Maeve's POV

"Seth," I said to grab his attention, he had zoned out, "Do you understand what I am saying?"

"I do, I am trying to figure out how to corner Stella without playing dirty." He was going over a file with her details in it. "I don't know why she needs him, I give her enough money." He was talking out loud.

"Wait, slow down," I said, scooting closer to check the date of the file, "How could she afford such a sudden upgrade?" I asked, pointing at the two years she managed to stay at a fancy apartment that could not all be on Seth's money. "Also, John is in a private school." Seth was paying enough to cover that.

"Give me a second," He said, going over to another window to open another file, Jake Herondale's.

"I knew there was something wrong with this," He said, turning the screen towards me slightly.

"She was living in the building he owns." I leaned back, "This goes far back. Even before you knew I existed."

"He was probably keeping her for to find some way to get at me. But this is good."

"What?"

"It means he had motive before you, which means I can prove that he is using this as a scapegoat." He was smiling at me, and I let out a grin too finding his source of amusement rather insane. His expression soon turned back to serious, he closed his laptop and turned towards me. We sat so close now that our thighs were touching.

"I want to ask you something." I said before he could say anything. He hesitantly nodded, as if I was leading this to someplace bad.

"The merger. Think from a complete third person point of view, is it good for my company?" I trusted him to give me an unbiased answer. His demeanor relaxed, I wondered what he thought I would talk of.

He took in a deep breath, "It would take away a lot of your controls, no doubt." I pursed my lips, "But I do think it is what is best. Even when the contract was being made, I had talked to both your dad and mine about a merger but Robert didn't think you would agree if that was a clause."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"You were handling things well, I thought with a little more time, my resources would no longer be required but this came up."

"I'm sorry for all these issues."

"None of this is your fault." He brought his hand to my neck and my breathing hitched, "Jake would have found some way to turn the board against me. And, what concerns you, concerns me." He was looking into my eyes and I felt the emotions rush back to me. He leaned in excruciatingly slow while I sat still, till his lips touched mine and I was lost. It was a soft, sweet kiss that transformed into one that was a little more urgent, more hungry, more needy till we landed on the bed and there were no clothes between us just raw emotions.

We were an entangled mess, hands everywhere, sounds of heavy breathing filling the room, lips kissing every inch of available skin, it was perfect. He whispered sweet nothings into my ear, and I knew he had touched me body and soul, there was never any going back to begin with. Till death do us apart, was it?

The next morning I woke up to the sound of knocking. Sunlight managed to stream in even through the curtains. I was lying on my stomach with Seth's arm draped over my waist and face buried in my hair. I peered through one eye to see that it was eight on the clock. I think we went to sleep around four or something close to that.

"Seth," I whispered, "Seth!" I turned my face around to see my husband staring into my soul.

He smiled at me and I don't know why I blushed. He sat up and I took all my own sweet time to appreciate him. The way his shoulder blades moved as he ruffled the sheets, the dimples at his lower back.

"Drew is here." Katrina's voice broke my shameless ogling. Seth cursed under his breath.

"I'll be down in ten minutes!" He turned back to look at me and I think I forgot how to breathe, "Back to the grind, sweety." I shook my head and pulled the covers over my head.

"You aren't helping me." He groaned, I giggled as he placed a kiss on my forehead peaking from under the sheets.

Seth got up and went to the bathroom, I closed my eyes and I think I dozed off because the next thing I knew was Seth placing another kiss on my forehead, "Here are some of my clothes, wear them for now. I've told Mrs Rose to send some over."

"Okay." I said though I knew my words were muffled by the sheets.

Seth's clothes were big on me. He had given me a white V neck and a pair of sweats that he assumed would somehow fit me because it had strings.

I took a quick shower and rushed through my morning routine and somehow managed to look presentable in Seth's clothes. They were loose, no doubt but they didn't look half bad and they smelled like him so I was beyond comfy.

"Good morning." I said, breaking up the conversation they were having. Everyone did a second take on my outfit, that make me rather conscious. It was Seth's intimate look that froze me, those eyes had no business to look at me the way they did with an audience.

"Good morning, Maeve. You came right on time." Katrina said, Seth smiled at me, schooling his expression ever so slightly and spoke up.

"Good news, the house has been searched and it's safe to go back." I sat down beside Seth.

"Were there any listening devices?" I asked hoping Drew would say no.

"Well, not anymore. Unfortunately, it wasn't like that all the time. There were two in the living room and one in the bedroom. The one's in the living room were recorders, which we managed to destroy but one of them was uploading it to a server and while we are looking into where the server is based, I recommend to be prepared to be asked questions from it."

"It won't reach there, Drew. We need to stub the process right at the beginning. I have set up a meeting with Stella, and Jake, I hope is being kept under the radar. Let's see what he wants." The meeting was dismissed and Seth and I were left in the room.

"We need to draw up a contract for the merger, Maeve and present it to our respective stake holders." I nodded along his words. "Do you want to take it slow?" I looked up at him and smiled, and just shook my head.

"I'll drop you off to office today? It's on my way."

"No, I have to go hom- my parents place." I sighed, "I have to loop him in on the whole thing."

"I'll come with you."

"You don't have to, I can handle him." It was a latent plea, asking him to ignore me and come anyway.

"I want to."

"I know you have work and a-"

"Maeve, I'm here." He placed a kiss at the corner of my lips and I closed my eyes.

The following hour we headed to my childhood home. My father didn't look surprised at the situation but I could understand that Seth's presence was bothering him. It was around noon when we were leaving.

"I told you, it's not easy being in business." My dad said as we were at the door.

"You could've made this decision long back, but you didn't." I was glaring at him, he had washed his hands off the company and now was acting like he was a bigger person.

"What do you mean I didn't? If I mentioned a merger you wouldn't have agreed and, as far as I remember George was the one strongly opposing the merger." Seth stopped at his steps and looked back at him.

"He was only seconding your opinion."

"I doubt it. He had his own agenda behind this contract. I didn't take you for a naïve man." There was a small stare down before I interrupted.

"Okay, we are both late as it is. Our lawyers need to start drawing up the merger." I said, tugging at Seth's sleeve.

The car ride was too silent and I couldn't take it anymore.

"Don't let him get under your skin." I said, turning around to face him. His eyes were trained on the road but I could see the tick in his jaw.

"That isn't what is bothering me. He might just be right."

"What do you mean?"

"My dad would not exactly bow down to a bad contract, and he knew it was a bad one. There would come a time for a merger to happen and while your father did say making you agree would be difficult, I don't consider my dad to be one shy of playing dirty."

"You think he wanted this to happen?"

"I think he wanted our companies to come together but I don't know why he didn't insist on it before. Or maybe I am wrong and he made a mistake too."

"Perhaps. But either way, tell me how the meeting with the board goes, okay?" I said placing a kiss on his cheek and getting out of the car.

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