21 Playful yet Passionate

"The collaboration between the two strong leads will bring long-lasting benefits for both the countries", the secretary continued with her speech, "We are happy to announce this long-term partnership with our neighboring country..."

Here, Sara had already stiffened in her chair. To the other people, she might look like an icy statue sitting on a chair, but the reason was something else. She could hardly breathe and she was barely maintaining her composure. On her side, Riley was like a ray of bright sunshine, beaming with glory. She was afraid that her face would crumble at any moment. She sneaked a glance at Riley, with the corner of her eyes. She sighed lightly. Did he realize the impact he was having on her?

If not for the given situation, she would have long run away from this pressing situation. He was deliberately doing this! If she was not good at hiding her emotions, anyone would have thought that she was having bad diarrhea.

Whatever...

The secretary ended her speech with a greeting. Now, it was Mr. Xi's turn to speak. He gestured someone and a professional translator appeared onstage. He gracefully walked up to the podium. He, then, began his address in Chinese. The translator also started doing his job.

"Good morning everyone. I am truly blessed to have been given this opportunity to collaborate with the leading jewelry brand, Tiara Jewels. The thing that I found impressive was Sara. What an impressive young lady! Starting from scratch, she had established the company and made it reach the pinnacle of its kind. My daughter is already a great fan of hers!"

Mr. Xi chuckled and so did the crowd. The camera soon focused on Sara after that. She gave a bone-chilling smile. She couldn't help it.

"Her way of cross-chemicalizing the gems and making them into rare pieces had been a successful attempt and thus we were also able to bring out our 'X' type of perfumes. Our scent and her gems are totally exclusive ones. For further, we will take a look at the ad that will be playing now!"

Everyone lifted their eyes in awe and looked at the huge screen in front of them. Very soon, the screen lit up. Few things revolved in the screen, and with a flash of light two symbols came into view. One was of the Xi perfumes, alighted on a dragon. The other was of Tiara Jewels, the initials 'TJ' appearing in a fashionable font.

Soon, the ad started playing. The view opened to a seashore where sea waves were rolling and crashing on the seashore. A girl wearing a floral knee-length dress came into view. Her hair was slightly messy, fluttering in the wind. Zanine Kaur, a supermodel was endorsed in this ad. She had unparalleled looks, and hence she pulled off the role quite well. She was picking up something from the seashore. Upon a closer view, one could see that she was picking one the exclusive pieces from Tiara's exclusive gemstone collection. Very soon, the wind became stronger, causing the petals of some unknown flower to flutter around the girl. She turned around to face the wind without fear. She raised her hands, making the gemstones toss in the air. The girl soon began to manipulate the wind, the petals and the gemstones. Very soon, an object landed softly on the sand. It was a transparent curved bottle with a gemstone as a cap. The liquid inside had a faint violet color. Upon closer view, the bottle had the symbols of both the companies engraved on it.

The screen turned black and complete silence accompanied after. But, after that, the crowd downstairs burst into loud applause. The applause continued for a few minutes. After that, four female attendants came onstage with trays in each of their hands. The applause grew louder as the four exclusive bottles of perfumes were presented before the crowd. Thousands of people watched the live stream on their TVs. Everyone was awestruck with the finishing of the product.

...

The conference ended without much trouble. After that, there was a banquet for the invitees and special guests arranged on the terrace. Allen was present beside Sara as soon as she descended from the stage.

"That was great", Allen spoke nonchalantly, but he sounded truly impressed.

"Anything I do is impressive", Sara scoffed haughtily.

Allen rolled his eyes at her. Sara did the same and turned away. There she picked up a glass of water. Her throat had already gone dry when she saw he was here. When she was gulping down on her water, she happened to sense a brooding stare directed at from somewhere nearby. She looked around only to meet Riley's playful yet passionate stare, boring deep into her heart. She was stunned and felt a fuzzy feeling bubble up in her heart. But, with that, came a feeling of fear. The fear of losing him forever...

This time, she broke off her stare and escaped to the balcony. She looked ahead on the cityscape, bathing in the faint winter sunshine. She took deep, slow breaths to calm down her palpitating heart. She was trying to stay away from him. But, he found her. This could be her secret dream for years, somewhere in her heart. But, it was also a cause of worry for her. She would rather stay away from him than to land him in trouble. Why did he come back? She had learned of his arrival back on the day when she was drugged. She thought that she was hallucinating back then when she saw him in the hotel corridor. But, the next day confirmed her fuzzy feelings as well as her fear.

"I kept my promise, didn't I?" a mellow voice came from behind Sara, making her heart drum with anxiety.

Sara was contemplating whether she should turn back or not. But she could feel his strong presence inching closer and closer to her, making her heart leap to her throat.