It was his scent that did him in.
It was impossible to put it into words; exactly like how it was impossible to describe the color red to a blind man. The aroma was a potent cocktail of the freshest flowers and the most seductive chocolate. It was surprisingly subtle, easy to lose track of as it vied fruitlessly with the other cloying perfumes and woody colognes that permeated the air of the vast ballroom.
But once Zayn had caught a whiff of that hormone-rousing fragrance, he couldn't get it out of his mind.
The hall was charmingly decorated in complimentary shades of pale gold, coupled with matching streaks of silver and white. The polished French windows were flung open invitingly, welcoming a warm night breeze into the room. Thick, luxurious curtains were appropriately pulled to one side, illuminating the full moon, accompanied by the twinkling stars that sparkled like precious jewels. White, heavy chandeliers dangled from the high ceiling and tossed flattering crystals of light onto the people that occupied the room.
An orchestra was performing a calming serenade, and Zayn could hear the endless jangle of expensive diamond bracelets donned ostentatiously by the ladies. Dignitaries from all over the world were milling and chatting, the low hum of conversation peppered with the foreign sounds created by different accents.
Gleaming baskets held crunchy breadsticks prepared to a crisp golden, and every sort of meat was available and cooked to perfection. Little tubs of tiramisu, drizzled generously with liquor, were paired with rich chocolate truffles for dessert. Most of the guests were queuing up patiently at the buffet table.
And of course, it was no surprise that Niall Horan was at the head of the queue, an expression of pure delight on his face as he assaulted the buffet table voraciously.
"Brilliant dress, by the way," Zayn praised, flashing a lopsided grin at Barbara Palvin. She was clad elegantly in a figure-hugging, mermaid style aquamarine dress that illustrated her slim figure. She patted her hair self-consciously and returned Zayn's smile.
"Can you smell that? No, not the food, but this... gorgeous, unique smell..." Zayn queried, his mind snapping back to the matter at hand. When Barbara shook her head, Zayn took Barbara by the hand and together, the pair threaded their way towards the general direction of the scent.
"Oh! Something like... flowers?" Barbara piped up eventually, her face brightening. Zayn nodded vigorously, his eager golden eyes cruising the scene in front of him to try and pinpoint the exact origin of the fragrance.
And then he felt his heart skip a beat.
Liam Payne stood tall and elegant, devastatingly business-like in a sharp blue suit. Knotted impeccably around his collar was a molten gold tie. The light cascading from the chandelier increased his attractiveness by ten-fold, and Zayn remained stock-still for a moment, admiring the way the shadows played coquettishly on the brunette's face.
A glass of champagne was nestled comfortably in Liam's right hand, and his left hand was tucked casually into the pocket of his tailor-made designer pants. He had lost weight, and there was an arresting quality about him that even the most indifferent onlooker would feel drawn to, and as Zayn's eyes took a lazy tour of Liam's body, he couldn't help but feel a mounting sense of excitement.
Two men were beside Liam, and Zayn noticed Charlie Texas, the Prime Minister, in his peripheral vision. Another man, the blond was dressed in the casual elegance of wealth, but the raven-haired lad only gave those two men a fleeting glance before replacing his attention fully back onto Liam again.
"Hey, what're the both of you doing there?!"
Jerking out of his little bubble of lust, Zayn turned around. Niall had already settled down on a nearby table, looking very satisfied with his bounty from the buffet table. A small avalanche of food was piled precariously high on Niall's plate. There were mounds of colorful coleslaw, slathered liberally with creamy sauce, succulent pieces of grilled lamb and pork, huge baked potatoes drenched with landslides of melted butter and a teetering tower of little frosted cupcakes.
Upon seeing the amount of food on Niall's plate, Zayn and Barbara exchanged a glance. Wordlessly, Zayn hurried towards the buffet table, procured two sets of cutlery and two plates and scurried back. As if they had an unspoken agreement, Zayn and Barbara calmly divided Niall's food into three parts and briskly transferred each bit onto their own plates.
