Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep -
I slam my hand down on my alarm and open up my eyes to see what time it is. When I realize what time it is, I jump out of my bed and rush to get ready for the day. I can't be late, not today!!
"Oh shit, I am going to be late! I can't be late!!" I exclaim while grabbing a pair of nice black flats from my closet and put them on.
I grab my laptop bag with my laptop and all of the files that I need for my job, Stone Publishing Enterprises. I put my wallet into my bag and also grab my ID so that I can get in, don't want to forget that. That would be a rookie mistake.
Almost forgot to mention this. Hi, I'm Aaliyan. Aaliyan Olivia Devereaux. Yeah weird name, don't know what my parents were thinking. Anyways, I am 23 years old and I am an up and new coming author. But to get there, I am working for Stone Publishing Enterprises.
It has been my dream ever since I was a little girl. I've been writing and drawing since I was 5 years old with my mother. Yeah, I was that committed to this dream and now it is finally coming true. Doing this for you mom!! Wish you could see me now, you would be so proud of what I have done in my life!!
I grab my subway key card and then lock my door on the way out. I wave my hands out to a taxi and tell them where I need to go and we arrive there in a matter of minutes. Well, when you live in New York City, you can get anywhere in a matter of minutes no matter who far away you live in this city. I pay the taxi driver and push and bustle myself between the large and loud energetic crowd of people and make it to the subway car that I ride, just in time.
"Whew, that was close" I say in a low voice while also catching my breath. Once I catch my breath I grab a seat next to a mother and her little daughter, who is crying and screaming. Everyone around her is looking right at the mother with looks of disgust. I turn my attention towards her and ask the little girl what's wrong.
"I can't find my teddy" she answers wiping the tears from her face.
I look around the place we are sitting at and I find her teddy just a few steps away from us, next to a guy who smells like cologne and mint. I know that smell anywhere, it was none other than my crazy ex who cheated on me with my so called best friend of 20 years. I came home one day from college and found them in bed together.
"How could you?!"
"Babe, I can explain!"
"Explain what?! You are sleeping with my best friend right now!"
"SHE CAME ONTO ME ALIA!!"
"How long?"
"8 months"
"Alia -"
"GET OUT, BOTH OF YOU!!" I scream at the top of my lungs not even giving my best friend the time to explain her actions. She doesn't deserve to explain it. What I saw is enough to know that she betrayed our friendship.
And this all happened just 2 weeks ago. I take a deep breath waking myself from my flashback and go pick up the bear next to his feet. He recognizes me and smiles that perfect smile that I fell in love with 5 years ago. Can't believe I was so naive and stupid to go out with this guy. I roll my eyes, stand back up and turn around to give the little girl her teddy back. She smiles a happy, ecstatic smile and gives me a hug. I wrap my arms around her and catch him slightly staring at me so I give him a sharp glare and sit back down next to the little girl and her mother ignoring him till I get to my stop.
I reach the office just a couple of minutes before I needed to clock in. I clock in with my ID and then head up to my office before 'he' comes in. The boss of Stone Publishing Enterprises. Almost forgot to mention, I am his VP assistant. When he is not here, people have to respond to me. He gave me this promotion a year ago and I couldn't be any happier. Again, my mother would be so proud of me right now. We all start or go back to what the boss wants to get done until I could hear the steady footsteps of our boss, Carter Stone. He has been running this business ever since he was only 18 years old. His dad passed on and Carter ended up being the heir to this business. For someone who is 26 years old, he has done quite well for himself.
"Ms. Devereaux" he says in a deep but soft voice making my body shiver at just the way he said my last name.
"Mr. Stone" I reply bowing my head for a quick second before he heads into our office. I close the door behind us and stand in front of the door, taking a deep breath for the second time today and then go sit down in the chair across from him. He puts his hands onto his desk and I catch a glance of his tattoos peeking out on his wrist. What I would do to just see him without his shirt on and just rub my hands all over those tattoos.
"Ms. Devereaux!" I hear Mr. Stone yelling, waking me up from my trance. I feel my cheeks and realize that they are a warm shade of red. I shake my head and look back at Mr. Stone.
"Sorry sir" I reply quickly and turn my focus back to him.
