“Sir? I think you might have accidentally left a smudge on your neck?”
I glanced at my reflection in the car window in confusion and soon realized what Joseph meant. I fixed the collar of my shirt a bit and straightened out my suit before replying, “It’s from Jane. She’s been feeling a bit… possessive recently…”
He arched an eyebrow in the rearview mirror. “But you’re only meeting with the heads or successors of each family. There won’t be any other ladies there.”
I sighed as I leaned back into my seat. “I know… She said it’s for the waitresses…”
He hummed in amusement as he pulled into the valet section in front of the restaurant. “The madam is quite an interesting lady.”
I chuckled lightly in agreement, “It’s all a part of her charm and I’m the one lucky enough to experience it.”
He chuckled softly as he turned off the engine. Changing the topic, he informed me, “The guards are already stationed around the building. All of the attendees should be waiting on the upper floor in a private room. I will be waiting outside until you’re done.”
I nodded in understanding as one of the valets opened the car door for me.
I stepped out of the car, completely unfazed by the hushed whispered surrounding me as I walked into the restaurant. It didn’t take long for the usher to notice me in the crowd of waiting patrons in the front lobby. He immediately guided me upstairs to one of the privates rooms, informing that all the other guests had already been seated inside.
I thanked him politely before stepping into the room.
It only took my presence for all of the other guests to bolt out of they seats to come greet me the moment I entered. I didn’t pay much mind to obligatory pleasantries, but at least the newly appointed heirs knew better than to get on my nerves before anything had even happened yet.
However, I did take note of one in particular, the one that I set up this dinner in particular to meet, Ivan Albedo. Matching Joseph’s report, he had dull brown hair with similarly colored eyes. Not too tall nor too lean. Meek, but still knowledgeable enough to come across as competent.
He had such little presence that I never really noticed him before, even when I met with all the newly appointed heirs in the last meeting. He was actually from one of the few families where I did not demand any changes in the appointment of their successor.
Once we settled back down into our seats, I was on the opposite end of the table from Ivan, leaving me completely barred from speaking with him during the entire dinner.
Instead, the other successors made light chit-chat with me, carefully prodding me with questions out of curiosity of why I called them out all of a sudden.
I simply lied and said that I was just wanted to catch up on the state of all the families before I took some time off. I could tell that a few wanted to ask me about why I was taking time off, but they seemed to know better than open their mouths.
The new heir for the Borham family, Maverick Borham, knew this better than anyone in particular, especially after seeing the state of his old brother from our last meeting. However, he had a bit of a problem with holding his head up high even though his family’s company was already thriving much more under his leadership than his brother’s after just a few weeks of switching over. His timid nature was probably a result of his brother’s overbearing nature.
On the other hand, the Wilson family had a pair of twins who worked well together as co-heads. Although I wouldn’t say they were doing a superb job, they did well enough and didn’t create any unnecessary drama. However, it did make me a bit curious if the rumor about their relationship with Margarett Albedo was true. They weren’t very young, just a few years younger than me, but Margarett was well into her mid-forties.
The Bardot family was doing just as well despite their previous dip after a mishap with a rumor that caused their stock to drop suddenly on a single day.
The rest of the attendees continued to prattle off about how well their companies were doing, but I also knew that they wouldn’t personally tell me if there were any major issues going on anyway, especially not after I made it clear to them that I didn’t have any particular use for keeping the families on my board.
After a tedious two hours of polite chit chat, the dinner finally started to come to an end as dessert wine was poured out for each of us by the waiter.
Half of the men were already slightly intoxicated from the wine previously paired with the meal, but I was still doing fine as someone who tended to be a bit of heavier weight. After what Benedict did to me on my 21st birthday, I definitely didn’t plan to ever get that drunk again.
The twins from the Wilson family stood up, suddenly raising their glasses, and announced, “Thank you for the wonderful dinner, Mr. Cordova, but we would like to take to this time to congratulate you on your engagement.”
