Lunch

Emilia was hyper aware of Christopher's hands still holding her, and the warmth they emanated through her thin cheap blouse.

"Okay." She nodded, sniffling. "I'll try."

"It's lunch time. And after, I believe that we have three more meetings full of scrutiny." He let go off her as he walked and placed some bits on his desk - a pen, few stacks of printouts that he gathered throughout the earlier meeting, and his tablet.

"Christopher?" Emilia said his name without a plan of what she was going to say, letting her lips run ahead.

"Yes?" He paused.

"Thank you."

"What for?" He inquired as he opened the door for her.

"For giving me this opportunity." Emilia followed him out of the room.

"I've said that you can experiment with any department you want. And you're getting paid for it."

"I've said that I didn't want to get paid."

"I am not going to allow you to work for free either."

"How much do you value my time for?" Emilia asked with a forced smile, trying to bring out her usual cheerfulness.

"I was thinking that £10 million per day would be somewhat appropriate." Christopher admitted as they walked through the office.

Emilia came to the halt. The amount of money that Christopher spoke of so casually was terrifyingly huge to her.

"I do not want it."

"You can choose not to use it." He shrugged.

"Maybe nepotism isn't so bad when you benefit from it." Emilia sneered as she walked into the elevator and stood beside Christopher.

"You're not here because you're my wife."

"No?"

"You're here because I've spend a small fortune for the rights to the recordings from the conference to set up a sustainability department that can utilise your values and virtues, without as much success as I'd like. You're here so that I can use your skills and talent to our advantage and tap into a new market by providing a new services. You would have been headhunted by me regardless of our relationship because your work so far is shaking up the industry. Your consultancy with Earthly made their profits quadruple already. So, never say such a thing again. I wouldn't have allowed you here if I thought your work was subpar, and especially not as my managing partner."

Emilia was silent throughout the entire ride down in the elevator.

"Do you fancy an Italian or Japanese?" Christopher asked as they walked out through the reception. Only now Emilia realised that it was a different reception to the one in the morning.

"Excuse me?"

"What would you like for lunch?"

"I don't mind."

"Shall we go to the Italian across the square? Or we can drive out to the sushi place downtown?"

"Don't you have a working lunch?"

"Not today. I am having a lunch with you."

"What? Why?" Escaped Emilia's lips before she thought about it.

"Why not?" Christopher answered with a shrug as he placed both hands in pockets and walked out of the building into the busy square. Emilia trotted behind him, trying to catch up. She wasn't used to being the short one and the slow one. She also wasn't used to being around people like Christopher - a capricious billionaire who didn't seem to be bothered about anyone else's opinion. He was the kind of a person that everyone noticed when he walked by. It was hard not to. He was tall. He was like one of those male models from perfume commercials. He was intimidating.

Except he wasn't. Not when he spoke with Emilia throughout the night about her doctoral research. Not when he changed her bandages. Not when he fell onto his bottom when trying to catch their dog. But maybe he was but I was too naive to notice.

"There's an Italian restaurant round the corner which serves the best pasta I've ever had."

"Okay." Emilia managed to utter as she was almost running beside him, panting already. She was in no shape or form to be running yet.

Christopher turned to face her, and he noticed her lack of breath and very red cheeks. He slowed down, matching Emilia's pace.

He wasn't used to caring so much for others and he never really worried about it before. It was a new field for him and he had a lot to learn.

"Do you like Italian?"

"Who doesn't?" Emilia asked in return, her breath slowly returning to normal.

"I suppose anyone who can't have gluten or dairy."

"That's a good point. I refuse to acknowledge any of my gastrointestinal issues so it's alright."

"That doesn't sound healthy." Christopher furrowed his brows.

"What are you talking about? If I ignore it, it's not there." Emilia chuckled and Christopher shook his head in disapproval.

He opened the door to a restaurant that they've approached and placed his hand on Emilia's shoulder blades to let her in before him. He didn't realise the effect his touch had on her. He did, however, quickly realise that he himself was struggling to stop himself from trying to hold her closer and have Emilia in his arms, and with every little touch it seemed to be harder to resist her.

"Do you have a reservation?" The waited approached them.

"No, I'm Christopher Hayden." Christopher said his name.

"Sorry, sir. Right away."

"Wow." Emilia mumbled under her nose.

"Yes?" Christopher looked over at her again.

"Your name holds power. You can't change it."

"Sorry. Just a habit. I need to get used to the new name." Christopher smiled again and his smile could melt the ice, and in case of Emilia, weaken the knees.