I clearly remember the day I first saw him.
The whole office was in a hustle, people scampering here and there, collecting files, copying pages, barking orders to the cafeteria, carrying refreshments and oh, the self-proclaimed queen sprained her ankle and broke her stilettos. It was a business meeting, as usual, but the only thing that was not so usual about it was the man who was going to lead it.
Adrian Wolfe, the enigmatic and secretive CEO of the country's largest chain of hospitals: powerful, ruthless and what not.
However, unlike the men you found in cliché romantic novels, he was not a womanizer - what a surprise. There were speculations that he was gay because he was never seen around women, business clients excepted. The paps had been hounding his ass just in case they caught him lurking around with one woman, even if she was just a friend but they never found any. But then, I wasn't going to judge him on the basis of that, because I myself had maintained a platonic relationship with all the men in my life. No one particularly interested me to take a step further.
There were men who managed to attract me to some extent, but it was never enough for me to go ahead and pursue them.
I sighed, looking at the mess my workplace had become. Mr. Wolfe was going to arrive in an hour or so and these people were still working their asses off, when instead all of it could have been done a lot before. I wished I could help them but I myself had to set up the conference room for the meeting. I knew my boss would be here soon and organize the mess the others had made here. The conference room, at the other hand, was only my responsibility.
I didn't remember much of that morning; it was the second day of my period and all the pain down there had most of my attention. I was working mechanically the whole time, at least till the meeting, because once that man came into my view, it was as if I lost the world around me.
I worked for a company manufacturing biomedical equipment, and this was the first time that we were dealing with the Alpha Hospital chain. Just like its name, this hospital chain was the largest and consisted of the best hospitals in the world. They had the best of doctors, and it was like miracles happened there every day - nothing like people coming back from the dead, but they had the cure for the most impossible ailments. I knew the ambiance of that hospital; warm, welcoming and vibrant, contrary to the usual white and sterile surroundings of the hospitals. It wasn't white all around, and didn't smell of medications or death. I had been there when granny was dying of cancer. They had a special staff, kept specially for cheering people up.
Everything was set up to utmost perfection and we, as in me, my boss and my other colleagues from my department waited for the arrival of the oh-so-powerful CEO of the largest chain of hospitals across the world. It was an amazing opportunity for us to be helping them.
Mr. Singh, my boss, was cross checking if we had covered all the equipment in our presentation when we were alerted by the commotion outside the conference room. Adrian Wolfe was here, it seemed, but before he entered the conference hall, an enticing scent tickled my nostrils, and I found myself closing my eyes inhaling deeply.
Oh my God...
The scent was growing stronger, as if the source was coming nearer. I thought I was going crazy; just a scent – perhaps a perfume – and I was going crazy like they showed in those logic-less advertisements. I discreetly licked my lips; my brain had forgotten everything the moment the scent became too overpowering for my senses. My body hummed with awareness, and I wanted to reach out and follow wherever that scent was coming from. I felt dizzy – my blood was all rushing south to my core which was now begging for attention.
Fuck, I was wet already and it was just a fucking scent. It could be a woman for all I knew.
My body was still buzzing when Mr. Wolfe entered the room, and I was desperately trying to gather my wits and focus on this important meeting. Even though I just had to sit still and look pretty, it would cost my job if I did something out of line.
That was when I knew who exactly the source of that heavenly fragrance was. His piercing midnight black eyes bore into mine when his eyes fell on me, and my breath hitched.
Beautiful, Dark, Mysterious and above all, his eyes were enticing, wanting to drown me in their depths. I had never been so attracted to a man in my entire life. There was no doubt that this man was Adrian Wolfe, and a part of me was scared that I would ruin everything by behaving like a harpy.
This was so not me! I felt the desire, thick and hot, fogging my senses as I stared at him. He slowly made his way towards me, stopping to shake hands with all my colleagues. All the time, his eyes were piercing mine, his gaze burning up my body to an impossible temperature, as if he felt the same. I was giddy; felt the sweat covering my palms and my forehead, as he came nearer and nearer and stopped right in front of me.
I was barely breathing. I didn't even know when my lips parted to greet him.
The air surrounding us crackled, and sparked, or it was just me who could feel the fireworks. Damn, he was handsome and hot. He had those oh-so-perfect features luring me to trace them all with my fingers and my lips. His muscle hugging suit left absolutely nothing for imagination, those thick sinewy muscles turned me on, and I bit my lip when my eyes fell on the thick bulge that his black trousers hid.
I never felt so wanton before. I could practically feel his aura, the power, the energy that he radiated, and it didn't fail to attract me to him even more. When I caught his eyes roaming all over my body, lingering on my breasts, and then looking right into my eyes again, I couldn't help but want his skin against mine, bodies rubbing and grinding against each other. I wanted to be dirty, just for him, and my mind conjured up erotic images, me beneath him, writhing and screaming his name.
