When Aiden had said it was going to be a big fucking event, I hadn't given a moment's thought to how big it was going to be. Every employee that had access to Steele Park had been invited to this event, and according to my calculations, it was a little over thousand people. The Steele's had their own way of winding down after a hectic summer, considering most employees had children and had been managing the past few months with a lot of difficulties. The company had rented a huge mansion with huge-er grounds and a pool for the occasion, even being generous enough to have a full fucking open bar for all the employees and their +1s. I had only been working in the headquarters a few months ago, and there were twenty such other buildings in all of Steele Park. That was a lot of fucking people.

For the occasion, Jason had insisted I be his date, infuriating Aiden who had assumed I would be going as his date. But I deserved to look sexy in a red car, always, so I reached a compromise with the men to reach the event with Jason and go home with Aiden. I would always go home with my man. Aiden was even considering buying the same car so I would drop the plan with Jason, but I had set my foot down and made my stand clear. Jason could pick me from Jeff's salon, and then Aiden could bring my wasted and drunk ass home. It was the perfect plan.

To soothe some of Aiden's anxieties and jealousy, I had offered to coordinate outfits with him, trying to find colour schemes that would be peculiarly ours and no one else. I employed Monica's help in finding what colours were popular sentiments around the place, concluding that no one had so far decided on a black and white combination. It was easy for Aiden to find the look in his wardrobe, and I had picked out a dress from Penny's latest collection that she offered to be made in my size perfectly as a note of gratitude for helping Aiden through some tough times. She hadn't completely warmed up to me yet, but we were getting there. After Jeff was done working his magic on me, I styled myself in front of the mirror, hoping to find a picture good enough to send to the fashion queen.

Aiden got the first snap, as always, and then some fiftieth or sixtieth one went to Penny. Now, I could step outside and finally greet Jason, bless his patience. As suspected, he looked devilishly handsome in his yellow breezy shirt and white pants, the shades resting on the bridge of his nose carelessly only adding to his boyish charm. Someone really needed to snatch this man, and soon too.

"You're so fucking late, Thea." He'd picked up my tongue with ease, and now we cussed across the office like sailors, involving small cushions and paper balls in our arguments. It was infuriating in the best way.

"It takes effort to look this fucking gorgeous." I shot back, kissing him on the cheek before taking a seat in his car. After making sure I was settled, he shut the door for me like a gentleman, we drove off to the gorgeous location. Very true to his nature, Aiden had seen the picture and sent me a red heart emoji, followed by a short text.

I laughed, video calling Aiden. He answered on the second ring, his eyes focused in the far distance away from me. When he looked at his screen, he looked absolutely stunned, even though he'd seen me in a picture seconds ago. I loved how he never failed to make me feel beautiful. Like he genuinely felt like he'd never see someone as pretty as me. And hell, if that wasn't sexy as fuck.

"Hi blue!" My nickname had stuck, and while we were too embarrassed to tell anyone why that nickname existed, Jason had taken it upon himself to spread the word among all of their mutual friends. Aiden hated it when anyone else would call him blue because they didn't know he was my blue-chip investment. They didn't know Aiden's ransom had just shot up to $1, 430, 658. They had no idea. And they never will.

"Hello, darling." Whether I heard it a first or the three hundredth time, the word never lost its charm on me.

"Jason and I just left a few minutes ago, we should be there in an hour."

"That's decent. You're running late, aren't you?"

"It's a party, Aiden." I rolled my eyes, "No one arrives on time at parties."

"Lies, there are at least a hundred people here already."

"Well, they'd all be ancient as fuck like you, with a bedtime routine involving thirteen steps and a body clock that wakes them up at the crack of dawn," Jason yelled over the traffic, making me crack up. Aiden most definitely did not have a thirteen-step skincare routine, and he routinely slept in on weekends.

"I see my girlfriend's continuing to be a terrible influence on you." He noted dryly. "Someone just threw up already." He winced, looking in the distance, "I'm going to need a whole bottle of painkillers at the end of the night."

"Did you know sex works better than painkillers in most cases?" Jason yelled again, making me laugh. They may be well over thirty, but every bit of their friendship was stuck back in the days when they had first met, young impressionable minds at twenty-two and three.

"That's up to Thea to decide." He shrugged, a red tinge on his face already, "I'll see you soon." And then the line went blank.

