Setting Me On Fire

23

Giving In

My memories of happiness disintegrated as I was faced with the truth: I had to stop pretending that I was fine without Alexander in my life. I didn't want him to be right, I wished that all the feelings I thought I had for him were simply a mishap.

"The Soccer home base is due to be done by next week, so the team is excited for that," Marco says. We were in my Fasho office, I told them to meet me here, I had to get some things done. So the three of them sat in front of me.

I have to say, I felt like I was under the spotlight, and I was nervous. I felt Alexander's eyes on me, for the first time in weeks.

"That's good, no more meeting in my living room," I say, and glance up at my brother. He offers me a smile, and I look back down at some questions Cosmopolitan Magazine wanted me to answer to put in their new issue.

A knock came on my door, I glanced up and see Kevin. "Come in." He walks over to me with two different jean fabric samples, which anyone else would've said looked alike.

"Do you want both of these?"

I extend my hand and he gives them to me, I feel the textures, one was rougher than the other. But that was good. That's what I wanted. I smirk up at Kevin. "Brian gave this to you?" He nods. I give it back to him. "Tell him great job, put them on the list." He nods and leaves my office.

I felt a lot happier. I smiled and danced in my seat.

"I thought you were the kind of boss that threw daggers," Marco says. I shot him a look that could have burned a hole through a steel door. He knew better than to utter another word, or so I thought.

I flipped my hair back, "So what else do you have to do?"

"Well, we're looking for leagues to join," Yufei says. I nod and fix some papers on my desk. "Is there a way you could make the process faster?"

"Why? Is there a waiting line?"

They nod. "Alright, I'll see what I can do."

"Yeah work your magic, you could be scary sometimes," Marco says. I glance up at him with a death glare. "See, scary." He glances away.

I shake my head, and another knock comes on my door. I glance over and see Amelia, our model agent. I wave her in. She glances at the guys and makes her way to me. I grab a piece of paper that was garbage, crumble it up and toss it into the garbage. "Aye, baller," Marco says. I glare at him again, he puts his hands up in surrender.

I glance at Amelia. "What can I do for you, Amelia?"

"So I know you said you want a least eight models at your Annual Summer Gala, but I think we've reached a problem."

I lean back and cross my legs. My face fell flat. What a way to ruin my mood. "Excuse me?"

Amelia visibly gulps hard. "We only have four right now, and many models are booked for other fashion shows in the coming weeks."

I just look at her. "Amelia?" She hums. "Do you not know how to do your job?" I tilt my head at her with honest curiosity.

She scratches her head and looks at the boys, then at me. I run my hands through my hair, uncross my legs, and stand. "Come over here." I nod my head to the corner of my room, where there's a sofa. I walk over to it, sit down and cross my legs. I ignore the guy's eyes, as they stare noisily.

"Honey," I start. "Look for models who are trying to make it far, recruit them. Get a friend of a model, a friend of a friend, obviously if they can't strut they won't make the cut. But search, you have this. Use your brain, and get me four more models."

Amelia nods. I lean forward. "Next time you come into my office, make sure you have what I've asked of you." I stand up and walk back behind my desk. Amelia scurries out of my office.

"I spoke too soon," Marco says. "You are scary."

I ignore him and shove papers into my purse. I grab my fashion plan book and put it in my bag too. I stand back up and make sure I had everything. "You can show yourselves out, I have things to do, see you later." I walk to my door, and then to the elevator and wait for the doors to open. When it does, I step in, and before it closes, the guys step in. I cross my arms and look as the numbers count down.

For days, Alexander hadn't met my eyes. But this time I was the one fighting myself to not look at him. If he's going to move on, then so should I? But as I stood there, with him across from me, I could feel him staring at me. I fought the urge to look at him, but I gave in.

Our eyes lock for the first time in a while, and my heart explodes through my chest. Was it on the ground?

I look away, feeling my face flush, and burn up. The elevator dinged, and I walked out, striding towards my limo. I stepped in. And then I was on the road to go home.

Goerge pulled up outside of my building, my door opens and I take his extended hand as he helps me out. I give him thanks and walk towards the main doors of my penthouse. I sigh, the moments before passing through my mind.

"Margo!" I turn my head to the right and see Alexander. My heart jumped in my chest. I didn't know what to do, but my feet stayed rooted to the floor. I stood in the middle of the sidewalk in New York waiting for a guy to reach me. What a way to start La Primavera.

When he did, he clears his throat, feeling awkward. "Listen," he starts. "I'm down to being just friends. I learned that it's better to have you in my line of sight than not have you in my life at all."

I could see him beating himself up in his head. I sigh. "Me too," I say, although I wasn't sure I was.

I turn to walk into my building, and he follows me. "I forgot my watch here the other day, mind if I go up to fetch it?"

I shake my head. "Not at all."

He follows me into the building, and we wait for the elevator doors to open. I don't know if he was over me or not, but I knew one thing and that was my body was burning with desire to be touched by Alexander.

Seeing him again, his voice, his eyes on me. Even his height had me under a spell. Noting about him stood out as unattractive.

The door dinged open, and we stepped in. As the elevator doors close, I turn to him and kiss him. He pulls away and stares deeply into my eyes.

"What happened to just friends?"

"We both know that wouldn't've worked out," I say, and got closer, I wrap my arms around him, and kiss him, hard with desire, and he pushes me against the wall.

He pulls my leg up, and it bends around his body. I pull on his hair, and we both moan into the kiss. We stay like that until the doors open, and I lead him up the stairs and to my room.

My resistance broke down into shards.

I toss my purse on my vanity, and he closes the door behind him. I turn to face him, he takes a step closer to me. I can feel his body heat, tingles fly up my spine, making me shiver.

I can't even think straight, all thoughts to push him away have taken his place behind the locked door. All that's left is a hot desire to have him.

He begins to kiss my forehead, then he kisses me everywhere except my lips. My cheek, my jawline, and behind my ear where he gets a small moan from me along with a wave of chills down my back.

He looks at me now, a gentle yet blazing look flashes through his eyes. I tried really hard to convince myself to stay away from him, that was proven impossible.

He leans in slowly, and then his lips are on mine again. A jolt of electricity moves through me. Like it was the first time we'd kissed.

He stops kissing me and gazes deep into my eyes, "Have I mentioned how sexy you are when you're bossing people around?"

"No, but have I told you how hot you look in your business clothes?"

"I knew you liked me in those suits." Of course, he had. Nothing gets past him. Then he looked at me intensely. "I'll walk through fire to get you close to me." And then he was charging me up with his touch.

I gave in to Alexander Romano.