This is part II of a double update! Please make sure to read Ch 14: SUGAR BABY before this.

I made my way upstairs with a pounding head and a heavy heart. All I wanted was a good warm shower and some sleep. Of course, luck was never on my side. It hadn't been for a while when it came to unfortunate situations. When the elevator doors opened, I was face to face with my tormenter, looking impeccably sharp in his charcoal suit. How did the colour bring out his dark eyes even more? Even his usual combed-back brown hair was messy slightly, and I was in awe of his... just everything.

"You don't look too happy for someone who had a date." He noted.

"Einstein." I rolled my eyes, my head throbbing in pain. That coffee was a bad fucking idea.

"If it's any comfort, mine didn't go any better. I was heading out to get a bottle of wine." I didn't know Aiden had a date tonight. I wanted to know if she was a model, had I seen her somewhere? Was she on the cover pages of some magazine? Did she own a yacht? Was she super-rich too? Of course, she was super-rich. What would possess Aiden to date someone not in the same society as him?

"Sorry to hear that." I pursed my lips, exiting the elevator doors just as he entered it, our shoulders brushing in the intimate space. I did not need that.

Aiden's intense brown eyes met mine, and as cliché as it sounded, I forgot to breathe. There was something in his eyes that looked strangely like wanting, only I never understood what it was for. The small fairytale obsessed girl in me wanted him to want me, but Aiden and I were night and day, and we had no business being in each other's worlds.

"Did you sign the papers?" He asked, pressing the button to the ground floor while we were still standing on the threshold.

"No, I decided I don't want more charity." I stepped out of the contraption.

"No one said it was charity." Aiden stepped out with me, letting the doors close behind us. With him standing between me and the door to my house- his house, I was reeling in his familiar presence and scent. "Has anyone said anything to you about it?"

"They don't have to say it." I rolled my eyes, brushing him to the side with the back of my hand so I could access the lock of my house.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

I sighed. For a genius, he surely was stupid as fuck. Unlocking my/his house, I dropped my bag in the hallway before taking off my heels and giving my toes some much-needed relief. I didn't have to look back to see Aiden had followed inside, his dress shoes making enough noise on the marble floor. I adjusted the temperature of the room to help me cool down a little, unbuttoning the collar of my top.

"Remember you told me that I wasn't supposed to tell anyone about the plan?"

Aiden nodded, and I tried to ignore the way he was unbuttoning his suit and taking the cufflinks off his arm. He struggled with the left one for a second before extending his hand out to me, making me roll my eyes and laugh a little.

"How did you put it on if you can't take it off?" Trying to keep no contact with his body, I took them out for him, keeping them on the coffee table. As I rose, he grasped my wrist, and I looked up quizzically.

"Returning the favour." He mumbled. With deft fingers, he took the buttons off the sleeves of my shirt, rolling them up slightly. A frown gathered on his face, "Where's your bracelet?" I had only two on my wrist now, Aiden's gift being kept somewhere safe.

In the intimacy of the moment, I shivered slightly, withdrawing my hand from his delicate grip. Trembling hands reached to unbutton the top of my shirt, fingers reaching in to pull out the threaded necklace. Considering how my arms were always in contact with something, I was more likely to break it and ruin something beautiful again. I had decided to wrap it in a necklace and let it hide behind clothes instead, less likely to be damaged. I let it rest for Aiden in plain sight, and he stepped forward, into my personal space, lifting it delicately under his fingers. I wondered how air could even pass between us anymore, for neither of us seemed to be breathing a lot, really.

His perfume was different from what he wore usually, and I had that scent memorized. It would hit me when I would sit in his car every morning like a freight train, and my nose had taken some time to get used to it. It was usually cool, clinical, something so fresh and business-like. I liked it. Sometimes I wished I could bottle it and keep it close. Then I would beg myself not to be a total creep and end up beating myself up about it for hours.

This scent was different. This was dark, sinful... seductive. It would have brought me to my knees if I wasn't painfully reminded every second that he put it on for someone else, that he was in hopes of... ugh. This. This is exactly why I never got into any relationships. I would always end up dreaming too far ahead, always see things that never existed. In telling people how I felt, I've ruined more friendships than I could count and I was not happy about it.

"You said it was a special memory?" he stepped back suddenly, hardly controlling the jerk in his step as he sat down on the couch.

"Yeah," I muttered, tucking it in again. Stepping past him in the narrow space between the couch and coffee table, I made my way to the kitchen, "Sorry for interrupting your wine run. I may have some vodka if you'd like?"