Desperately wanting to be touched, I held out my hand, and he kept staring at me for a while. When he finally clasped my hand, I held in a moan and he stiffened. Sparks and tingles - the hot and flaming ones - traveled up my arm, igniting my whole body in its wake.
I was aching and throbbing and I needed him. Badly.
He pulled his hand away soon, and I felt disappointment settle in my gut. He walked away and settled in the chair at the head of the table, with his jaw and fists clenched. He wasn't looking at me, purposely not making eye contact with me, yet I yearned to have those eyes on mine, running along every inch of my body. He could have me on this table and I knew I wouldn't care about who saw us.
The meeting proceeded with me sitting a seat away from him, yet he didn't glance at me at all - just once and that was enough to give me wet dreams for a lifetime. I was thankful that I wasn't the one delivering the presentation, because the way I was ogling him and the way I was feeling would have ended up making my presentation a disaster.
I was thankful for my period, or else the chair I was sitting on would've been soaking wet right now. Throughout the meeting, I kept staring at him, sometimes even licking and biting my lips just to get his attention, somehow. Yet, he didn't even look at me and that only caused the heat to burn up more in me, the frustration growing to no limits.
Thankfully, the presentation had ended and I somehow remembered my manners, excusing myself to go to the washroom. I weighed my options to get rid of the frustration. I couldn't relieve myself to save my life, because my fingers were never expert enough to bring me over the edge. So that was out of option. I did what I could, washing my face with cold water and cleaning myself up. Luckily, I had a change of sanitary pads with me.
I was wiping my flushed face with the tissues and turned around when the teasing fragrance surrounded me once again and in the next moment I found myself caged into the arms of none other than Adrian Wolfe. I melted, and caught onto his biceps, keeping my legs straight, afraid either they would buckle under my weight or would spread out for him.
He growled and I moaned loudly when the tingles heated up my body, not caring that anyone could hear us all the way outside the building. His eyes were hard on mine, his gaze darkening and I found myself matching his gaze, my heart fluttering violently in my chest. All my insides felt like noodles, even my limbs and my spine felt like jelly.
Our breaths were mixing as he kept looking at me, not uttering a word. He suddenly pulled me, flush against him, and my eyes nearly rolled in the back of my head as I felt all the hard muscles digging into my skin, especially his erection.
So. Damn. Sexy.
I never felt so wanted. I wanted him inside me, I wanted to kiss him madly, and I just wanted to give myself to him, all of myself. He felt the same, it seemed, as he buried his face into my neck, breathing in deeply, his erection big and hard against my lower abdomen, his large hand covering my entire behind, squeezing it, and his tongue all over the crook of my neck.
I moaned again, loudly.
My fingers had his strong biceps in a death grip, the scent overpowering and clouding all other senses. I let my hands roam over his torso, loving the feel of his delicious muscles under my touch.
All of a sudden, he pushed me away and my hips collided with the edge of the counter, a searing pain running throughout my body. Even though my hips were the ones that were supposed to be aching, it seemed like another part of my body was affected. My chest was in so much pain that I could barely breathe. I heaved, trying my best to take in large amounts of breaths but failed miserably.
I hurt when he pushed me away like that.
His arms came around me once again, bringing my breaths back. He still maintained a distance, and deep inside it pained me that he didn't want me like I wanted him. I knew he could see the hurt and the pain in my eyes, just the way I could see how he was struggling to restrain himself, yet he made no move to comfort me.
"Listen to me, Ms. Winters. I do not want you, you get that?" It looked as if he was telling himself, not me. "I waited for you too long, but you were here, hiding in here for goddess knows how long. I am mated with someone else now, and am going to be a father too."
And with that, all the air seemed to leave my lungs, my heart, body and soul shattering with such a force my knees buckled, and I slid down to the ground. Adrian made no move to help me up, and just watched me shuddering on the restroom floor. I didn't understand why I was feeling so fucking heartbroken, when I barely knew that man. Yet, I couldn't get over the heaviness and the grief that had settled over my heart.
"You are going to stay in the human world, do you understand? And you are not, at any cost, going to cross the MoonLine. Do you understand?" He gritted. When I nodded, he walked out of the restroom, without looking behind at me.
I frowned, because I couldn't understand a bit of what he had said to me. My ears were ringing, my eyes were stinging and my brain was pounding. I felt like I could faint anytime soon and yet here he was, sprouting things unintelligible for a mortal human like me.
I didn't know what he thought of himself. Mated? Bloody MoonLine? What the fuck was he talking about? And about me hiding? I had no idea that I was even hiding from anyone, let alone hiding from the most renowned and philanthropic CEO. And he was waiting for me? The fuck was going on in his mind!
