Chapter 253 - A Dangerous Date

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!

"Yes, accompany," Julian leaned in a little and lowered his voice. Edward moved back slightly when Julian approached and breached his personal space. The silent approaching and retreating happened with each step and Julian successfully cornered Edward against the glass window when Edward felt the cool surface on his back. With nowhere else to escape, the spy looked into Julian's dark hooded eyes. He didn't want to blow his cover as a spy so quickly but his safety was a top priority for this mission.

Julian smirked at the panic creeping into Edward's eyes. This teen wasn't as dull as he thought he would be, after all, it was interesting. Yet, Edward didn't appear to swing the same way he did. Such a shame...

"I have a fiancée and she's rather annoying. As you could probably tell by now, I'm gay."

Blinking at the sudden coming out, Edward couldn't understand what was going through Julian's mind.

"Pardon me, sir," he stated politely. "I don't swing that way. I have a girlfriend and love her very much."

Julian laughed. "Was that why you were so pissed off earlier? The admin girls must have tried something with you."

Edward blinked. "Was it obvious?"

With a smirk, Julius stepped backwards and shrugged his jacket off, tossing it on his chair. "As the CEO, I wouldn't be blind to what goes on in my company. It's a shame you're just an intern. Would you be keen on working for me after you graduate? I can open up a position for you anytime. Of course, first, you'll have to pay back the debt of causing the technical difficulties for today's important deal and spilling coffee on my carpet."

Edward grimaced at the reminder. Julius had him where he wanted and the spy grit his teeth, unable to refuse. "What would you like me to do, sir? I don't have money to compensate for your loss."

The CEO raised one finger. "One date with me tonight. I'll buy everything and we can forget this ever happened. You're quite the looker so I want you to pretend to be a gay escort for tonight. My fiancée has set some private investigators on me so I want to let her have reasons to call the deal off. It's not in my favour to end the relationship with her so I want her to do it herself."

By fiancée, Edward knew that he was referring to Leah Yuan. It looks like the collaboration between EZ Express and Pineapple Group's subsidiaries wasn't a harmonious one. Edward filed that information away. He was right to tell Elfie to dig deeper into Leah Yuan. Now that they had a name, it would be easy to break the link and weaken EZ Express.

"Will I be in any danger? Your fiancée sounds like an insane person, I don't want to get stabbed by a jealous woman."

Laughing at the blunt remark and finding the suspicious eyes cute, Julian gave Edward his word. "If something happens, call me on this number. I'll send someone to rescue you from her." Edward couldn't believe it. This was Julian's private number. Why would the mafia boss give him his personal phone number? Still, Edward didn't refuse it. He simply played along and kept up his act.

"How do I know that I can trust you? I might be just an intern here but I still value my life more than a future job prospect."

Julian raised a brow. "Try calling that number then. If it rings, you'd know that it's my phone. Just so you know, I don't care about you and what you want. You owe me. Of course, if you refuse, I'll just have to get my legal team to press charges. The choice is in your hands. Either you go out on a date with me or prepare to be in life-long debt."

GIven 'no choice', Edward accepted much to Julian's delight. The teen let himself be dragged away to prepare for their date while saving the CEO's personal phone number and letting Elfie know his progress. Soon, very soon... he will return the favour by bringing down EZ Express and putting this man behind bars.