Feeling a heavy weight on her waist and blazing heat behind her, Elena, with her eyes resolutely closed, restlessly struggled and pushed to get away. She only stopped when she reached the cooler section. Her shirt was stuck to her back and everything was so sticky and uncomfortable that she had to wake up. Blinking her eyes, her brows drew together. This wasn’t her room.

She was aware that she was in Vegas, unlike a couple of days back, having shocked herself so bad that she almost fell from the bed. From the furniture and decorations, she was still in the hotel. But the layout was different and the room was smaller.

And there was a furnace behind her, ruining her sleep.

Shifting around, using momentum to turn herself and the boys inside her, she was surprised to find Harry behind her. Was she in his room? And why was he shirtless? And pantless, she realised after lifting the cover. Fully awake now, her eyes shot everywhere, trying to find anything to do with him. Like clothes or shoes or his ties. She liked him with a tie on.

What she found wasn’t as expected. When she had barged into his alcohol-soaked room previously, it had been a mess, shirts, pants, boxers strewn everywhere. Whiskey, scotch and beer bottles littered along with them. There had even been a broken bottle or two among them. Even though she had been shocked then, she had gotten the impression that was how he was without help.

But now, looking around, it must’ve been due to the loss of the company. Something big and life-changing. Something that would make him act out of character. From his immaculate room, she found herself charmed by this tidy side of him. Thinking back, there was another show of this.It was yesterday. Despite being mad at him for leaving her behind, she realised the common area had been pristine.

Sighing, she couldn’t help but smile as she laid her head on her forearm. There was so many parts of him she didn’t know about. Maybe if she didn’t fight with him so much, they could have discovered and revealed sides of themselves much sooner. Slowly getting to know each other in the course of her pregnancy instead of barely getting under his surface just weeks from the twins’ birth.

Now that she thought about it, apart from their chemistry, why did Harry want them to get married? They barely knew anything about each other. Well, reflecting again, she knew about him and Xavier, that he was going to be a doting father, he was a workaholic, he could cook and overall, had an overbearing personality. But that’s all.

Despite it all, though, she could not think about a life without him. Before him, she had always been so scared about her family finding her, fearing people so much so that she didn’t have many friends. But now, she didn’t care about her family finding her. If they did anything to her, she was not going to take it lying down. She had even reconnected with her grandmother. And she had many people she could call for help. Well, if three could be counted as many.

There was also him being a man. Being around him made her stress just fly away. She could talk to him about anything, when they were not fighting, and it didn’t feel awkward or like she was boring him. And when there was nothing to say, it was alright to be quiet.

Finally, she had the answer to his gauntlet. Her fierce insecurity, her desire to help, her need to be around with him stemmed from one reason and one reason only. It was because she loved him. While this didn’t feel like a sudden realisation, everything had finally condensed into one concrete pillar within. Why she wanted the best for him, his happiness in life and work. Why she was here, wanting to be there for him in any capacity.

Then the next step would be marriage, she mused. He had brought it up before and she had always rejected it. But now, the idea was no longer abhorrent to her. In fact, she welcomed the idea.

Looking at Harry’s sleeping face, she couldn’t help but smile. He looked so cute laying there, his features all slack and relaxed. His lips really drew her, the soft bottom lip and hard upper lip were such a contrast that she was barely refraining from touching it.

Suddenly his eyes opened and his unfocused eyes made him even more adorable. Her hand unconsciously came up to run over his stubbled jaw, following the line down to his neck and stopping at his shoulder blades.

“Els? What are you doing here?”he asked, his voice still gravelly from sleep. For some reason, the shiver running down her back was more intense and hotter than usual. Feeling shy, she lowered her head, hoping he couldn’t see the color spreading over her cheeks

“Uh, I don’t know. I was here when I woke up,”she replied, her voice unexpectedly shy. The silence that followed plucked at her nerves and she found herself talking to fill it. “The last I remembered was being hugged by you and talking about some people following me.”

“Right. I remember now. You were falling asleep and I decided to carry you to your room-”

“Carry? Me? But I weigh as much as a baby elephant. On a bad day, I think I’m an almost-adult elephant. Are you alright? Can you still move?” Her worry for him made her forget her self-consciousness. Using her arm to support her upper body, her free hand ran over his body, wherever she could touch him. She couldn’t help but enjoy the fine layer of warm muscles that greeted her hand.

