Chapter 24 - No Control

"Fuck, he's so hot," I heard one of Lex's team members moan as I arrived. "It should be declared illegal to be that hot!"

I made sure to let a couple of minutes pass before making my way to my desk after that very heated and very awkward encounter with my fiancée and my cousin in the elevator.

"Who is? Mr. Durfort?" I would be blind and stupid to say that my cousin wasn't handsome. 

He had the same blond hair as I did, but he got his hazel eyes from his mom's side of the family. It was his most striking feature in my opinion.

"No, of course not him, we get to see him daily," Cassandra, my cousin's assistant said, rolling her eyes. "They're talking about Mr. Harris."

Of course, they were talking about my fiancée.

"Don't roll your eyes, Lily, wait till you see him in person!" one of the girls said.

I was about to say I already had but that would be suspicious. 

"Miss Durfort is such a lucky woman," someone swooned behind me. "He's the complete package."

"Really, Emily?" one of the male employees, Marc, said looking unimpressed. "Just cause he is rich and handsome he is perfect to you?"

"Yeah, what if he's a total ass?" He was a total ass.

"Even hotter," the woman giggled like a teenage girl.

"You have to admit though," Cassandra said, giving me a smile. "There is something about aloof and cold men that is quite attractive."

"Bad boys are hot boys," Emily chuckled.

"You girls are weird," Marc commented. 

"I wonder why Mr. Harris is here anyway, with the ball tonight and all the photos circulating of him and his fiancée," Emily said pensively. 

"Have you seen those photos, Lily? They're hot!" the other female employee, Anna asked me as she scrolled through her phone, searching for it.

"No, I haven't," I shrugged. I had intentionally avoided any photos of us circulating online. I didn't need that shit messing with me.

"I haven't, now show," Cassandra said, inserting herself between me and Anna, the palm of her hand opened upward as she asked for the phone.

Anna smiled and handed the phone to Lex's assistant.

I didn't have to lean forward to confirm that the photo everyone had been talking about was the exact same one I was suspecting. 

"Damn, you can't even see her but it's clear that it's a love match," Cassandra whistled as she offered the phone to me.

I couldn't help but scoff at the mention of a love match, because I was anything but in love with Alexander Harris. 

As I reached for the phone, Lex's voice came from the intercom.

"Lily, coffee please, now," he said.

"Well, the boss asked for you," Cassandra said, taking back the phone. 

I sighed and shook my head. I knew well enough that my cousin didn't need coffee. He and Alexander favored stronger drinks, he just wanted to call me in and mess with me.

It was either he or Alexander who wanted to mess with me.

"Do you think she's hot?" I heard Emily ask as I walked over to the pantry. 

"She probably is, can't you see how he looks at her," Marc pointed out. 

"You can't even see his face from this angle, but that back, damn, and those arms," Anna whistled. "I'd love to be trapped between those." 

Oh, she would love to be trapped in those arms. Even I couldn't deny the intense heat of the moment when I'd been in that position, and I had been multiple times at this point.

"Lily!" I heard Lex's voice come from the intercom again, making me grumble as I carried a tray with two cups on it.

"He's in a bad mood," Cassandra grumbled as I passed.

"Maybe Alexander wants to call off the wedding?" Anna asked sounding a little bit too hopeful. 

From what I could recall from her files, Anna was actually from a well-off family and quite competent as an employee.

She was someone I'd need to watch out for. If she was so good at her job why was she working for my cousin and not her own family?

"How I wish that were true," I grumbled under my breath as I entered Lex's office.

As soon as the door shut behind me, the tray was taken from my hands and I was pulled aside by strong arms. 

"You said she wasn't working closely with guys!" Alexander shouted at my cousin.

"Alexander Edward Harris what the fuck are you talking about?!" I demanded as I struggled to get away from his hold. "Let me go!"

"No," he said sternly, strengthening his grip around my waist. 

"You're acting like a child whose favorite toy was taken," I scolded. "You're neither a child nor am I your favorite."

"Debatable," Alexander said without offering an explanation.

"I wouldn't quite say that," Lex said, laughing as he looked at us. "I could snap a few photos of the two of you and sell it to the highest bidder. I'm sure a lot of news agencies would pay quite a lot for this one."

Lex held up his phone, showing us a photo.

I quickly scrambled to get it from him, but Alexander refused to let me go.

"Don't mess with her," he scolded my cousin.

Turning back to Alexander, I glared.

"You have no right to scold my cousin when you are trying to control me yourself!" I shouted at Alexander.

With one final attempt, I managed to push him away and took a few steps back. 

"I'm not your property!" I shouted. "It's stupid for you to think that I can work without interacting with the opposite sex. You might be my fiancée but you do not control who I interact with."

I didn't wait to see his reaction, I quickly walked out of the room, throwing a middle finger at them as I closed the door behind me.