His Lioness (Alan Rickman FF) ENGLISH VERSION

Chapter 42

The morning was still very early. It was only dawn when Lionel slowly woke up. He still couldn't get used to the fact that a woman's body was lying next to him. Slowly he turned his head in her direction and looked at the sleeping face of Saskia. Carefully he stroked a few strands out of her forehead. At his touch, she began to smile slightly in her sleep and snuggled even closer to him.

Lionel took a deep breath, but allowed Saskia to snuggle up to him and put an arm around his stomach. He was now enjoying the body contact as well and dozed off a bit again. It was only when he noticed Gem's presence that he became fully awake. The cat, which purred loudly, had laid down with the two of them and made herself comfortable between them.

Saskia sensed movement next to her and opened her eyes a crack. When she noticed red fur and the loud purring, she could only smile. Lifting her gaze, she looked directly into Lionel's brown eyes. A slight blush covered her cheeks as she thought back to the hot evening that had ultimately ended in that bed. Her boss was a very passionate lover, she could already convince herself of that several times. The situation overwhelmed her. She would have liked to stay here forever, without any obligations. But that would probably remain only a dream.

Lionel brought Sia out of her reverie into which she had digressed. "Good morning, let's get up. There's still some work ahead of us and besides, I have to do something on my own. In the meantime, you can put the texts together. Besides, we also have the meeting with Puznowski coming up," he explained succinctly about today.

"Ok, I'll get ready in the guest room, then we'll be faster," Saskia spoke and slowly moved out of bed. Without waiting for his answer, she scurried through the connecting door and immediately headed for the bathroom.

Meanwhile, Saskia was alone in Lionel's huge office in his mansion, putting together the texts she had already written. Sullenly, she thought about the meeting that would take place tonight in London. Somehow she had a weird feeling about this Puznowski, but it was probably still just her ridiculous jealousy that made her think that.

Lionel, in the meantime, had Mihai take him to London. "To the jeweler we always go to," he gave the curt instruction to Mihai.

Mihai was already looking forward to it, because he hoped that his boss would buy Saskia something nice. But with these thoughts, unfortunately, he was only partly right.

As soon as the Rolls-Royce stopped, Lionel strutted into the noble jeweler, where he was welcomed like a king. Of course, he negotiated only with the manager personally: "I'm looking for a golden lion's head, decorated with real jewels and, of course, the matching necklace. The value must be at least £200,000 pounds sterling!"

Immediately, the owner hurried off and, together with his employee, gathered the most precious pieces and laid a small but fine compilation in front of Mister Shahbandar. He looked critically at the various pieces of jewelry and even examined them with a magnifying glass.

"May I ask for whom the fine piece of jewelry should be?" the jeweler tried to make polite conversation.

"You may not!" rumbled Lionel, refocusing on his purpose.

"This lion's head here, with this necklace!" commanded Lionel, pointing to two gold items.

Immediately, the salesman took the two pieces with his cloth gloves and polished everything still so that there were no fingerprints left on it.

Lionel paid and went back outside to his limousine with the small carrier bag.

Relieved, he got back in. As soon as they started moving, he once again took out the velvet box and opened it. He looked long at the beautiful necklace, which was worth a small fortune. For him it was more like a small pocket money, but for Saskia it would be worth infinitely more. He would give her the necklace with the pendant today.

When they had almost arrived at his estate, he packed the piece of jewelry away and put it back into the small bag. Would she be happy about this precious object? Probably so, after all all women liked beautiful jewelry. Especially if it was real and expensive.

Lionel had finished his private things and went back to his office to help Saskia. When he entered, she was sitting at his desk engrossed in the texts. She was so focused that she hadn't even noticed her boss. His gaze slid over her face, and a small smile automatically stole onto his lips.

Carefully, he walked closer and stroked a few disturbing strands out of her field of vision with his fingers. Immediately she looked up in surprise and greeted him with her dazzling smile.

"You're back already?" she asked curiously, glancing at her watch.

"I was able to get everything done faster than I thought. What do you say to a cup of tea, with cookies?" he tried to distract her so she wouldn't keep asking.

"Sounds excellent," she gleefully replied.

Lionel immediately contacted his butler, who would take care of the rest. Until the small snack would have arrived, they could discuss a few more trifles.

A short time later there was a knock at the door and the servant, followed by Gem, entered with a tray full of delicacies. Saskia had to laugh when she saw the cat sniffing curiously, hoping to get something.

Lio immediately had to be annoyed with his cat, even if it wasn't meant seriously. "Once again, do you have no manners at all? What do you think would have happened if the employee had tripped over you! What a mess!" he chided Gem, but she only showed him her butt, which made Saskia laugh out loud.

Sia helped herself to the goodies while Lionel poured two cups of steaming Earl Gray tea from the pot.

They both made themselves comfortable at a smaller table, in front of a large window, and enjoyed the little break. Again and again, Saskia's gaze was lost in the distance of the huge park that lay before them.