"That's a lot more banter than I would have expected six months ago." Jason made his observation. I had to agree, in a way. When I had first met Aiden, he was struggling through so much. His father's health was deteriorating, his wealth was stagnant, and his only solution to half his problems was switching business partners at the last minute. Also, he fell in love. Which he admittedly said was the strangest feeling in the world, but he liked exploring it with me. Hearing this had been better than any confession of love he'd made.

When we arrived, I wasted no time in looking for the hot piece of ass named Lydia, dressed in a baby blue dress, pairing well with her sixteen-year-old son, Samuel, who looked like he would rather be anywhere but here. I made a note to slip him a drink sometime during the night, just a little something to make things bearable. Lydia appraised me first before approving the look and kissing my cheeks. Next stop: Aiden fucking Steele, my billionaire boyfriend. That smart fucker had acquired a seat on the board of Schneider Electric somehow, pushing his wealth straight up to three billion and some. I suspected it had something to do with the meetings he never discussed, but I had stopped discussing his business long ago. I only knew as much as the general public knew, and I was happy with that.

The ground was terribly big, and my legs were already locking at the thought of spending a whole night walking around here. Aiden came in my line of vision just then, standing with a glass of whiskey in his hands, having what seemed to be a drab and boring conversation with Ridgely and his mistress. When Aiden had said Ridgely had gone for a baby shower, I had quite sensibly assumed he had a daughter who was about to give birth. What a shocker that he had the nerve to call his mistress to the States just a few days after, coming to the sudden realization that fatherhood was a wonderful opportunity and he didn't want to miss any milestones in his new baby's life. The woman was round, and there was no other feature of hers that I could remember well enough to write home about. Her cheeks were stuffed, her belly was round, her butt was round... Or maybe I just had a solid vendetta against cheaters, and like a fool had been assigning all the blame to the woman.

Jesus, I thought I had grown from that mindset. At least the acknowledgement was a step in the right direction. I forced myself to look at her more carefully as I approached the conversation, finding her grey eyes heavily lined with kohl and blonde hair shining in the setting sunlight. I could hear her strong English accent come through, and I decided to maintain civility at the very least if not straight friendship.

Aiden spotted me just as I reached them, extending his arm for me to wrap myself into and giving him a hug. He looked every bit gorgeous in his white shirt, loosely buttoned and his black denims, making all onlookers swoon, I doubted he even knew what effect he had on people. I greeted Ridgely with a straight face and he introduced me to Maya, who was quick to warm up to me despite all my reservations. Maya's feet hurt and Ridgely rolled his eyes when she complained as if to say, "Women, am I right?"

Left alone, I fully appreciated the small green snake Aiden had made Penny embroider on the pocket of his shirt, to match the hints of red in black butterflies. Gryffindor and Slytherin. Two sides to the same coin. "I don't even have the words to tell you how pretty you look." He mumbled, making me blush.

"Well, at least I can tell you that I am coming up with at least fifty different reasons why I should lead you upstairs in one of those rooms and have my way with you." I winked, leaving my poor man flustered and scatterbrained as I headed to the bar. On my way, I met Monica, her husband and three adorable kids, none of them looking like they needed a drink to have a good time. I found Jade by the bar and spent nearly half an hour listening to her drunkenly blabber about the one that got away, and even though my strongest suspicions were towards Jason, I kept the observation to myself. They both were clearly not ready, and I had no reason to meddle.

The only reason I even looked away was a text from my boyfriend lighting up my screen.

In the house, second floor, third door to your right.

That was efficient. Leaving Jade to her own devices, I walked into the house, immediately being assaulted by the smell of very potent alcohol and loud music for those enthusiastic enough to dance. In another circumstance, I might have danced with a glass in my hand till the DJ had to pack up. Right now, I had a very impatient man waiting for me, and I had every intention to utilize every surface in the room, outfit and make-up be damned.

I took the stairs two at a time, regretting it instantly as my breath started to get heavy. Aiden had invited me to his home gym so many times, I should have fucking listened. I stood in the corridors and eased myself first, counting down the doors. Third to my right. Perfect. Without the formalities of knocking, I walked in, spotting Aiden sitting on a comfy chair near the window.

"Why don't you lock the door behind you?" He said over the rim of his whiskey, an ache spreading through me simply seeing his fingers wrapped around the glass. That would look prettier around my neck, please and thank you, sir. Shaking the thought out of my head, I did as he told me, walking over and taking my heels off at the foot of the bed. Much better.

