretary regardless, then I would accept that as well. I didn't need to analyze this perfectly like I did everything else in my life in order to judge the perfect outcome.
There were solutions, but this holiday and our involvement with each other was a rarity that I didn't want to lose. In order for me to go this route, however, I couldn't care much about her or whether she lied to me or not. I needed to keep things strictly transactional with her. And every time I did otherwise, I was going to be reminded painfully, just like this, that getting annoyed was the price to pay.
With my decision made and my resolve renewed, I continued on with eating lunch and communicating with the officials. There was a translator present to help out with the language barrier, so all in all the process was quite slow, but it was just the distraction I needed.
Eventually, though, not too long after, I needed to contact her once again, but this time around, I didn’t send her a message.
I instead tried to catch her attention as I glanced towards her table and found her watching.
I called her over and in seconds, she was by my side.
“We need to make time tomorrow for some golfing with these officials,” I said to her.
She didn't hear me. The hall was too noisy, and so she had no choice but to lean further down, and I whispered into my ear. This, to any onlookers, was just a simple inconsequential move; however, I couldn't help the stirring of my dick as I took in her scent.
It was of something that smelled of berries and mango. She smelled absolutely divine, and being this close to her physically, so many moments from the previous night came to mind.
When finally, she understood me, she turned and stared right back into my eyes. I hated to admit it, but my heart for a moment stopped. I realized then that perhaps my attempts to keep things anything but professional between us was a fruitless and pointless endeavor. But still, I had to try.
For my own sanity, I had to try, so I ignored this and returned to the men at the table when all I wanted to do was stay by her and stare even more into those gorgeous hazel eyes of hers. Perhaps it was because she had been my secretary for quite a little while, but there was a certain level of safety and comfort I felt with her around. Especially now that I was in a brand new place meeting brand new people and using a translator to communicate.
Chapter Eighteen
