Why deceive me??
48. Jia

"Or you can choose to stay with Sara instead." He asked.

"No. No." She began frantically. "I'll stay with you," She said and bent her head. "Now, no more crying. Just ignore them ok?" Damon said, embracing her.

She held him tight and whimpered. She nodded her head and they stayed like that for a few minutes. Damon raised her head so she was looking at him and brought his face to hers. "Should I?" He asked.

She nodded and he placed his lips on hers for a long passionate kiss. Ronnie broke the kiss after a while and looked at his eyes for a moment, contemplating if she should ask what was on her mind. "What's on your mind?" He asked.

"Do you love me?" She asked

Damon froze.

He looked her in the eyes for a moment and smiled.

"I wouldn't call this affection love. But I would say I feel a deep connection with you. I don't want to lose you, not hurt you and all of that. But not love. I'm sorry,"

Ronnie smiled and relaxed a bit. "Then that's nice then,"

Ariel and Lizzy were sitting together at Ariel's house, thinking about Ronnie and how she managed to make it so big.

"I know Ronnie and everything about her background," Ariel argued.

"Then how can she manage to make it so big? Even using the bag I won't dream of using," Lizzy said.

"Knowing Ronnie's worth, I thought that bag was fake. How can she get something so expensive and glamorous for herself," Arial said.

"And I heard her mum is in the hospital, in a private ward with the best doctors attending to her." Lizzy pointed out.

"Maybe she has trapped one of those rich men to make her so filthy rich," Ariel commented.

"Which man would spend that kind of outrageous amount of money on a bag that can't even hold a book?" Lizzy asked

"Why are you asking me?" Ariel asked

"Isn't she your friend?" Lizzy also asked.

"She's also your friend," Arial pointed out.

"My nemesis, you mean?" Lizzy said and rolled her eyes.

"Oh, now she's your nemesis?" Ariel asked

"Of course," Lizzy replied

"We have to do something," Ariel said.

Lizzy nodded her head in affirmation.

"We need to know how she got all her wealth or if it's legit," she said

"You mean like spying on her?" Ariel asked.

"Yeah, I mean like spying on her," Lizzy confirmed.

"But how do we do that? We don't even know where she stays." Ariel said

"Don't worry, I have a plan," Lizzy smiled selfishly.

Damon seemed paranoid about the lady in front of him. She did dress to impress and he guessed she wanted to use her charms on him. "Do you think you're special?" he asked coolly, his words marble and his eyes ice.

"Chasing me down yourself and trying to persuade me with passion? Was that the plan?"

His former secretary resigned because she traveled out of the country to get surgery done. Which was fully funded by Damon.

The company needed a replacement and a series of ladies kept flooding in and dressing in outrageous clothing so they could get the job.

Jia was one of those girls who thinks they could seduce him to get his attention.

Jia continued to hold the paper out in front of her, presenting it with both hands to

him.

"Please," she said, keeping her voice strong and steady even though she thought she could feel him killing her with just a look. "I need this job. I'll work harder than you could ever want. You won't regret it, sir."

He swiftly snatched the application sheet out of her hands with murderous grace, and with his other hand, tore the paper in two. He overlapped the two halves and tore them into quarters - and then into eighths, and then half that again. He tossed the pieces to the

side, letting them flutter down to the asphalt.

"I don't need more desperate, entitled faces in my agency. If I ever see yours again, I'll have security handle it," Damon said and stretched his hand toward the door.

She had nothing to worry about, she had told herself at the time. Damon saw so many faces in a day that he would never remember her; it was no use being paranoid.

"A custodial position," he said. "Why were you interested in that?"

Jia paused at the question for a moment before answering. "All legitimate employment

is respectable," she said carefully.

"I don't mean it in a demeaning way, Ms. Moon." Damon tapped the copy of her resume on his desk with two fingers. "You have several years of experience in management. The secretary positions here are considered entry-level, and the pay reflects that. I find that your experience over-qualifies you."

He narrowed his eyes slightly, and Jia felt a chill run down her spine as if he had just

caught her doing something she shouldn't have been. Why was that? She had done nothing wrong.

"I've never actually been in management," she said softly, daring to contradict him

despite her misgivings about doing so. Judging by the way his eyebrow slid up at her objection, he didn't quite like that. "But I find that assisting those in management comes easily because I enjoy making things easier for those around me." Damon's chin tilted up slightly, and Jia found herself blinking in surprise. That couldn't have been an expression of approval, could it? It had disappeared in a flash, vaporizing instantly like a wisp of smoke in a hurricane, but she thought... No. She had just imagined it, Jia decided because the way he was looking at her was

most definitely not approving. Cold, more like. Very cold. She shivered.

"If that's the case, then you'll fit well in a position that's just opened," Damon said and leaned forward to press a round, black button near a corner of his desk. "Lydia."

"Yes, sir, Mr. Damon, sir?" A woman's voice, light and bubbly, spoke out of the flat speaker situated next to the button.

"You have an assistant. I'm sending her out to you. Get her trained."

"I...An assistant, sir? Mine?" Lydia replied, obviously shocked.

Suddenly, Damon's mouth set in a hard line, and Jia realized he did not like

repeating himself. Not one bit. He hadn't looked happy a minute ago, either, when he had had to repeat his question to her. "Yes," he said, and the single word made Jia's toes curl in her shoes with its sheer frigidity. "Is your speaker malfunctioning?"

"N-no, sir!" the woman nearly cried in her haste to rectify the crisis. "I understand, sir.

I apologize - yes, sir."

Damon didn't even wait for the woman to stop stammering her last words, and he

lifted his finger from the intercom switch to return his attention to Jia.

"Out," he

snapped. "Today's your first day on the job. You wanted the secretary position, but since there's none open, you'll have to make do with cleaning up after one person instead of the entire building."

He pointed at the double doors leading out of the office when Jia failed to move

immediately.

"Do I need to repeat myself?" he asked, his voice growing more arctic with each syllable until Jia thought her ears were contracting a viral strain of frostbite.

"No, sir,” she answered, and she was disappointed because she was sure that the secretary wasn't at work anymore. But proud that somehow, she didn't stammer as 'Lydia' had. God knew she wanted to.

He had nothing else to say, evidently, and moved her resume and application away to

the side of his expansive desk. By the time he drew a stack of papers and folders from

one of his drawers, Jia was already halfway out the door. He watched with an unconcerned eye as she held the handle and controlled the door's swing; it closed quietly behind her with a near-imperceptible click as the latch slid gently into place.