Usually annoyed by the hazards of walking barefoot, Aiden just shot me an amused look standing to his full height and walking over. The heat in his gaze was not missed, and I found goosebumps rising all over me, enough static to have lit fires somewhere. Coming toe to toe, he pressed his glass against my lips, a simple command on his tongue, "Drink."

I complied, feeling the liquid burn through my throat, igniting warmth as I struggled to remain straight and not attack him. As I had discovered, Aiden may have been gentle and caring and soft when he made love, but he was taking charge always, control hard to lose even in these places. In the bedroom, I was more than happy to comply. Outside of it, I challenged him like no other. And he liked that.

Setting the glass aside, he took a step forward, forcing me to move back, pressing the back of my knees on the bed, "Do you think Penny would be mad if you cause any damages to her dress?"

"I suppose so," he nodded, motioning me to spin around so he could take the dress off and put it away safely. Neither of us wanted to invite her wrath. Once that was out of the way, everything else was practically muscle memory.

***

In between half-hearted efforts to get dressed again and make appearances downstairs, Aiden asked me a question that made my heart stop.

"Say that again?" I stared at him.

"I need your help with some business." He repeated. His death wish was really freaking strong if he needed my involvement in work despite me setting very strong boundaries at home.

"No." I rolled my eyes, sliding the dress over my feet.

"It's literally just a contract we need to sign." A sign of relief. Contracts meant perfectly legal dealings. No more heartache.

"What do you want me to do about it?" I sighed. Aiden walked behind me, raising the dress over my chest and sliding the zip-up slowly.

"I need you to list down your terms."

"You need to stop speaking in circles when you've quite literally fucked my brains out, Aiden." I quipped.

He spun me around, a wide smile on his face, "I want to enter another contract with you. There's no money involved." He said, before correcting himself, "Well, not directly."

"Nope," I slipped out of his arms, walking around the bed and finding my shoes. I absolutely hated the thought of wearing them again, but walking barefoot for the rest of the night also didn't sound like a good idea.

"At least hear me out." He snapped, before softening his tone, "please?"

The effort was cute, so I indulged in it, "Tell me."

"Well, I was thinking long term with this one, you see, and you're... you know..." he struggled to find the right word, before settling on, "rich now. I was...uh, I wanted you to draft an agreement. Like, one day if you decide to leave me, at least I can get some profits out of it."

A laugh rippled through me as I understood the full meaning of his words, "You want my terms for a prenup?"

Glad I'd caught on, he nodded, "This is completely for your financial safety. You know, what if one day I turn out to be in it just for the money?"

I giggled, knowing damn well that I was never possibly going to match up his generations of wealth. "Okay, here are my conditions." I humoured him, "If we split, I want 5% advisory shares of the new e-commerce wing."

Aiden swallowed, before nodding, "Done."

"I want 70% ownership of Karlene Holdings before we launch the IPO."

"Done."

"I also want-" I interrupted myself when Aiden's face showed a hint of wavering confidence, laughter oozing out of me. Taking his face in my hands, I dropped a big kiss on his lips, "For a smart person, you sure are very gullible, Mr Steele." Even if he tried not to show it, his shoulders relaxed visibly, making me laugh harder. "I don't want any of it, Aiden. But I will ask for one thing outside of the contract."

"And that is?"

"I want the fairy tale proposal and a Disney movie wedding. White ball gown and floating lanterns and all of it."

"You'll have it." He nodded, eyes blazing with love and adoration. He leaned forward to kiss me, but I had to interrupt him, "And one more thing."

"What now?"

"You need to create an Instagram account so I can send you memes."

He rolled his eyes, looking at the ceiling as if to think, what the fuck have I agreed to?

"Of course, the universal love language." His disdain was dripping from his voice, grabbing his phone from the bedside table. "Create it. I'll be back in a second." He disappeared into what I assumed was the en-suite bathroom while I filled in his details. When he emerged, I found it in me to annoy him even further, "One last thing."

He groaned, "You know, you're a piece of work."

I pouted, "Since when does work bother you so much?"

"Since every single day I sit at that desk and remember you bent-" he started but I cut his recall off, the embarrassment tingling on my skin. It wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for the fact that Aiden's office was not entirely soundproof, and Monica fucking knew. That embarrassment was going to live with me fucking forever.

"I told you to get a new desk," I mumbled, making him laugh.

"What's the last thing you wanted?"

"Oh," I stood up from my spot on the bed, getting comfortable in my heels once again, "this." I pulled him down by the collar of his shirt and he complied, kissing me till he was the only thing remaining on my mind. 

I'm not crying, you are.