Love You As It Hurts

5. Standing Too Close (Ian)

I can feel my mouth dry up as those grey eyes burn into mine with confusions and millions of questions. This is not how she was supposed to see me here, but dad had to meddle in this. I need to say something before she reacts, but God knows I don't know what to say.

"You're the girl from the bar... Elizabeth" I try to sound as surprised as possible, but she just keeps staring at me, man, she can be intimidating, and she doesn't even have to try. She exhales and blinks a few times, suddenly her eyes become cold, heartless, emotionless?

"Right... I'm Amelia Elizabeth, the new executive assistant. These are the reports of all the activities, meetings and all when this post was empty." She places the file on the desk, I did hear she's different in the office but that was one hell of an understatement. "Do you need something?" she asks.

"I'll email you the tasks, you can go for now," I say and start to continue my work, she mutters something and leaves. "Fuck," I curse under my breath, I'm not sure what I'm mad at, dad corrupting this girl more than what I had planned or if it wasn't for the freaking business, I would actually ask her out. She can't work here. I know very well dad won't let me fire her and she won't resign unless she has a solid reason. I better get some work done, I rain Elizabeth with pending reports, presentations, memos, slideshows, and hell they are a lot, for a moment I regret giving this amount of load on her first day, but I need to see how much she can handle.

Where the hell is Derek? I even had to pass on his work to Elizabeth, not to mention he's not back with my car yet, it's already six o'clock. It's dark outside, everybody must've left by now. I turn off the lights in my office, but I can see one of the lights is on in a corner. Who's still here at this hour? I walk toward the cabin and the name on the door leaves me stunned, Amelia Elizabeth C. She literally omitted her last name, the poor girl's here because of me, I've been throwing assignments on her face the whole day. The lights suddenly go off, I wait outside for a few seconds to see what happens but then a loud thud comes from inside.

"Fuck..." I hear her curse in pain. Shit! I storm inside, turn the lights back on and find her sitting on the floor.

"What the hell happened?" I join her on the floor, trying to find her eyes to see what's wrong.

"I... umm..." she starts to giggle, what the hell is wrong with her? "I was about to leave, so I turned off the lights, then I realized I left my phone, I was going to get it... and here I am."

"Couldn't you turn the lights back on?" I roll my eyes.

"Could you be any ruder?" she scoffs and tries to get up, I get up and try to help her, but she brushes off my hands. She grabs her phone and turns to me, "I emailed you all the files, you can look into them and tell me tomorrow if it needs any correction"

"All?" I didn't expect she would complete all the work today.

"Listen..." she frowns, "I don't know what you think of me, but I may be young and..." she stops herself, I'm assuming she was going to mention about being a Carrington, "I may be young but I know how business works and how to get it done in time, so if you want to shower me with more then be my guest." She begins to walk but winces as she puts pressure on her twisted ankle.

"Do you want me to help you to your car?" I ask.

"No, I'm fine" she takes a step and winces again.

"You sure?" I raise an eyebrow and the same thing repeats. "You know we could do this all evening, but won't you rather go home?" I keep moving beside her with my arms open, just in case if she falls.

"I said I'm..."

"Fuck it," I curse and carry her in my arms before she could start with the "I'm fine" shit.

"What are you doing? Let me down!" she squeals but I ignore her and get into the elevator. After throwing a fit in my arms for the entire elevator ride, she finally decides to give up and gives me the direction to her car, a bloody Mercedes Benz E Class, this girl knows her cars. I let her down on the passenger side and she starts again.

"The driver's seat is on the other side" she frowns.

"I know, give me your car keys, I'll drive you home." I'm not letting her drive like this, she'll either end up in the hospital or the police station.

"No, you're not" could this woman be any more frustrating.

"Yes, I am, you'll end up in the hospital with that ankle if you drive and as you said you might be young but know how business works and how to get it done in time, so I can't afford my assistant being on leave especially when there's a lot of shit left to do." I fold my arms; she glares at me for a few seconds and digs her hands into her bag and gives me her keys. I open the door for her and help her in and get in myself. As I start the car, the radio automatically turns on and an unfamiliar song fills the car, she immediately changes the song when the singer says ocean eyes, I look at her and I can tell she's flushed even in the dimmed light.

We cross the Carrington mansion, but she just tells me to drive straight. Her phone rings but she stares at it for a while before she turns to me.

"Just keep driving straight, you'll know when to stop, we'll reach there in less than a minute." I smile and I nod. she answers her phone, "Dad?" she says softer than a whisper, I can't hear what's happening on the other side, but she glances at me, "The Whittemore's?" she frowns. What's wrong with the timing of this universe? I stop the car in front of a two-storied ranch, which rests by a lake. I'm God damn sure her father is talking about the meeting with me and my father, for the day after tomorrow. "Okay, thanks" she hangs up and climbs out of the car, and I follow her out.

"Umm... you could wait inside until we figure out how you're going home." I nod and she leads me inside. This place is well renovated. The living room's huge, filled with pictures of Elizabeth and people with her I don't recognise.

"Please, make yourself comfortable, I'll just change quickly and be back in a minute."

"Sure," I smile, and she disappears into the hall, she isn't struggling to walk like before. I quickly text Burk, my driver, the address so he can pick me up. I look around the living room, there's a Minibar is in one corner and a piano in the other, I don't remember reading she knows how to play... but I find the pictures on the wall more entertaining, two days I've met her in person and all I can come up with is she's very uptight, but in the pictures, she looks much more carefree. The one thing that is persistent in the pictures and her now, is that there's some kind of sadness or something in her eyes, she might be smiling but something's missing,

"You like something?" she leans on a wall; she changes into a pair of jeans and a white t-shirt.

"No... just looking"

"You want a drink?" she smiles as she walks towards the bar. Who is this girl? A while ago she was throwing tantrums and now, she is being sweet and all.

"A whisky would do..." I stand to follow her; it'll be rude to just stand here and wait for the drink. She's standing by the wall as she fills a tumbler,

"Do you..." she startles, and I place my hand on the back of her head, making sure she doesn't get hurt as she hits her back on the wall, she sees me, she clearly didn't notice me standing beside her. "You... umm... walk very quietly" she swallows as her breathing quickens. She's awfully close to me or I'm awfully close to her? She flushes and lowers her gaze from me, why is she shy? How can someone be shy with that body? She's extremely smart and beautiful at the same time. I shouldn't be doing this, I put a finger under her chin to tilt her head backwards so that I can see her eyes, her lips parts as she tries to stabilize her breathing but doesn't quite help. I should move, but I can't, it's like I'm stuck in this place and the only way I'm able to move is the way where I shouldn't go.