Her Corporate Takedown: Entangled with a Billionaire

*CHAPTER 113: ENCHANTING SERENADE*

As each step brushed past the delicate sea creatures, the fluorescent turquoise emanated from below and brightly lit up his blue shirt. The man was literally dazzling. My eyes went blind from looking directly at him. Yet, such a simple thing made this mysterious effect more profound.

It didn't help in the slightest when music began to play as he walked towards me. Was it coming from the yacht? If he was doing all of this on purpose, then I had to wonder if he was really going to propose. I hoped he didn't change his mind because of that little squabble earlier, but more importantly, was I ready to say yes?

As if the situation wasn't crazy enough, he had to start singing 'Perfect' by Ed Sheeran. I covered my face with my hands and quickly turned away from him. What was actually happening? There was no time to catch my breath as he walked around me while singing. I slid my hands down to him with a smile on my face. He didn't miss the moment when I stopped pretending to ignore him and he reached out his hand.

When I took his hand, he led me around in a dance; the luminescence followed us wherever our feet went. At that point, my mind became an empty shell and I didn't know if I was smiling, crying or laughing. I simply let myself be swayed, twirled and swept up in his romantic scheme.

I have experienced the phenomenon where it felt like every song you heard spoke to you with just the right words at just the right moment. That every lyric described your entire life. This was the first time he had done anything like serenading me, and I hoped it wasn't the last time. Listening to the man you love sing a romantic song to you that described exactly how he felt was the most deadly thing I experienced so far in my life. It felt like more than a phenomenon, it felt like he was describing reality.

It felt never-ending, yet it was over all too suddenly. By the time he stopped singing and we stopped dancing, I was all wrapped up in his arms and humming the music that continued playing in the background. Was this the part where he got down on one knee? How should I answer? I knew I shouldn't run away from this, but was I ready to be engaged? Could I ask him to think about it? That would probably be the best answer for both our sakes. I wouldn't hurt him by rejecting his proposal, and I wouldn't have to accept the ring yet.

I took a deep breath as we stood looking into each other's eyes. Even after a few minutes, he didn't begin a speech or get down on his knee. If he was using the suspense tactic, it was working, because I became immensely uncomfortable as I died of anticipation. Soon, he took a deep breath. He was finally going to say something.

"Can you answer one question for me?"

"Sure," I replied while nodding slowly.

"Do you love me?"

That question still caught me off guard even though I prepared myself for a proposal. My fluttering heart didn't stop racing for even a minute since he got off the boat. In that spot, I felt two sets of palpitations; the one against my chest pounded harder than the one in my chest. I swallowed the lump in my throat so that I could force out an answer.

His eyes gleamed with anticipation as he looked at mine like he was trying to pull out an answer from within me. Then, they slowly turned to a look of disappointment as they broke eye contact and flickered between my lower eyelids and the tip of my nose.

I had to answer. I didn't want to leave him disappointed again. Not anymore. I caught his attention when I squeezed tightly on his shirt as I mustered every ounce of strength I had to give him an answer. Why was it so hard to tell him? I felt his hold loosened little by little as he saw the ray of hope I dangled before him disappear, but I squeezed his shirt even tighter, and pressed my lips together for one final desperate attempt.

I didn't notice how much he was wincing in pain as my nails dug into his chest until I looked up again.

"Yes!" I finally screamed out. I looked up into his eyes that stared back at mine with a look of delight and excitement.

My answer was followed by a loud sigh of relief from him and I panted in loud, agonal breaths, from what was the most exertional mental challenge of my life so far. He laughed loudly as he found my unending struggles a comedic relief, but his smile warmed my heart and I fell into the water as everything from his romantic serenade to the question he posed, finally caught up to my legs, which crumbled from the pressure.

Despite me wearing a short dress and him changing his pants to knickers, we still got our clothes wet when I suddenly fell and he stumbled after failing to catch me. When I answered him, I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders, and I felt the shackles binding me to the past beginning to rot away and break down. I felt genuinely happy, more than I'd ever felt before.

The heavy impact of our falling into the water sent large ripples across the surface and waves of bioluminescence radiated out from around us. He was still laughing at my clumsiness. I stared at the glowing figure of the man who changed my life in more ways than I could tell him. Droplets of sea water fell from the tips of his hair strands and his clothes were now adherent to the muscular outline of his body that I couldn't take my eyes off.