One of the twins broke up from his brother and walked over to me, waving over a butler with colorful box in his hand. He continued, “We probably won’t be invited to the wedding, knowing how you have always been quite private with your life, but we would still like to give a gift to you and your fiancee.”
I politely accepted the gift, still a little surprised by sudden unexpectedness of it all. “Thank you, but you didn’t need to do this.”
His brother shook his head, “To be honest, we were a bit scared when you suddenly called all of us out for a dinner meeting, especially after what happened during the gala. But then we thought about the changes that you made to families and we realized how much better it has been without that pretty boy and his cronies! Ah, no offense, Maverick, but your brother was a pain.”
Maverick shook his head, “It’s a quite alright. He’s always been quite annoying since we were little. If anything, I am very thankful that Mr. Cordova gave us a chance to lead our families’s companies before our older brothers ran them into the ground.”
I looked up in surprise, not expecting so many of them to nod in agreement.
They all raised their glasses and toasted to me.
Once everyone drowned their drinks, they came up to me one at a time, shaking my hand and saying their goodbyes before leaving. Even a few other ones besides the Wilson boys also gave me small boxes as a gift for my engagement.
When it came to Ivan’s turn, he walked up to me and gave me a polite hand shake. He greeted, “Thank you for inviting me tonight. I had a wonderful time.”
A generic answer.
I replied with an amicable smile. “I’m glad you enjoyed yourself. I know I had never really gotten a chance to speak to your family before, but I’m sure we’ll grow closer with time.”
He naturally lowered his eyes. “It’s quite alright, sir. I know that we aren’t nearly as powerful as the other families, but I’m glad that we can still be counted as one of the main families.”
Submissive and a lack of confidence.
I shrugged as I swirled my drink. “I don’t think you give yourself enough credit. You’ve already grown your family’s company two-fold within the last few years.”
He nodded meekly and made a turn to leave.
But before he could excuse himself, I added, “Also, please tell your mother I said hello. I heard that she got a chance to meet my wife and son at the tailor’s shop last week. I haven’t gotten to formally introduce them to the board yet, but I’m glad that she’s already treating them with the respect they deserve.”
His body immediately stiffened at the mention of his mother, but he did well to try to cover it up with a fake smile. “I-I will be sure to tell her… Please have a good rest of your evening sir.”
He quickly ducked out of the door without another word. Maybe it was because he was still a few years younger than me, but he wasn’t able to hide his fear well enough.
That family clearly knew something.
I finished up the last few goodbyes and waved Joseph over once everyone was gone.
Joseph walked over to me and lowered his ear down to my height, “What would you like me to do, sir?”
“See if you can follow him and plant a bug on him. If you can’t do it without getting caught, we can think of something else tomorrow.”
He nodded before disappearing out the back door.
I walked over to the window and watched as Joseph came out of the side door, catching up to the lanky man. He held out some fabric toward Ivan, probably some handkerchief that he had lifted off of the man earlier with the expectation of having to do something like this beforehand.
I smirked when I saw the bug slip into the boy’s side pocket in the middle of the nonsensical chatter. Joseph really was quite good at his job.
I downed my drink and waved for the usher to come over. Once I settled the payment, I left the restaurant with my second-in-command guard driving at the helm.
I loosened my tie and ruffled my gelled-up hair the moment I settled down into my car. It felt so stuffy spending the last three hours with a fake smile plastered across my face.
It was late, half an hour passed eleven o’clock already.
I knew that I told Jane that she didn’t have to stay up for me tonight, but I still kind of hoped that she would still be up by the time I got home. I only got to spend a few minutes in bed with her this morning before I had to leave for the office and had been gone all day.
I missed her.
I nodded to my guard when I got out of the car. When I turned around, I found Watson waiting for me in front of the main door.
He lowered his head to me and greeted, “Good evening, sir. How was your meeting?”
“Fine,” I replied bluntly as I walked passed him. “How was Jane?”
He hesitated momentarily.
I glanced behind me with a cocked eyebrow, waiting for a reply.
