Married to the Bad Boy

Chapter 37

I waited a few minutes, running my fingers over my hair trying to comb any knots out. I had no idea where the pin Sterling pulled out was, so I couldn't tie it back up. There wasn't even a mirror here to see if I looked presentable. 

I waited an extra few minutes on top, just in case I was still flustered, I waited till my body felt like it had cooled down to a reasonable temperature before I opened the door, peeking out to see an empty corridor and the glass door. 

The inner voice in me, the anxious voice, was expecting a crowd, it was irrational as always. 

Thank gosh.

For some reason, I felt like a teenager that was caught with their boyfriend, I tried to remind myself I was allowed to be in Sterling's art room but I still felt like I was doing something illegal. My heart was still beating fast as I walked down the corridor, almost worried someone was going to jump out from behind me.

But no one did. Everyone was far too busy in the main room, no one was around as I slipped through the glass door back into the air conditioned studio and I could finally let myself catch my breathe and relax.

I couldn't see Sterling or Sam, so I wasn't sure what or who I could talk to so I walked back to the main area. I decided to start looking at the rest of Sam's paintings that I never got to finish. It seemed like the venue had gotten even busier, there were more people roaming around and the chatter was loud. 

"A drink for the lady?"

I felt a presence behind me and I looked around, surprised to see Dominic, holding two glasses of sparkling. 

"Dominic," I said surprised, "Surprised to see you here." I admitted. His hand was still holding out the outstretched glass of bubbles so I decided to take it. 

He gave me a half smile as he turned around to face the painting I was looking at.

"I didn't think you had any relation to come here? Or is this another business you're trying to acquire?" I asked, taking a sip of the chilled drink.

"I'm simply showing my support for upcoming artists, you know I'm not totally a bad guy," he said, placing a hand into the pocket of his grey suit pants. He was in a tight fitted grey suit, almost as overdressed as I felt. 

"Yeah I guess so,"

"Guess so?" he asked.

"I mean you sort of gave me a deadline and never kept to it," I pointed out. The day he told me I was slightly worried, until I had reassured myself that there was no way he could just buy us out unless he somehow got all the shareholders to sell their shares to him, which wasn't going to happen.

"Oh right, yeah," Dominic shrugged, taking a step towards the next painting and I followed, "I guess I was having a bad day, speaking off, have you accepted my deal yet?"

"No," I said, with zero hesitation as I took another sip of the drink.

"Bold move Miss Aedan Hart." 

"Is it? Perhaps your outrageous offer was bold," I pointed out. 

His brown eyes regarded me for a long moment, before he took a sip, his eyes not breaking eye contact with mine, almost like he was challenging him to a stare off. Lucky for me, I was the queen of stare offs and he didn't intimidate me one bit.

Perhaps other people would be intimidated by his strong build, but it didn't phase me, after all my father was a ruthless business man when I was younger. 

"How about 50-50," he said, "I normally don't offer such a generous deal but you've charmed your way to it."

"It's still a hard pass from us," I told him.