"Okay, so how are the reports for today? Any changes?" He asks me in confidence.
"They are good so far and there has been a slight change in the reports" I say grabbing the reports from my bag and hand it to him. He slides his hands across my fingers and grips is hands onto the reports and opens up to read them.
"Impressive, I see. Well make sure to increase these numbers by the end of the week. We can't lose our profits and our readers. Got that?" He says getting up and taking off his jacket, wrapping it around his chair. He walks over to the window and stares out it, while grabbing a cigarette from his pocket, lighting it and bringing it up to his clean-shaved face.
"Got it Mr. Stone" I reply grabbing the reports and head back to my office next door.
I start working on the reports and figure out a way to increase our profits and not lose any of our readers. A few hours fly by and I take a deep breath and stand up to go stand next to my window. Looking out below at the city calms my nerves and helps me think of ideas as well. Hearing the sounds of people typing and walking around the office and the sounds of the cars below rummage through my head until I hear someone opening my door.
"Ms. Devereaux, Mr. Stone needs you in his office real quick" the person says and then closes the door once again. I turn and head to his office. "Wonder what he needs this time". I reach his office but before I could open the door I hear his voice scream at someone.
"If I don't get this stock by the end of the week, you are dead, hear me?!"
"Okay sir. Sorry for letting this get out of hand."
"GET OUT, NOW!!" I hear him scream at the top of his lungs making the person practically run out of his office. I peek my head into his office to see him rub his fingers through his dark black hair. He notices me and I walk into the room slowly. He catches his breath and then sits back down behind his desk. I also notices the mess of a broken bourbon glass with the drink seeping into the floor. I go over to the mess, get down and clean it up until I feel a warm hand grip around my wrist pulling me back up making me only a few inches from his face.
"I'll get someone else to pick up that mess Aaliyan Olivia."
Him saying my full name sends shivers down my spine and I almost my footing, but I take a deep breath and he lets go of my wrist making it go cold. I take a step back and we just stand there for what seems like minutes or hell, hours until he breaks the silence by asking me a question.
"What would you like to eat for lunch?"
"Oh um, the New York special from Modern Blue Castle please" I reply to him and then go stand next to the window to calm myself down.
He makes the phone call and then comes to stand up next to me with his arms crossed and his eyes out onto the city that practically belongs to him. He makes deals for other places and checks up on his other businesses around town. He doesn't own just this Enterprise, he owns many more places and is feared by many, except for me. He actually saved me from being kicked out of my place a year ago, so I kind of owe him for making me his VP assistant.
We stand there in silence for what seemed like hours until we heard the door opening with our food. I go to pay for mine, but Mr. Stone puts his hand up and hands the nice gentleman a couple of hundred dollar bills and sends him on his way.
"You didn't have to do that sir" I reply back with a snarky comment.
"I wanted to. You can go back to your office Ms. Devereaux" he replies with a cold look on his face. I head back into my office and finish out the rest of my day. Thank goodness today is Friday.
I pack up everything, clock out and say goodbye to everyone with a smile on my face. Nobody works on the weekend, Mr. Stone thought that two days would be enough time for everyone to go home and be with their families. Once I get outside, I noticed that it was dark. Great, just what I needed to worry about.
I wrap my bag around me tightly and start walking towards the subway since all the taxis around here are not available at this time of night. I look down at the ground and listen to the sounds of cars honking and people talking and laughing around me making me feel more secure about walking to my destination. That sense of security didn't last for long. I feel a strong presence behind me and I pick up my feet and start to walk faster. They do the same and then before I know it, I was full blown on running as fast as my legs could carry me. I hide behind a building and try to catch my breath. I look around and see that the person is gone. Or so I thought.
Once I caught my breath, I step out from the safety of this building until I felt someone grab my arm yanking me back into the darkness and coldness of the hard brick wall. They grip one of their hands on my neck and the other one is still gripped around my wrist, not letting me go. I use my other hand and grip it around his wrist trying to free myself.
"You are not getting away from me this time babe" I hear the voice whispering into my ear. His breath smells like cologne and whiskey with a hint of mint. No, no, no!!
"LET ME GO HUNTER!!" I scream out loud, hoping to get someone's attention.
