324 The Easier Choice

“Ace..please, let’s stop..” I pleaded desperately.

“Stop, what?” he asked with some interest.

I bit down on my lower lip in frustration before I glared at him as if doing that would send some telepathic message across to him. My real frustration stemmed from the fact that I was certain that he knew what I was referring to but had chosen to act all innocent.

“We can’t do it here. There are cameras..everywhere..” I pointed out without backing down.

Ace stared at me for a moment in silence and that made me feel so open and vulnerable in front of him. I wished that he would stop staring at me like he could see through me even if that was how it was really was. It was bad enough that we were this close and already on camera.

“Do what?” Ace asked before the corners of his beautiful lips curved upwards into slightly teasing smirk.

Slowly, his fingertips stroked their ways down my arm, and I wanted to let out a moan at the fleeting yet pleasurable sensation. He was teasing me mercilessly and I hated myself for responding so much to his playful seduction.

“Tell me, what do you have in mind, Rina?” he asked.

His hands slid down my arms slowly before he quickly captured and held onto my wrists. My mind went completely blank for a moment, and I wasn’t sure what to do.

.....

“Let’s wait till we get home..or..we can go to your office..” I mumbled.

As soon as those words left my lips, I wanted to die from embarrassment. However, I couldn’t see another way out. I knew that I should push him away, but it seemed impossible. If Ace really started seducing me, there was a very high chance that we’ll end up going all the way. I closed my eyes and let out a sigh. To my surprise, the slight pressure of his hands around my wrists disappeared and then I felt Ace moving away from me.

When I opened my eyes, Ace was standing at a respectable distance from me with an unbelievably calm expression on his face. To say that I was surprised would be an understatement. However, I did feel very relieved that he seemed to have heard my desperate plead for him to stop.

“Are you done with your business down here?” Ace asked.

“Yes..I am..” I replied in a murmur as my mind struggled to take in this sudden change.

“Then follow me,” Ace instructed.

I watched as he turned on his heels and walked toward the exit of the archive. My legs started following him without a moment of hesitation. Suddenly, the archive felt so suffocating and I couldn’t bear to be there any longer. My heart still beat wildly in my chest as I pressed my hand against it and let out another sigh.

“Why did you come down here?” I asked curiously when I caught up to his side.

It felt too awkward to be walking along with him in silence, so I put in all the effort that I had to start a conversation.

“No reason. I was just looking for you and someone in the lobby told me that they saw you heading down here,” Ace replied with a casual shrug of his shoulders.

“Why were you looking for me?” I questioned.

“We should go home together. I managed to wrap things up decently early so I thought we could go home together. I did send you a text,” he replied.

“But I thought we already agreed that we’ll head back separately,” I pointed out.

I was too focused on him to realize that we were in fact heading in the direction of the parking building.

historical

“Should we head back to the archive?” Ace asked mercilessly.

He shot me a look that managed to hush me up. I looked around nervously to see if anyone saw us together.

“Stop panicking. I think you should start getting used to this,” he advised.

“You mean..” I murmured as I tried my best to keep up with his pace.

“People at work and everywhere else seeing us together,” he pointed out.

I didn’t think that I would have a problem with people seeing us together if it wouldn’t lead to any trouble. However, with how things currently are, there was no guarantee when the consequences of our actions would end up exploding in our faces.

“I just don’t want to stir up trouble,” I argued my case.

“Don’t worry. If anything happens, I’ll handle it..” Ace replied.

With that, he pulled opened the car door and urged for me to get in with a smooth gesture of his hand. Getting into his car or heading back to the archive wasn’t exactly a difficult choice to make. I let out a sigh as I lowered myself into Ace’s car.

“So, tell me, what were you doing down there in the archive? Were you looking for something?” Ace asked once we were on the road.

I couldn’t get the suggestive look that the guard gave me when he saw me in Ace’s car out of my head. If our relationship gets out to the public, I could be sure that that guard was the source of all the rumors. Ace didn’t seem bothered and I wondered if he placed too much trust on that man.

“Umm..yeah. I go down there sometimes to look for inspirations, I guess..” I replied vaguely.

“I bet no one really goes down there. I don’t even remember the last time I was down there,” Ace said.

“I didn’t even know that the place existed until Jeremy showed me,” I said as I tried to lighten the atmosphere around us.

“When did he show you?” he asked.

“When we were working on Project Alpha together and we were struggling to come up with a way to make the commercial more emotionally engaging. He suggested that we go down there to look for some inspiration,” I told Ace honestly.

“It must have been useful,” Ace replied before flashing me a smile that I thought was very charming.

–To be continued..