Chapter 36

36 The Devil’s Comfort

I heard him, but I couldn’t bring myself to answer. Before I knew it, my lips were quivering uncontrollably and then warm, wet tears spilled over my eyes and rolled down both my cheeks. I have never felt like this before, and I didn’t even realize that I had started crying until the tears streamed down my face. At first, I thought I was simply sad and upset; however, those emotions didn’t adequately explain what I was feeling.

The heart burning sensation inside my chest resembled more of anger and the tight knot in my stomach felt like a grudge that would never fade. I felt like I was ready to explode from the inside out. I felt Ace’s eyes on me as he looked at me curiously. I watched as he cocked his head slightly to one side in wonder.

I must have looked like such a mess. It was my first day working for him and here I am, standing right in front of him in tears. Thankfully, he didn’t ask me what was wrong because I didn’t know what I would have told him if he did. Slowly, he approached me until he stood directly in front of me. My unfocused eyes watched through my own tears as his hand slowly approach my face. Then I felt the warm heat of the pad of his thumb as he slowly wiped away the tears from my left cheek and then my right.

“Stop crying and come with me,” he said flatly.

I looked up at his face, blurred through my tears, as I wondered how the touch of someone so cold could feel so warm and gentle like this. Although I knew that he had ordered me to follow him, my feet felt like they had grown roots and were glued to the spot. Ace’s hand left my face before he sighed once again. Then I felt the warmth of his hand as he took my hand into his and held it firmly. Before I could protest or say anything, he had turned around and began walking away while pulling me along with him.

The movement snapped me out of my misery a little and I was reminded once again that I was crying in front of the CEO like a dumb fool who couldn’t control herself and her emotions, and perhaps, at that moment that was exactly what I was. I wiped the tears from my eyes with the back of my hand before my eyes fell to where are hands were connected while my mind wondered what kind of man Ace Hill was really like.

A part of me still felt that I shouldn’t get any closer to him but another part of me couldn’t stop my own curiosity from running wild.

Fly too close to the sun and you’ll get burnt, Karina...

I was conscious of Ace’s hand holding mine as I followed obediently behind him. He half-led and half-dragged me along a very long hallway that I knew led to his personal office. Luck was on my side because we didn’t run into anyone on the way there. This was Ace’s private floor, so it wasn’t surprising that not a lot of people passed by here. No one should be here except for people working in his team and those that had meetings with him. My eyes travelled along the hallway decorated in the modern luxury style before my eyes quickly went to the broad back of the man walking right in front of me.

.....

Ace opened the door to his office and pulled me in after him without saying a word.

“Do you need to cry some more?” he asked emotionlessly.

“Umm...no...that’s ok...” I replied hesitantly, my voice coming out so small and squeaky.

'

Surprisingly, Ace didn’t ask me why I was crying. If he was someone else, I would probably have thought that he was just being considerate by not prying into my personal life. However, because he had witnessed that unsightly scene of Kyle dumping me on the building’s rooftop, he probably had a very good guess of why I was so upset. It wasn’t like he knew all of it. I doubted that he knew about Kyle two-timing me and the fact that he was about to marry another girl very soon.

“Take a seat...” Ace said as he gestured for me to take a seat on the dark grey leather sofa that was in his office.

Ace’s office was huge now that I had time to pay attention to it. It was clearly designed so that he could host business meetings in various forms. There was the standard large working desk that made him look like a royal king in command when he sat on his chair. Then there was the sofa set that I was currently sitting on that could seat around ten people with a coffee table in the middle. To the other end of the room was a meeting room separated by a glass partition. I was certain that there were more rooms but that was all that I could see from where I was seated.

Ace plopped down onto the sofa opposite me and he seemed very relaxed and at home while I started to feel nervous in his presence. To my utmost surprise, I had completely stopped crying. Although I was extremely upset until just now, my tears have all but dried up. As I became more aware of the fact that I was alone with Ace in his office and how unusual this setting was, the feeling of nervousness quickly replaced the sorrow that I felt.

“I’m not going to ask if you’re ok or not because you’re obviously not ok, but I can’t have my personal secretary crying on her first day of work either...” Ace said with a lop-sided grin as his hazel eyes fell on my face.

Right, I’m supposed to be working and this is working hours. It was entirely my fault for failing to control my emotions like this. For the first time, I personally understood from first-hand experience why the company put the ‘no dating between employee’ rule in place. It was to avoid shitty messes like these that would harm productivity.

–To be continued...