Secretly Mine
Chapter 84: A Curious Delay

Chapter 84: A Curious Delay

We woke up a few hours later, just as the sun was beginning to peak over the horizon. Christian was lying beside me with his hands wrapped around my chest.

"Hmm? Is it morning already?" he asked in a groggy voice.

"It is, but it’s still early. You have time to sleep a bit more if you want," I smiled.

The bed was very comfortable, and the comfortable nap made me wake up feeling refreshed.

Christian opened his eyes, looking at me gently. "I slept so well, thank you."

"Thank me? But I didn’t do anything," I said, confused.

"I’m not sure why, but whenever you sleep beside me, I seem to have much better sleep. Normally, I wake up throughout the night, but whenever you’re here with me, I sleep very well."

This was news to me. I didn’t know that he had difficulties staying asleep, but I was happy that my presence helped.

He does look more well-rested than he did this morning...

"Why did you come here so early? I was surprised to see you." I finally asked the question I wanted to ask him before the nap.

He moved his head so that it was resting on my lap. "After speaking with Morgan yesterday, I knew she would take my request to heart and have you wake up ridiculously early. I wanted to arrive before you to avoid what happened earlier, but I miscalculated."

He looked up at me apologetically, "I shouldn’t have told her to do that. Originally, I only said those things for my own selfish desire. I was upset that she ruined our remaining time together yesterday, and wanted to see you as soon as I could."

I shook my head, "No, it’s okay. I’m glad I can spend this time with you. Honestly, I wanted nothing more than to get out of that house."

Memories of my angry father demanding an explanation for the photos surfaced in my mind. I looked at Christian with wide eyes.

"Christian. He had photos," I said seriously.

"Photos?" he asked, looking at me.

"When I came home yesterday, as soon as I walked inside, he was waiting for me with a stack of photos of us."

Christian sat up, looking at me with shock.

"What happened? Are you okay?" His eyes darted around my body, looking for anything that looked off.

"I’m okay. But it was close. Thankfully, none of the photos showed my face directly, so I was able to...pass...it off as...Cherie." My voice got gradually softer as I spoke, nervous that Christian would be upset with me for bringing Cherie into this.

Instead of getting upset, Christian pulled me into his arms, "You did well. Don’t worry about the rest, I’ll take care of it. If something like this happens again, do the same thing."

"But isn’t Cherie important to you? I essentially just pitted her against my family...and those photos, they were actually of me." I looked away, feeling guilty. Although I didn’t particularly like Cherie, it was wrong to use her like this.

Christian squeezed my hand, bringing me out of my thoughts. "Hey, it’s okay. Something tells me that even if she saw those photo’s she would try to claim that they were of her. She grew up as an only child and is a bit willful because of it. It used to be cute when she was a kid, but now it’s less endearing."

Oh, good. So he did notice how she was acting at the lunch meeting.

"So don’t worry. If they come to ask me, I’ll also tell them it was Cherie," he whispered.

It felt good to have his backing. There were very few times in my life when I had someone standing up for me. Most of the time, it was the opposite, where people pointed fingers at me instead.

-

After lying around a bit more, Christian leaned over to check his phone and groaned.

"What’s wrong?" I asked. There were only a few times when I’ve heard him sound so annoyed.

He shook his head as he scrolled through his phone. "It’s nothing major. Just everyone seems to have a meeting scheduled with me today. It seems like I won’t be able to spend much time with you today."

He looked at me, full of grievance, causing me to giggle.

"It’s okay, I have a lot to take care of with Yulia today, too. I’m excited to show her the beautiful gemstones we bought on the island."

"Very well, I’ll do my best to see you for lunch," he smiled and got out of bed to get dressed.

I watched him from the bed up until the moment he left the room.

"Well, it’s your turn to get up now, Leslie," I said to myself.

After finding my clothes, I got dressed and made my way over to my office. As soon as I entered, I spotted the silver briefcase on my desk with a small piece of paper with the code to unlock it.

"Isn’t this a bit too trusting?" I mumbled as I reached out to memorize the code.

A small smile bloomed on my lips as I thought of Christian’s teasing words from the island, "You can have it all. Take whatever you want, as long as it means I can have another night with you."

"It seems he really meant it," I laughed, shaking my head.

I took a seat in front of my computer to begin to tackle today’s tasks. I still had some time before I had to meet up with Yulia, so I began to prepare the next steps.

"Christian confirmed that the season launch event will be held at my family’s auction house. I should begin drafting the contract to work with them now so that they have plenty of time to prepare."

-

I worked late into the afternoon, revising the documents multiple times before I was happy with the final result. Just as I finished, Christian knocked on my door, walking in with a tray of food.

"Hey, I guessed that you didn’t eat. Come, let’s take a short break for lunch," he said, placing the tray down on the coffee table in my office.

"Perfect timing!" I smiled, "I just finished drafting up the contract for the auction house. I plan on sending it out today, to give them time to prepare for the event."

Christian paused slightly, looking me in the eyes.

"Could I ask that you delay sending out the notice? I want to wait as long as possible before notifying your family about the event."

"Wait?"

I wanted to say that delaying it would make things difficult for the auction house staff and possibly jeopardize the quality of the event, but knowing Christian, he was already aware of these possibilities.

I wonder what his reasons are.

Instead of asking, I simply nodded, "Sure, I can hold off for a few days."

"Thank you, Leslie. One day I’ll explain everything to you," he smiled.

Well, now I’m curious.

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