The Billionaire’s Stripper

CHAPTER 19

Fear and Anxiety could not even cut it.

I sat there, staring at the face of that Richard guy as he made this announcement, and even if I had heard him very clearly, for some reason I felt paralysed on my seat and could not particularly find it in me to move.

It was suddenly the hardest thing to do and the brain cells of mine involved with such actions seemed to have sopped functioning or died.

Why? I could not help but ask within me. Why would the Lyon McAllister, the owner of the entire McAllister Enterprises and the company's CEO be longing to see me?

It made no sense.

Was I in trouble?

Was that why he wanted to see me? Because I was in trouble? But what kind of trouble? What is it that I could have been busted fir? The only thing that I knew was capable enough to put me in trouble was the lie of omission on my resume. But that was a secret and Mr Sanchez had sworn to keep it within him.

Or, is it a crime here to go on a date with the company's COO because that would have been the second explanation. I hadn't done anything. So, why summon me?

"Miss Rachel?" Richard called me again, and after a second or two of moving uncomfortably on my seat, my legs made the first action to push my entire body into doing the feat that seemed like an impossibility — standing up.

It was like a spotlight was on me.

A spotlight that was not of good, but of evil.

As I walked towards Richard, all eyes averted my way staring at me and conspiringly whispering amongst each other, and whether they meant to be subtle or not, I picked it up quickly that having Lyon McAllister summon you could never be something good.

That terrified me even more.

The whole room was terrified for me as a matter of fact.

I could sense the tension, not just within me but also, all around me. Everyone seemed to be so uncomfortable too, and just like me, they felt the anxiety. They felt uncomfortable. They felt and knew that something was definitely, most definitely wrong, and that made me even more unsettled.

"Follow me," Richard said promptly as soon as I got to him and I walked behind the man whom I supposed was like the Company's Butler.

Now, I was normally not one to be unnecessarily scared of things.

Unless I had a reason to.

Which in this case, yes, I did have a reason to feel so anxious.

The first time that I had heard about Mr Sanchez, for example, I did not care about him one bit. No matter how Richard tried to make it seem like he was such a big deal, it meant nothing to me. After all, I had nothing to be afraid of, right? If anything I had a bigger authority, Michael McAllister on my side.

But, geez, there was no bigger authority than Lyon McAllister himself.

And if indeed, there was something wrong, then I was nothing less than doomed.

"Am I in trouble?" I asked Richard in the mid o our quiet, cutthroat walk to a destination that I knew no idea of.

He didn't answer for about three seconds and I believed he did not hear me.

But then, he answered the fourth second.

"There is no way I can have the answer to that, Miss Kelly."

It sounded like an answer that he had thought of carefully, before saying to me.

That mad me realise that indeed, there was a possibility that I was doomed and he was trying to sugarcoat it for me so I could feel better.

Well, I gave it to him for being a nice guy. Contrary to the prim and proper air he had around him that could have been misinterpreted for being rude, he was actually a very nice person.

At least, so far that I had noticed.

A nice man with a nice smile.

However, jeez, that was not the pending issue.

But, come on, kill a girl for trying to lighten up her mood?

"Oh, f**k," I groaned to myself as we made to take the elevator and Richard turned to look at me, a bit of alarm on his face glaring at me.

"Miss Kelly," He called me.

"Yes?" I answered.

"We don't use such language in Ciel." He said to me.

"What language?" I asked in confusion.

"The word you just said. It's inappropriate," He specified.

"What? You mean f**k?" I asked him and he looked like he was fighting a heart attack.

"Jesus." I heard him mutter, but that about ended our conversation because the elevator had clinged and reached a new destination, it's doors opening wide for me and Richard to step out.

"Please do not barge into the Head Room," Richard said to me as we walked down a new hallway, "I am begging you, Miss Kelly."

I would have laughed at the subtle desperation in his voice, but the anxiety would not let me.

We were on a new narrow hallway that looked much different from the rest of the hallways I had walked through in Ciel.

This one had a more regal feel to it. Like somehow, it was of Moe importance. The gold on the white walls was more prominent, glared more than the others downstairs. And the floor was, unlike the others that were covered in tiles, covered in dark rugs. Rugs so think that we could not hear our own footsteps.

It was a graveyard in here too.

Ciel was naturally a quiet company, but this place? It beat my expectations, for real. It was so quiet that if we had tried hard enough, we could hear a pin drop on the rugs. Sounded impossible, yeah? But it felt like there was a bit of possibility in that.

And I understood that, die to the last time with Mr Sanchez, Richard was scared that I would misbehave again, but in all honesty, that was far from my mind.

I didn't even feel the need to be anything other than polite.

So, he did not even need to warn me to keep behavior. I knew that on my own.

We got to a stop on a grand door that looked like that opening from a red carpet, and on seeing it, my anxiety doubled up in it's intensity. The entire magnanimousity of the whole entire thing mademe realise that this was even a much bigger deal that I had even feared it to be.