"No, I'm not going to let you get away this time!" He exclaims adding more pressure to his grip on my neck making me trying to catch my breath.
"It was your fault that you cheated-" I manage to get out before I almost black out from his hold. I slightly keep my eyes open to see that someone is beating the living hell out of Hunter. I couldn't see who it was before I lost all consciousness. The last thing I heard from the person was, "Hang in there Aaliyan Olivia."
I open up my eyes slowly and look around to see that I am laying down on a bed that is not mine. I slowly push myself up and I feel a bandage on my wrist. I gently touch it only to wince in pain. Damn, Hunter really did a number on me. Once I could see everything I pull the covers off of me and take a look around this place. I need to find out who lives in this building and figure out who saved me from my crazy ex mere hours ago. I reach what I assume is the kitchen and I see a tall, shirtless, muscular tattooed body standing away from me.
"Hey, your awake" I hear a deep low voice say while turning around facing me. No way!
"Mr. Stone?!" I say in pure shock. He saved me from my ex? Realizing that is the first thing I said to my savior I walk towards him a bit closer and see that he has some cuts and bruises from his fight with Hunter. Damn, he really put up a fight. I wonder how Hunter turned out from all of this.
"Yeah?" He says with a nonchalant smile on his face. He's acting like nothing has happened. What is wrong with him?
"You saved me, again" I reply back bringing my arm up and grip my other hand around it for a few seconds and then let my arms back down to my side once more.
"Your welcome. Besides, I can't stand to see someone be abused like that. It is just not right" he replies and I notice that his expression changed faster than anything I have seen before. I rush up to him and did the unexpected thing that anyone has ever done. I wrap my arms around my boss and he did the unexpected as well, he wrapped his warm arms around me gently.
I can feel his heart beating a million times a minute. I feel his hot breath on my neck and it sends shivers down my spine. He smells like cologne and Bourbon. After a few minutes he releases his grip from me and goes to pour a glass of water. He turns around and gives me the glass and a couple of pills to help with the pain on my neck and wrist. I swallow both pills with the cold water and give it back to him. He sets it down and we go sit down in his big, quiet living room. "Damn, in a big building like this it must be lonely" I think to myself.
"So, who was that man Aaliyan Olivia?" Mr. Stone asks me, getting straight to the point.
"T-that was my ex H-Hunter. I caught him cheating with my best friend two weeks ago" I say pouring that answer out like it was nothing.
"Well, you won't have to worry about him anymore" he says in a calm voice while crossing his muscular arms.
"What do you mean Mr. Stone?" I ask him with a bit of curiosity.
"He's dead" He says letting it slip from his tongue ever so smoothly. I look at him with pure shock on my face and then stand up and walk back and forth trying to process what he just said.
He grabs his glass and takes a sip of Bourbon. I look at him and he sets his glass back on the small table in front of us. He stands up and crosses his arms once more and just stands there with a small smile on his face. It's like he is proud of what he's done. How did I not recognize his wet hair and his dirty jacket when I was walking into the kitchen. That wasn't Mr. Stone's blood, that was Hunter's!
"Calm down Aaliyan Olivia" he says in a deep calming voice.
"How can I calm down when someone I knew is dead! You killed someone and your so nonchalant about it" I scream out loud letting a few tears run down my face. I wipe them away until I felt his arm gently grip around my wrist.
"He doesn't deserve those tears Ms. Devereaux" he whispers to me while tucking a strand my hair behind my ear. I take a deep breath once again and calm myself down. He's right, he doesn't deserve my tears or pain. I look into his eyes and calmness washes over me. He smiles and gives me a warm hug.
After an hour he gave me a ride home. He also made sure that I made into my building safely before driving back to his place once more. I slowly drag myself upstairs to my place and head inside, walk through my kitchen and straight into my room, plopping myself onto my soft warm bed, falling asleep immediately. So glad that it is the weekend.
"Who was that man Aaliyan Olivia?"
"You won't have to worry about him anymore"
"Calm down Aaliyan Olivia"
"He doesn't deserve those tears Ms. Devereaux"
The last thing that I smell before falling asleep was the scent of his cologne and bourbon, my new favorite combination.
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