Her Corporate Takedown: Entangled with a Billionaire

*CHAPTER 107: DROWNED IN AFFECTION*

He sipped a glass of wine while facing me. He silently watched and smiled while I slowly picked away at each of his shirt buttons to reveal a treat I couldn't believe I had never seen until now.

"Have you ever slept with someone on any of your missions?"

"Are you still thinking about Sunday? What do you think?"

My brows furrowed in deep contemplation as I struggled to say the simple two-letter word I wanted to believe was the correct answer. Since he's taunting me, he's probably not feeling guilty about anything, but I have no way of knowing if he was lying.

"I haven't slept with anyone on my missions," he said after he gave up on waiting for an answer.

He replied so confidently one wouldn't believe he was lying, but I have been on the receiving end of his Grammy-award winning acting on numerous occasions.

"There's no reason to force yourself to do something you hate," he continued, "especially since no one deserves to have you like that. However, you can plan your approach in such a way that you get what you want without compromising anything."

"Well, I'll say the same for you too. No one deserves to have you either." He didn't miss the conceited expression that accompanied the 'Except for me' thought that flashed across my mind at the end of that reply.

"I know," he replied, chuckling loudly and flicking my forehead when my eyes rolled themselves after his narcissistic reply.

"Then, what would you have done in that situation? Kiran said seduction was the best approach for that guy. I thought it was required for all spies to know how to charm their way through missions."

"There are ways to charm without needing to take your pants off. Wouldn't you agree that's the real test of someone's skills? Or, were you asking for a demonstration?"

I didn't ask for one but I couldn't deny it. I found myself biting down on my lower lip and taking more shallow breaths as I couldn't stop staring at the intoxicating piece of shirtless eye candy sitting on my lap. With no way to relieve this itch, I twiddled my toes as replays of yesterday's kiss flashed across my mind and the lingering taste resurfaced.

Unable to ignore my eyes, which looked like they were losing their grip on reality, Andrei got up and then pulled me to stand. We went back inside and he gave me Shelli's package. It seemed like he wanted me to use the hair products she sent me as he left the room after opening the box. Confused, I fixed my hair like he wanted, but these painfully obvious feelings which had suddenly surfaced had their sights set on other priorities.

When I left the large vanity room, he pulled me towards the massive comfortable bed. He dragged me down when he fell backwards onto the bed and I caught myself bracing against the bed with him in between my arms.

"I think this was where you left off, wasn't it?"

Yes, except that I wanted nothing to do with that man. It wasn't fair to compare those two very different scenarios. I felt myself breathing heavier with each second and as my hands felt weak, I could barely hold myself up. All this, when all he did was stare intensely into my eyes as he looked up at me with his shirt sprawled open.

I gripped tightly onto the sheets and lowered my face towards his. His eyes opened wide for a second in surprise, then gradually closed to match pace with my face that was closing in. A puff of cold air stung my lips from a small chuckle before he whispered, "I wonder what comes next."

"Yea, I wonder what comes next too."

I was frightened out of my wits and my arms lost the last bit of strength that was holding me up. They buckled from the sudden fright and I fell headfirst on top of him. I looked to my left to see Ari leaning by the door with her arms crossed. Andrei looked equally upset at Ari, who had surely intruded, again, for no good reason other than to be the perpetually pesky interrupting third wheel.

"Actually, I came to inform you that the person you asked me to look out for has just arrived."

"Oh, so he came after all," he sounded intrigued by her message, but I doubt it was that urgent to warrant this interruption.

"Yes."

"By the way, did your Japanese friends make it to Europe safely?"

"They arrived this morning. I was told that they successfully made contact with the orchestra. I think they'll be alright now."

"I'm glad to hear that."

"Well, that's all I have to say. You can resume where you left off now."

So she said, but she was still standing at the door with a huge smirk.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

She knew what was wrong. Wasn't she going to leave?

Andrei, for one, paid her no mind as he wrapped his arms around me, but I could barely return a hug without feeling extremely conscious of Ari's presence. Nevertheless, I laid there in my swimsuit, with my bare skin against his, appreciating the deep contours of his well-defined upper body. Within his arms I felt like I had everything I wanted.

