The CEO's Tender Touch

Episode Two

Thirty minutes later, I'm walking towards my boss's office. I'm quite nervous, fiddling and counting my fingers softly—a nervous habit.

He resides on an isolated floor. I'm awed by the marble floor; everything is shining black.

I manage to pull on a blank face as I hear a low, gruff voice say, "Come in," and I step in.

A clearing of throat draws my attention from the magnificent interior design as I turn to look at my boss, who is not at his desk in front of me but is seated on a black couch at the far end of the room. He's a fine, hot man and he knows it.

Dressed smartly in a royal blue suit. I fight down the urge to ask about the kids. It doesn't seem he remembers me.

"Miss Martins," he says in a thick British accent I didn't notice before. He acts nothing as the man staring at me like I murdered his cat less than an hour ago.

"Yes, Sir," I answer, still nervous.

"I want 10 different interior designs from you in the next two weeks for a hotel project with a very important client and 5 designs for an interior design for a mansion, for the same client. I need them in two weeks, no less, no more," he says, holding out the file he was reading when I stepped in. It's filled with details and information about the client's preferences and essential criteria that will need to fit into my design.

I know I can keep up, but two weeks is a short time. I don't complain, wanting to impress my new boss. "Noted, Sir," I nod at him with a small smile.

"finishing this task successfully determines if you get to keep your job or not." the man tells me looking through a file on his desk.

My day wasn't so bad after the boss threatened me and I had Joey and Sam keeping me company. She's a sweetheart, and she seems to be just a few years older than me. I'm not too worried about losing my job, I'm confident I would arse the project.

It's been a week since I started my new job. I sit down with Sam, working and talking. Mr. King walks into the room and stops in front of us, he glares at us for a few moments.

"I don't pay you to frolic around, do I?" He says clenching his teeth. The harshness in his voice startles me.

"Mr. King, I wasn't- I was just-"

"You better be working on your assigned project with no distractions." He cuts me off, eyeing between Sam and me before walking away.

"Damn!! What crawled up his ass." Joey remarks.

"Well, well, well, you just arrived and you are already about starting trouble for my dear Nicholas." Anna appears scoffing. Normally I would let it go, but I was already upset after Mr. King's accusation and I promised never to let anyone walk over me anymore, especially not when I can do something about it.

"Quit being a clown Anna, it's pathetic." I tell her agressively.

She gasps dramatically before walking past me and knocking off my shoulder.

Exactly a week later, I went to submit my designs to Mr. King. I knock and go in after hearing a "come in."

"Good morning, Sir." He hums at me, not looking up.

"I have my designs ready." At this, he looks up, his blue eyes staring at me for a moment before reaching out to collect the pile of sketchbooks from me. He goes through them. The sound of paper being torn draws me to reality. He tears out a few more pages of my sketchbook before handing the torn pages back to me.

"Here, I approve of these six. Go over and design the rest over again," he accepts 6 out of 15. I almost gape at that. I put all my hard work and effort into this.

"What?" I stutter, caught off guard.

"I have a feeling you heard that, Miss Martins," he says, staring at me blankly.

I stare at him dumbstruck for a while before blinking. "He's such an asshole," I mumble under my breath.

"What was that?" He asks, with his eyebrow raised and frowning.

"Uhm, nothing, sir," I say quickly, turning to leave.

Another week later, I had about five designs ready. I'm not going to finish everything and have him tear it to pieces again. If he accepts this set, then I'll complete the rest.

"Hey, Kim," I look up to see Joey's bright smile, as always.

"Hey, Joey." I greet her back with a smile.

"How was your night?" she asks.

"Terrible. I barely slept a wink," I groan softly, giving her a tight-lipped smile.

Before she can get a word out, a slender, elegant woman sashays past us, she's dressed up like she's going for a fashion week show.

"Is that Mr. King's wife?" I curiously ask Joey and she laughs,

"What, noo, Mr. King lost his wife years ago during his kid's childbirth." She comes closer as she tells me. "That's Chloe, one of his err, female friends." She tries to gesture and I raise my raise brow at that.

I feel bad for the twins but there's an insane part of me that felt relieved he wasn't married in that second. How could I think that? Any woman would find Mr. King charming obviously and I needed to get it together and stay away from him.

"Kim, you can go up to see Mr. King in 10," Joey informs me, parking up.

"Ohh, but I think he'd be preoccupied at the moment," I say confused.

"Trust me, he's not, this has happened multiple times before, Mr. King hates these women and they still come chasing after him even at work." She subtly explains as she walks away before calling out. "Hurry up, he'll be mad if you waste a second of his time."

I knock at his office door a few times, but there's no answer, so I push the door open and stand beside it. The woman I saw come in a few minutes ago is sitting opposite the side of his table whining.

"C'mon Nick, you weren't picking up my calls so I wanted to give you a special surprise." She tells him twirling her hair between her fingers, she's purring.

He glances at me "Come, Ms Martins." He orders me inside.

He stands and walks to the chair the woman is seated on, he bends to her length "You will stand up from my chair and you will walk out of my building and you will never come back, is that clear?" The man always has a way of speaking calmly in a threatening tone, his words and expression hits the right spot because she squeaks and stands from her chair, looking scared, and she runs out like her dress is on fire.

"How can I help you, Miss Martins?" His tone is a tad bit softer now, I clear my throat trying not to appear intimidated by his mere presence.

"I have some designs for you to see, Sir," I tell him, handing over my drawings to him. He quietly checks them out and puts them on the side of his desk.

"We leave next week, Saturday, Miss Martins." I had almost forgotten about the business trip to Florida. The first project I'm designing for will happen in Florida. The client, according to Mr. King, is a long-time business associate and a family friend. He's a VIP, so Mr. King is going there himself to oversee the entire process.

"Don't make any more designs; I'll pick from these," he tells me, and I let out a breath. Thank goodness.

"I need your help with a few corrections," he says bringing out a full A4 drawing sheet. It is filled with pieces of mildly unfinished drawings

"you don't mind staying for the rest of the day to finish it, do you?" he asks even though we both know it's more of an order than a request.

"Surely you do not have anything more important at the moment?" he says raising an eyebrow.

"No Sir, I'll go make the corrections right now." I sigh.

"you can have a seat at my desk." oh no.

"you want me to make the corrections, in here, with you?" I ask to be clear, my stomach shunning.

"you have a problem with that?" he asks walking away to the couch that seems to be his favorite place in this office.

"N-No Sir, It's fine." and that's how I spent the next six hours being scrutinized by my boss, I was too peachy and overwhelmed to be upset by his intrusion.