"Why do you two always have to do this all the time?" The blond said petulantly and looked down sadly at his diminished portion.
"That's because you need to have some semblance of decorum at events like this, Ni! There're important people around here that you might be working with in the future, and it's not a good idea if they see you stuffing your face like this! You are working for the Ministry, after all," Barbara pointed out in her usual matter-of-fact tone as she shook her hair free and clipped it back with a red ribbon.
There was a moment of silence as the trio of 23-year-olds basked in the regal atmosphere of the hotel ballroom. Zayn's eyes were still straying distractedly towards Liam, though, his senses in freefall because of Liam's addictive aroma that had become more concentrated due to their short proximity away from the brunette.
"Zayn? Zayn! I asked you a question!" Niall said, nudging his friend.
"Sorry, my mind was on... other things," Zayn mumbled, reluctantly tearing his gaze from the brunette. Barbara tilted her head quizzically and beamed playfully at Niall.
"Do you detect anything... special in the air, Niall?" She asked and raised her eyebrows meaningfully at Zayn.
Obligingly, Niall scrunched up his nose and sniffed the air warily. Gradually, Niall's face melted into a gooey smile, his mouth forming an 'O' of sheer happiness. His eyes fluttered closed and he breathed deeply, inhaling batch-fuls of air before sighing blissfully.
"Bloody hell, that smells absolutely divine. That's something remarkable, I can tell you. If I could smell nothing but that for the rest of my life, I'll die a happy man," Niall practically moaned.
Zayn and Barbara shared an alarmed look. "Ni, you're actually... erm... smelling Liam," Barbara said, wincing. The blond's eyes immediately snapped open, a sliver of distaste swiftly replaced by a flash of confusion.
"Liam.. Payne?! Weren't we talking about roast chicken?" Niall squawked and gestured heatedly towards the buffet table. "Anyway, Liam's here?" Niall queried, craning his head.
"Don't look, Ni! He's staring right at us!" Zayn squeaked and immediately ducked his head, fire gathering rapidly in his cheeks. Sure enough, Liam fixed them with an amused glance, before insinuating back into the conversation carrying out between Charlie and the other man.
"Sorry, mate," Niall grinned and forked some more potato into his mouth.
"Do you remember during our final year how we would give the boys in our school marks upon ten on their bums, Zayn?" Barbara said, laughing.
"Yeah! Justin got a seven, Harry an eight, and Liam a... nine point five," Zayn gulped as he stuck a finger in his collar to loosen it slightly. "Although I definitely think he deserves a perfect ten now," the raven-haired lad whispered as an afterthought, his eyes licking Liam's arse and legs hungrily.
"You just broke up with Gigi, Zayn. Isn't it a bit too early to be checking out other people, least of all Liam Payne?"
"It's been six months since we broke up, Ni," Zayn reminded while he toyed blankly with the smooth, waxy leaves of the decorative orchid on their table.
Niall shrugged his shoulders dismissively, but immediately picked up the conversational thread again. "What score did my butt get?" he asked, puffing himself up importantly and sticking his own arse out proudly.
"You got a... nine," Barbara revealed and dissolved into a bout of giggles when she saw Niall's affronted expression.
"You preferred Liam's to mine?! What's wrong with my bum?!" Niall yelped, turning around and regarding his arse with looming dismay. "It's not... saggy or anything, right?!"
"It's a very good specimen, honey," Barbara placated soothingly, placing a hand on her husband's arm and stroking it. Niall sniffed haughtily, but he was mollified. Zayn chortled at the camaraderie between husband and wife. However, he immediately sobered up and quickly took a sip of his beverage, partly to cool his blushes with champagne and partly to cover his face with the champagne flute when he caught Charlie and the two brunettes looking towards his table.
