Chapter 17

Amanda'S POV

I completed my look by tying a bun out of my hair. I had a thing for knotted hair. They looked so stylish yet elegant. There was a cute flower diamond-studded broach amongst the jewelry provided to me by these kind people, it added sparks when I positioned it in the middle.

I couldn't stop thinking about Samarrah, I knew that this place could provide me with clues and turn out to be a great help, but I also needed to be very careful, because I could lose this job if I created any chaos, and I had been warned twice. This time, I wanted to prove Mr. Reynolds wrong.

On the thoughts of Mr. Reynolds, my cheeks turned a light shade of red. I was yet embarrassed by the fact of him having seen the semi-naked side of me. It took me a while to gather all the courage. I locked up my purse and left it in the room along with my phone. I stepped out of the luxury suite and greeted a few ladies.

I stopped for a while after looking at James. The traditional dress suited him quite well. I waited for him in the hallway because walking with someone I knew was way more comforting than walking with someone I had no idea about.

"Can I, beautiful ", he offered me his hand to walk past the party's entrance.

"Of course ", I curled my hands around his arms on being completely overwhelmed by his pleasing gesture. Maybe, he wasn't that bad of a person, I was highly disappointed by my judgmental skills.

James increased his proximity whilst walking, our arms touched each other. We didn't talk much, silence concealed the atmosphere.

"You look drop-dead gorgeous ", he finally whispered in my ears after doing a lot of thinking. It could be felt from his face that walking with me made him nervous. This was kind of cute, though.

"Thank you mister ", I could've reciprocated the sentence but I didn't want to sound desperate, so I controlled and smiled the cutest one I could.

We sauntered towards the ballroom, I encountered people who dressed the same way I did, the color differed of course, but it had the same concept for every woman and likewise for men. Mr. Reynolds was interacting with an old lady in the same angry-young-man tone. I decided to stay as far as possible from him as together, we had a fatal combination.

I overheard two of the women at the party as they were right behind me. Their talks included "Mr. CEO is so hot" and the other one interrupted her at once with the word "mine". The first one angrily snatched the second one's drink and left her alone.

Their chats were hilarious. These aunties were fighting for a violating animal. But no one could ever deny the fact that Mr. Reynolds had those 'Greek God ' looks that no girl could ever deny. He could be rated number one amongst the people present in the party without any doubt. I, many times controlled myself to get drifted away with his looks, but his arrogant behavior helped me to distance myself from him.

I took glimpses of Mr. Reynolds with cornered eyes secretly so that he didn't catch me looking at him. I was a bit jealous of the attention he was getting from all the people, but he sure deserved it. No matter how much I disliked him, but I had to appreciate his hard work. He had strived and accomplished so much in his life, numerically expanding his father's business demographically from 10 to 100.

James stood there giving company to Mr. Richie Rich. Ease and comfort could be felt on his face whenever he interacted with James. They would've been real old friends, I could figure that out from their way of talking with each other and also with their body language, but they both were like two sides of a coin.

"Can I at least ask you for a dance", a man in his mid 20's asked me for a dance like a complete gentleman.

"I'd be pleased", I replied in the same tone and went towards the dance floor.

"What's your good name?" he questioned me.

"Amanda Waters ", I replied.

"I'm Joseph Henry", he answered without a favorable question.

He rested his hands on my back. I curled my hands around his neck, whilst staying careful with the distance so that it looked decent and I felt right.

We danced for approximately five minutes and then I heard "Can I borrow her, gentleman", Mr. Reynolds tried side parting Joseph in a friendly manner, yet his pull was full of aggression.

"Of Course , she's all yours", Joseph handled my hand on Mr. Reynolds's hand, just like how a father places his daughter's hand intertwining with the groom's.

"Stop getting intimate at this party ", Mr. Reynolds turned me around while dancing, but first assured himself that Joseph was completely out of his sight.

"It was just a dance ", I tried offending "He was the one who asked me for the dance anyways, I feel this is such an irrelevant topic to fight upon"

"And then you decided to do justice to the word 'whore' "

"What the fuck, are you labeling me a whore?" I questioned disheartened while curling my hands around his back. I had to do it no matter how much I didn't want to, we were yet on the dance floor.

"You were the one who encouraged me to ", He caught my right hand with his left, way too tight and aggressively, turned me around and whispered in my ears "Don't you understand, he asked you for a dance to get access to some confidential information of our business", Mr. Reynolds was a big-time pessimist.

"I really thought it was a genuine one", I defended myself.

"This attitude of yours could result in great losses, Miss Waters ", he pulled me close in a harsh manner. I could feel his rough manly hands on my back. It was hurting me but I continued dancing anyways. They say that eventually, things turn out to be okay, well in my case our start was a forlorn one in which things got worse was constant.

"I apologize ", I could feel his breath. Our nose collided while we danced and my cheeks kind of turned red.

"Better be ", he moved his hands from my waist to my neck. Flashbacks filled with memories were bouncing in my head. How we danced together at Mr. Linley's anniversary party. How we acted like husband and wife. The thought of us kissing each other always created chaos in my stomach.

We continued with the dance. The Mayor took over the stage, cleared his throat, and called the attention of all the people.

"So we all have gathered here in the honor of a living legend ", he pointed towards Mr. Reynolds, everyone started looking at us, and I could feel the limelight. Some people even mistook me as Mr. Reynolds's love interest to which I could only laugh secretly in my head.

Mr. Reynolds raised his brows, took footage whilst tightening his tie. He turned his eyesight around to catch up with people gazes towards him. He was totally enjoying it, who wouldn't?

"So here's a toss for him", the mayor removed the cap of the champagne after tossing it in the air. Everyone raised their glasses in the air and shouted "to Mr. Aaron Reynolds", before drinking it. I had to do it too no matter how much I didn't want to.

"Here's a small token of appreciation for you, sir ", the mayor cleared his throat and came towards us with a really cute and gigantic flower bouquet. It was the biggest one I had seen to date. It had all kinds of flowers in it, it was like a flower garden having a small amount of every kind of flowers in it.

"Thank you, much-appreciated love", Mr. Reynolds took the bouquet in his hands with a calm and pleasant look. No, he didn't smile. He never smiled, so people near him never expected him to smile too.

He caught the beautiful flower bouquet for the shutterbugs for a while and then transferred them to me. Of course, I had to catch it, as it was my responsibility as a personal secretary. It took all ounce of my strength to catch the bouquet. I was struggling with its heavyweight but I didn't show it on my face as I was warned to stay decent at the party.

I went towards the nearest table to place the bouquet. I then caught sight of James, so I stopped. I was starting to enjoy his company, so I waited for him to come along and accompany me.

He dragged me by my hand away from the party. I went along, but it was actually difficult to catch up with his long manly steps.

"So where are we heading?" I stopped a bit and tried to overcome him.

"I'm trying to kidnap you with your will", he laughed and I laughed too. I followed his steps whilst ascending the stairs.

"No, it's snatching against my will", I contradicted his statement and tried my best to sound hilarious.

"So still walking with me huh?" he rhetorically questioned.

"So, on a serious note where are we going?" I questioned again.

"Someplace you have no idea about", he pulled me closer towards him and removed the handkerchief from his pocket.

"What are you up to?" I questioned again.

He used the handkerchief for tying it around my eyes and whispered in my ears "trying to make it look like a professional kidnap"

I laughed and punched him playfully frontwards as I was unaware of the sight. Everything was dark ahead in front of me "So it's a surprise eh ", I cleared my throat.

"Can take it as one ", he caught me by arms and walked scrupulously.