"Only if you tell me what you meant outside." He called out.

I brought out two glasses and cans of tonic water, feeling like punishing myself for concerning him with petty drama. Aiden was quicker in making our drinks, handing me one before settling down on the couch again.

"Tell me." He urged again, and I took a deeper breath.

"It's just some catty people," I tried to downplay it, feeling like a snitch in kindergarten who no one liked, "nothing that you need to involve yourself with."

"If it's happening in my office, I have every right to know." He shot back. I curled up on the opposite end of the couch, handling my drink like it was a warm cup of tea.

"Well, no one directly says it. But it's a pretty popular sentiment around the place that I seem to be your favourite for some reason, and the conversation's just not...nice about it."

"You're going to have to give me more details than that, Thea."

Jesus, this man never gave up.

"Okay, so you know all the assistants have their own network of communication around the building? I mean, not the official communication thing, I mean their own gossip mills and stuff. Word is going around that I'm not a normal intern..."

"But you aren't a normal intern. You're my intern and that counts for a lot more." Aiden was still clueless and my inability to hide my shame was frustrating me.

"God!" I took another deep breath, "They think you're playing favourites or something and it's not like... because of the work I do."

"You are the only intern under me, how could there be any favourites?"

"Jesus, Aiden they think I slept my way to the job! Like, every single time I'm in your office I'm not working, but I'm on my fucking knees for you or bent over your desk." My cheeks burned with the admission, not having said that out loud before. Aiden looked uneasy too as the full meaning of my words settled on him, making him take a deep gulp of his drink.

"And I really appreciate the gesture today, I don't think you fully understand what this looks like for me. I came out of nowhere, and you're doing way more for me than any boss does for any employee, which is anyway confusing as fuck- sorry." I really needed to lower my fucks or I might just end up saying it in a formal setting as well someday. "I can't accept a deal that catapults to a millionaire status just like that. That would look even worse."

There was silence in the room.

Aiden set his empty glass down, getting more relaxed on his seat. "When I was eighteen, I started coming to work after school. I didn't really have a lot to do in senior year, and my life was going to be about the business anyway, so I didn't bother with extra activities and all of that. I used to sit in my dad's office all day and highlight paragraphs in his documents, read things aloud to him-"

I recognized all the things he mentioned. I was following, literally, in the footsteps of Aiden Steele. Wow. My training, if you could call it that, was the genius mind of Aiden's father, Ronald Steele. Phew.

"I worked all the way up from the first to the thirtieth floor. And still when I was made to lead a team in projects my team refused to cooperate. These were people who had been in this office, in their jobs for years. And I was a 19-year-old scrawny kid who had no idea how to manage a whole project on my own. Dad would throw me in the deep end far too often for my liking. But I understood why they didn't like me. I was, and I always would be far superior to them.

I couldn't change my name and renounce my rights to my dad's work. I worked twice as hard as anyone else in the building and it didn't make a difference. They still talked. They kept talking and talking till I snapped, much like you are right now, and I told my dad about it. He always has a strange, future-oriented perspective on things, and this might not make complete sense to you, but you must try to understand him anyway.

He asked me why it bothered me so much, and I told him because I wanted to be respected in my work. I was working hard, and I deserved to be recognized for that. He'd laughed, confusing the fuck out of me."

Even in the middle of a completely important story, my mind couldn't help but think the way the curse word fell off his lips was so utterly attractive. The vodka was affecting me more than it should have.

"He asked me where he saw them in ten years' time. I assumed they would be mid-level management if they played their cards right. And he had this beady look in his eyes as he told me I'd be sitting in his chair one day. Ten years' time, if I played my cards right. If I didn't command respect now, it wouldn't matter. Once I was CEO, they won't have a choice but to respect me. Have you heard any rumours about me going around?"

"Except that you're sleeping with me, nothing." I shrugged, kind of in awe of his father's thoughts anyway.

"Well, they're not wrong, I did sleep with you last night," he broke into a rare grin, the corners of his lips turning up to reveal perfectly aligned teeth. I chucked a small cushion at him, even if laughter was spilling from my lips.

"I get your point." I nestled closer to the headrest of the couch. "But it's still different for you and me. Like, if it was true... if I had this internship and all of this because I was sleeping with you, we still wouldn't be the same. No one is going to burn you at the stake for trapping an innocent woman off the streets and taking advantage of her circumstances. Not one person will bat an eyelid. Hell, they'll even praise you and pat your back for it. For me, I'm just reduced to a devious woman, someone who lacks brains, so she makes up for it by looking pretty on her knees. Nothing I will do will convince them of my credibility, because all of it lies in my vagina anyway."

