I got the overall picture without needing any more explanations. It was amazing that King and his company was doing all of this to help the children in need.
“Sorry to talk about something so depressing right at the end of our honeymoon…” I apologized softly.
Reiner didn’t seem to mind at all. For him, this topic was probably a sad one, but it was a topic that he had already gotten used to.
“It’s ok…” he replied before smiling charmingly at me.
My heart skipped a beat at how kind he looked. Now if only he would agree to help me with this one request…
“R…about the orphanage…” I began saying.
“What about it?” Reiner urged for me to go on.
“Umm…what are you going to report to King about the orphanage and you know…their request for more funding?” I asked in a small voice.
“I’ll summarize for him what I saw as it is, and he can make his decision regarding that. It’s his money and his orphanage,” Reiner replied without emotions.
“Do you think that King would approve for more budget?” I asked, hopefully.
“Maybe…but it’s up to him. The orphanage isn’t in a bad shape and won’t suffer greatly even without more funding,” Reiner replied passively.
“But things could be better for the children with more funding, right?” I pleaded my case passionately.
“Maybe…” Reiner replied non-committedly.
“Umm…would it be possible for you to help…convince King?” I dared to ask.
Reiner turned to look straight at me with a surprised look on his face. His blue eyes stared deeply into mine and I stared back. I just wanted the children to get more help.
“Please…I’m not asking you to make a false report or anything…” I pleaded once again.
Reiner closed his eyes and heaved a sigh. He seemed to think over my words for a moment before he spoke again.
“I know that you want to help the children. I do too and so does King. I’ll put in a few good words about how happy the children are and how kind the staff are because that is the truth. If you’re unhappy with that, you can always talk to King to convince him yourself. We all live in the same house, and you do know where to find him…” Reiner pointed out.
“Thank you! Thank you so much, R…” I thanked him happily.
Hopefully, things would work out and I wouldn’t need to talk to King about it.
…
**Two weeks later**
“Natalia…Natalia…”
I heard Reiner’s voice calling my name, but my eyelids were too heavy for me to lift them open. My mind also felt hazy and disorientated.
“Natalia…” Reiner called my name again and this time his hand started shaking my shoulder softly to wake me up.
“R…” I murmured his name sleepily when I managed to squint my eyes opened.
“I’m done for today. Let’s go home…sorry for keeping you waiting for so long…” Reiner apologized with a sad smile.
I lifted my head off the table and looked around. That’s right, we were still at the office. What time is it now?
My eyes wandered to the clock on the wall. 3AM.
“It’s totally fine. Let’s go home,” I replied begore smiling bravely at him.
This wasn’t the first and probably won’t be the last time that Reiner had to work this late at the office. The project was probably at its busiest part now with us implementing pilots that required short feedback loops to make necessarily adjustments as we went along. The faster those adjustments were made, the better the result should be. The result in this case could decide between the life or death of an agent or an entire team so it wasn’t surprising that Reiner was more than willing to lose sleep over this.
I hated the fact that he had to work so hard and the fact that he looked tired almost all the time. It also meant that we had very little time together in private but despite all that I came to respect him and his dedication to his work a lot more than ever before. Seeing him work so hard, encouraged me to work harder too. Most importantly, just like Lucien had told me, I needed to find what it is that I wanted to do in life. Helping out with the company was definitely what I wanted to do but the real question was how best I could help the company.
What can someone like me do that would be most helpful to the company as well as satisfying for me as an individual?
I let Reiner hold my hand in his much larger one as he led me from his office to where he had parked his car. All along the way, I remained silent as my mind worked hard to churn out some answers to the various burning questions at the back of my mind.
The following morning, I felt like I had slept much longer than normal. I was half-awake but I didn’t get out of bed as I waited for my alarm to go off. Reiner’s warmth along the length of my body told me that he was still holding me snuggly against his body. I breathed his scent in deeply as I enjoyed the peaceful time alone with him in bed. These times are so precious to me, especially since he had gotten so busy as of late.
At first, I thought that Reiner was still sleeping; however, the movement of his hands caressing softly against the small of my back before he began stroking the curves of my waist and my hips told me that he was very much awake. I moaned softly when his hands began stroking my ass before squeezing its cheek teasingly. He placed soft kisses along the side of my neck, and I moaned louder in response. His warmth breath against my sensitive skin felt blissful and I arched my neck to the side to expose more of my sensitive skin to his lips invitingly.
–To be continued…