As I initially feared, the raging flames of revenge that fuelled my decision to quit school was doused the longer I spent around him. My burning desire for revenge against Michelle, which I thought couldn't be overshadowed by anything, was effortlessly quelled by his gentle touch and his undying affection. Before, I thought of nothing else but ruining her the way she ruined me. Now, she was hardly a significant concept in my mind. Andrei's existence and the fact that I had fallen hard for him…again…had completely overwritten those feelings.

Even without those flames of revenge, I still promised to finish what I started, so that there would be no more victims. Besides, even if I wanted to run away, I knew I wasn't going anywhere, because there was nowhere else for me to go. I knew that I would rather stay here and forget all about her than leave him and lose everything. There wasn't anyone else I belonged to… to whom I wanted to give my entire world…with whose entire world I wanted to devour.

Ari laughed hard as she watched my frozen self, overly conscious of her presence as I lay on him awkwardly, while she sat in a chair beside the bed and played with her phone. When I could no longer bear the embarrassment, I jumped off the bed and jumped straight into the pool. By the end of that awkward session, enough time had passed for the temporary black dye to set in my hair, so I dived into the pool without worry. When I surfaced, I looked up and noticed Andrei standing on the second floor's balcony.

What was he doing? He made eye contact with me when I looked up, then waved his hand like he was telling me to move to the right side of the pool. I was confused at his request, but I was given no time to ask for clarification. I realized what he meant when he suddenly sprang up on the rails of the balcony. Was he seriously going to jump in the pool from up there? I had no idea how deep the pool was, but I barely kept my eyes open as I was afraid to see the water dyed red.

Andrei shouted joyfully as he sailed through the air on his way down. It was only for a few seconds, but my eyes captured his flailing arms and legs, and his wide adventurous grin in slow motion. Despite knowing what was going to happen, the loud thunderous splash was still frightening as I jumped back when he landed in the pool. As I looked up after the splash, my eyes caught Ari's glistening figure as the large drops of water paraded her extravagant backflip into the pool. I prepared my heart for another round of fright, but she made very little sound as she gracefully entered the pool like an Olympic diver. Was there anything these people weren't capable of?

My admiration was quickly cut off when I noticed another presence by the poolside. Not wanting to be left out, Kiran had invited himself to the party, and relaxed with a cocktail in a pool chair. I knew then that I wouldn't be clocking in anymore 'alone time' for the rest of the night.

"Hey guys, I'm going to order the grand deluxe poolside party room service. Does anyone have any special requests?" Kiran then said, confirming my thoughts.

Andrei swam over to me while Ari surfaced. "Should I throw another party since you missed the first one?"

"There's no need for that." I have enough trouble keeping Ari away from him, much less a million more bikini babes.

I expected the water to be ice-biting cold but my expectations forgot that this luxurious hotel would obviously have a heated pool. At the poolside, Kiran stretched his arms while he watched the three bodies floating in the pool. Andrei drifted away from me, towards the other end of the pool. Ari and I leisurely swam laps in opposite directions while keeping our heads up to feel the chilly night breeze on our faces.

I swam a few laps back and forth in my original freestyle and breast-stroke combination style. I passed by Andrei several times, who remained adrift, floating face up. He watched the crescent moon drifting in the cloudy night sky and I watched his entranced expression that occasionally glanced at me to let me know he was fully aware of my gaze.

Ari left the pool as soon as attendant after attendant marched to the poolside with a ridiculous spread of a feast that was far too much for four people. Even after she towel-dried herself, showered, blow-dried her hair and changed clothes, the attendants still hadn't finished unravelling the room service that Kiran had ordered. After my swim, I remained afloat on my back and I drifted towards the horizon at the edge of the infinity pool overlooking the beach. It seemed as though the water would flow over the edgeless balcony towards the ground, but there was actually a ledge extending from the lower edge of the balcony with a slim drain lining the edge of the pool. When I noticed it, I no longer felt terrible about whether I would be splashing water on anyone walking on the ground.

