At the dinner table, Albert was pleased to see Natalie and Justin looked happy together.
"Grandpa, who were you talking to on the phone for like almost an hour?" Natalie asked, feeling curious as Albert looked cheerful.
"Do you remember my friend, Andrew?" Albert asked.
"Yes, Grandpa? How is he?"
"He’s doing well, but he was a bit sad to hear that you’re really married," Albert added with a chuckle.
Natalie raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Huh? Why?"
Albert explained, "A while back, he had brought up a marriage proposal for you with his sister’s grandson. But you were already involved with Ivan, so I had to turn it down. After that wedding incident, he thought maybe you didn’t really want to marry Ivan and that’s why you created the fake marriage certificate. He figured his sister’s grandson still had a chance. But now... well, you’re already married."
Natalie laughed, shaking her head in amusement. "Your friend is quite strange, Grandpa. Considering my ’terrible’ reputation, anyone would keep their sons and grandsons far away from me. I hope his sister won’t strangle him when she finds out for which girl he was offering her grandson."
"He doesn’t care what the world thinks. He knows how you truly are just like I do," Albert’s tone was serious. "Anyways, he told me his sister is coming to the city and he would bring me to meet her. I had met her long back when we were young and I don’t even remember her now."
"Well, that’s great. You’ll get more friends," Natalie said, smiling as she added more food to Albert’s plate.
Throughout the conversation, Justin remained quiet, listening as the two chatted. His attention was more on the meal, cooking his own wicked plan in his mind.
’If I get to eat what she cooks, I don’t mind staying here forever. Or once I take her back to Harpers, I will make sure to fire the chef and make her cook everyday.’
After dinner, Albert retired to his room after a small stroll on the deck, leaving Natalie and Justin alone. Natalie gathered the dried clothes and brought them to the bedroom, where Justin was already seated at the work desk, focused on his laptop.
Given that he was going to sleep in this room, after she had begged him to, she didn’t mind it either, preparing to have a room mate for a while.
She started folding clothes and casually informed. "I will iron your clothes tomorrow before you leave for work."
Justin hummed, busy with his work.
Once she finished putting the clothes away, Natalie headed to the bathroom for a shower.
Justin, who was busy working, heard the sound of water running, which caught his attention. He turned to look at the bathroom door, only to realise Natalie was showering, and gulped at the thought of it.
"Damn it."
Cursing himself, he shaking his head to get rid of any inappropriate thoughts that could appear in his mind and did his best to only focus on his work.
Minutes later, the bathroom door opened, and though Justin kept his eyes firmly on his screen, he was acutely aware of her presence. He could sense her as she moved across the room, standing in front of the mirror, likely applying skincare products, then hanging her towel. His heart beat faster when he noticed her approaching his desk.
’Why is she coming here?’ he wondered.
Without a word, Natalie leaned closer, retrieving her laptop from the desk he was working on. Her fresh scent from the bath—clean, sweet, and intoxicating—wrapped around him, making him swallow hard.
’How does she smell so good all the time?’
Natalie, oblivious to his inner turmoil, simply returned to the bed with her laptop as there was only one work desk and settled on the left side of it. She arranged her pillows comfortably at the headboard and started her own work on the laptop.
Unlike how they fought all the time in this same room, all of a sudden it was quiet and felt unbearable to both.
Natalie glanced at him, unaware that he was not as calm as he looked on the surface, that despite his resistance towards her, she had affected him in a way she should not have.
An hour passed by in silence when Justin had finished his work. He realized the room was unusually quiet as he had long stopped hearing sounds from Natalie’s ends— the clicking of her keyboard, the rustling of papers, or her occasional sighs and yawns.
Curious, he turned to look at her, only to find she had fallen asleep, still resting against the headboard. Her laptop was still on her lap and free papers were scattered around her. He stood up and went to her.
She looked so peaceful, her face softened by sleep, that he hesitated to disturb her. Quietly, he lifted the laptop off her lap, and the screen lit up, revealing the title of the file she had been working on:
[BusyBaron Project].
Finding the name known to him, he happened to see the content of the project only to realize that ’Busy Baron’ was no one else but him and it was the project of his home design. All along he was talking to her in email but he never knew.
’So she’s Carlie?’ a light smile painted on his lips as he put her laptop and scattered pages around her back on the work desk, next to his. ’Besides creating perfumes, she has another talent. Not bad. But I wonder how she would react to know I am that BusyBaron.’
He returned to her side, to make her sleep comfortably. He leaned down to lift her a little, but the moment his hand reached closer, it was held in a strong grip.
Surprised he looked at her only to see her still in a deep sleep, but her brows furrowed as her protective instincts seemed to be awake even in her sleep, her grip surprisingly strong.
’What kind of a situation must she have faced to be alert like this even in her sleep?’ he could not help but wonder as he himself was not different— always alert in his sleep as if someone was going to harm him.
"It’s alright," he whispered softly, not wanting to startle her. "I’m just helping you lie down."