Ariel never knew that the eting Aiden ntioned they'd be having in the evening would be at a freaking club!
Gregory was driving them as usual, and the mont they parked in front of a building, the types of security n she saw in front of the building told her that this was a club.
And, to confirm her suspicion, a group of half-naked girls ca out of the car in front of them and trooped into the building.
"Don't worry, this won't be like the last one. I'm here with you, plus. You're not the only employee who'll be in there, Jess and a few people from the design departnt are already in there, okay?" Aiden held Ariel's when he saw that she was looking reluctant to get out of the car.
Ariel sighed and looked at Aiden. "You could've just told , look at my clothes, it's not fit for going to a -"
"Shh..." Aiden placed a finger on her lips, leaning down and staring into her eyes.
"You're perfect the way you are, love," He whispered into her ear.
Gregory uncomfortably adjusted himself in the driver's seat in front.
If he had doubts before about his boss and his wife, what he saw in that mont cleared all doubts.
He could feel the sizzling chemistry between them from miles away. The way his boss stared at Ariel was with a look he'd never seen in his eyes before, and it could only be love.
He was wondering when it happened and what led to the change between them.
"If you say so..." Ariel smiled up at Aiden.
"Just stay by my side at all tis, okay?" Aiden requested.
Ariel nodded, "Okay."
They got out of the car and walked toward the entrance.
"Mr. Chaz," The security n bowed to him when they saw him coming.
They imdiately opened the door for him and let them in.
Ariel was starting to believe that Aiden might just be affiliated with the Mafia world, the respect he commanded from both normal businessn and underworld businessn was starting to raise questions in her head.
"Keep up, love," Aiden spoke loudly beside her as they stepped into the deafening club.
Ariel tightened her hand around Aiden's and walked closer to him as they walked past the hyped crowd of dancing fellows.
She could feel Gregory behind them, keeping a reasonable distance from them.
They moved away from the crowd and took a corner, heading towards a narrow passage, "We're going up," Aiden pointed to the stairs at the end of the passage.
Ariel nodded and followed him without question.
They climbed the stairs and were t with a short hallway with security n standing guard at each door.
One of the security n walked toward them and bowed to Aiden. "Mr. Chaz, please, follow ; I've been assigned to lead you to Mr. Dee." The security guy inford them.
Aiden nodded at him and followed him.
Ariel was quietly following along, she was starting to feel like they were here for so illegal transaction instead of so legal and professional eting.
But she didn't voice it out; as long as she was with Aiden, she knew she was safe, and he wouldn't lead her into sothing dangerous.
"This room," The security guy led them to the last door in the hallway and pointed to it.
"Thank you," Aiden nodded politely.
The security guy bowed once again before he left.
Aiden was about to open the door when Ariel tugged his hand.
"What's the problem, love?" Aiden asked quietly.
Ariel pointed to her hand which he was still holding very tightly in his.
Aiden raised a brow; he'd forgotten that he was even holding her hand; it just felt right holding it, and he didn't want to release her.
"What about that?" He asked.
Ariel frowned, "We're about to enter a room full of a few of your employees and a business partner, do you want them to see you holding hands with your secretary like this?" She raised their joined hand between their faces.
Aiden shrugged, "I don't mind."
Ariel shook her head, "Co on, quit joking around," She slowly removed her hand from Aiden's hold.
"Let's go," She said and stared at the door.
Aiden felt hurt.
He stared at his empty hand for a while and sighed.
He didn't want to keep their relationship secret anymore; he wanted to be able to love his wife publicly; he was tired of treating her like a stranger in public and watching other n hit on her.
He wanted to let everyone know that she belonged to him and he belonged to her; they belonged to each other.
But he would respect her decision; they haven't really talked about it, so he won't force it on her.
"Alright," He replied and pushed the door open.
Ariel let him walk in first before she followed him behind.
Inside, the room looked like a casino; the music downstairs didn't reach there as people sat around the tables, playing whatever gas they played in the casinos.
Gregory was close to Ariel this ti, he was almost walking beside her.
Aiden led them to the last table in a corner, and Ariel could already make out so familiar faces. She saw Jess and a few people she usually saw around the company, and just when she thought that was all, her eyes t with the last person she needed to see at that mont.
Eva.
This was going to be a long night.
As they neared the table, an elderly man with grey hair stood from the middle of the table and walked toward Aiden.
"Aiden, my boy, I'm happy you could make it," The man hugged Aiden tightly.
"I wouldn't miss doing business with you, Dee," Aiden replied.
"Oh, who's this beauty? Got a girlfriend?" Mr. Dee asked, staring at Ariel with interest.
"She's my-"
"Hello, Mr. Dee, pleased to et you. I'm Mr. Chaz's secretary, and we're happy to do business with you," Ariel quickly introduced herself.
She sensed that Aiden wanted to introduce her as sothing that wasn't his secretary, so she had to fix that.
"Wow, she's a goddess, Aiden. If you don't put a ring on her finger, trust , my son will," Mr. Dee tapped Aiden's shoulder and walked back to his seat.
Ariel walked past Aiden but not without noticing his clenched jaws.
He was angry, but why?
Did he really want to introduce her as his wife?
There were only two seats left at the table so Ariel lowered herself onto one of them which happened to be beside Mr. Dee
Aiden sighed and walked over to their other seat, lowering himself to it.
Gregory walked to the corner and silently stood beside the wall, watching the whole table and casino.
"Jess," Aiden called coldly.
Ariel couldn't help but notice that sothing had changed about Aiden's mood. He had suddenly beco cold, almost like his old self.
What happened?
Jess imdiately brought out the file that had been lying on her lap the whole ti.
