Bedmates Soulmates
CHAPTER 416

Her eyes rolled back.

She was suffocating Y. Young Master!!

Gideon snapped out of his trance.

He blinked.

When he saw the woman lying underneath him, he withdrew his hands, got up and moved away from her.

The woman took several deep breaths, coughing and spluttering.

"What are you doing here? Gideon asked coldly,

She sat up from the sofa, her face still red. 'I just came down from Ourhlana yesterday.

She paused to catch her breath. "Martin said you were drunk. I was bringing aspirin to you when you...kissed me. You pulled me down

to the sota and called me Kira. I thought I thought you wanted ine. I'm sorry, Young Master."

The woman realised he was calling Kira Hewitt.

The other Kira

Or rather, the real Kira.

Gideon felt a throbbing pain in his head.

He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples

The woman saw this, rose from the sota and picked up the glass of water and the bottle of aspirin on the e coffee table. 'Here. This'll

make you feel better."

Gideon swallowed a handful of the white tablets.

"I arrived in Stamford last night,' the woman said, watching his reaction. 'I called Martin and got the address to this house. He said you were sleeping, so I didn't want to disturb you.'

Gideon didn't speak.

The woman came to stand behind him...

She massaged his temples with both hands.

Her movements were gentle and soothing.

Gideon felt the headache subside.

'Martin said you're going to stay in Stamford for a while,' the woman said in a quiet voice. "What about your business in Ourhlana? You know how some people still hold a grudge after you took over control of the family. If you're away for too long, I'm afraid they'll do-" "What's your real name? Gideon cut her off.

Her eyes widened.

Her hands stopped moving

'Did you hear me? Gideon asked impatiently.

"Uh... Yes, Young Master."

"Then tell me, what's your real name?"

She'd told him her name when they first met, but he no longer remembered it.

Standing behind Gideon, the woman smiled bitterly,

'It's Gwen, Gwendolyn Reyes.

'Gwendolyn Reyes.' Gideon pulled her in front of him and then into his arms.

His hot breath tickled her skin.

Gideon traced a finger down her cheek. 'Just go by your real name from now on, Gwen is a nice name. It suits you."

Why The Long Face

Austyn raised an eyebrow when he saw Kai coming into the office alone.

"Young Madam said she was going to the café on the twelfth floor, so she can't join you."

"She prefers the food there? Austyn frowned. 'Didn't you tell her what we're having for lunch?"

'I didn't have the time to do that," Kai thought. 'Young Madam was so anxious to shoo me away that she didn't even let me finish talking."

The assistant kept a straight face. 'Maybe it's not about the food. Maybe Young Madam just wants to socialise with her colleagues." Austyn stood up and pushed back the leather chair. 'In that case, the boss should socialise with the employees as well. Let's go." "To where?"

'To the cafeteria.

'Huh?!

'To have lunch!

Kai pointed to the en-suite lounge. "What about the food I already bought?"

"See who's still at their desk in the secretarial pool. Give it to them."

Kai trotted to the lounge, picked up the well-packed lunch from Mason's-soup of the day, garden salad, Angus tenderloin steak and crème caramel, and went in search of a lucky secretary.

"Boss is going to cause quite a stir down on the twelfth, Kai thought as he jogged to catch up with Austyn at the lift. 'He's never been to the staff café before."

As Kai expected, hundreds of pairs of eyes fell on the president the moment he stepped through the glass doors of the cafeteria.

A sudden hush descended over the entire space of four hundred square metres.

Conversations stopped mid-sentence.

Hands froze mid-air.

The clatter of utensils vanished.

It was as if someone had pressed the 'Pause' button.

Kai stood behind Austyn, making himself as invisible as possible.

The click of Austyn's heels on the floor unfroze the scene.

Some of the younger female employees almost shrieked.

Austyn gave them curt nods as he passed the tables.

Several more intrepid souls sidled up to behind the president and tried to snap a picture of him. Mid-level managers plucked up their courage and said hello to the president, inviting him to join them. Austyn declined, but had to stop and shake hands and engage in small talk before he could move on.

d into a celeb meet-and-greet session.

The café turn

The faces of all women under the age of twenty-five were flushed with excitement.

Well, all but one.

Kira lowered her head and shielded her face with a banana.

What was he doing here?

She looked up furtively, hoping to see Austyn leave, but her eyes met with his.

She immediately looked down, almost burying her face in the tray.

"Please don't let him see me. Please don't let him see me 'She muttered.

"May I join you?" A low, deep voice sounded next to her table.

The speaker was being polite, but Kira knew his sentence was more of a command than a request.

a gnashed her teeth

"He's doing this deliberately!' she thought.

She turned down Kai's request to go up to the

the 48th floor.

Five minutes later, Austyn showed up at the cafeteria

It was hard not to take this as an act of retaliation, and a childish one at that.

What on earth was he thinking?

There were four people at the table-Kira, Lexi, Vanessa and Dan.

Kira was staring at her linguine with bacon

Vanessa was blushing furiously.

Dan was longue-tied.

Only Lexi retained enough of her composure to say, 'Yes, of course. Please join us!!

She sprang to her feet and pulled out a chair for the president.

Austyn sat down across from Kira

Employees at the other tables nearby stomped their feet, disappointed.