“Els, I’m fine. Why do you think I go and workout? These guns aren’t just for show.” She couldn’t help but agree silently. His arms and chest were quite a sight to behold. “But you said something that surprised me. So much so that I had to stop at the first room.”

“That’s fine, I guess,”she said, curious about what she could have possibly said that would shock him. But before anything else, she’d like to talk about them first. “So anyway-”

“I want to ask you more about what you said. Let’s talk after a quick shower. Maybe you can order some breakfast and we can plan something for the party.” He was practically bouncing out of bed. The sudden change from languid to energetic surprised and annoyed her. But her eyes couldn’t help but enjoy the view of his butt encased in a tight boxer walking away. A part of her was fluttering in distress though. She wanted to bring this up before losing her courage and conviction.

“I want to get married.” The speed in which he turned took her aback. His eyes had a very lethal glint as he approached the bed again.

“To who?” The way he was asking, and his continued approach, made her draw back. He was slowly crawling up the bed, advancing until he stopped right above her. “Well?”

“To you,”she responded, unable to look away. She was paying such close attention to him that her eyes caught the startled twitch.

“Me?”

“Yeah, you. I accept your proposal.”

----------@@@@@----------

Pacing in his room, Harry couldn’t believe his anxiety. He had been rooted in his room since Elena had left. She had lazed around in bed when he had, more or less, run away from her proposal, staying in the walk in closet for an inordinate amount of time. It had only been after he had walked into the shower that she left for her room. And that had been an hour ago.

Knowing her, she was most probably done with her own ablutions and, from the doorbell chiming, had ordered breakfast. She was probably digging into the food, without him. Not that he was annoyed about it, he assured himself while clenching his fists. Why would he be annoyed?

It wasn’t like she had thrown his mind into disarray from her talk about marriage. Of course not. Not when he had been bringing it up at every opportunity. And it wasn’t like he was waging a vicious battle between elation and fear. Elation that she had agreed to be his; a previously unknown, primal part of him practically roaring in celebration. And his fear, this big, fathomless abyss, that she was going to reject him again. The last time she left had scarred him deeply, despite the fact she had come back. It was sucking away his joy and ramping up his anxiety. He was so jittery that leaving the room wasn’t an option. Even though he was standing in front of the door, his arm had suddenly gained fifty pounds. Why was it so difficult to open the door?

Suddenly he heard her voice through the cracks. She sounded happy, as if she hadn’t a care in the world. Resentment flashed through him but he ignored it to listen closely to her. This sounded like an important call.

“Hey, April. Good morning,”she greeted brightly. He had to smile as he was once again reminded about her close relationship with his cousins’ partners. The women were truly a force to contend with. And it had brought about a side benefit. Through her getting to know them, he had become closer to his cousins. He hadn’t realised that they had been drifting apart until he had met her at the auction. The changes had happened after, thanks in part to the problems that had assailed Jason and April.

Now they were contacting each other regularly, asking each other out for lunch and even to Vegas. Even now, she was making plans with April to go shopping after breakfast-

After breakfast? When she had just told him about someone following her? When they still didn’t know who was the one who arranged for it? And she was going to just go out? Just like that?

“You’re not allowed to go out!”he roared, barging into the living area and taking the phone away from her.

“Harry? What are you doing?”she screeched, grappling for her phone. He managed to stay out of range of her hands, most probably because she couldn’t get out of her chair fast enough. Mumbling a goodbye to Jason’s fiancee, he set a wary gaze on his own irate fiancee. “Give that back!”

“Els, we haven’t talked about this stalker you were telling me about and you want to go out? Just like that? Do you hear yourself?”he asked, dropping her phone on the sofa and holding onto her upper arms. This was both to keep her close and restrain her. “I mean, you must’ve felt unsafe or threatened to bring it up.”

“I get that but I need to get a new dress,”she explained, her eyes looking beseechingly at him. For some reason, after her talk about marriage, he felt weaker against her. Words of agreement were at the tip of his tongue when common sense asserted itself.

“Are you kidding me? Els, this isn’t a small issue. Someone’s following you, most probably for nefarious reasons. I can’t just let you go out.”

“Then why don’t you follow along?”

“Me? Shopping? I’d rather gouge my eyes out.” He couldn’t help the sneer that appeared on his face. From past experience, those had been a fruitless waste of time, time he was not going to get back.

“Then what would you suggest? I really need to get a dress,”she asked testily.

“Why do you need a dress?”

“For the party.” For the party? Really? Then that settled it.

“We don’t need to go to the party-”

“We need to go. It’s on the twentieth March. That’s the best time.”