He pointed up at the glowing window on the top floor and nervously explained, “I told the madam that you would be out late tonight, but she insisted on waiting for you…”
I chuckled softly, “Don’t worry about it, Watson. I know that she can be a bit stubborn at times.”
I waved goodnight to him as I walked into the house. Shrugging off my coat, I carefully made my way to the fourth floor, stopping by Liam’s bedroom momentarily to check on him before ducking into my shared bedroom with Jane.
A dim light hung hazily in the room, surrounding my little angel, who was sitting in the middle of the bed with a book thrown haphazardly to the side. She perked up almost instantly at the sound of my entrance, nearly giving me a heart attack when she clumsily bounded off the tall bed and ran up to me.
She smiled up at me when I worriedly steadied her by her shoulder and greeted, “Welcome home, Achi.”
Adoration bloomed in my chest at the heartwarming sight. I had always hated coming back to a cold empty apartment void of any human traces back from before I met Jane, so I greatly cherished the little things like this.
I leaned down and wrapped my arms around her lower back, tenderly placing a kiss on her lips. “I’m home, Jane.”
Her smile grew even brighter with my action.
I gently swayed her from side to side, feeling a much better mood after only spending a few minutes with her, and asked curiously, “Darling, as much I love seeing you, why are you still up? It’s nearly midnight, alright.”
Her dainty finger rested against her lips for a moment as she gave my question much more thought than I expected. Not a moment later, she cheerily exclaimed, “Because I wanted to greet you when you got back!”
I chuckled softly at her adorable demeanor. She resembled a child floating on a cloud of cotton candy right now, even though she was originally very unhappy about my departure this morning.
Her mood had been a bit of a rollercoaster this last week, but I had no problem keeping my patience when it came to her. After all, it was probably my fault that she was so stressed at the moment for asking to get married so soon on top of everything else going on with Liam.
I easily swept my love’s little feet off the cold floor in a single swoop, eliciting a delighted soft squeal from her as I walked over to our bed. I carefully set her down in the center of the mess of blankets.
Patting her head lovingly and watching her nuzzle up against the inside of my hand like a little puppy, I asked, “Love, you seem a bit more hyper than usual. By any chance, did you accidentally eat anything weird?”
She hummed softly for a minute in thought before replying, “I don’t think so… But I did eat an entire box of chocolate while reading earlier.”
My eyes glanced to the side, not noticing the pile of empty chocolate boxes until now.
Noting my slightly mortified expression, Jane huffed adorably, “It’s not my fault. You bought me too many chocolates during Valentine’s Day, and I lost track while waiting for you.”
I laughed silently, trying to hide how much I adored her supposedly “angry” expression.
I had originally bought that many chocolates because I figured that she had probably never received such a gift before, especially considering that she had never been gifted flowers before I came along. So, I visited a few of the best chocolatiers in town to personally pick out the sweet morsels according to her taste: dark chocolates either with hazelnut or caramel fillings. Let’s just say Nutella was naturally also one of her past time favorites.
She was quite surprised when I came home two weeks ago with an armful of chocolate boxes. She reprimanded me at first but wasn’t able to keep it up for long before excitedly opening up the boxes with Liam. They originally wanted to savor the gift and not devour it all in one go, but I guess she couldn’t help her cravings this time.
I reached up and tenderly brushed my thumb across the corner of her mouth, wiping off a tiny smudge of leftover chocolate and eliciting a cute little blush from my pretty girl.
I licked the chocolate off my thumb as I straightened back up. I reminded her, “Remember to brush your teeth before going to bed, okay? I don’t want you to get a toothache.”
She nodded obediently. She sat quietly on the bed, watching me pull my tie off rather intently. When I started unbuttoning my waistcoat. She asked curiously, “Are you going to take a shower now?”
I nodded as I shrugged the waistcoat off and pulled my button up shirt out of my pants. I raised an eyebrow when she crawled across the bed and started helping me unbutton my shirt. “Darling, I can do it by myself. Aren’t you feeling tired?”
