To save his Laila

After a solid thirty minutes the tour was almost coming to an end and both Laila and Noah were glad for that because they didn't know how many of these nerve wrecking moments they could handle. Laila was almost caught sneaking around twice. Once by Olivia herself and once by one of the staff. Fortunately Noah had managed to help out just in time in both cases. Even crossing a few of his own personal rules and boundaries. All in order to save his Laila.

In Olivia's case he had abruptly grabbed her hand and yelled out "Wait!" before pointing at some random item when she turned around with a shock-filled look on her face. Although he had managed to grab Olivia's immediate attention by doing that and he had saved Laila from getting caught, he had done something he had promised himself he wouldn't do. Though he had even managed to think up a few questions to ask Olivia about the item he had picked in a rush, his grabbing Olivia's hand because of a panicked reaction, had given Olivia the wrong idea. With him accidentally crossing that boundary, she found a way to make the situation worse. Because once she had his hand, Olivia refused to let go. This turned his quick action in him holding hands with Olivia with Laila just a few feet away.

He had always made sure to never touch another woman, hold her hand, hug her, other than his own family and even then he kept it to the bare minimum. Since Steve was the face of the company to the outside world, even for business purposes he had never had to shake another woman's hand. Much less anything more. He had done this because he didn't feel the need to but more importantly, with Laila's past relationship, he didn't want to give her any reason to feel uncomfortable with or doubt any of his actions. Now his hand had been forced, both literally and figuratively speaking.

He tried to pull his hand away gently and smiled as he did to keep the mood positive but Olivia just treated his actions as a game and held his hand even tighter. Only when Laila called out to them, asking "Should we head to the next room?", did Noah manage to find the distraction needed to pull his hand out of hers. He quickly followed after Laila and made his escape to the hallway. Just as he left the room he glanced backwards to show Olivia an awkward smile as he had escaped her clutches, to which she showed a shiver inducing smile in return.

In the hallway Noah and Laila held a quick conversation in whispers and their changing facial expressions before they would be interrupted by Olivia. They heard her heals clicking and clacking on the marble floor as she made her way to the hallway in long, slow strides. As Olivia walked out of the room she glanced at the silenced Noah with a flirtatious look in her eyes before smiling and saying, "Alright, let's go to the next room."

Laila and Noah returned her smile with one of their own and followed after her as she lead the way. Before Noah returned to his place beside Olivia, he quickly cleansed his hand by grabbing Laila's hand and squeezing it tightly. This caused Laila to glance up and look at him and the eyes that looked back at her seemed to be saying just one thing, "I love you". Laila smiled gently and let her eyes tell him the same before letting go of his hand so that he could go back to distracting Olivia.

Of course Steve, who was still unaware of the surprise that was being prepared for him in a different room of the house, had his eyes glued to the screen and reacted to each of these events as if he was watching a thriller. Gasping, shouting and looking at each second of film with widened eyes from the shock of what he was seeing.

But after this first close call, when placing the final camera, the two of them were faced with their second close call. Because as it so happened, while Laila was stalling her exit from the final room to finish her placing and hiding of the camera, one of the maids came from the opposite direction and headed in the direction of said room. So again Noah was forced to quickly think of something before Laila was caught doing something she wasn't supposed to do.

In the end he called out to the employee without having thought of what to say. He again yelled out "Wait!", but this time instead of holding the hand of the person he was trying to stop, he held out his hand in front of her and stopped her in her track. Both Olivia and the maid looked at him with a look of shock and wonder. As they looked at him for answers for his sudden behaviour, Noah put his brain to work for a believable reason. The excuse he managed to come up with was, "I'm sorry to scare you like that. I was just wondering if you could get me something to drink. I suddenly feel an itch coming up in the back of my throat."

Though the maid wanted to say something in return. Most likely to tell him she would get him a glass as soon as she had placed the linen she was holding in the room where Laila was. But Noah turned to Olivia before she had a chance to respond and said, "My mouth must be dry from talking to you so much. I didn't drink anything before I left from work because I wanted to get here sooner and when I did we immediately started the tour and I again didn't get the chance to drink something. I hope you don't mind me keeping her from her work for a moment."