Charlie's face split into a sunny beam and he beckoned Zayn over. Justifying his shock of black hair with his palm, Zayn tried to saunter as sophisticatedly as he could, but to his horror, he ended up tripping unglamorously over the too-long train of a woman's dress.
His face flooded with color, Zayn finally reached the three men and smiled courteously at Charlie and the other brunette, trying as hard as he could to avoid Liam's eye.
"May I introduce Zayn Malik, head of our Communications and the Arts Department?" Charlie started in his smooth, baritone voice. "I'm sure you would not require an introduction for Mr. Payne, seeing that the both of you were at school together." In reply, Liam inclined his head coolly and drank a mouthful of champagne, enjoying the bubbly tickles at the back of his throat. Zayn felt calculating brown eyes surveying him over the rim of Liam's glass, and the raven-haired lad fidgeted slightly. A cloud of intoxication was wafting from Liam, mingling with the oxygen in the air, diffusing in Zayn's blood and suffusing his brain, and Zayn had to slacken his tie further.
Meanwhile, the blond beside Liam raked Zayn up and down with a scouring gaze, before giving Zayn a thin, perfunctory smirk that bordered on a sneer. Zayn retaliated by giving him a wintry smile in return. The man frowned slightly and touched Liam's fingers in a supposedly intimate way. A shimmer of uneasiness flickered in Liam's eyes and he inched away imperceptibly.
Zayn's shrewd eyes caught and registered every movement.
"Zayn, you probably have not officially met this man yet," Charlie implied the blond. "He is the well-known owner of this chain of hotels, and he is the one behind today's very fabulously arranged event, with Mr. Payne's invaluable assistance, of course. This is- excuse me-" Charlie frowned disapprovingly at his secretary, who had just popped out from nowhere and tapped him on the shoulder timidly.
"I'm really sorry for interrupting, Mr. Texas, but Signor Romano from is leaving now and has requested to meet Mr. Labelle and you, sir, to thank you personally for hosting today's magnificent occasion."
"In that case... Shall we?" Charlie smiled formally and escorted the blond away, the heels of their fancy shoes clicking on the black and white checkerboard marble floor. Within seconds, the pair had melted easily into the throng of people.
Zayn ran his fingers through his hair so that it stood up in choppy peaks. He could feel the sensual tug of pulsing pheromones in the atmosphere, and he was just about to open his mouth to exchange pleasantries before Liam cut him off efficiently.
"Do excuse me, Zayn, but I've got to... circulate," Liam drawled silkily, indicating the crowds with a long, pale finger. The brunette dazzled him with one last supercilious grin before slinking away.
It took a few seconds for Zayn to realize that he had just been snubbed.
_ × × × _
That was what had happened a month ago.
Zayn had tried to put it behind him, but he couldn't stop turning that split-second first encounter over and over in his mind, like a film helplessly stuck on rewind. Zayn felt himself desperately wanting to re-do that evening all over again, longing for the last minute witty comeback to show Liam that he was no longer the hopelessly awkward boy that he once was. He had found Liam's ruthless superiority impenetrable yet seductive, a quality that managed to infuriate and thrill Zayn at the same time. The brunette still maintained that consummate air of irrefutable arrogance, that sheer, undiluted pride that Zayn had fallen prey to all those years back when they were still at school.
And that... scent had already mutated into something so much more, into a penetrating bouquet that seemed to be the most complex scent ever, sweeter than even the most prized elixir. It was driving him demented, taking up permanent residence in his head no matter how much he valiantly tried to push it out. It was absolutely exquisite, and Zayn marveled at how it was able to leave a haunting after-effect in his brain.
Every time whenever Zayn passed by a florist or a bakery, he would catch the glorious, teasing essence of exotic flowers and the characteristic dark and sweet tang of chocolate. His mind would immediately, as fast as lightning, whip back to the memory of Liam at that fateful night. Barbara had said that she wasn't surprised that Zayn had the potential to feel so strongly about it, since "our sense of smell is actually able to trigger a profound effect on our brain with the involvement of pheromones, including sex pheromones," and her assurance that it would probably wear off soon.
