Author's note:- Apology is too simple a word and I feel it can never repair trust once a promise is broken.
I had promised to update by Saturday but didn't.
My city is being graced with storms and lightning so no internet for past couple of days and I have been writing since it's up.
# This book has been stated as having mature content but it's going to get dark.
Reader's discretion requested.
Rose could feel all blood drain from her face and hands get clammy. She dropped her mobile phone and the clutch she was holding in Matt's car. Rose picked them up mumbling apologies trying to sound as non-chalant as possible.
Matt turned towards Rose for a brief moment before he concentrated on the road again.
"I don't think you are the inquisitive types." Asked Matt in his low baritone voice, the voice and the teasing trying to lighten the suddenly heavy mood in the car.
"No questions?!"
"No who? No why? I was half-expecting a tantrum, even you storming to beat him to a pulp since the guy had caused an interruption in your one yr old plan."
Rose gulped visibly.
Matt noticed it but stayed on the same line of questioning.
"Seriously the boss who gives scud duties to her employees for their mistakes is not angry at me for not being able to handle my own?!"
When Rose looked up at Matt's face, he thought he'd been successful but then her reply was like a shutter closing, "Am sure the guy who owns so many businesses knows how to handle them without needing anyone's advice."
Having said that Rose turned and was looking out of the window. Anyone observing her might've thought she was the least affected by the whole episode almost neutral but Matt didn't miss out on the slight tremors her body was experiencing as felt after a mild shock.
It took all his restraint to not stop the car by the road and pull Rose into his laps to coo words of assurance and calm her nerves.
Every few minutes Rose'd shift in her seat slightly as if trying to relieve the pressure she was feeling it seemed everywhere in her body.
After this had happened twice, Matt could take it no longer and pulled the car on the side of the road. His car that was following too stopped a couple of paces behind them and his staff stepped out but stayed away from the car looking everywhere but at them.
Rose was startled from her thoughts the moment it happened and turned to look at Matt with a guarded expression. Slipping out of his seatbelt he moved incredibly close to Rose and holding her chin between his thumb and index finger as if it were a precious gem asked so softly if Rose weren't so reserved she might've ended up weeping and blurting out everything, "What's the matter, Rose?"
Saying this he looked with unflinching attention towards her eyes and face that it felt criminal to even breath. It really made her breath hitch.
"I know I haven't exactly behaved as a gentleman with you the first time we met and I must've come across as pushy but you really were looking forward to this visit. If there's anything bothering you at all, trust me I would fix it. What is it?"
Saying that he continued reading her face with bated breath as if her words were about to determine history.
Being so close to her, touching her creamy skin, inhaling her bewitching perfume which felt as if spring had encircled them it was really difficult for Matt not to lose all control.
Rose continued staring at Matt's face for a couple more seconds before she spoke as if speaking to a 4yr old, more like explaining while removing his hand from her chin slowly as to not offend him, "Much as I appreciate your concern Matt I regret to say it's misplaced. Am perfectly fine. Am not feeling like talking now because am feeling like throwing and breaking stuff cause even though I didn't admit it I am sorely angry at whoever this Pete guy is and I would've ended up breaking his bones had we come across him."
Rose gave herself a mental pat on the back for saying this without her voice wavering and eyes losing her hold on Matt's.
"Much as I wanted to stay I left as you asked cause we still haven't gotten the tender and any chance you lose of us staying and working on the project is on your head."
Rose finished her speech with a slight smirk for extra effects. Matt seemed a bit stunned for a couple of seconds before he recovered and moved away from Rose and into his seat.
"Then all the disturbed vibes am getting from you is because you are angry at the guy who interrupted it all and nothing else?", Matt asked raising his brows feigning equal disinterest.
"Yes", Rose told with such defiance tilting her chin up even a child could understand that she was lying through her teeth.
Fastening his seat belt, Matt drove without turning towards Rose for the rest of the ride.
Once they reached Hyde Park, Rose visibly relaxed and before she stepped out of Matt's car turning to him she said with conflicting eyes, "Am sorry the trip did not turn out as you expected."
Matt replied with eyes full of mischief, "It didn't turn out as either of us expected, Rose. But as I promised the tender shall be ours and you'll get to work hard to your heart's content with me by your side."
Rose was well aware her face must've blushed beetroot red. She turned and rushed off to her room straight. Matt walked up to a waiting Thomas at the steps of the house and explained the happenings of the day and that not much could be achieved.
Thomas smiled wisely and said, "Rome was not built in a day besides such projects take care and concern equivalent to bringing up babies."
Matt felt relieved at that and promised to update as soon as there were any changes.
As soon as Matt left, Rose came down from her room to Thomas's study where he was poring over the contract Matt had drawn up. He looked up and Rose said with the palest of expression, "Pete was there."
************************************
Matt drove with such frustration back to his hotel penthouse that it was a surprise there were no accidents or speeding tickets that day. He dialled Robert and was demanding a full update of the incident while he reached his place.
Turns out Robert didn't have much update except he didn't know how Pete got to know Matt was going to Regalia with Rose.
After the incident at Matt's branch office where Rose had seen Pete and rushed off, Pete was absconding. A thorough background search told that Pete and Rose shared the same school, Modern High Elementary. The address which Pete had shared was a temporary one and since Matt's team had been swift in investigating about Pete, he couldn't dispose anything from there and had to rush off with whatever liquid cash he had.
What Matt's team found was enough to boil his blood and want to commit homicide. There were cut up pictures of Rose pasted to the walls in a hidden closet and a mannequin dressed provocatively with her photo for its face which had been treated sadistically.
All this was found yesterday night and Matt was half-convinced to cancel the trip till Pete was found and the matter taken care of but Rose's eager face could've made him jump through fire. Hence the precautions and the Armada which had failed sorely today since Pete had come, rattled them, attacked a member of the staff and slipped out of their hands again.
Matt was having his cognac neat by the time Robert reached his room for perhaps one among the most difficult conversations ever, "I want this Pete situation taken care of!!", Matt thundered as soon as Robert faced him.
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RS