Realization dawned on me far too late, and my cheeks were flushing with embarrassment again. Imagine saying vagina in front of your boss. I needed to pinch myself every single time I cuss or I would never get over this ugly habit anyway. Aiden's eyes were dancing with an unknown emotion, one that I had come to recognize far too often, but I couldn't place what it meant.

"It is a man's world," he shrugged, "and we don't single-handedly have the power to change it all. But the least you can know is that I wouldn't take advantage of a woman's circumstances. Nor will I base someone's credibility in their genitals."

Ah fuck. I could have used genitals. But no.

Hiding my embarrassment, I ducked into my room on the pretext of using the bathroom, then decided I might as well do it since I was in there. I stripped off my shirt and pants while my genitals did their work, putting on a cotton nightdress. Aiden had refilled our glasses, sitting on the coffee table, while the man himself appeared to be in my kitchen.

"Need any help?" I asked as he looked through the fridge, rummaging the dishes I'd arranged.

"Do you have anything to eat? I told you my date was horrible, so I haven't really had much for dinner."

"What happened?" I laughed, pushing him out of the way with a shove of the hip, "Are you okay with a chicken sandwich? Or I could make noodles."

"Chicken, please." He picked, settling on the kitchen counter.

I pulled out the ingredients, working as quickly as my tired body allowed to make a perfectly toasted sandwich. I kept in mind not to add cilantro and dill, warming my bread with copious amounts of butter.

"She's an investment banker." Aiden said, "Nothing wrong with it, I just wished she would look up from her phone to at least eat. I'd like to think I'm more interesting than numbers of a screen. I left after appetizers."

"Interesting? Aiden, you are anything but. I can't name one thing you like besides your business." I teased.

"I like cars. That's why I don't hire a driver most of the time."

"I noticed that. Unrelated question, why don't you have a bodyguard? I imagine rich people are always under some kind of threat or something."

"Why? You think they would kidnap me?"

I bit my lip. Kidnapping Aiden seemed impossible by any standards, but the chances were always there.

"How much ransom would you pay for me?" He asked, hopping off the counter and crossing the distance between us, grabbing a tomato slice from the chopping board to eat.

"A couple of hundred bucks, I think?" I humoured him, "I mean, it's not like you're nice to me or something. I might just not pay them anything, honestly. They can do with you as they please."

"I am nice!" he defended, making me laugh.

"Not at work, you're not."

"Women!" he threw his hands in the air, "First you want me to treat you like everyone else and then you don't like it when I do just that."

I cut the final masterpiece into triangles, putting it on a plate for Aiden. "Do you want ketchup?"

He scrunched his nose. "Thank god, I might pay a little more to your kidnappers now."

He laughed, settling on the sofa again. Thinking our drinks must have warmed up by now, I grabbed some ice from the fridge before sitting next to him again. Barely in the span of a week, we were crossing this boss-employee boundary line for the fifth fucking time, and my mind was too fucked over to think more on that matter. We'll deal with the consequences when we come to it.

Drink three and four came without warning, and for the first time ever, Aiden and I spoke about everything except for work. We didn't discuss what would happen tomorrow morning either, but we talked and unconsciously shifted closer to each other, till I was resting my head on his hand that was stretched across the back of the couch.

He told me some of his stories from his days at HBS, and I listened with rapt attention, clinging to every word that came out of his mouth. If I didn't, my mind would immediately move to the small pinkness of his lips, and I had to rein myself in before we stepped into a territory there was no coming back.

The alcohol made me warmed up inside and I lowered the temperature of the AC a couple of times, till the room was chilled and I had goosebumps on the exposed skin on my legs. For the second night in a row, I fell asleep in Aiden's arms.

I woke up slightly when there was movement under me, but Aiden's words were right in my ear, "Shh, I'm just taking us to the bedroom."

Us.

He was staying the night.

I don't know what it meant except that he was warm against me and his arm across my body felt more natural than it should have. 

We're literally at the halfway mark! Around 15 more chapters to go, and a fabulous epilogue and maybe a sequel and a spinoff? I have way too much love for this world and I can't wait to share them with you.

The sequel will obviously be about Thea and Aiden.

Who do you think the spinoff will be about?