Zayn couldn't help but feel a zingy shiver of anticipation dart down his spine at the sex bit.
Niall, however, had just snorted good-naturedly and went, "You've gone bonkers, Zayn."
But then Zayn had succumbed to the inevitable. It was something that he had thought about tirelessly, but could never summon enough boldness to do it. And then when he'd gone and done it, it was like waking up from a fuzzy dream that was blurred at the edges, the dubiousness and fogginess, the uncertainty of whether it had really happened. He had urgently riffled through the reams of parchment on his table, and when he had discovered that one sheet was indeed unaccounted for, he realized, to his horror, that no, it hadn't been a dream.
Niall liked to dub it glibly as "Something That Should Never Be Done Again Under Any Circumstances Whatsoever".
Zayn had written a letter to Liam.
Oh no, that wasn't the worst part.
He had actually sent it.
Zayn hadn't really been expecting a reply, really, but he couldn't help but feel his heart do a little wiggle when he had actually gotten a letter back from Liam. While Zayn's fingers fell over each other to undo the string on the envelope, Zayn's thoughts had ricocheted in a different million directions. Could it be that Liam had felt the same way too? Could it be that he had felt his own heart beat faster, felt his own breath being stolen away, felt the urge to kiss Zayn's perfect and plump ruby-red lips? Could it be that Liam had wanted to tear his own clothes off and fall oh-so-gracefully into Zayn's muscled, strong arms and let Zayn whisk him away to a life full of sweet romance?!
Sadly, it was nothing like that. There were no words dripping of sly and forbidden passion and feelings, nor were there any gasps of clichéd delight at Zayn's brave stab at correspondence. His reply had been as clinical and antiseptic as the snap of surgical gloves against wrists. It stated a date and time, and a neatly printed address of Liam's office.
The bloody letter wasn't even handwritten, for God's sake.
So that was what Zayn was fretting over right now, trying to tame his mess of black locks minutes before he was due at Liam's office. The raven-haired lad yanked the miserable comb out of his hair and tossed it aside. Barbara was plumping his tie up, and Zayn gasped when she hitched it up too high.
"Sorry!" Barbara cringed and quickly released it. She paused, breathed out noisily through her nose, sighed in defeat, looped the tie over Zayn's head and lobbed it away.
"You were never a tie person, Zayn," Barbara declared.
"Thank you!" Zayn quipped, working his thankfully free collar loose with his fingers. The lad hated wearing formal wear; he found it too constricting and uncomfortable. Given his choice, he would probably turn up at Liam's office dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, but Barbara had shot that suggestion down, stating pragmatically that Zayn had to dress for the occasion.
Zayn gave Barbara his trademark crooked grin and walked towards the door of Niall and Barbara's house.
_ × × × _
The place reeked of money.
Zayn twitched a bit nervously as he sat on the rather hard couch in the waiting room. A row of cushions, arranged stiffly in descending size, was positioned formally behind the lad. The smaller cushions were placed on their tips like diamonds against the bigger ones, and Zayn shifted his bum out further, slightly afraid to disturb the meticulousness of it all. He had never felt comfortable in formal environments. Liam's office was located at the second highest level of the building, and it seemed to house no one else other than Liam and his secretary.
Wriggling his toes in his shoes, Zayn looked around the area. The décor was modern and austere, yet welcoming. Business magazines that looked brand-new were sprawled on a coffee table that looked equally new, without a coffee ring or scratch on it. Zayn nonchalantly flipped through a few magazines, but couldn't make heads or tails of it.
He was sure that Liam was carrying out some sort of power play, simply because another businessman had exited Liam's room when Zayn was there, so Liam was obviously alone in his office.
But he had still kept Zayn waiting for the past ten minutes.
Sighing, he chucked the magazine back noisily, earning a glare from Prunella Denis, who had turned out to be Liam's secretary.
