CHAPTER 4

"Good morning."

Saelas's voice was the first thing I heard when my eyes snapped open.

I blinked up at him, his soft blur of a body coming into focus. He was leaning against the bed. There is a plate of food in his hand while wearing his teasing smile curled around his lips.

My brows knitted together.

Fuck. I think I messed up again.

I buried my face in my palm, resisting the urge to slap myself. “What are you doing in my room?” I demanded.

He laughed, far too amused for my liking. “Playing innocent this early in the morning, Miss Sollivierre?”

“What?” I froze. “Morning?”

The realization hit me all at once. “Does that mean I overslept?”

He smiled, putting the plate on the bedside table. "Can't blame you. You were too tired." His voice was tainted with mock teasing.

That's when I remembered about my parents so I sprang up from bed. "Did they come already?"

Instead of answering, he just chuckles.

"What? They saw you? Did you tell them?" I asked one question after another.

Saelas shook his head. "Not yet. They said they'll be out for a week. Have you forgotten?" His brows furrow in confusion.

"A week?!" I exclaimed, raising my voice.

He looked truly puzzled. "They didn't tell you?"

"Tell me? Tell me what exactly?" I growled, scratching my head in annoyance. "They said they'd just head to the company for a matter of urgency. And they told me that you'll never leave me until they return."

"That's why I'm here for a week," he replied, shrugging his shoulders.

“A week? What exactly do you mean?”

“Well, I guess…they didn’t really tell you about it.”

"So you knew?" I questioned, looking at him suspiciously.

He held up his hands in self-defense. "Wait, why does your tone like blaming me for not telling you? I thought they informed you of everything, okay?"

"Ugh, unbelievable," I grumbled, pulling on my hair in annoyance.

"Okay, okay, stop. We can’t do anything about it, so just stay here with me. Eat this before it gets cold. We have a lesson later." He handed me the plate with a smile, clearly trying to calm me down.

“You don’t really have to keep playing the professor, Mister,” I said, a hint of teasing in my tone. “I know this isn’t what you’re actually here for. Am I right?”

I was pushing him on purpose, hoping I could provoke the truth out of him.

He let out a tired sigh. “Here you go again. This is an actual lesson.”

He looked at me evenly as he continued, “They told me to train you in business management for a week. We’ll have study sessions, structured training—the whole thing.”

I blinked. “Wait. I thought this was for college?” I asked, genuinely confused.

He shrugged. “Well, that’s the order.”

I stared at him as he continued, far too casually, “You’re not going to college. You’ll be studying business management and statistics for the remaining months before the grand ball with Luxmoore.”

My stomach dropped.

“It’s a major event,” he added. “And it would be a shame if the future CEO and future wife of the Luxmoore heir showed up with nothing to present except her beauty. That won’t be necessary.”

“Excuse me?” I snapped. “Future what? Wife?” I scoffed. “I have absolutely no intention of becoming that ugly old man’s wife.”

Saelas nearly choked on his drink. “What did you just say?”

“Ugly old man,” I repeated flatly. “Why?”

“Have you even met him before?”

“Um… no,” I admitted. “But I’m pretty sure he is.”

He raised a brow. “And what if he’s handsome?”

I considered it for half a second. “Well,” I said, “I might reconsider.”

He clicked his tongue in quiet disbelief. “Tsk. Girls.”

“What did you say?”

“Nothing,” he replied easily. “I said your parents will be expecting a lot from you, so you’ll have to do your best.”

He paused just long enough for the weight of his words to settle. “After all,” he added, “you’re the face of the Sollivierre Corporation.”

I groaned. "So basically, they’re attempting to kill me. Like it’s that easy, right? They expect me to learn everything in one week? I’m not a machine."

"You signed up for this, didn’t you remember?" His voice dipped into fake seriousness.

"You’re supposed to be on my side!" I whined, dragging out the words.

"Okay, okay, calm down," he said, inching closer, like that would magically fix my mood.

"Calm my ass—" I started, rolling my eyes, but then he leaned in and kissed me. Just enough to make my brain hit the shutdown button.

"Hey!" I shouted, flustered.

"So? Will you calm down now?" His smug grin was impossible to ignore.

I rolled my eyes again, but this time grabbed the plate from him. "Fine. Hand it over."

We spent almost two hours eating and discussing random things in the kitchen. He almost burned the ham and an egg.

Later, after breakfast, we went to the library. The rain outside makes me want to read books again and just sit on the couch. We wandered the books on the shelves, looking for where to start.

"So, where do we start?" I said, looking at the shelves.

Saelas was going to make a suggestion when I pressed a heavy, old book into his hand. "Here."

He stared down at me, perplexed. "Philosophy?"

"Yup. One of my favorites of all time." I grinned, observing his eyebrows shoot up in incredulity.