Soon, I realized he had stopped laughing and looked at me the same way I looked at him. In an instant, he closed the distance between us, and his face looked up at mine as he supported himself with one hand buried in the sand. I followed his eyes, which moved from below, to look directly at me as his face moved closer. They perceived nothing else as my vision darkened and I allowed him to kiss me for as long as he wanted.

After changing into dry clothes, Andrei sat with Kiran by the bow of the yacht while Leiya went inside the cabin to shower and change.

"The way she looked at me tonight was different than any other time we've been together," Andrei said as he rested his arm on the rail. "Finally, that's one mission accomplished."

"I mean, with that kind of mood and setting, I wouldn't be surprised if she thought you were going to propose."

"Propose? I've been feeling her out for months and have not gotten good feedback. I wonder if she would've said 'yes' though."

"And not take it back ten seconds later."

"Right," Andrei replied with a sigh.

"Well, if that was good enough to put her in the mood to answer favorably, then you know what you need to do when the time comes."

"Raising the stakes, are we? How am I going to top that?"

The men laughed as they joked about their crazy proposal ideas, then Kiran asked, "So, back to your earlier conversation, did you really not feel any sparks when you kissed her the first time?"

"Are you kidding?"

"Is that…a no?"

"It was a chaotic fireworks festival."

"Oh, that’s what I thought."

I went to bed immediately after I got out of the shower. I contemplated going above deck, but then I heard Andrei talking and laughing with Kiran. Did Kiran come on board with us from the beach? I was glad that he was here to keep Andrei company so that I didn't have to face him again for the rest of the night.

It took several hours of twisting and turning in bed before I calmed down. The adrenaline would not leave my system. Every time I thought about him, which was every second, another surge of adrenaline and serotonin flooded my veins. I only laid perfectly still when Andrei quietly came inside our cabin, and I pretended to be asleep.

As much as I would love to touch him, I don't think I could take much more tonight. I had taken enough damage this entire week. As I lay there unable to sleep, a strange thought crossed my mind because of what he said earlier. I realized how sneaky he was, trying to make it seem as though I was the reason for the lack of sparks, when he was the one who kissed me differently on each occasion. Compared to when he kissed me as Malik, the quality of each kiss was light years apart. Besides, I didn't believe him for a moment when he said he felt nothing.

I eventually fell asleep as my mind rambled on. I was awoken on Sunday afternoon by an aggressive rocking as Andrei shouted that we were going to be late for the airport. After thirty minutes of dozing off, I sprang up out of bed and rushed to the bathroom when I remembered we had a flight to catch.

Another believably eventful week had been written off in the book of our lives. I waved goodbye to the crew who took care of us last night as they departed for the yacht's home. In the end, Andrei decided to keep the reminder of our first official non-disguised date together, which held wonderful memories, or so he said. I simply smiled and nodded when he asked for my input, since I was not the one losing thousands of dollars to maintain it.

I collected my bags from Ari, who waited inside the airport, and we all checked in for our flight on time. The song he sang replayed in my mind a hundred times the entire flight home. I couldn't help but think that he chose that song because he meant every word as if he wrote it for me himself. With nothing else to do, I reflected on every word of the song over and over again, and found myself almost on the verge of tears when I remembered how he looked at me while he sang.

Some things I found funny, like the fact that we were dancing in water instead of on grass. Other things I thought seriously about, like the future he wants with me that his mother does not approve of, and all the things we were fighting against for the sake of that future. It really has been a long time, though, since I've been in love with him.

A short trip back to California later, I already missed the fresh air and vacation vibes of the island, but it was time to shift my focus. I left with Andrei to drop off my bags at the new apartment before changing for the meeting at 5pm. I quickly got back in the car with Malik, who drove us to the meeting.

"Well, look who it is? I thought I would never see you again." Mr. The Worst Kisser of Andrei's personas, according to my personal rank list.

"The disguise is still useful. There's also the fact that I hadn't thought about going with you to this meeting until now."

"I see. How nice of you to join me."

"Did you bring the stuff I told you to?"

"Yea, and why did I need to pack another bag of outfits for disguises?"

"Because we have another meeting scheduled for this evening. We don't have enough time to come back here and change, so we'll do it on the road."

"What kind of meeting is that going to be?"

"You've done well to advance Phase 1 of the Merz takedown mission on your own, but for the next phase, we're recruiting another pair of hands."

"Who are we meeting?"

"It's not someone you know, but it is someone crucial to the success of the entire mission."