Chapter 50

"Excuse me, are you blind?" Susan snapped at the man who was standing beside her in the elevator.

Ralph turned his head a little and glanced at Susan, "what?" He asked.

"Are you blind that you can't see that you are about to step on my foot," she let out pointing at his shoe and her toe.

He stepped aside and once again started reading the meeting details he set for Liam with Italians.

Susan's phone rang at that time. It was Aurora who called. "Yes, love?"

"Are we going shopping? I want Em's birthday to be perfect," Aurora said, twirling a lock of hair on her.

"Yes we are going, I have ordered the cake for her, everything is done. So chill out." She told her as she stepped out of the elevator at the same time when Ralph was about to do it. He would have never used the staff elevator but his personal one was under servicing.

Susan was about to turn left at the same time Ralph was taking and they both bumped into each other again.

"Are you blind?" She snarled when her cell phone fell out of her hand while she landed flat on her arse.

Ralph frowned. "You bumped into me for the third time," he fired back. Susan frowned, "You need to join Kindergarten and learn how to count."

Ralph took a step in her direction. "Say that again."

Susan gave him a look of pure disgust. "You know what, go and see a doctor because I don't have time to waste on a man like you," saying that she took off leaving behind a raging Ralph. It was when the manager of the research team came to him.

"Is something amiss, Mr Knight?" He asked in a little shaking voice.

"Who was that girl?" He pointed at the departing figure of Susan.

"Her name is Susan. She is one of the new interns who won the contest."

Ralph's gaze on her sharpened. "What's her schedule for today?" He questioned the manager but his gaze was still fixed in the direction where Susan went.

"She asked for a half-day today after filing her research report on the new jewellery designs. Mr Knight," the manager replied with a frown of his own, not able to understand why his boss was suddenly interested in an intern's schedule.

The corner of Ralph's lips lifted upward and his gaze turned to the manager, "cancel her leave and ask her to submit the research once again with a more thorough study of the design. I want her to waste her time…"

"Waste her time, Mr Knight?" The manager asked.

Ralph glanced at him and nodded. "Do as I say," the manager nodded and Ralph walked away to talk with the Italians for a meeting over neutral territory. Because in the mafia world one can't live if he is not careful about his safety and Ralph was a calculating genius. He was a man of a sharp mind and just like his brother, cruelty runs in his veins.

Meanwhile, Liam was checking the accounts details of his last month's drug demands on the streets on his Ipad when his eyes went to Aurora on his laptop screen. She was smiling while talking to someone over the phone. Liam put his Ipad on his desk and called Kevin.

"Mr Knight?" He greeted Liam with a questioning tone.

"Send me the next design."

Kevin frowned. "But it's not ready yet sir."

"Send it to me in whatever stage it is," Liam ordered and ended the call.

He recalled her smile yesterday and fury ran through his body, he clutched the pen between his finger and thumb tightly. "I won't let you fly once you are in my clutches, butterfly. This smile of yours will come only when I allow it to come," the pen in his hand cracked and he threw it in the dustbin, leaned back in the chair and kept staring at the door in front of him.

On the other hand, Aurora was about to pack her stuff when the intercom in her cabin rang. "What now?" She whined and accepted the call.

"Hello," she greeted.

"Aurora, you need to take the new design to the CEO," Kevin stated at the other end.

Aurora looked at the receiver in her hand and scowled. "But the design is not ready yet, Mr Rawls. We are still in the initial stage of it."

"You think I don't know that," he snapped but then he took a deep breath to calm himself. "I know that Aurora but the thing is our boss wants to see the design in whatever form it is and you know if the boss wants something we have to do that, so please don't ask any question and go to him with the design," he said as if he was speaking to a child and that irked Aurora. She was a mature adult and she wanted to be treated like one and not as some witless child.

"Alright, Mr Rawls." She said in an over-sweet voice. If he wanted to treat her like a child even when she had proved herself to him then she would behave like one.

You get what you give. End of discussion!

Kevin on the other hand inhaled one more time, he understood that the tone he used was not liked by Aurora. "I apologize for that," he said. Kevin used to work like he wanted to, he was practically the boss of the designing team itself here but since Liam started coming here a lot of things have changed in The Belle.

"It's okay, Mr Rawls."

"Thanks, just go and take the design to him," saying that he ended the call. Aurora rolled her eyes before snatching her drawing book from the desk. The design was still in a rough phase and if he wanted to see it that way then who was she to deny him anything.

While in the elevator she called Susan who accepted the call on the fifth ring. "Hey," she greeted in a lazy tone.

"What's with you now?"

Susan who was trying to see what more she could do in the report sighed irritation. "I want to kill the boss!"

"Me too!"

"Huh! But why?" Susan asked.

Aurora closed her eyes like a cat got caught while stealing milk. She cleared her throat, "leave it, you tell me why you sound like an ill goat?"