He chuckled and shook his head. "You're really something, you know that?" 

"Don't smile at me."

"What? Is smiling illegal or something now?" 

"Yes. Particularly in front of me. Unless you'd prefer me to eat you alive because you've hypnotized me," I said, teasing him by placing my hand on his chest.

He smirked because of what I did. "Eat in what way?" Then he held my chin up.

I just smiled and removed his hand on my face. "Lesson, Mr. Margaux."

"Fine, fine," he chuckled, spreading his hands. "But seriously? A book on philosophy? How is that going to help you run a business? You need to be learning about numbers, people, statistics."

"Boring." I poked my tongue out. "That's too boring."

"You signed up for this," he groaned.

"Whatever," I replied, already scanning through the pages.

Somewhere in the middle of our study, my stomach rumbled again because of hunger. Well, I'm always hungry. But sometimes not with food but with him. Okay, just kidding. I'm hungry for real. 

"Hey, aren't you hungry?" I said, playing it cool.

"Just tell me you're hungry, you don't have to drag me into it." He said, eyes still on the pages of the book and annotating it. 

I rolled my eyes again and stood up. "Fine. I'm hungry. I'll go cook—"

"No." He rose from the floor, pulling my arm with a hand. "I'll cook. Stay here." He said in a cold tone, removing his reading glass. 

"I'm not someone who will just listen to you, Mr. Margaux," I said, stepping closer with a teasing tone.

He leaned down, his face was so close now. "Stop joking around, young miss. You’ve got a lot to learn. Starting with how to control your obsession."

This guy… sometimes he’s soft, sometimes he acts like nothing touches him, but most of the time, he’s cold and full of attitude.

What has gotten into him?His mood changes faster than the weather.

"You want to be my obsession, right? So why are you complaining now?"

"You better control yourself before you regret it.”

"I can control it," I answered firmly.

"Oh, really? Then prove it," he challenged, raising his brows like he was so sure I couldn’t.

"You seriously want me to stop?"

"Yes. Because I’m here to teach you and to guide you. If you can do that, it’ll make your parents very happy."

He’s serious? All this… just for my parents?

“Okay, tell me that you're joking.”

“I'm not.”

“Oh, what happened to Mr. I'm glad to be Sollivierre's obsession? Give up already—”

“Reina.”

"Alright then, Professor. Fine. I’ll behave," I replied in a cool, flat tone.

"You’re serious?" he asked, laughing like I was joking. Was he mocking me?

I narrowed my eyes on him. "What do you think I am?"

Did he really think I couldn’t?

In the kitchen, he dug through the fridge looking for something to cook.

"What do you want to eat?" he asked.

"Bacon, Professor," I said, sitting down in a chair with the book open in my lap.

"Can you put away that book and talk to me?" he said it like he's pissed.

"I'm reading, Professor. Your duty is to teach, not to chit-chat with your client," I retorted, not bothering to look up.

He grunted. "You're really taking this seriously?"

I grinned behind the pages.

"Let's see about that," he continued proudly.

Minutes later, he came back with a plate of bacon.

"Here. Eat."

"Thank you, Professor." I took it, still maintaining the playful charade.

After eating, we went back to the study room. I grabbed my notebook, but remembered that I didn't have a pen.

"I'll just get my pen, Professor."

"Reina!" He called out, but I pretended not to hear him, so I continued going to my room.

By the time the day was over, I was tired. Saelas escorted me to my room.  I didn’t bother to look onto his face and forced a smile.

"Goodnight, Professor," I uttered, ready to close the door when his hand held it.

"Let's talk," he said in a deep tone.

"It's bedtime, Professor. You should sleep too," I said in a  casual tone.

"Are you being serious right now?" His brows were furrowed.

"This is what you wanted, is it not?

"No… not this. I didn’t know that you're taking what I said seriously." He rubbed his head, annoyed.

"I can stop myself. But that’s not my point. Look, if you're doing this just for the sake of the money my parents gave for you to sign up as my personal tutor, please don’t. What happened between the two of us should remain as our dirty little secret. I don't want to go so far and call it a mistake again. I don't want to look at you that way," I said then. 

"I didn't mean to offend you. I just wanted to concentrate… to not cross boundaries. I'm here to assist you. I know that. But… you're making it difficult to think clearly. I just want you to be prepared," he muttered softly, "But if you're thinking of it incorrectly, I can't blame you. Just… don't push me away like this."

I smiled softly and tapped his shoulder gently.

“Goodnight,” I whispered, then smiled.

He holds my arm to stop me closing the door.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“Sweet dreams,” I whispered back with a smile.

I was about to close the door when his phone beep unstoppably. We looked at each other intensely and then he ran fast towards the front door.

What’s up to him?