The lad had expressed extreme shock when he had realized that this rather pretty woman turned out to be Prunella, who he had once called a 'hag'. It was amazing what a proper, chic hairstyle, together with a fashionable taste in fitting clothes could do. Her shiny black hair was coiffed in a sophisticated chignon and held in place with a dainty ruby flower. She had lost weight, and her lime-green sleeveless sheathe dress highlighted her much-improved figure. She had regarded Zayn with mild curiosity and apprehension when he had appeared, but she was aware that Zayn did have an appointment with Liam that wasn't arranged through her.
A rather bored Zayn got up and wandered around, his eye caught by the dozen or so abstract paintings that studded the cold, icy-blue walls. There was one painting with only splodges of color haphazardly slung onto it. Zayn shifted his attention to another one, and he was trying to figure out whether the person portrayed was a man or a woman when Prunella called out his name.
"Liam will see you now, Malik."
Walking towards the door, Zayn wiped his palms on the thighs of his pants, turned the knob firmly and stepped over the threshold.
There were two heavy, mahogany bookcases filled to the brim with thick, leather-bound tomes. Zayn could see no personal photographs, unlike his own cubicle in his department, where there were sunny pictures of Niall and Barbara, together with their kids and the whole Horan family. Liam's desk was a long slab of polished wood, and a mug of hot tea was cooling on it. There were a laptop stacks of parchment, unopened letters and a handful of quills neatly arranged at one side of the table. But there was something strangely curious. A small bottle of honey, together with a small gleaming spoon sat on the corner of Liam's table, but before Zayn could take a better look at it, Liam had swiftly grabbed it and dropped it in a drawer.
The brunette was a model of self-assurance, his veneer of cool reserve giving nothing away as Zayn moved closer towards him. Zayn drew deep breaths of air into his lungs to clear his slightly woozy head, but immediately regretted it when Liam's heavenly scent assaulted his senses and he ended up going a bit light-headed.
Liam was sitting behind his desk, his elbows planted on the edge of the table, his arms a bit too thin for Zayn's liking. The brunette interlinked his fingers together and fixed Zayn with a thoughtful gaze.
"So, to cut to the chase, is it correct for me to say that you fancy me?"
...
What?! No 'how are you's or even a friendly, normal 'good evening'? Bloody hell, he didn't even offer me a seat! Zayn huffed indignantly. There were two chairs right in front of Liam, but they were loaded with cumbersome files. It didn't make any sense when the rest of Liam's office was so immaculate. Zayn suspected that Liam had done it on purpose.
But no matter, Zayn thought as he grinned to himself, a cord of steel running up his spine. Lifting up one stack of files and plonking it unceremoniously on Liam's table, Zayn smiled innocently at Liam and helped himself to a chair. He was rewarded by a surprised look from Liam. The brunette blinked and squared the heap of files in front of him with military precision, making sure that the corners met at ninety degree angles and that the sides of the files were perfectly parallel to the table edge.
"Maybe I fancy you just a teeny weeny bit," Zayn replied, bringing up his hand and lifting his thumb and forefinger an inch apart.
"Oh, really? I reckon it's more than that," Liam said slyly and slowly unfolded a certain letter that made Zayn blush bright red. The brunette cleared his throat and scanned the letter, the sides of his mouth quirking up into an amused smirk. "Shall I jog your memory? About how you think that I'm the 'hottest, sexiest lad in the whole friggin' universe'?"
At this point, Zayn mustered up a watery smile, inwardly cursing his lack of control and his penchant for inappropriately sexy thoughts.
"Or that I have a... brilliant bum that is totally worth a rating of ten out of ten," Zayn recited dryly.
"I'll give you an eleven if you'll let me grab it," Zayn blurted out without thinking, and ended up clamping a hand to his mouth.
Think witty, Zayn, not pervert.
