The Inc Affair (Pty) Ltd

23. The Secret

A life of luxury with a man who had earned his way to the top wasn't what it was painted to be. Granted, he gave me everything, even came home every night and I never had to work for a dime. But we had a lot of fights.

Apparently I was the stubborn and selfish one to want something of my own instead of supporting his business which was already underway.

The only times I got to see him, be with him were when I had to look pretty for his investors, and then spend the night with him. Otherwise he was too busy for me.

I gave in on the idea of moving to his house to be with him, but that made matters a bit worse when I started to feel needy in his big and empty house. There were even more fights, which we compensated for with amazing sex.

There were so many times I wanted to leave him, be on my own and begin working on my vision. But when he had me in a morning shower, evening or whenever, I just couldn't bring myself to say goodbye. Love is strange.

"There's an event this evening," Nik said, wearing his boxers while I tried to catch my breath, "Jason's hosting it for his clients."

"Yea? Which one?"

"Victoria's Secret," he said.

"Hm," I smirked, "my favorite secret."

He chuckled, looking at his reflection while buttoning his shirt. He turned to me with two ties and asked for my opinion- as he would with business.

I picked one, and he trusted my opinion.

"Babe, are you picking me up or is it one of those drivers again?" I asked.

"I'm helping Jason with this one so I'm going to be busy," he said. I scoffed and looked away. He came over and sat in front of me. "Don't be like that. You're smart, I know you see the bigger picture. Don't act like you don't. Okay?"

I nodded. I used to see the bigger picture, but the Polaroid's starting to fade.

"Tell me you love me."

"I love you," I whispered it to him.

"You do?"

"More than anything," I gave him warm smile, knowing I wanted more.

"That's my girl," he smiled back at me before giving me a parting kiss. I made it longer. I held him back, not wanting him to leave and playfully threatened to use his cuffs on me.

He and I did a lot in the bedroom, but there were many things I wouldn't allow either. Namely; cuffs, some toys, and the backdoor.

Almost all the events were the same, with same kind of people, uppity, name droppers and creeps who can't keep their eyes off me, (the little woman on Nikolas Bychkov's arm).

I was on my third glass of wine when a guy came up to me. I could tell from the way he regarded himself that he was from a wealthy family.

"How are we doing?" He asked.

"Most people introduce themselves before asking about other people's well-being," I said. I had lost my charm and valley girl accent to the boredom of having no new challenge.

"I'm Matthew, hey."

"I'm bored."

"Nice to meet you, Bored," he said. I looked at him with a disinterested face as a response. "Okay then, challenge accepted. What do you like to do?"

"Drink red wine," I lifted my glass up, and took a sip.

"Cool," he nodded slowly. "What I like to do when I'm bored at an event is play a little game called: guess the guest."

"Guess the guest?"

"Yes, I've been playing it a little while until I landed on you. I can't seem to figure you out," he said.

"Really?"

"Yes, beautiful girl sitting by herself-"

"Ah, I see what's going on here," I interjected. "I'm actually here with my boyfriend."

"It's not that. I genuinely couldn't figure you out," he said. Knowing that I didn't believe a word he said, he tried to convince me by "playing the game." At first, it was like, whatever, but it got funnier when I agreed to his observations. I played along.

"He's having an affair-"

"What? How do you know that?" He asked, laughing.

"Notice the tan line on his finger?" I rhetorically asked, pointing at the man, "there used to be a ring there."

"Or he could be recently divorced," he said.

"No, he's cheating. He's way too happy," I said, and added that I noticed the circle bulging out of his pocket. "Would you keep your wedding ring in your pocket?"

"Point taken. Okay, let's see," he looked around the busy room, people having conversation and drinking. His eyes landed on Nik, "how about that guy?"

"I'll let you take a crack at it."

"He likes to work too hard to please," he said. He couldn't have gotten that from one look.

"Why do you think so?" I asked, skeptically.

"He's a legacy, continuing a family business and has been working hard to please his father. To show that he is worthy of taking over," he said.

How could he be right, yet so wrong? The first statement was 100% correct in my opinion. But the legacy stuff? No.

"You're wrong."

"I'm not..." he stopped talking when he thought I may know better, "okay, what do you think?"

"I think that ambition drives him into working hard to achieve his goals. He wants to be the best, and doing so, he doesn't care about anyone else other than making his dream come true."

"How could you possibly know that?" He asked, seemingly fascinated by my observation skills.

"His posture, sex appeal-"

"What?"

"His broad shoulders," I continued naming the things I liked in his appearances to stop me from ranting even more, "the way speaks, his tall, and the way he's looking at me right now."

Matthew followed my eyes and saw how Nik was looking me. I smiled at him, before he went back to his conversation.

"Creep," he said.

"Why? For looking at his girlfriend the way a loving man should?"

"His girlfriend?"

"Yes. Got a problem?" I asked.

"No, not at all. It's the 21st century... I mean, no. Just no." As it seemed, I had stumbling over his words, nervous.

"I love him with all my heart. He's very good in bed, amazing," I emphasized, "What does it matter if he's a couple of years older than me?"

He stammered.

"Enjoy the evening, Matthew," I said about to get up.

"So, all those things you said earlier, about him not caring, did you mean it?"

"That's none of your business-"

"But it is your business how I print my article tomorrow. Quote: he's amazing," he said with a smirk. I threw the glass of wine in his face.

I walked up to Nikolas and whispered that we needed to leave immediately. He wasn't ready to. But when he saw the look on my face, he decided to call it a night and apologize to people he promised to talk to that evening.

He placed his jacket on my shoulders while we waited for the valet to bring his car around.

I kept quiet all the way to his house, until he asked what had happened. I turned to him and tearfully apologized.