He kissed her, starting from her nape to her neck and then to the side of her neck. Then, he turned her body to face him, lowered his head, and then passionately claimed her lips.

Aleksis placed the flowers on the table and put her arms around his neck in response to his passionate kiss. Their hands then groped under each other's clothes and almost stripped their clothes to go further when they suddenly heard a light cough.

"Good afternoon, Sir. Your guests have arrived."

In the middle their making out, Luna's voice moved Alaric and Aleksis so they reluctantly let go of each other.

"Sorry, I have to take care of something." Alaric rubbed his wife's cheek and kissed her once more. He then led her to sit on the couch while he activated the Virconnect connection and received his guests for a meeting in his office at RMI Tower.

Over the past few months, Alaric hardly came to the office. He delegated a lot of work to his trusted people and everything that he could do remotely, he would do them through Virconnect connection, like this meeting with his board of directors.

Aleksis sat in a corner while arranging flowers in a vase. She occasionally glanced at Alaric while the man was working. During the last few months, she had seen many changes in her husband. For some reason, he was holding back some high-level projects that could replace human workers more efficiently even though they have been launched by RMI.

Currently, they seemed to be setting up an independent education program that everyone could have free access to. Aleksis was happy to see that Alaric became compassionate after he became a father and showed more sympathy toward workers who had to lose their jobs when they got replaced by machines so they could no longer support their children.

He still insisted that humans needed to get special certification before being allowed to have children, but now he was not too upset to talk about it. All these changes made Aleksis very happy. She knew that basically Alaric was a kind-hearted man, and she wanted people out there to see the same things she had seen so far.

Alaric's reputation as a cold and ruthless man for the past few years was already too attached to him and Aleksis bitterly realized that people would need far more time to realize and acknowledge the changes in her husband.

***

After the meeting was over, Alaric invited Aleksis to venture out on his new catamaran ship. They went sailing almost every week while they were in Singapore.

Just like Lauriel who took p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e in a quiet and peaceful atmosphere in the middle of the sea, where there was only he, Aleksis and fishes swimming in the sea and birds flying in the sky, Alaric also loved to spend his time at sea with Aleksis and their future child.

They just sat back and relaxed, talked or played, completely feeling carefree. Aleksis was already five-months into her pregnancy and her emotions have changed for the better lately. There was no more crying in their homes every day like that of her first few months. They definitely now had a more peaceful life.

"It's already five-month," Aleksis said suddenly, turning to look at Alaric who was peeling some boiled eggs and taking some fresh vegetables from the refrigerator.

Alaric raised his face and nodded. "Yeah. So what?"

"You still don't want to know the gender of our children?" Aleksis asked.

"Children??" Alaric immediately stopped. "Is it twins again? What did Doctor Sam say?"

Her face lit up and for a moment Aleksis felt guilty for encouraging her husband's expectation.

"Uhm ... I'm just kidding. I don't know either. I still ask the doctor to hold it back from me, really. I am sorry ...."

"Oh ...." Alaric nodded, and then he continued slicing vegetables and peeling boiled eggs. "I thought you meant it."

"I don't know either," Aleksis said in a coquettish voice. "Just like you, I want it to be a surprise. Jeez ... we are such old fashioned people, huh. In this age, we still want to make it a surprise."

"I am indeed old-fashioned," Alaric replied with a grin. His hands swiftly sliced ??the vegetables on the cutting board and put them in a bowl. "Did you forget what year I was born?"

"Ahahaha .. you're right." Aleksis watched Alaric dishes looked better. Her face was radiant in happiness.

Last week Aleksis grumbled that she yearned for her father's cooking. The next day she saw Alaric chatting with Caspar through Virconnect about Aleksis' favorite dishes because he wanted to spoil his wife with his own cooking.

His dishes now looked much nicer than 18 years ago, Aleksis thought. She watched intently as Alaric finished preparing their dinner. Although she wanted to help, Alaric forbade her to meddle in it. Aleksis had once tried to help him before and ended up almost burning their house as she forgot? leaving a heated pot on the stove.

"You just sit nicely on the bed, I'll bring over the dinner in bed for us," Alaric patted her hand that mischievously tried to taste the salad that was almost ready. "Don't try it now. Let it be a surprise for you."

"Ugh ..." Aleksis finally complied, grumbling all the while. She sat on the bed in the cabin and tapping her legs impatiently. She glanced toward the kitchen over and over again to see if Alaric had finished.

Ten minutes later her husband arrived with a tray of cutlery, Caesar salad, and a cooked meal that he heated in the microwave.

"Wait, I'll get drinks for us." He placed his tray on a small table beside the bed then hurried out and returned a few minutes later with two glasses of fresh juice. "Let's eat."

Aleksis was very happy to be pampered by her husband like that. They had dinner lit by romantic candlelight and talked about trivial things. After having dinner and had their dishes removed, they sat on the bed looking at the night sky from the opened roof of the ship, revealing billions of stars in the sky.

"You know, one of my subsidiaries, SpaceLab, is developing new technology to explore space more efficiently," Alaric said, pointing to the sky. "One day, I want to invite you to see the sky and stars as close as possible."

Aleksis looked at Alaric with admiration. "I will look forward to when it is here."

They stared at each other and then enjoyed looking at the sky together. When they both looked at one another, Alaric kissed her lips for a long time.

"I can't wait to live forever with you and share this life with you," he whispered.