Life Begins at Midnight

Truth

He carried her to his own bedroom, and laid her on his bed. All she could think of was how beautiful it was. Three sides were walled with glass, and if she could have stood up, she would have seen all of The Zephyr complex through them.  His room had a wooden floor which was bare, and it was frugally furnished. There was just the one double-bed, and a clock on the only solid wall to the room. It had two doors, one through which they had come in, and Anna didn't know where the other led. There was a small table by the bedside, and a single hard chair. Anna lay on the snowy-white sheets, and Richard gently covered her with a navy-blue blanket. He had miraculously managed to get rid of his jacket, which now hung on the back of the sole chair in the room. He eased the top two buttons of his shirt, and loosened his tie. Sitting down on one side of the bed, slowly, he reached out to Anna and stroked her hair.

She quickly fell asleep, and he stared at her beautiful form. There were spare bedrooms on the guest floor below, which had always been empty, as Richard never allowed anyone into his home. Not for dinner, and definitely not to stay. But he hadn't thought of putting up Anna in any of those. He had brought her to his own bedroom, the sanctum sanctorum of his personal space, where only his housekeeper was allowed once a day for maintaining it. No one else had ever been allowed inside, let alone carried. He observed her breaths, the delicate curve of her collar-bones, and the curvaceous form embraced by the beautiful creation his team of designers had conceived.

She woke after an hour, her dark eyes looking wild and beautiful at the same time. She made an effort to sit up, and found that he was still stroking her hair. His powerful arms helped her up, and she rested her back against the headboard. She tried to say something – "I'm so –" but she was stopped by his hand on her lips. "Ssh. I'm the one who should apologise, Anna." He said seriously.

She made another effort to talk, "Sir, I'm sorry we couldn't complete the shoot." She felt her lips tingle where he placed his fingers to silence her. His touch was so incredibly gentle, as was his quiet, low-pitched voice, which seemed to caress both the syllables of her nickname. She fell silent. "It is time you learnt to call me Rick." He whispered.

"Not Ricky?" she asked in amazement.

"No. Not Ricky." He shook his head from side to side once, and added "Ricky is for everyone else. For you, it's Rick."

Anna smiled. It felt like it was their secret. Suddenly, she blushed a vivid red. He asked with a slight frown "Does that bother you?"

She nodded a 'no'. "It's just that... You're my boss." She confessed, blushing darker. He hadn't thought that would be possible. But yet again, she proved him wrong.

"No more." He said.

She looked into his eyes and repeated "No more?"

"No more." He confirmed.

She looked puzzled. He smiled. "I'm 20 myself, you know." He said.

She smiled. She had no doubt that he felt for her what she felt for him. She was completely in love with this man, this gorgeous man, who was so completely in love with her. He was so different from the irate boss who had tried to push her till she broke. She hadn't broken. She had stood her ground and faced everything he thrust at her, with a smile. And finally, he had melted, understanding his limitations. There were some things in the world which his money or his power couldn't buy. There were some things he couldn't force. These were the things most worthy of owning, because he had to earn them. Sometimes you have to surrender your pride to win it back, and you have to give yourself up if you want to have someone.

"Anna" he whispered in her ears, slowly daring to put his arm around her. He was as new to this feeling as she was. She was as innocent as a new morning, never having fallen in love before. He had known enough of lust before, which he had mislabelled as love. Yet again, this girl had changed everything he had believed in before. Now he knew that this was what it meant to be in Love.