Chapter 123
Marcus’s POV
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Marcus was exhausted by the time he finally left the office. The board meeting had dragged on for hours. going in circles about quarterly projections and market forecasts. All he wanted was to go home, have a quiet dinner with Elara, and maybe watch something mindless on TV until he fell asleep.
He pulled into the garage at eight thirty, grabbed his briefcase, and took the elevator up to the penthouse. When he opened the door, he immediately sensed something was off.
The living room lights were on. He could hear voices. Female voices.
Marcus walked in and stopped short when he saw who was sitting on his couches.
Elara was curled up on one side, wrapped in a blanket and looking deeply uncomfortable. Aurora sat across from her in a black dress that was definitely not appropriate for a business meeting, her posture perfect, a wine glass in her hand.
Both women turned to look at him when he entered.
“Marcus!” Aurora stood up immediately, setting down her wine glass. “Finally! I’ve been waiting for you.”
“Aurora.” Marcus looked between her and Elara, trying to read the situation. “What are you doing here?”
“I tried calling you but you weren’t answering. There’s been a development with the Wellington deal that we need to discuss urgently.” She walked toward him, her heels clicking against the floor. “I’m so sorry to just show up like this, but it really couldn’t wait.”
Marcus glanced at Elara. She wouldn’t look at him, just stared down at her phone with her shoulders hunched.
“What kind of development?” Marcus asked, keeping his tone professional.
“It’s complicated. There’s an issue with the contract terms that my uncle is disputing. Something about the timeline for implementation and the penalty clauses if either party backs out.” Aurora was speaking quickly, gesturing with her hands. “I tried to handle it myself but he’s insisting on speaking directly with you before he’ll sign anything.”
Marcus set down his briefcase and loosened his tie.
“Okay. Can this wait until tomorrow? We can schedule a call with your uncle first thing in the morning.”
“That’s the problem. He’s flying to Tokyo tomorrow afternoon for two weeks. If we don’t get this resolved tonight, the whole deal could fall apart.”
Marcus felt a headache building behind his eyes. The Wellington deal was important, a significant partnership that would expand Thorne Dynamics into new markets. But he was too tired for this right now.
“Alright,” he said finally. “Let me get my laptop and we can go over the contract terms. See what the issue is.”
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“Thank you so much.” Aurora touched his arm lightly. “I know this is terrible timing but I really appreciate you making time for this.”
Marcus nodded and turned to head upstairs to his office. Behind him, he heard Aurora say something to Elara in a low voice, but he couldn’t make out the words.
When he came back down with his laptop, Aurora had moved to the dining table and spread out several folders of documents. Marcus sat down across from her and opened his computer.
“Show me what we’re dealing with,” he said.
Aurora leaned forward, pointing at specific clauses in the contract. As she explained the issue, Marcus found himself only half listening. Part of his attention was on Elara, still sitting on the couch pretending to watch TV but clearly aware of every word being said at the table.
This was awkward. Incredibly awkward. His ex-girlfriend and his wife in the same room while he tried to conduct business.
“Does that make sense?” Aurora asked, and Marcus realized he’d completely lost track of what she was saying.
“Sorry, can you repeat that last part?”
Aurora went through it again, and this time Marcus forced himself to focus. The issue was actually fairly straightforward. Her uncle wanted more flexibility in the implementation timeline, which was reasonable. They could probably negotiate a compromise.
“I can draft an amendment to the contract tonight and send it to your uncle for review,” Marcus said. “It shouldn’t take more than an hour.”
“You’re a lifesaver.” Aurora smiled, warm and genuine. “I was so worried this whole thing was going to fall apart.”
“It’s fine. Let me just pull up the original contract and I’ll…”
Aurora reached for her wine glass and somehow managed to knock it over. Red wine spilled across the table, splashing onto the documents and onto Aurora’s black dress.
“Oh my God!” Aurora jumped up, looking down at her dress in horror. The wine had soaked the entire front, dark red spreading across the black fabric.
“Shit,” Marcus said, grabbing napkins from the sideboard and trying to soak up the wine from the documents. Most of them were ruined, the pages soaked through.
“I’m so sorry,” Aurora said, her voice distressed. “I’m such a klutz. I can’t believe I just did that.”
“It’s okay, I have digital copies of everything.” Marcus looked at her dress. “Are you alright? That’s going to stain.”
“I need to rinse this out immediately or it’s ruined.” Aurora looked around frantically. “Can I use your bathroom? Please? I need to get this wine out before it sets.”
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Chapter 123
:
Marcus hesitated. Having Aurora use their bathroom felt wrong somehow, too intimate. But what was he supposed to say? Let her go down covered in wine?
“Yeah, of course. Upstairs, second door on the left.”
“Thank you!” Aurora hurried toward the stairs, her heels clicking rapidly against the steps.
The moment she disappeared, Marcus turned to Elara. “I’m sorry about this. I had no idea she was coming
over.”
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“It’s fine,” Elara said, but her voice was tight.
“It’s not fine. This is awkward and I know it. I’ll wrap this up as quickly as possible and get her out of here.”
Elara just nodded and turned back to the TV.
Marcus sat back down at the table and started pulling up the digital versions of the contract documents on his laptop. He could salvage this. Draft the amendment, send it to Wellington, and be done with the whole thing.
He was deep in the contract language when he heard Aurora’s voice from the top of the stairs.
“Marcus? I hate to be even more of a bother, but do you have a hair dryer I could use? I’m trying to dry the dress but it’s not working very well.”
Marcus looked up and immediately wished he hadn’t.
Aurora was standing at the top of the stairs wrapped in only a towel. A small towel that barely covered her from chest to mid-thigh. Her hair was wet, water dripping down her shoulders, her skin flushed from the hot
water.
“I-what?” Marcus stammered.
“A hair dryer? To dry my dress?” Aurora started walking down the stairs, one hand holding the towel in place. “I rinsed it out but it’s completely soaked and I can’t really go back to penthouse like-oh!”
She stumbled on the last step. The hand holding the towel flew out to catch herself on the banister.
And the towel dropped.
For one horrifying second, Aurora stood there completely naked at the bottom of the stairs before she gasped and grabbed the towel, wrapping it back around herself.
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry!” Aurora’s face was bright red. “I didn’t mean-the towel just―”
Marcus had already turned away, his hand covering his eyes. “It’s fine, just-please go get dressed.”
“I can’t, my dress is soaking wet…”
“Then I’ll get you something of Elara’s to wear. Just go back to the bathroom and wait there.”
He didn’t wait for a response, just headed straight for the bedroom where Elara kept her clothes. He could feel
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Chapter 123
his face burning, could feel Elara’s eyes on him from where she sat on the couch.
This was a nightmare. An absolute nightmare.
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Marcus grabbed a t-shirt and sweatpants from Elara’s drawer and walked back to the bathroom, knocking on the door without looking inside.
“Here. Put these on.”
Aurora’s hand reached out and took the clothes. “Thank you. Marcus, I’m so embarrassed….”
“It’s fine. Just get dressed and we’ll reschedule the contract discussion for another time. When you’re not covered in wine and I’m not exhausted from a six-hour board meeting.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want to…”
“I’m sure. I’ll call your uncle tomorrow and set up a proper meeting. We’ll handle this professionally.”
“Okay,” Aurora said softly. “Thank you for being so understanding.”
Marcus didn’t respond. He just walked back downstairs where Elara was now standing, her arms crossed, her expression unreadable.
“Don’t,” Marcus said before she could speak. “Please don’t. I know how that looked but I swear to God it was an accident.”
“Was it?” Elara asked quietly.
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