I was slowly becoming aware of the world around me and with that, I became aware of the embarrassment and disgust that I felt for myself. I couldn't believe what had happened to me, I had forgotten everything that existed around me. It was as if only Adrian Wolfe crowded my senses, refusing to let me think about anything else.
I behaved so desperate and needy, so much worse than a whore. I couldn't understand how, all of a sudden I became so fucking horny, my dripping core proving as evidence. I was a quivering mess on the floor, my whole body aching internally in a weird way, like never before.
I had never been attracted to a man in my entire life. I wanted to date someone, but nobody ever intrigued me, not even the cutest boys of my school. Yet, this lunatic guy came in and affected me in such an overwhelming way that I couldn't see anything but him.
I was PMSing, perhaps.
I sighed and got up, clutching my handbag to myself and gripping the edge of the sink to steady my trembling legs. I could still feel his scent lingering in the air, teasing my senses. I ignored it, my thoughts running on how I now had to face the world, as well as the embarrassment that came with it.
Maybe I had overworked myself and needed a break.
*******************
Suffice to say, no one had paid much attention to my unusual behavior in the conference room, and so, work continued normally for the rest of the week. I tried my best to forget him, the unmentionable CEO. Till that day, I had no idea what he was talking about, and I couldn't even remember half of it.
I had become a zombie, honestly, because I hadn't slept a wink the whole of last week. He was constantly on my mind, and work wasn't an effective distraction too.
The only thing that was different was that I had acquired a new...friend, quite reluctantly, to be honest. Logan was just another guy from my department, who used to, kind of, ignore my existence until now. He, all of a sudden, became so friendly, always tagging along wherever I wanted to go and I couldn't just ignore him, he practically worked with me.
I wasn't interested in him at all, sure he was attractive and stuff, and was quite a ladies' man, but there was something that was off about him. His smiles never reached his eyes, and his grins were as fake as my enthusiasm.
I walked down the hallways of the hospital, in my formal shirt and trouser attire because skirts had gotten tighter on me. No, it wasn't that I was getting fat, but I was becoming more voluptuous and curvaceous. I had thought that the days of my puberty had ended a few years ago, but just yesterday morning I found that my bra cups needed an increase in their size. And my ass? It barely fit in my pencil skirts anymore. I had somehow managed to squeeze my derriere into the trousers without tearing them apart, only because they were already loose, but my jeans and my pencil skirts refused to cooperate.
It wasn't just my body structure that had changed, but my skin, my features and my persona seemed to change too. My skin was much smoother and toned now, my features sharper than ever. I felt a unique confidence and power flowing through my veins, yet I somehow felt lost.
It felt like I was missing a part of myself.
It was that unfortunate moment when I entered the office, trying to locate Mr. Singh but got caught in Adrian's gaze instead. I had expected it, honestly, since I could actually smell him before entering the room. I still wondered what cologne he used, which could be smelt from such a distance. Could everyone smell him like that, or was it just me?
Was I the only female who got so desperate and horny at the mere sight of him, or was he used to women throwing them at him?
This time, I did feel those intense emotions, but I didn't feel the lust that had overwhelmed me a week ago. Maybe I was getting over him, or maybe the effects of PMS were actually wearing off.
I ignored him, but I couldn't ignore the heated gaze I felt on me when I went over to hand Mr. Singh the file and he smiled at me. I somehow managed to give him a tight lipped smile, and turned around, walking out of the room slowly, my hips swinging in a seductive manner, as I enjoyed the feeling of his eyes on my behind.
Just a few moments later, I was grabbed by my elbow and turned around roughly, my back slamming against the wall. I winced and looked up only to find a pair of familiar midnight black eyes staring down at me, breathing harshly.
"You. Are. Supposed. To. Stay. Away. From. Me." He growled at me and each staccato sent different jabs to my heart, my chest aching once again. But this time, I wasn't going to succumb to it and remain completely clueless about everything that was happening.
"And why is that so?" I raised a brow at him, despite the tears that threatened to leak out.
"Because it is better that way. The closer we are, the more are the possibilities of us ending up doing something we both would regret. Look, you won't understand, you are a human, but I already have a ma-girlfriend, okay? I just cannot cheat on her."
I gave him an incredulous look, "I apologize for behaving so unprofessionally that day, I have no idea what had come over me, but I assure you that it will never happen again, if that's what you mean by saying that we are going to stay away from each other. Unfortunately, our companies are working together and it means we are going to be seeing each other a lot. Sadly, it is unavoidable."
He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose while I kept staring at him. A moment later, he looked at me, pining me with his gaze alone, which roamed over my face, my breasts, my abdomen and my legs that now fitted snugly in the trousers. His eyes darkened in appreciation as he raked his gaze back up and stared at my breasts for a moment longer.
I expected him to lose his control any moment, but I had to give it to him, he had an amazing self control.
It seemed like he really loved his girlfriend.
And somehow that thought left me more heartbroken than before.