'I hear there are some complaints about the café on the twelfth floor, Austyn said by way of explanation.

His voice rang out clearly.

*So I decided to come down and take a look for myself."

He pointed to his assistant. 'Kai here will be going from table to table, collecting feedback about the café, if any. Please feel free to share your views.

Kai held back a sigh and whipped out his tablet.

He had not known about this task, but a smart assistant knew when not to ask questions.

Austyn swept his eyes over the crowd hanging on to his every word. "Please, as you were.

The employees retracted their gazes reluctantly and returned to their lunch.

Kira's head snapped up when she saw a sudden flash

Austyn scowled.

Lexi glared at her colleague. "Vanessa!

"Sorry, sorry."Vanessa blushed.

She was holding up her phone.

In her excitement, she'd forgotten to turn the camera flash off.

'Delete the photo!' Lexi said through gritted teeth

It was a stupid thing to do, taking photos of the president secretly,

Even stupider to get caught in the act

Lexi was anxious.

What if the president was offended?

'I'll delete them right now, Vanessa said sheepishly.

She just wanted a memento of this once-in-a-lifetime event.

She was sitting at the same table as the president, the man of her dreams!

'It's fine,' Austyn said, "as long as you don't circulate them publicly."

Kira hid an eye coll

The man was such a good actor.

She knew how much he loathed having his pictures taken in public, but he put on a convincing act in front of his employees.

"Oh, okay!" Vanessa held her phone to her chest. 'I understand. I won't leak the photos to the press, I promise! I'll put them in a special album, password-protected. Thank you so much, Mr McCarthy!!

Her colleagues gawked at Vanessa, who was gushing like a fangirl.

Austyn smiled politely before turning his attention to Kira. 'You've hardly touched your lunch. Is the food not satisfactory to you?"

He donned a serious look. "Would you care to offer some feedback?"

Everyone else at the table looked at Kira.

She raised her head and plastered on a smile. "Uh, no, Mr President. The food's fine. Everything's fine. I have no complaints." 'Then why the long face?"

'I'm...I'm just nervous to meet you. I'm a little overwhelmed. That's all.'

Austyn's eyes twinkled with amusement

'It seems that I should come down to the staff café more often. I don't want my employees to be scared of me."

The President And The Intern

,you should join us more often! I have a lot of feedback to give I bet the other-

'Yes, please!" Vanessa blurted. 'Mr McCarthy, y

'Ahem." Lexi kicked Vanessa's leg under the table.

'Um, not feedback 'Vanessa quickly backtracked. "What I meant is we have a lot of constructive suggestions to offer."

'Noted.' Austyn nodded, then he looked at Kira again. "What do you think, miss?"

'I think you're doing this on purpose!' Kira thought. Stop making me the centre of attention!"

Out loud, she said, "I think there's more than one way to gather feedback. It doesn't have to be done face-to-face. We have the company intranet, for example. Or we can talk to HR. I don't think it's something that should take up the president's time." "Don't you have better things to do?" she wanted to add, but didn't.

Vanessa elbowed her in the stomach. "Kira, how could you say that? Face-to-face feedback is the best. Besides, Mr McCarthy owns the company. He can come to the cafeteria as he pleases. Why are you trying to chase him away?' Dan nodded and said timidly, 'I agree with Vanessa."

The more face time they had with the boss, the more promotional opportunities could land in their lap.

Even Lexi glanced at Kira disapprovingly.

It was one against three, so Kira just shut up and returned to staring at her food.

"Mr McCarthy, what would you like? Vanessa asked solicitously. "There are ten stalls open today. We have chicken fried rice, turkey burgers, ham and Swiss quesadilla, pepperoni pizza, mac and-"

"That looks good' Austyn stopped Vanessa before she could rattle off the entire list of lunch items.

He pointed to Kira's plate. 'I'll have whatever she's having."

"The linguine! An excellent choice! Vanessa shot to her feet. 'I'll get it for you!"

'Thank you.'

Kira sighed inwardly.

'Silly girl,' she thought. "Don't be fooled by the president's courteous public persona. Underneath that bespoke suit is a grudge- bearing man who uses his position to settle private scores."

She shoved forkfuls of the pasta into her mouth without tasting anything

Then she smiled.

There was garlic and parsley in the linguine.

Austyn hated garlic.

Kira looked forward to seeing the man's face when he got a taste of the spicy, almost pungent condiment.

Austyn engaged in small talk with her colleagues.

But he had a way of always diverting the topic back to her, asking her about this and that.

Kira tried to dodge the conversation by pointing to her full mouth and shrugging apologetically.

But Austyn just stopped talking, steepled his fingers and waited patiently for her to finish chewing

Then everyone else at the table would follow suit, forcing Kira to come up with a reply.

She wolfed down the rest of her food in record time, stood up, pushed back her chair with a loud scrape, and said simply, 'I'm done. I think I'll head back to the office first See you guys later."

Then she fled the cafeteria

"What's wrong with Kira today? Lexi mumbled. 'She didn't even wait for the lemon meringue ple to com

come out."

Austyn

Oh, okay, Mr McCarthy."

set down his fork, wiped the corners of his mouth with a serviette and stood up. "I need to make a move fi

first. Take your time."

The Pressler Age The inn