Quote of the day: Don't give up, don't give in, till you reach the end and you start again, don't leave, try everything, try even though you will fail.

Greg folded his hands, listening to the four directors as they all discussed their view on the issue. He watched them with keen interest, they were all older than him, three of them were in his fathers age bracket, while the last one was just a decade older than him and he was there to represent his father, so you can already guess. The four members of the board of directors of Marshall enterprises were all old.

Can't they just retire like his father?

Greg had a hard time understanding why they were still interested in company work. Right now his mind was somewhere else, he couldn't help thinking about Ashley. She wore that blue gown again, he felt that she wore it on purpose, does that mean she was going to date him?

Knowing Ashley he couldn't jump into conclusion, she was highly unpredictable.

She had looked so different, the huge difference was because of her hair, it was the first time he was seeing her letting it down, and it was perfect.

He chuckled lightly when he remembered the look on her as he told her to go buy a new dress, it wasn't really necessary. He could have controlled himself very well around her, at least he has had to put up with her sexiness for a long time now, but today she was just too sexy and he didn't want this old men seeing her that way.

He was the only one who had the right to see her that way.

Just as he finished registering that thought in his mind he heard a soft knock on his door he knew then that Ashley was back, his heart did a little dance of joy, he had no idea why, it wouldn't be the first time he was seeing her today.

The door opened quietly, she walked in with a smile on her delicate features holding a tray with five coffee mugs in hand. He couldn't hide the look of shock on his face, but it wasn't her smile that had him shocked, neither was it the tray in her hand, that coffee was indeed much needed for this meeting.

Then why was he shocked?

It was her dress.

Ashley was smart, he knew that, and she did buy a new dress as he had said.

She was in fact putting on a new dress, then what was the issue?

The dress was exactly the same design as the one she wore before, but just in a different colour. This one was black, but it was still the exact fucking model and design, the dress was hugging her body so tightly, he found it hard to look away.

Ashley walked up to the small table in their midst and dropped the tray. He couldn't help but stare at her cleavage as she bent to serve each director a cup of coffee with that smile still plastered on her face. Her auburn hair cascaded around her, he just wanted to run his hands through it. He couldn't hide his annoyance as he watched her interactions with the men who were blatantly ogling her and making silly small talks with her.

She came up to him and gave him a sweet smile that appeared to be more genuine than the one she was giving to the others, she placed his coffee on the side stool beside him. He looked at the coffee and it was indeed cafe latte, looking up he met with her hazel eyes, he saw the beautiful glint in it, and for that short moment he was able to let go of the little anger he had garnered from the men ogling her.

Greg returned her smile and took a sip of his coffee still staring at her as she left his office.

"So, Mr Marshall," the rather soft spoken one among the men whose name was Mr Daniels called him, he looked at the man. "I get it is all good then?"

"I guess so," Greg answered nodding. Well to be sincere he honestly had no idea of what the old man was talking about. His mind had been elsewhere during the meeting, but he knew it had something to do with increasing the value of shares or something. He just hoped he hadn't nodded off his company with his absent mindedness.

"You seem to have a very efficient secretary," the younger of the men 'Mr Burritos' said. Pardon him he really couldn't pronounce the name, he prefers to just refer to him as Burritos, the name was something Buriatin... Oh whatever.

"She looked really efficient," Mr Houston said with a coy smile etched on his old feature. He was the oldest of the group and the most annoying. He wasn't really appreciating them talking about his Secretary who by the way has a name.

"Just how efficient is she?" Burritos asked with a knowing smile and all Greg wanted to do was punch the living daylight out of him. "I don't know if you share you know, I won't mind her been a little efficient towards me either, she looks like a fine piece of ass." He snickered and the rest of the men were all grinning like he had just said the most reasonable thing ever.

And that was it, Greg had had enough. "You know what, out of my office!" He wasn't even trying to hide his anger.

They all looked shocked at what he just said, they must have all thought they heard wrong because none of them was standing up.

Greg stood up and walked over to the door he opened it wide and pointed outside. "Out of my office!"