With my arms propped up against the side of the pool, I squinted at the midnight sky to find any stars peering through the fluffy masses of water vapour that tried to put a damper on their shine. When my eyes got tired, I looked at the poolside, where Ari began indulging in the overkill of a feast and Kiran was trying to liven up the crowdless party with music.

And then I noticed. The pool was…empty? For how long? Where was Andrei?

I had no doubt that an Olympic swimming course was amongst the other ridiculous subjects on his lengthy spy curriculum, so I was sure he could swim. However, I became worried, thinking that he had fallen asleep underwater.

When I looked around, I saw no one. Then, I pushed myself off the wall to look underwater. With barely any time to hold my breath, I found myself being forcefully pulled deeper into the water. There, I found him floating in the depths of the pool and dragging me down to him by the leg. When he let go of me, he remained facing me, slowly kicking one leg at a time to glide along the bottom of the pool. I made the mistake of kicking my legs to propel myself deeper as I tracked his movements a few feet over him.

Watching him glide underwater was more mesmerizing than I expected thanks to the captivating upper half that I could strangely delineate underwater, his hair that floated with the slightest shifts of his head and his grey contact lenses that shone brighter than any star I found tonight.

Wait, was it always this bright underwater? Andrei smiled at my puzzled expression that gave away the fact that I had just noticed how bright it was. It became brighter as I looked around and then I realized this was the famous misdirection technique he randomly mentioned one day, where he made me focus on him while he turned the lights on.

The pool was gradually filled with a magnificent display of multicoloured stones that looked as though someone placed real stones in the pool. I noticed the tiny bubbles from the gills of small fish swimming by, and effervescence traveling up the walls of the pool in waves. I couldn't tell how he was able to set this up, but I wondered if maybe he lined the pool with the same polymer coating he used at his company. Regardless, I was so taken aback by the realistic underwater visual display that I couldn't help but smile.

Precious oxygen escaped when I became distracted, depleting my already inadequate supply of air. Even then, I smiled uncontrollably as I saw little starfishes appearing from the crevices of falling rocks and gleaming jellyfishes ascending past me to the surface. I twirled around as I watched them settle on the surface of the water, brightening the entire pool. When I completed a 360-degree turn, I came face-to-face with Andrei, who had also ascended with the jellyfish. He extended one hand to me and pulled me through the oceanic parade as we tried to avoid the harmless holographic jellyfishes that were swimming past us.

At this point, I was completely distracted and had forgotten I had reached the limits of my ability to hold my breath underwater. It was only my instincts that kept me from trying to breathe underwater, even though I had exhausted the supply of air I had come down with. But my instincts couldn't hold out much longer.

The balls of light drifting upwards lit up his face and I could clearly see him staring at me the entire time we had been under. The feeling that I was going to start choking up became stronger, and I kicked upward to head to the surface for air, only to be pulled back down by the anchor that had latched onto my left hand.

My toes stretched themselves towards the surface in a desperate attempt to feel the air, even though that was not going to help my situation. As I let myself try to float up to the surface, I looked down on Andrei, who cruelly refused to let me go, even when my face started to grimace in suffocation.

Was this a new sick game to watch me drown?

I tried to shake his hand off, but with his firm hold, he gently tugged at me, which caused me to drift towards him at the same time that he floated towards me with a sick smile on his face. I shook my head to try and hold back the urge to breathe, but I could no longer suppress it. A bubble escaped my lips, which had given up on holding my breath, and probably my life, but at least Andrei was here and would carry me out in a blaze of drowning glory. I couldn't believe I was going to drown because of the whim of this bored man.

My mind began to blank out as I ran out of oxygen, but before the second bubble escaped, I felt a small gush of breath being transferred to me and I regained my consciousness before it all faded away. The water dulled the sensation of his lips and his hand stroked the back of my neck. I didn't need to open my eyes to process what was happening. I simply clung to the only means of survival created by him as I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and exchanged breaths of life with this crazy, sadistic man.