“And what’s so special about that?”

“Xavier always does something stupid on this date. Every year. You can check the data.”

“What?”he asked in disbelief.

“What?”she responded, puzzled.

“What?” His voice was even more incredulous.

-------@@@@-------

“What am I supposed to be looking at?”Jason asked, looking up from the laptop Harry had shoved into his arm. Harry couldn’t help but look triumphantly at Elena. He’d told her there was nothing wrong with the data. But she wouldn’t believe him. So they had had to ask an external opinion. Which explained Jason’s presence in Harry’s room. In fact, everyone was here. Even the chilly Sharon and Cameron.

“Are you guys blind? There’s a clear pattern. I mean it’s right there,”she said, pointing at the screen indignantly before looking thoughtful. “Is it because you guys are too high that you can’t see it?”

“What is that supposed to mean?”Harry demanded, feeling as if she had insulted him. Too high? In what aspect? Height? Intelligence? He couldn’t help the internal grumbling. They had been arguing for the past couple of hours. His patience was running short. It didn’t help that she kept looking at him as if she questioned his intellect.

“I mean your position in the company,”she explained, rolling her eyes. There it was again, the look of judgement. He barely suppressed a growl. “You are both CEOs. Maybe you’re not used to looking at raw data.”

“I resent that.”

“That’s too far, Els.”

“I’m not saying you’re dumb but I can’t afford to waste anymore time. I need to get stuff for the party, not spend time here trying to convince you that he does stupid shit on the magical date on twentieth March. I even spent half an hour arranging the data to highlight this. I don’t know what to do anymore. I mean, I’m even thinking of ways to sneak out. Which, hold your horses, Harry, I know is a dumb thing to do. And near impossible with my big stomach.”

“What exactly does the plan entail?”Harry asked skeptically.

“It involves Sharon and April distracting you guys. Like something big. Maybe April giving birth.”

“That’s ridiculous. It’s far too early.”

“It doesn’t have to be true,”Elena said glumly. The men shared a look.

Harry’s heart almost stopped when he heard of her half-baked plan. But from the steely look in her eyes, he had no illusions that she was joking. She was absolutely serious. But he still couldn’t see what she saw. And he had yet to establish a task force to take care of her stalker issue. He needed more time.

Looking at Jason for help, his cousin nodded imperceptibly.

“I’ll get Sharon in to take a look. She has an accounting background. Maybe she can shed more light on this,”Jason said, getting up from the bed. Since this had involved sensitive information, the three of them were in Harry’s room while the others were gathered in the living room. Elena just hmph-ed and folded her arms around the blanket over her stomach.

Not wanting to be around irate Elena more than necessary, Harry followed Jason to the door.

“Did you really see nothing? Elena’s pretty insistent on this,”Harry probed.    He could have blamed it on being out of the job for the past month and half but Jason’s mind was still sharp, still in the helm of his company and, now, his father’s. It was practically inconceivable that he hadn’t spotted anything.

“It’s not that I didn’t see anything,”Jason finally responded when they were at the door. Looking as if he was searching for words, Harry waited. “It’s just that… I mean this information that you have. You have the entire accounts of all the previous companies Xavier had worked with. What is that? Five? Of some of the biggest companies in the world? I mean, how?”

“Elena’s grandmother got it for her. Don’t ask,”Harry hurriedly explained. “But was there any merits to her claims?”

“I won’t discount it at all. I did something suspicious but this kind of thing needs time. If you had shared them with me yesterday, everything would be much clearer.” Frowning at his cousin’s sly words, Harry didn’t take the bait. He glanced briefly back and heaved a sigh of relief.

“Well, in any case, let’s get Sharon to take a look at it. I don’t think Elena is going to give me anymore time to setup the protection detail,”Harry said, pushing Jason out of the room. Sticking his head in before closing the door, he said a perfunctory excuse to his sleepy fiancee. She didn’t even say anything, having fallen back asleep.

AN: hey guys. Sorry about the late update. Been a bit busy this week. So how do like the chapter? Hmm, hmm *wide eye stare*

So the cheesecake was nice but not to my satisfaction. I'll make it again when I'm balling enough to buy cream cheese. Or if I'm meeting anyone.

Anyways, please VOTE and COMMENT if you liked the chapter. Follow me on Wattpad or Twitter. Also, if I'm not shameless enough, I have a ko-fi so please check that out.

THANKS

Next update:12 Nov 2018