Bound by Tension
25

I barged to the living room. Hames was on the sofa opposite the television. Though the television was turned on to an obviously romantic-comedy, he wasn't watching it but had his attention focused on his laptop, hitting its keys with his

fingers aggressively.

I stopped right in front of him, standing in akimbo and held my phone up to face him.

I was about to call him Mr Hendrix but I remembered he had said I could call him Hames. "Hames, please I need an explanation."

He didn't raise his head from the laptop, totally ignoring me.

"Hello?" I frowned, waving my hand.

Still no response.

"Have you gone online today?!" I barked.

My loudness definitely drew his attention as he slowly raised his head to me, wearing the most bored expression I had ever seen anyone wear.

"So what?" He replied indifferently, returning his gaze to his laptop's screen.

"So what?" I huffed, unable to believe my ears. "My dignity, public image is at stake here, Mister."

"The Internet spreads things a lot. People are always ready to spread rumors." He reached for a piece of apple in a bowl of sliced apples beside him.

"Internet? Okay, explain the videos." I folded my arms across my chest, ignoring how that caused my enormous breast to puff out.

"What videos?" He still didn't lift his head from the laptop, typing even faster.

"This." I clicked on the video, turning my phone's screen to him.

He still didn't look up, increasing the level of my frustration. "You're not going to ignore me, sir." I declared.

He acted as though he hadn't heard a word I said, squinting his eyes at the screen of his laptop like he had just caught the view of the most quizzical thing in the world. "Hames!" I exclaimed.

He raised his head, a stern frown lingered on his face. "Can't you see I'm busy, woman?" He sneered, "and you should be too."

"You've seen the video?" I asked, feeling a kind of anger I had never felt before, boiling in me.

"Nope, and I'm not interested." He returned his gaze and fingers to the laptops screen and keys respectively.

I rumbled, clenching my fist. Without thinking twice, I plopped myself on the spot of the sofa between him and his bowl of apples. He still didn't say anything, only cast me a sideways glance and returned to his work on his laptop. He was further growing my frustration. I clicked on the video again to re-play, holding the phone between his face and the laptop.

He looked at me with a confused eyebrow. "What's going on here, Miss Mark?" He asked, setting his laptop aside, just the perfect time for the video to play, she's my woman.

He fixed his eyes on my phone's screen for a while before turning his head to me. "You're only being silly by believing what you see on the internet as well. I only had to say that because an ugly man was trying to harass you, I made him think you're my girlfriend so my anger was going to be meaningful.

"I hate female harassment, it's a terrible thing." He held my hand which held the phone, sending a series of tingling sensations through my spine, lowering the hand to the sofa.

He inched closer to me, placing his second hand on my other side so he faced me as his arm slightly brushed mine, leading me into perplexion as my breath seized, cutting me out of oxygen at the effect of his mesmerizing skin contact. "Uh... H— Ha— Hames?" I stuttered, feeling like a criminal that was just caught by the police, not being able to let out my breath.

He didn't say a word, only peering at me with those frightening brown eyes of his, leading me to a higher grade of perplexity. "What?" His voice was very raspy in a somewhat attractive way.

"You're too close." I forced out, letting out the breath I was holding, permitting my chest to rise and fall faster than normal. "Too close?" He asked like he didn't understand anything that was going on.

He crossed his arm over mine, letting another sensation squirm in me at another skin to skin contact. Wait, what was going on? "What are you doing?" I frowned harder, leaning back in my seat but he seemed to be moving closer, mostly his face to mine. "Fruits," he said.

"Uh?" I raised an eyebrow. My confusion was clarified when he picked his bowl of fruits, letting go of my hand.

"Get up," he ordered, reminding me of the fact that I was sitting right beside a demon. How didn't I realize that and die from the effect of it?

I immediately jerked to my feet. My phone almost fell from my hands so I moved it different ways till I was able to balance it on one hand.

"Go over to Kade's room, collect the card to his room from the receptionist. He should be out now with Jovi. I'll let the receptionist know she can give you the card." He picked his laptop once again, resumed hitting its keys with his fingers. "Then grab the files with label 12C# from his room, the files should be all in green color."

"Okay, but what do we do about the 'news'? I have almost a hundred thousand followers and believe me, I don't like attention to myself at all. It's not even real, stupid rumor."

"Ignore it." Ne said dismissively.

"Ignore it? Are you kidding me? I'm now viral on the internet, all because of you."

"Good for you."

"Mr. Hendrix!"

"We have a lot of work to do. The internet will always spread news, whether or not it is false. I'll try to sort things out when I have enough time, it'll be dealt with and taken down from the internet. I'll give you some time to calm down so you can work properly, but firstly, go over to Kade's room, ROOM 4G." He said then resumed typing on his laptop, an action that made it seem as though you're not existing.

"If you're afraid of leaving the room due to the press, don't worry, they can't get into this hotel."

"I never knew you owned this place," I said.

He raised his head from the laptop. "Why do you have to know?"

I glowered, "because I'm your secretary." Wasn't that obvious enough?

"Well, I didn't list out all of my properties to you, I'll list them out soon. For now, go and grab the files, he should've left them on a table, just check around.

Isn't that invasion of privacy to go through a couple's hotel room?"

"Nope, it's not. Please just leave, don't speak any further."

"Can I at least have a bath first?" I remembered I hadn't done my morning hygiene routine yet.

He groaned, "yeah, whatever."

I stopped myself from rolling my eyes at him, turned around and left for my bedroom.

After shutting and locking the door, I stripped my clothes off me, grabbed a towel, wrapped it around me, then left for the bathroom.

I did my normal morning rituals in the bathroom, returned to the room for my morning skincare and haircare routine.

I got into my underwear then wore a maxi gown with a pair of espadrilles.

I brushed my hair then left the room. Hames was still typing on his laptop, having a couple of papers beside him with a pen on them.

He cast a glance at me, but that didn't stop me from leaving the suite, shutting the door gently.

I used the elevator to transport me to the ground floor. Men, and maybe women, couldn't keep their gaze off me. Some of the men were staring at me lustfully while others and the women were obviously talking about me due to the viral news. I hated this shit so bad.

Ignoring the mummering, I struted to the receptionist.

"Hi," I said to the pale-skinned lady whose face looked like Barbie had pooped on it.

"Hi, Miss Mark." She replied sternly. "How may I help you?"

"I need the card to ROOM 4G, please."

"Oh, okay. Mr. Hendrix already confirmed that." She nodded, arching her back to obviously check for the card in a drawer. I locked my hands in front of me as I waited patiently, not saying a word but staring around the hotel. How could Hames own this beautiful place as well?

"Please sign here." She stood upright, pushing a paper and a pen in my direction, pointing to a box I guessed I was supposed to sign on.

As instructed, I picked the pen, signed on the paper then pushed it back to her.

She handed me a black card with 'ROOM 4G' on it.

"Thank you," I felt the need to say that, accepting the card from her, immediately turned around and back to the elevator.

I tried my best to ignore the mummering from people around, and hit the elevator button. After the doors separated, I got into it.

After the doors closed again, I hit the button to the 4th floor then it transported me to the 4th floor, re-opening its doors.

I rushed out of it, scuttled to the room with the label 'ROOM 4G' on it. I inserted the card into the correct whole and unlocked the door, taking the card then pushed the door open.

Groaning, I lowered my head to my fingers, massaging my forehead, as I shoved myself in. The moment I raised my head, I almost went blind as I caught the blazing hot sight in front of me.