Chapter 253 - A Dangerous Date (1/2)
Five in the evening swung by quickly and Edward was waiting in Julian's office, ushered in by the secretary who gave him an odd look. Edward didn't know why she was being so nice to him and felt slightly uncomfortable when she served him coffee. Shouldn't an intern who was on the lowest hierarchy be doing that?
He had been sipping on coffee and waiting for a good ten minutes with nobody coming in to check on him. When Randy heard about how Julian had called to his office, the IT manager simply gave Edward a pt on the shoulder and wished him luck. Edward didn't know if the fact that this CEO was gay was made known to all his employees. It would be odd that the Interpol spies didn't know about this when they've been working here for a long time.
The sun was starting to set and Edward was briefly reminded that his girlfriend was in the Bahamas. Would Scarlet be watching the same sunset as well? He was never one for trivialities but watching the golden rays spreading far and wide over the city from the top floor of a skyscr.a.p.er made Edward drop his guard for a bit. His eyes softened and he relaxed his stance.
That was how Julian saw Edward when he first returned from a long and exhausting meeting with his useless executive managers. Honestly, he wanted to just tell the HR to fire the whole lot. He was so sick of dealing with petty people trying to sit on the position for as long as possible because of the fat pay cheques. He needed competent people to work for the company but because of the things he had to hide, Julian employed the most useless management team he could afford and only planted a few of his men within their ranks to make things work out.
The CEO had almost completely forgotten about the intern he met in the elevator until he reached his office thirty minutes later than the time he told him to come in. The coffee cup that the intern was holding was almost empty and his gaze was soft as he admired the scenery from his window. The golden light made his brown hair and eyes look orange and Julian was stunned for a brief moment, his interest in this teen increasing. Seeing him was like finding an oasis in this hell hole and Julian wondered if the intern was willing to be his side thing for a while.
”You're here,” he composed himself and said in a dominant voice, snapping the teen out from his trance.
Edward was genuinely startled because he had been so lost in thoughts that he didn't realise someone had entered. The shock made him jump backwards and lose grip on the coffee cup. The cup left his hands and Edward yelped, scrambling to catch it before it hit the ground in vain.
The carpeted floor wasn't the only thing stained with coffee but Edward's shirt and jeans were also caught in the disaster, much to the spy's embarrassment. His cheeks flushed and Julian had to hide a smirk when the teen picked up the cup and apologised profusely, trying to get the coffee stain off the carpet.
”Leave it,” he told the boy. He could get the cleaning team to remove the stain tomorrow. For today, he dismissed his secretary early. He wanted some alone time with this boy to destress after the meeting with those fools.
Edward awkwardly placed the cup down on the table and stood beside the huge desk by the window, waiting to be punished for his mistake. His heart was racing in his chest just by being in close proximity with the target and Edward berated himself for letting his guard down while on a mission. He hoped that it hadn't blown his cover yet. He finally understood why spies with lovers usually quit the service. Edward's respect for his father increased. How could his father work so efficiently without thinking about his mother at all while working?
Julian looked at the stained clothes and decided to use this opportunity to charm this boy into becoming his dinner date. Leah was getting annoying and her usefulness was starting to become meaningless now that they were so close in being able to ruin the Wildes.
”You, do you have anything important to attend to this evening?”
Edward shook his head, slightly surprised at where this was going. What did Julian really want from him? After calling him up to his office and making him wait for a long time, Edward was almost certain that Julian wanted to threaten him or blackmail him into sleeping with him. Heck, Edward even considered the possibility that Julian had already suspected him as a spy because of the laptop malfunction so he played it cool.
”Good,” Julian smirked. ”I'll forgive you for the slip up if you accompany this evening.”
”A-Accompany?”
The CEO walked up to Edward and the teen realised that this man was actually half a head taller than him. Julian smelled of smoke and coffee but Edward didn't recognise that smell of cigarettes. Mentally, Edward ran through several scenarios and a series of actions he could use to take down the CEO if he suddenly launched an attack. He also made several reaction plans within a few seconds just in case Julian decided to put his hands on somewhere inappropriate. He had to protect his chastity no matter what!