Chapter 24 His
SIENNA
I had been standing there for more than five minutes, hesitating to knock on the door. An important document needed Lucian’s signature, but I was too ashamed to take it to him. I just stood by his door, a myriad of thoughts invading my head. What would I say when I saw him? I hadn’t seen him that morning because I had been avoiding him as much as I could. Now, I had no choice but to face him, but I was scared he might do something unthinkable, since he had always been doing the unthinkable since the first time we met.
I sighed. At the same time, I heard approaching footsteps behind me, and without having a choice, I dashed into his office. He raised his head as soon as he heard the commotion. It seemed he was working on something serious because he didn’t smile even though he recognized it was me. Yeah! I wasn’t supposed to feel disappointed since that was what I wanted, but I still did.
“Good morning, sir,” I greeted, gulping as I walked to his table.
“Good morning, Sienna.” His voice was calm and normal. He lowered his head and continued whatever he had been doing before I came in. Something shifted within me, and my heart twitched. I stretched my neck, trying to take a peek at what was taking his attention away from me.
“The real estate project needs your signature before it can be submitted to the board, sir,” I said.
“Oh!” He didn’t lift his head from the system. “Let me have it.”
I pursed my lips. Different emotions swirled and surged within me. I could feel something like tears lurking in my eyes. Don’t get me wrong—I wasn’t pained. It just… I couldn’t explain the emotions.
I stretched the file to him. He skimmed through it for seconds and finally scribbled his signature on the required parts.
“Take it,” he said, handing it over to me. “Is there anything else?”
I almost opened my mouth to ask him why he was acting distant and strange today, but I held myself back. We were never anything in the first place. In fact, I never wanted to be this entangled with him, but it happened, and the only thing I could do was move on.
“Nothing, sir.” I shook my head, bowed, and turned.
“Come here, Sienna!” he called.
When I turned again, I saw him gesture with his hand. One of my brows lifted. I shoved every thought to the back of my head. Swallowing hard, I approached him.
As soon as I got to his side, he snatched my wrist and pulled me to himself. There was no warning or anything. I gasped and stumbled onto his body, almost hitting my nose against his head.
He made me sit on his lap and embraced me from behind. My body tightened. Again, I confirmed that I could never know what was going through his mind. One moment, he acted like he knew nothing about me, and the next, he was holding me.
Snatching the document from me, he flung it onto the table. “Enough of office duty,” he mumbled.
My senses clicked afterward, and I hurriedly got off his lap. “What are you doing, Mr. Lucian? There would be a misunderstanding if anybody walked in on us.”
“Why didn’t you reply to my messages?” he asked. “It’s been more than two already.”
“Your message didn’t have a question,” I responded, taking steps backward.
“You know what I’m talking about, Sienna. Stop feigning ignorance,” he insisted.
Shutting my eyes, I opened them again after a few seconds. “I apologize, Mr. Lucian, but I want you to forget whatever happened between us at the club.”
He didn’t react. With his fingers tapping the table, he stared at me intently.
“We… we were both drunk, and it was only expected that we acted senselessly. Whatever happened between us was done out of tipsiness,” I explained, hoping he would understand.
Still, he remained quiet. At some point, I was terrified. I assumed he was exasperated by my statement. Just when I was about to give up, I heard him say, “Do you remember what you said last time in my office?” He raised and there was a brief silence. “You told me you don't mix work with pleasure. What are you doing now?”
I blinked. “But… I—”
“Enough of the topic, Sienna. You might have been drunk that night, but I was not, and I’ve vowed never to let you go,” he revealed. “We can reenact the scene in your sober state if you feel cheated.”
Heat crept up my face. He smirked, and his eyes glistened with mischief. That bastard! He sure knew how to make one speechless and foolish.
“Don’t be shameless,” I grumbled.
“Don’t be stubborn, Sienna. I know you want me as much as I want you too.”
“Don’t make things up, Mr. Lucian. Everything I did was impulsive.”
He pursed his lips and nodded. “Okay, ma’am.” He pointed at a big red box on the center table in the visitors’ corner. “That belongs to you.”
While I was still trying to comprehend his statement, he took my wrist and pulled me toward the table. “A gift for you.”
“I never asked for a gift,” I retorted almost immediately.
“You don’t need to ask for a gift before you’re given one, Sienna. You deserve this and more,” he asserted.
“Why? Is it because I warm your bed better than the other women you’ve met? Or… is this how you gift them in exchange for their pussies?” The words slipped out before I could process how rude and stupid they sounded. Lucian would definitely misunderstand and think I was jealous. Gosh! Why did I keep digging deeper pits for myself?
“What!” he exclaimed. “You aren’t truly saying those words just because I offered you a gift, are you?” he asked. My breath hitched as our eyes locked. Then his lips curled into a smile. “Or are you jealous? Do you want to know if this is how I act around every woman, or if you’re special?”
If only I could beat myself right now. Just as I expected, he misunderstood and assumed I was jealous. And it was no use explaining, because he would never believe it no matter the explanation.
“If that will make you sleep well at night, I have no reason to debunk it,” I mumbled.
“Take the box with you,” he ordered nonchalantly, as though nothing else mattered except my acceptance of it. I didn’t even know what was inside.
“I—”
He cut me short. “I’ll be forced to send it to your friend’s house if you don’t accept it now. And I don’t think you want anyone to know I’m already crawling my way into your life.”
My jaw dropped. He knew everything. “Are you a stalker?”
“You didn’t give me a chance to know you better, so I had no choice but to do the job myself,” he replied as he settled into his swivel chair.
I couldn’t respond. My gaze darted between him and the box as I thought about what to do. It was useless to reject him. Lucian wouldn’t give up just because I said no. And he truly meant it when he said he would send the box to Angel’s apartment.
Defeated, I picked up the box from the table and dashed out of the office.