Revenge of the Duchess

Chapter 15

A/N: I own nothing. Enjoy!

Annabeth headed towards her new company's location. It was different than where it had been in her past life since Percy had offered her the free use of a floor in his trading company building. Annabeth accepted easily, since the building was in a good area of the city, and she didn't need to pay rent. In truth, the Stoll brothers, having overhead Percy's offer to Annabeth, shook their heads for the naivety of their future Mistress, since it was obviously their master's ploy to have his future wife work closer to him.

The future wife in question had no idea what the truth was and was currently inspecting the books she had personally placed in her bookcases. Her employees offered to help, but Annabeth brushed them off, saying that she wanted to do it herself. She felt absolutely giddy about having her own office space, and it was happening one and a half years earlier than it did before. Her company would be up and running by the time the Imperial family would call for city planning and architecture companies to redesign the city. Then, she would absolutely crush Luke Castellan's attempts at business!

"You'll stress out your staff if you keep doing things like this."

Annabeth startled at the voice behind her and hit her head on the table she was currently underneath.

"Ow!"

"Are you all right?"

Percy helped her get up from under the table. Through the throbbing pain on her head, Annabeth could see Percy was struggling not to laugh.

"It's not every day one gets to see my future wife on the ground with her butt in the air. What were you doing underneath the desk?" Percy asked.

He gently inspected her head for any bumps. Annabeth was beginning to be not as startled every time he was close to her, though her heart did flutter a little. She couldn't help but take a nice whiff of his natural scent. She would never get over that ocean breeze scent.

"Ah, I dropped my pen down there."

Percy carefully rubbed the small bump on her head. "Have one of the assistants do it."

"It's fine, I have two hands that work quite well."

"Independent, are you?"

"Yes, but you already knew that, didn't you?"

"True." Percy plucked a piece of white thread from her hair. "Did you go try on your wedding dresses today?"

"I tried just one. I didn't know you designed a dress for me." Annabeth smiled up at him. "Thank you, I really liked that one, so I'm planning to wear just that dress on our wedding."

"I'm flattered that you picked my dress out of all of Madam Drew's dresses."

Annabeth could tell that he was pleased. How adorable, she thought.

Percy bent lower so he could whisper into her ear. "But I also look forward to seeing you out of that dress on the wedding night."

She took back her statement of being adorable. All of her past memories of Percy had been of him being a gentleman, a worthy adversary in battle, and a crucial partner in business. Was the flirty Percy in front of her truly who he was towards his wife? A small voice in the back of her head wondered, had he ever been like this with Rachel? There was just a tiny inkling of jealousy Annabeth wasn't willing to admit.

"You're so quiet all of a sudden. Cat got your tongue?" Percy teased again.

This punk! Annabeth sighed inwardly. Hadn't he learned anything from her personality that time the aphrodisiac had affected her? He seemed to have gotten even bolder since that night. She hated backing down from challenges, so it seemed like it was time for her to teach Percy a lesson. Besides, technically she had three more years of experience than Percy from her previous life, so shouldn't she be the one making him flustered?