She shook her head. “I want to help. Your always doing things for us… whether it be simply doting on us or protecting us from the world… I just want to help you too.”
I diverted my eyes slightly, feeling a bit bashfully even though it wasn’t any particularly intimate exchange.
She reached to push the shirt off my shoulders. Gathering the flimsy fabric into her arms before it could fall to the ground, she asked, “What do you think about… about letting me help you take a bath today?”
Twiddling the edge of my shirt, she eventually looked up at me with her mesmerizing, twinkling eyes.
A single look was really all it took to make my knees feel weak. The amount of love that she looked up at me with…
It was like nothing I had ever seen before, a completely different dimension than the love that I was used to from my blood family.
“That sounds lovely, Jane…” I nuzzled softly against her cheek, leaving a grateful whisper of a kiss on the corner of her eye.
Her smile grew brighter with my reply. Pulling herself out of my arms, she darted into our bathroom and the sound of running water immediately came pouring out.
I shook my head softly, amused by her oddly amusing behaviors. Pulling my belt off, I padded into the bathroom behind her.
She was rummaging through the cabinets and pouring all kind of odd salts and soaps into the bath, instantly filling the room with the familiar scent of lavender.
As hot water continued to fish out of the faucet, Jane turned her attention back to me and came running over, pulling me along with her until I was right in front of the tub.
I arched an eyebrow, amused her pushy behavior, but still obediently followed her directions. As per her gestures, I pulled my pants and underwear off in one go and stepped into the warm bath, easing myself down until I was fully situated and spilling some water along the way. Even though I was specifically replaced the tubs to be bigger for us, the water still only barely reached the lower edge of my pecs even when the tub was filled to the brim.
Noting the pout of Jane’s lips, I offered, “Love. You don’t have to push yourself if you don’t want to get wet. I know you already-”
She stubbornly shook her head. “It’s not the water that I’m bothered about…”
She slipped of her fluffy slippers and walked up behind me. Taking the soaked hand towel from me, she ran the towel softly over my exposed shoulders, letting the soothing hot water fall down over my upper body.
I sighed softly in content as her fingers skimmed across the back of my neck before dragging the rag down my back, melting all the leftover tension in my muscles and joints.
Draping the warm wet towel over my broad shoulders, she reached over and pumped a bit of shampoo into her little palm. I looked back at her in amusement as I watched her rubbed her hands together to make bubbles with such focused intent.
Once she was satisfied, she turned back toward me with an adorable little smile. She gently laced her fingers toward the wet locks of my hairs.
I hummed in overwhelming sense of content as her fingertips raked lightly across my scalp, massaging all the right spots. It felt so comfortable that I felt like I could stay like this forever.
Even though we weren’t doing anything sexual, it still felt like we were sharing a very intimate moment.
I was used to people seeing me at face value: a man who was both towering in status and physical stature. There was no need for them to treat me gently when they saw me as stronger being than them in every way.
But Jane treated me such gentleness even though there was no way she would ever be able to harm me with such a fragile frame. Every last part of her touch told me how much she loved me.
The way her fingers raked down my scalp. How her fingertips tenderly skimmed over the nape of my neck, carefully easing all the knots out. How she ran a warm towel up and down my broad back, cleaning me with such care despite getting sleeves of her night gown wet.
My mind had floated so high into the clouds that the words just escaped my mouth.
“I love you, Jane.”
Her hands halted momentarily, making me crack my eyes open in concern. But my worries was quickly washed away when I found her looking down at me with such a soft, tender smile.
She leaned down and pressed a loving kiss against my forehead, replying a gentle whisper, “I can’t wait to marry you, Achi.”
The way she said those words… Those words held much more meaning than any ‘I love you.’
Warmth bloomed in my chest as I looked up at her.
Gently pulling her down for another kiss, I whispered in reply, “Just a few more days and I can finally be able to officially call you my wife.”
My one and only queen.