"Or is it because you have eaten already?" Belinda gave him a questioning look, insisting on getting to the bottom of the matter.
Duke was a bit stunned upon hearing her remark. He kept quiet for a while. But he soon let out a smile and gently shook his head. "Take it any way you wish," he said blandly.
"Come on, you are so boring." Belinda couldn't think of anything to say, and realized that it was no use asking him. So she decided to drop the matter and simply enjoyed her meal. She wasn't too fussy about food, she was only particular about the way the dishes were cooked sometimes. Food in perfect combination of colors, smells and tastes would be appreciated.
"I thought you knew what kind of person I am. You are right, I am no fun." Although Duke was responding to her complaints, he wasn't really looking at her. Instead, he kept scrolling through the latest news on his phone.
"No. I never did. But I do now." Shrugging her shoulders, Belinda replied. But then she paused the instant she set eyes on Duke, who was sitting beside her with his head hanging. As the sunlight flooded into the room, a gentle orange glow framed his handsome face. She suddenly became immersed in bliss, wishing that she could stay right here in this moment with him, forever.
"Just dig in. Say no more or you might choked," said Duke dotingly. Putting away his phone, he then leaned back on the sofa leisurely. He seemed to be relishing the moment too. To Belinda, the relaxed side of him had only added to his charm.
"Duke, it seems to me that you are quite free at the moment!" Belinda turned around all of a sudden, winking at him with a sly but pleasant smile.
"Yes, you can say that. Why?" Duke tensed up, avoiding eye contact with her. He could tell from her eyes that she was scheming, and it made him shudder.
"Great! Would you like to do something to kill time? How about doing the financial accounting for me? There, on the computer. My head is going to explode from looking at data the whole day," she groaned. Belinda never had a solid grasp of math and figures, so every time she checked up the account, she would definitely suffer brain fatigue.
"Seriously? You aren't scared of my stealing your trade secrets?" Having said that, he rose up before she could answer his question, and walked over to her desk.
"If you are really interested in them, go ahead. I'm quite okay with it, as long as you are willing to free me from this nightmare." She meant what she said. She was not the kind of enterprising woman who ambitiously aimed at proving herself in her career. If she had ever had a choice, she would have never chosen to run such a big company. Because most of the time, she felt that her ability fell short of her desire to handle the company affairs well.
Casting her a glance, Duke said no more and seated himself in the chair casually. But when he caught sight of the documents that piled up on her desk, his heart missed a beat. She was not expecting him to go over all of them, right!? He quickly leaned forward and thumbed through them. His brows wrinkled.
"Did you put off all of them until now?" he couldn't help but ask. As expected, those were a whole month's worth of bills. It would take him an entire afternoon to check all of them. Duke suddenly felt a bit dizzy.
"Well, I always wait until the end of the month. I don't feel like dealing with them until it can't be postponed any longer. Why? A little too much for you?" asked Belinda, sticking out her tongue at him playfully with a hint of shame. Even though the accounting department had already classified all the data for her, she would still fall apart in the face of them every time.
"Don't you think so?" Duke asked while shooting her an angry glance. No wonder there were so many of them. It was all because of her laziness and procrastination. But what could he do now? He had no choice but to get down to work.
Well...not really, I think," responded Belinda, her voice trailing off like a child being scolded. But she was in fact chuckling to herself, knowing someone else was going to do the drudgery for her. To be honest, she considered this as the only good thing about this marriage so far.
Duke made no response this time. He started to concentrate on the documents which were densely packed with statistics, and even added comments and notes when needed. Having buried himself under the piles of work, he seemed to have forgotten about Belinda's existence.
It was not the first time that Belinda had seen him fully absorbed in work, but she was still deeply attracted by the way he attended to things with undivided attention. She just couldn't take her eyes off his serious, grim yet handsome face, especially his thin lips that were closed firmly when he was deep in thoughts. She was spellbound by the sight of this man.
The more time she spent with him, the more engrossed she was in the gentleness which he would show to her occasionally. Unlike Edward, who would always display his charms in every possible way, Duke was rather reserved and would keep a low profile most of the time. So it was pretty rare for him to show his tenderness.
After a while, Belinda finally turned her gaze away in silence, and cleared those things on the coffee table very quietly, trying her best not to disturb Duke. She then left the office and walked to the break room.
"Boss, can I help you?" The moment she walked out of the office, her secretary quickly followed. When she found Belinda making coffee, she was a bit surprised and came up to offer her help. Because the task of making coffee for Belinda was assigned to her, and her alone in the company.
"No, thanks. I can manage it myself. You can get back to your work," Belinda answered without looking at her. She was focused on brewing the coffee, thinking that she must be the one who prepared the coffee for her man.
In her opinion, a woman, no matter how strong she might be in some ways, she must keep a good balance between toughness and delicacy. Only then could she make men throw themselves at her feet. Otherwise, she would only push them away. After all, no man nowadays would like his wife to be better than himself in every aspect, it would only bring him frustration. Took herself as an example, she had shown her weakness to Duke just now, which was not very often, and she had not only earned his affection, but also convinced him to help her with her work. This was exactly what they called killing two birds with one stone.
From the corner of his eyes, Duke saw Belinda went out. He was very preoccupied with the work, hoping to finish them as early as possible. So without wondering or asking where she was going, he only glanced at her back before throwing himself back into the mass data quickly. When he saw her return with a cup of coffee, his face was colored with amazement.