And I had feared it a lot!

"After me," Richard hinted again, a stronger tone in his warning and I swallowed, nodded, stayed put behind him as he proceeded to knock against the door of the room.

I waited in anxiety.

After a few more second, Richard opened the doors in a grand gesture and with the way he stepped aside for me, it came to my understanding that I was the one who was allowed to walk into the room.

The Head Room.

Gulping, I looked into it and for a moment, I felt a flash before my eyes in black and white.

My legs walked into the room and as I got myself into the interiors of the room, every part of it and everyone in it, registered into my memory and decoded perfectly. The room was large and spaced like a hall, and like the colour theme that the entire building had, it glared white and bits of gold. There, in the middle was a table, wide and round, and sitting around the large round table were people.

The McAllister Men.

I was standing before them all before I even realized it, and I hoped it was not too obvious that my heart was beating outside of my chest.

Because it was.

The first person that I noticed was Lyon McAllister, himself, but the first person that had come eye to eye with me in contact was Michael McAllister.

I couldn't help but notice….

There was a new face.

I looked towards the muscular guy on the table, who looked not too far from my age, segregating himself from Lyon McAllister and Michael, with notable distance.

That guy looked like he would have been anywhere, but here.

With sunshades on, a thick leather jacket, and a visible line of that tattoo that I could see from his wrists, anyone could have told that this guy was rough.

He could have been a gangster for all I knew.

A handsome gangster.

I could not see his face in clearness, due to the sun glasses he had on, but through the neatly defined features of his face,I could tell that he was a fine man. And I mean, with a body like that, muscles that were ripped and strong, even looking from the dark shirt and leather jacket he was on, anyone could have told that his abs didn't pack anything less than a 8.

And boy, he really looked like he was not having it. Unlike Lyon and Michael who had a strong presense with their elegance and eloquence, this other guy preferred to slouch and lean lazily on the chair he was on, staring ahead anywhere but at me or the other men.

Legit, he looked he would have wiped everyone out in this room if he had a g*n in his hands.

I hoped he didn't.

"Welcome, Rachel Kelly,"

It was Lyon McAllister who had spoken and his voice spoke volumes, carried a weight in them that nearly threw me off my feet.

All the way, I was praising his son for being assertive enough in his speech to move you, yet gentle, and here was his father, Lyon, a force to not be reckoned with. A man with a voice that could kill.

Needless to say, for a man his age, he seemed to know how to present himself the best way that he could. With fine grey that dotted the black of his beard, pale skin that had a little wrinkles, enough to hint that he was an old man indeed, and a broad shoulders just like his son, Michael, the man was killing it visually too.

"Yes sir," I answered him.

I couldn't help it, but my eyes diverted to Michael who looked as handsome as ever and with the subtle smile I hinted in his eyes, I knew that things may not have been so bad after all. Right?

"Meet Alexander McAllister," Lyon spoke, gesturing towards the wayward gangster muscle guy, and it took me a lot to stand on my feet, because that revelation was a thorough knock out.

So, he was Alexander McAllister.

The other son of Lyon McAllister.

The same one that was in the lips of everyone at work today.

The same one that was rumoured to start work with us soon?

He was the one in here, looking all rugged and dangerous? Woah.

"Alexander?" Lyon McAllister called out to the guy who was not even paying us any mind, and he had turned to his father, and even through the sunshades, I saw the death stare in his eyes.

"What." He spoke coldly to his father.

Lyon McAllister ignored the rudeness in his tone and went ahead to continue his formal meet and greet session.

"Meet Miss Rachel Kelly," He said to him.

An uninterested Alexander McAllister whipped his head my ay and after about two seconds of staring blankly at me through his shades, he….

Took it off.

And Jesus, his eyes.

Grey orbs stared at me and I was rocked.

Only then was I able to see the resemblance between he and Michael, and that wrecked me beautifully.

This guy, Alexander McAllister was even more beautiful than I thought he was.

"Hey," I greeted shyly, even if I knew not what this was about.

Alexander barely looked at me. He only blinked and turned away, eyes casting ahead, completely undisturbed by my presence.

Ouch.

He didn't even feel the need to return my greeting or smile? Clearly, I wasn't anything much in his eyes. Well, that stung.

"My father suggests that Alexander starts working formerly in Ciel," Michael spoke.

So, it is true.

"So, we needed someone responsible and prompt enough. Someone who could help him lead the way for Alexander," Michael continued, and as he spoke, I could see the smile in his eyes hinted at me, and I gave it back.

Subtly, of course. We could not have his father, Lyon McAllister, seeing us do some cringe Love Play right in his presence. That would be incredibly awkward.

"And we chose you, Miss Kelly," Lyon continued from where his son stopped, "We chose you to guide Alexander McAllister during his work stay in Ciel."