10 PAYING A FRIENDLY VISIT

When Daniel returned Mary was already asleep, he sat down beside her on the bed and watched her for a while. For him she resembled an angel now, so innocent and so defenseless.

He caressed her cheek and was covering her face and neck with kisses until she woke up; dreamily she smiled at him.

"You're back at last," she said.

"I'm sorry I missed supper. What did you cook?" he asked.

"Nothing, I don't like cooking unless it's for you. I ate in a café."

He was surprised; usually she was so attentive and so careful about cooking that he could not imagine she did not like the process.

"I'll try to be on time from now on then," he promised and kissed her again. She did not mind. Actually she did not mind all of it: the room change, the body guard, the extra attention; it was only now she felt that she mattered for him, that he cared.

Moonlight fell lightly on her white skin accentuating every curve of her body, innocence and seduction both dwelled in her this very moment. He wanted to touch her moonlit skin, to take off this extravagant night gown, to hold her tight and close to his body. She saw the desire rise in his eyes, burning and scorching her skin wherever his glance touched her.

Before he could restrain himself again she reached out, took his hand and put it on her hip moving it slowly up to her belly and then to her bosom. The rhythm of his breathing broke, it became irregular and rapid. All he could see was her, all he could feel was her warmth and her shivering under his touch, nothing else seemed to matter, nothing else seemed to exist.

He wanted her, and not just the body, he wanted all of her, body and soul.

He took her body that night but in her eyes he was searching for something more, he looked deep; he wished to see whether her soul could also belong to him. And until he could find the answer, he would not let his guard down. He would not let anyone steal her away, even if it took a hundred of bodyguards, even if it meant hiding her from the whole world, he would do anything, anything to keep her by his side.

They woke up late next morning, both of them forgetting to set the alarm clock. Mary got out of bed still naked, Daniel covered his eyes with his palm - if he saw her nakedness now he would definitely skip the office.

Mary cooked breakfast and called him when all was ready. In the middle of their meal his phone rang. He did not answer. It rang again. He still was not going to take the call. Mary felt unnerved and took the phone to see who was calling.

"It's Jim!" she said.

"I know. We have nothing to discuss." Just when he said it Mary saw a message pop up on the screen, "Take the call, it's about business." She read it out loud and he answered his phone at last.

Jim decided to pass one of his potential clients to Daniel's company because the client was interested in buying out stocks of apparel and accessories, which was not their main business.

While Daniel was still in the middle of discussion, Mary said, "Ask him how his cheek is."

"Ask him yourself!" Daniel exclaimed.

"I couldn't find his number."

"So you WERE looking for his number!" he said.

"So it was YOU who took it!" Mary retorted.

Jim heard their conversation and shouted into the phone, "MY CHEEK IS GETTING BETTER!"

"GOOD!" Mary shouted back to him

"BUT IT STILL..." At that Daniel hang up.

"Why do you care about his cheek?" There was an accusation in Daniel's voice.

"I'm not used to hitting people. I feel guilty..." she answered already getting up to clean the table.

"Is it the only reason?" he asked.

"What other reason can there be?"

When Daniel left, Mary could breathe out at last, obviously that incident with the kiss bothered him a lot and she should better avoid saying Jim's name in his presence.

When she was preparing to go out to a food store someone knocked on the door. She opened it and saw a delivery guy holding a large and heavy box in front of him.

"I didn't order anything," she said.

"It's prepaid. The sender said that Ms. Mary should take it. It's a present."

The delivery guy was holding out the box, eager to move on to his next delivery address. Mary took the box uncertainly. She hoped it was not from Gabriella and she would not find a cobra or a poisonous spider in it. But the box was full with food, it was ordered on a website providing recipes for meals and all the needed ingredients for cooking them, many people used it to save time.

In the box on top of the food there was a note saying, "Sending you my regard and my number again." Under this phrase a phone number was written. Then P.S.: "Send me a 'Hello' after you save it in your phone, or I would have to deliver this number to you once again. And better save it under a girl's name to ensure it's still there in the morning." The note was signed with 'The-guy-hit-a-bit-too-hard'.

"What a trouble!" Mary thought, but still saved his number replacing with it the one of her ex-colleague's since they did not have any contact now.

She meditated a little on the idea of sending a 'Hello' to him, then decided to do it to avoid extra deliveries of his phone number right to her doorstep. Only after sending the message she realized that he also had HER number now. "What a trouble!!!" she thought again.

Her phone vibrated, she received an answer to her message.

>My cheek is better. Thanks for asking

<I'm glad

>But it still hurts

<Sorry about that

>Next time try to be gentler

Next time? Mary regretted inquiring about his health earlier in the morning. He did not deserve this kind of attention!

<If you don't stop messaging me I'll blacklist you!