"What do you think you are doing, Greg? Your father would never treat us this way," Mr stone the last of them said. Greg wasn't fazed, he cared less what his father would have done, the man had a poor sense of judgment anyway.

"That's Mr. Marshall to you." Greg gave them all a pointed look not saying anything for a while, he was really pissed. "Y'all should just be grateful I'm letting you leave my office complete and healthy, so before I loose my cool, LEAVE!!"

They seem to have gotten the message as they all sauntered out of his office one after the other like the old fools they were. He actually felt dismissing them forever, but business doesn't work that way, they could go against him for what he just did now, but he didn't care, it was a miracle he hadn't punched the living liver out of that stupid Burritos snacks.

"ASHLEY!!!" Greg called a little too coldly.  He watched her stand up from her desk and started walking up to him but not before saying her goodbyes to the gentlemen. Greg felt his anger mount a whole new series of height.

He stormed into his office and started pacing about, waiting for her. First of all, he needed to know why she had disobeyed him, and why she was yet again flirting with other men in his presence.

"What do you think you are doing?" He asked immediately she walked into his office, she gave him a confused look.

"Returning your card of course," she said raising up his card with that smile still on her face. Why was she all smiles today?

"Don't joke with me, Ashley...I asked you to get a new dress."

"And I did," she said still with her smile. "And thanks for your card." She handed him the card, he collected it and pushed down the urge to crush the stupid plastic.

"Ashley, is the new dress any better? I see you were really eager to please those old men with your dressing right, you clearly couldn't wait to flirt with them," Greg said with a dry chuckle. He watched as her face morphed into that of annoyance.

"What exactly is your definition of flirting?" Ashley asked with anger.

"I really can't say...you were smiling at them."

"So were you expecting me to greet them with a scowl on my face?" Ashley retorted her hazel eyes looked darker by the minute.

"Well I don't know,  I just don't like the way they were all ogling you." Greg said running his hand through his hair. He really couldn't understand himself anymore, Ashley did things to his mind he couldn't comprehend and he found it hard to even put it in words.

"You don't like when other men stare at me?" She asked calmly every of her anger seemed to have dissipated by now, he didn't reply her because it was something he already admitted why say it again. "I don't like it either."

"Then why dress this way?" He asked with bewilderment.

"For you of course," she said and her smile was back on her face. It took him a while for his brain to finally register what she had said, he just stood there with a dumbfounded look on his face.

"For me?"

"Yes."

Greg watched as she walked towards him slowly, he couldn't help but stare at her body once again, he must admit black looked good on her. It was taking every bit of resistance not to tear the clothe off her body and take her right there, he could imagine how she would feel underneath him, how she would react under his touch, damn this girl was driving him nuts, he could feel his arousal and damn it was painful.

"About last night Greg," she said. This jolted him out of his reverie, last night, yes, last night he had asked her out and told her to think about it. He watched her face closely and fuck he couldn't detect anything from her face, of all days she had to be closed off today.

"What about it?" damn he was nervous, he didn't know he was capable of being so nervous. Damn this girl.

"I thought about it and..." he watched her face closely trying to see if he can detect even the littlest of emotion, he would be really fucked if she rejected him, damn he might just take Nora and go back to Spain. Yes it was that bad. "I will date you, Greg."

Greg bent his head in pain, he couldn't believe it. She had rejected him, after a few minutes of moping in his own pain he decided to man up and look at her face. He noticed that she was now very close to him and was staring up into his eyes with a curious smile. It was then his brain started functioning well.

He touched his ear to confirm if he still had it, and he was glad to know that his ear was indeed intact, then he must have heard right, she said something along the line of 'I will date you Greg.'

"What did you just say?" Greg asked a little too enthusiastic, damn he sounded desperate.

"I said I will be your girlfriend Greg," she said with the most beautiful smile he had ever seen. His face broke into a smile, she looked really pretty at that moment with her auburn that seemed to be forming into curls cascading around her.

His joy knew no bound, he couldn't hide it, so he did what he had always wanted to do, he pulled her closer to him by her waist and captured her lips with his.

  Chapter twenty four.
Mary Aden.