"Mr. Dee, I'm the chief designer at Chaz company, and these are the hand-sketched samples of our most expensive diamond and gold-made jewelry pieces; please do go through them," Jess spoke confidently and stood, walking over to Mr. Dee to put the file in front of him.
Mr. Dee nodded, "Ah, but I'm too old to understand these designs, can soone explain them to ?" He asked, smiling mischievously as he looked around the table.
Eva had been looking for an opportunity to make herself noticed by Aiden since the mont he walked through the door, and now was the ti.
She would show him that she was beauty and brains, a full package.
"I'll explain it to you, Mr. Dee," Eva stood from her chair and walked toward the old man.
However, before she could reach him, Mr. Dee raised his hand, "No need. I don't need you, I want her to explain it," He pointed at Ariel.
Everyone was surprised, especially Eva. She was embarrassed at herself.
Why would that man do that to her? Ariel didn't even know anything about designs.
"But, Mr. Dee, she doesn't know anything about designs, I can explain it better-"
"Let be the judge of that. Sit, young lady," Mr. Dee said dismissively.
Eva clenched her fists and returned to her seat. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw the icy glare Aiden was giving her, she had misbehaved.
"So, Aiden's secretary, can you explain these designs to ?" Mr. Dee shifted the file to Ariel's front.
Ariel blinked and forced herself out of her shock.
It was at that mont she was glad she read all of Jess' reports that she submitted to Aiden through her every day.
She would have been so clueless.
Luckily, she found designing to be sothing very interesting and unique, and sotis, she spent her spare ti browsing and learning more about it.
"Of course, Mr. Dee, but I'll need you to have the file. So you can reference the designs as I explain them," She gently pushed the design back to him and opened the first page for him.
Aiden was mad at her, but he couldn't help the intrigue and interest he felt by just watching her confidently take control of the situation.
He was curious to see what she knew about the designs, too; it ant she was really doing her work as a secretary, reading through all the files before sending them to him.
Mr. Dee nodded, staring down at the hand-sketched drawing.
Eva scoffed quietly; in a way, she was happy that Ariel was chosen to explain the design; she was very sure that she would make a fool out of herself.
"We have five designs in total, and you're currently looking at the first one. This one is made with a hundred percent pure diamond, but it's just a necklace," Ariel shrugged.
Aiden frowned; why did she make it seem like the design being a necklace was tacky?
Eva smiled evilly. 'Yes, sister, just go on that way and show everyone what a dummy you are.' She smirked.
"The second, third, fourth, and fifth were all made of the finest diamonds and golds, but just like the first one, they're just necklaces," Ariel shrugged again and covered the file, sliding it back to Jess, who had the most confused look on her face.
"What are you doing?" She mouthed to Ariel, who just smiled at her.
"Are you saying the necklaces are not fine enough?" Mr. Dee asked, looking over at Aiden with interest.
"No, sir. In fact, those are the finest pieces of jewelry our company has ever made and they'd sell for eternity if released into the market. But it's not what you need for your Casino," Ariel replied.
"That's enough, Ariel! Why are you trying to talk down Mr. Chaz's hard work?" Eva agitatedly asked.
"Quiet, young lady. Aiden, are all your employees this manner-less?" Mr. Dee asked, anger evident in his voice.
"Ms. Eva, this is your last warning, or you're fired," Aiden warned coldly.
Eva gasped quietly, "I'm sorry. Mr. Chaz." Once again, she felt humiliated because of that fucking Ariel.
"Carry on, Ariel," Mr. Dee nodded at Ariel.
"You need these designs to show to your clients as an actionable item. Instead of giving them a small piece of necklace that could carry a limited amount of grams and ounces, why not give it to them in bars? To ensure an imdiate cashback revenue on your business, I suggest you allow the Chaz company to use our finest materials to produce gold bars and diamond gold bars for your casino," Ariel paused, observing the old man.
Mr. Dee was quiet for a while, letting suspense brew among everyone.
"Why do you think bars would fetch more money than the necklaces?" He asked.
Ariel smiled, "Let's start with the sizes. As I've ntioned earlier, a necklace can only carry a small amount of grams and ounces. If you place a necklace and a bar on a table and ask your clients to bid, no one would likely bid on the necklace because, they know that the bars contain a hundred tis what the necklace has, and no matter how much they spend on the bars, they know they'd be getting the value for their money once they own the item."
Mr. Dee slowly stood and walked over to Aiden.
He stretched out his hand to Aiden and Aiden skeptically shook him.
"It's a deal, you deliver the bars as she instructed, understood?" Mr. Dee smiled.
Jess was the first to start clapping and soon others followed.
They were impressed and surprised by Ariel, her ideas were aweso. They had thought she was going to make a fool out of everyone.
Eva was shocked to the bones; she never knew Ariel was that smart, she never even knew that they could do sothing like that.
Jealousy consud her.
"Um, right. We shall deliver them to you by next week," Aiden spoke slowly, still trying to process what Ariel had just done.
"Aweso, please, everyone, relax and enjoy. The night is still young!" Mr. Dee announced.
"Can I have a word with you?" He quietly asked Ariel as so n started to serve drinks to the table.
"Sure," Ariel nodded and stood, following him out of the room.
Aiden watched helplessly as Ariel walked away from him, he was about to follow her when Eva suddenly blocked his path with a drink in her hand.
"Mr. Chaz, everyone is waiting for you to do a toast to our successful business with Mr. Dee," Eva smiled seductively at him.
Aiden sighed and took the drink from her and returned to the table.
Eva smiled to herself. She ca prepared that night, she would put an aphrodisiac in Aiden's drink, and when he went to the restroom, she'd et him there.
There was no way he was escaping her claws that night.
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