Liam's eyebrows climbed his forehead, but he instantly recovered his equilibrium. "Thank you for the kind offer, Malik, but I'm not interested."
Ouch.
"Here's what I propose. I'll give you exactly two months to date me. Pull out all the stops, captivate me, and make me fall in love with you, if that's even possible. If I end up liking what I see, then I'll allow this to go further. There will also be rules. If you break any of them, then it's game over," Liam explained, his tone as crisp as iceberg lettuce, his lips twisted in merriment and challenge. Brown eyes sparkled as brightly as the diamonds on Liam's watch as he pushed a piece of parchment towards Zayn across the table.
Zayn licked his lips and read the note. The brunette ran a finger down the letter and said out loud the rules that he already knew by heart.
"I will see you once a week for the next two months. And only once a week. The maximum time taken for each date will be three hours. There will be no physical intimacy at all. If you wish to see me in my office, you will have to book an appointment with Prunella. After every date I will give you a score to let you know how you have fared. Once any of the above rules are broken, the two months will immediately be discounted and you would have failed."
"So... the next two months are some sort of trial period before you're willing to be my boyfriend?" Zayn clarified, his mind tip-toeing through the plethora of possibilities that Liam's arrangement seemed to carry.
Liam didn't give him a straight answer, but merely flashed Zayn a rallying smile and said smoothly, "You have eight dates with me. Use them well. I'll see you next week." With that, Liam busily sliced open an unopened letter with a silver letter-opener, and Zayn knew that he was being dismissed.
Stumbling out as though he was in a daze, Zayn tried to spot any subtle signs of emotion in Liam's demeanor, but turned up empty. The other man was as distant and dignified as a bank manager, and Zayn itched to crack that stern exterior.
Zayn had a feeling that Liam had handed him a contract and made him sign over the dotted line.
But his dormant, competitive streak was suddenly and unexpected piqued, and Zayn felt a delicious flicker of ambitious zeal. And as the corner of his lips pulled upwards into a smile of a naughty cherub, Zayn realised that even though the brunette had been his own frigid self in that clear-cut exchange, Zayn was perfectly sure of one thing:
He was going to blow Liam Payne's mind.
Liam waited until the door clicked firmly behind Zayn, waited until he heard Zayn thank Prunella quietly and the raven-haired lad's footsteps fading away with distance before he let his carefully schooled expression chink and slip away.
He had searched Zayn's physique for any imperfection, but was flummoxed when he failed to find any. Zayn's clothes flirtatiously concealed a fit body, complete with mouth-watering broad shoulders. Playful, distinguishing clusters of black hair styled in a big quiff, and Liam had to suppress the urge to touch lad's hair. His skin had the soft glow of a tan, his chiseled jaw glinted with stubble, demonstrating the sheer testosterone emanating from Zayn, sending Liam's hormones in a disturbed flurry. The crisp white shirt that Zayn had worn complimented his gold eyes wonderfully, and Liam had caught an alluring peek of taut chest. Then his gorgeous, long-lashes..
Liam sighed.
His rediscovered peace of mind was in disorder again, after he had just gotten over him-
The raven-haired lad had looked more confident and sure of himself compared to the last time he had met him, and Liam felt a bubble of interest blooming within him. The tiniest pinpricks of lust and intrigue were stirring in his system and Liam stifled a smile. The brunette doodled aimlessly, allowing his mind to wander, roam and day-dream, something that he hadn't done for so long. A small, eager part of him was wondering what sort of slow, tempting magical seduction the other man would cook up.
Let's see what you can do, Malik.
/tbc.
___
Things to note:
1) Zayn and Liam's jobs are crucial to the plotline.
2) I'll do my best to have two new chapters up every week. Additionally, this story will not be discontinued under any circumstances.
3) Roses is planned out to have around 11 chapters, but it's not set in stone.
Lastly, if you've read it and liked it, it would be nice if you dropped a vote or comment. /grin
<3 <3 <3