The Billionaire’s Stripper

CHAPTER 16

The night had me feeling like I was living in some fairytale works and I was loving every second of it. Words could not even go far enough to describe it for me.

I simply could not use words to describe it. Any part of it. All through the night, all I had been feeling was sweet tingling sensations and the most euphoric spurs. It was like I was in a dream, wrapped around my own world of beauty and love and never ever wanting to let it go.

Michael McAllister seemed to know the way around here because he took me to a path walk just behind the restaurant, a place decorated beautifully with rose petals and other varieties of flowers that scattered all around us, creating the perfect scenery of a Disney love story.

I felt like I was 16 again. I felt like a teenager again and that was the most beautiful feeling for me. I had missed that feeling. More than I even knew I did.

"So, Mr McAllister," I called him and with one turn, his face was staring at mine.

I fought the urge to swoon and fawn even though it came at me strong and without mercy. Honestly, I had barely known him for three days, and yet, he made me feel like a princess. With dozens of butterflies swarming all around me. What was I even saying? I didn't understand myself and all these talk anymore.

"I want to understand why you take the place of your father when he has not left his position as the CEO to you yet," I brought it up.

I remembered that and I was meaning to ask. I had come into this company thinking that Michael McAllister was the CEO all along and even in some of the blogs I had read about the McAllister enterprise, he was the one that was usually painted as the CEO of the company and not his father. It made me question. It made me wonder.

"Well, my father is trying to prepare me for the cross," He said and I laughed, "Think of it as a form of delegated authority. Apparently, Lyon McAllister, the owner of all the McAllister Enterprises, including Ciel, wants to be completely certain that I am competent enough to take his place."

"But, you are," I said to him.

"You barely know me," He chuckled to himself.

"True," I agreed, "But I do know that a man like you who likes to be as thorough is sure to get any job done. Be it running a whole company."

"You entice me with your words, Miss Kelly," He smiled at me as he said that.

"Doesn't everything I do have that effect?" I teased, laughed softly and flirtatiously to show that I was playing with him.

He smiled. He liked that.

"But, you barely even know me though," I said to him as a matter of fact.

Honestly.

As sweet as this all seemed, the man barely knew me. In reality, he knew nothing about me. All he knew was the image I was trying to project. For him. For Ciel. To stay in Ciel. To prove I was worthy enough.

"I know enough to make me certain," He answered.

"Certain of?" I had to ask.

"The fact that I am smitten, Miss Kelly," He said to me. He reminded me.

"Is that a substitute way of saying you're in love?" I asked him with a brow up. A tease in my voice and body language.

"Would that creep you out if I say so?" He asked me, feigning and imitating my body language.

"Would you dare to and see?" I said to him with a voice reeking of assertiveness mixed in with seduction.

Michael stopped and with one swift motion, he was standing in front of me, and the hardest thing for me to do at that point was get over the fact that he was so handsome. The man was a gem to my eyes. Looking at him pleased me beyond words could explain.

He looked good tonight when he picked me up at Monica's house. He looked better when we sat down to have our dinner. And boy, he looked best as we stood here in what looked like a love garden, prepared for people like us who wanted to take a little walk after a sweet romantic dinner date. Somewhere special. Perfect, even. It was like this place was made for us.

With his hair looking ever more ginger under the assorted lights that illuminated around us, and his skin, white as snow, glowing beneath it, he looked like the most beautiful thing in the world.

He smiled at me and he looked even more beautiful. That smile on his face, that pure beautiful smile that blessed his face made it clear to me that the man was absolutely finished.

Finished in love.

So fast.

Was it really that fast?

"Dammit, Rachel..." He said to me.

He actually asked me. His voice was in awe. Like he was in awe of me. Of my person. Of my confidence. Of my aura. Of how easily I did it. How easily I made him completely wasted on me. And without stress. Without even having to lift two fingers. With barely a snap of my fingers.

He must have been wondering how I did it so easily. How he knew just so little about me, or what I had been trying to project at least, yet cannot stop himself from practically drooling over me.

What man wouldn't be in awe of a woman like that? Really. Which man would not have been awed by a woman who was able to make him fall with so much ease?

"Who are you?" He asked me.

That question.

If I was being honest, I didn't even know where to start to answer it.

Who am I? Nothing more other than a regular girl from a regular city who lives a slightly below regular life. I was just a woman who was lucky enough to get away with a lie of omission and find myself under the graces that was Ciel. I was a woman who was tactical on how to sell herself, how to turn the head of the COO of the company, Michael McAllister and make him believe that I was the most suitable woman for the job and more.

In reality, all I was was a bundle of deceit wrapped up with perfect blonde hair and pretty green eyes.

"Rachel Kelly," I said to him as smoothly as possible, c****d my head to the side as he just kept staring at me like I was worth more gold or more. "I am Rachel Kelly."

"Well, Rachel Kelly, whether it be too fast…." He said to me, holding that intense gaze, that stunning eye contact on me, "I think I am falling in love with Rachel Kelly."

I raised a brow to him, "Think?" With a soft laugh under my breath and a never breaking hold of that insane eye contact, I said to Michael McAllister, "I don't fancy men who aren't certain of what they want."

"I know I am in love," He said to me.

"Sounds like it's a reassurance," I said with a smirk.

"I mean it," He said to me.

"Come on, humour me a little," I shook my head with another brief laughter. A simple way of telling him that he had to show that to me some way better than what he was doing.

"I am in love with you, Rachel Kelly," He said to me and I nearly drowned at how much certainty he had in his voice.

This woman I projected to him. This woman made him fall like a bat. Head over heels. Unadulterated. Completely.

"Well, what kind of woman would I be if I gave an answer immediately?" I asked.

"A straightforward one?" He tried an answer.

I scoffed lightly. That smirk never left my face as I answered him promptly.

"A desperate woman," I corrected.

"You are nothing close to that," He said to me.

My smirk broadened. "Exactly."

This felt magical. I couldn't elaborate it, but what I knew was that there were no perfect words to describe it. I could not wait to go home and scream to Monica and Quinn, but as the night was still ongoing, I had to keep my cool in front of this man.

It was beyond fun. He took me to his favourite spots at this little garden and when we reached the pool, I found myself not wanting to leave. I found myself on my wanting to stay there and admire every bit of it: the blue waters that flowed and ran down the fountain right there in the middle, as well as the night birds that hovered around the pool edges. Magic. That's what it was. That's what it felt like.

At the end, it was late and since we still had a lot in stall for work the next day, me and him both, we decided it was finally time to call it a night.

"I had fun," He said to me.

We had just reached the front of Monica's house and taking my hand in his', he looked me in the eyes.

Meanwhile, I made a mental note to myself that he had crammed up this address.

"Me too," I said to him, maintaining that gaze that turned me into mush and had me pretending I was stable to withstand its intensity.

With one glance at the house, Monica's house, he smiled again and looked at me.

"Nice place," He said to me. "Looks like I may be coming here more often."

I tried not to panic.

"Just inform me beforehand," I said to him calmly, "I don't like unnecessary surprises."

He chuckled at that.

"Of course," He said to me, "Your house, your rules." I smiled at that.

He let me go after a soft kiss on the cheek. One that melted me into butter. And he watched me walk gracefully into the house, staring at me from behind as though I were the most gorgeous thing on the planet.

I walked into the house and felt his stare at my back. I couldn't help but let a smile spread across my face.

I had this powerful man called Michael McAllister wrapped around my finger.

I had practically nothing to worry about.