>Understood. Love you. Have a nice day"

Mary deleted the whole conversation just in case. She knew that technically she did nothing wrong, but it still felt awful, as if she was cheating on Daniel. She decided not to answer Jim's messages from now on.

Marcus was already waiting for her outside, but she did not need to go to a food store anymore. Originally Mary planned an ordinary day full of routine, but now she needed only to cook supper and that was all. What a boring day! She decided to add a little drive to it.

"Can you wait for me for about an hour and a half?" she asked Marcus over the phone and of course received a positive reply. She needed this time to prepare supper and dress up.

When she sat down on the back sit of the car, Marcus asked to which store she wanted to go.

"We won't go to any store. I changed my mind. Do you know where Melrose Corporation headquarters are? You know, Daniel's job."

Marcus was not a very talkative person; he just nodded and started the engine. If he was surprised, he didn't show any sign of it.

When they approached the office, only then Mary called Daniel to tell him about her arrival. If she told him beforehand he would definitely find an excuse and persuade her not to come, but now for him it would be much harder since she had already arrived.

"Why? To see you of course! But also I miss my old friends and since I have a lot of free time today, I would like to pay them a visit. Please, tell me you don't object?" she tried to sound as innocent as possible.

He chuckled, he saw through her tricks and really enjoyed the way she played it all out.

"Of course I don't object. I'll order a pass for you," he said.

"And will you have a couple of minutes to drink a cup of coffee with me? The right answer is 'yes'."

He laughed again.

"Yes."

"Then tell your secretary to call the Buying department to find me when you're free. I'll come up to your office asap."

She entered the tall building at least half of which was rented by Melrose Corporation. The place did not change, but Mary did; she had a feeling that she left this place already ages ago and yet all events were still clear in her memory.

Her pass was ready; she entered the elevator and pressed the 11th floor button. When the elevator doors opened on the 11th floor, the secretary of the Buying department saw Mary enter and stood up as if going to stop her approach. Mary lifted her pass so that the secretary would see that she was invited and by none else than the CEO, those passes had a red frame around the edges. The pass worked on her like a silver cross on a vampire. The secretary obediently sat down and followed Mary with her gaze silently.

Mary marched through the floor and stopped not afar from her old working place; her friend, Eliza, was typing something frantically. The office was an open space and the Head of Buying Department had no cabinet of his own because on their floor there was only one meeting room and if it was sacrificed for a cabinet, then the whole floor would have to listen to all the meetings taking place in the middle of the open space.

Mr. Edwards, the one who so untiringly pressed her to leave the corporation and who so thoughtfully prevented her from joining any other respectful company, was sitting opposite Eliza and looking out of the window. When he heard the whispers and turned around, his mouth dropped open. He started gasping for air, then his face became red, but no words escaped his mouth.

"It's a pleasure to meet you again, Mr. Edwards!" Mary decided to be extra polite and to greet him first.

"How… How did you come in?" he found his voice again. It seemed he did not know whether he should ask her to leave or should just treat her with special care because their meeting in the restaurant was still fresh in his memory, the one where Mary was accompanying Daniel.

Mary decided not to give any hints to him.

"I'm here for personal matters," she said. "Don't worry, I have a pass."

His face became even redder; his jaw seemed to tremble a little.

"Then I would have to ask you not to distract the personnel from their work!"

So he chose to ask her to leave then. "Wrong, Mr. Edwards," Mary thought.

"But it's a coffee break time. I didn't know you forbid your workers to have any breaks! I wonder… should I mention it somewhere?" she asked.

Mary knew it was a dirty trick, and she did not plan to mention anything anywhere, but she enjoyed teasing him. It was much better than spending her time alone at home.

"Take whomever you came for and go to the kitchen!" he almost shouted.

Mary winked at Eliza and headed to the kitchen space, her friend followed her throwing short glances at irritated Mr. Edwards.

"Hope he doesn't fire me for that," she whispered.

"Trust me, he won't dare!" Mary said laughing.

They chatted a little, but Mary decided not to mention her relationship with the famous Mr. Melrose, saying that one of her acquaintances ordered a pass for her. After coffee break time was over, Mary returned to the Buying Department and sat down at an empty desk.

"Ms. Springer, why are you still here?" asked her favorite Mr. Edwards who was close to losing the last bits of control he had left.

Just when Mary was going to answer him, his phone rang. He took it and his red face suddenly turned pale, almost greenish. Putting down the receiver he cleared his throat and tried to find the right words, they came out of his mouth with a big effort.

"Ms. Springer," he said, "you're expected at Mr. Melrose's office."

There was dead silence in the open space.

Mary smiled and said, "Thank you. You see, even Mr. Melrose himself has coffee breaks. Have a nice day, everyone."

Then she turned around and left.