"Well I submitted the research design report and now the manager of my team called and told me that the boss didn't like it and I need to submit the report again! And that man didn't even tell me what he didn't like in it."

Aurora stepped out of the elevator when it pinged. She glanced at the reception area where Liam's secretary usually sits but there was no one. She shrugged her shoulders and entered his office without knocking. Liam jerked his head towards the door of his cabin. He frowned when he noticed that she was not even looking at him but busy talking to someone over the phone. Once again he felt insulted by her, instead of treating him as the most important person in her life she was not even paying attention to him. He stood up from his chair and walked around the table stood behind her.

"Listen Aurora, I don't know if I would be able to make it for shopping or not because of this stupid report. So can you go there alone and buy Emily gifts from my side as well?"

Before she could even answer Susan her phone was snatched out of her hand. She gasped, startled, turned around and found a six feet two inches handsome giant standing in front of her. He was staring at her with a dark leveraging gaze that made her toes curl in anticipation.

"What…" he didn't let her complete the sentence and pressed the red icon which ended the call then he put her phone in his coat.

"That's my phone, you have no right to…" she started, furious at him but once again he didn't let her finish and slid his arm around her waist pulling her towards him.

"Let's just not talk about right, Mrs Knight."

"Aurora King, that's what my name is and if you want to continue our friendship you will greet me as one," she said, meeting his eyes.

One side of his lip tugged upward, "I have no intention of continuing this friendship, Mrs Knight. You are aware of the intentions I have for you."

The look in her eyes changed, from jovial to a serious one. Her nose scrunched and thin lines appeared between her brows. She looks like a curious little cat, "And maybe you will lose me as a friend as well if you don't stop this Mrs Knight jab of yours, Liam." She said in a tone that stated that she was dead serious.

Liam pulled her closer which made Aurora gasp. "Right now, you are my employee and when you entered inside you were talking to someone over the phone as if you were walking in a garden. That was not the way you behave in front of your boss and especially if the boss is Liam Knight. If there was someone else instead of you I would have ended that person," he used the word ended but the word he wanted to use killed. He didn't use it because he didn't want to scare her.

Damn! Her father kept her away from the adventurous life of the Mafia.

Liam's dark intense voice sent a wave of fire in her heart. She gulped, she would not let him win this argument. "I won't apologize because I entered the office of my friend, not my boss."

"Who called you here? A friend or boss?" Liam asked.

Aurora rolled her eyes and Liam controlled his mind which screamed to spank her for her defiant behaviour. She pushed him a little to create the much-needed gap between them because goddammit, it felt as if her body was on fire! And the reason for that was their closeness.

Liam left her waist and raised his brow, waiting for her answer. "Alright, I apologize for my behaviour, sir." She said and that line aroused a feeling of sexual tension in his body.

Oh how he, wanted to hear her scream that line when he spanks her for her insolent behaviour but now was not the time to think like that.

"You asked for the designs…" she reminded him, gesturing at the drawing book in her hand.

Liam nodded, his eyes still holding that intense look that churned her stomach in...excitement! Maybe.

Once settled on his chair, Aurora described to him the design still not getting why he was interested in a rough sketch.

Liam was not paying attention to what she was saying but his mind was hazed by that sweet fragrance of her. " Do you like it?"

"It suits you, I wonder if you taste the same way?"

Aurora frowned. "What?" She asked, jerking her head to him. Liam cursed himself in the mind for saying that. Now was not the right time to let his desire rule over his mind.

"Nothing…"

"No, you said something about me tasting the same way? What do you mean by that?" She persisted.

He chuckled. "Who were you talking to over the phone when you came here?" Liam asked, changing the topic of their conversation because he didn't want to stretch it anymore or he would throw her on that desk and have his way with him.

Aurora understood he was changing the topic and she didn't like it. "You can't change the subject of conversation when you want sir?"

"About your fragrance, You smell sweet, what fragrance are you using?" He asked.

"But you said something about me tasting sweet?"

"Semantics! Now tell me about this sweet fragrance?"

Aurora pinched her lips in a thin line. "Why do you want to buy it for your girlfriend?" She snapped.

"Maybe!"

Aurora didn't know why but she felt weird hearing him, so she slumped her shoulders and sighed and closed her drawing book. "Is my work over here?" She asked, not liking his jabbing tone.

"If the work is done, I am leaving. Unlike you, I am busy and have important things to do."

Liam grabbed her hand. "Why are you being rude to me Aurora, is it too hard to answer my question?" His voice dropped to a silky whisper and her heart flipped at the sound of it.

They both were holding their gazes, "my friend Emily made it for me for my birthday."

Liam traced his thumb over her milky skin, drew in a sharp breath and said: "it suits your personality."

Aurora nodded. "If my work is over, may I leave? I have to go somewhere?"

"Where?"

"It's Emily's birthday today and I have to do some shopping…" she drawled, Liam nodded, a smile erupted on his face.

"I will take you there…"