Forbidden Deception (Deception)

6

C onstruction sites are always a headache to visit. It’s great to see your visions come to life, but it’s irritating to direct people and listen to the shouts and sounds of machines.

Nonetheless, this time, I feel even more reluctant to stay because a certain somebody with long chocolate hair and a mischievous smile is with me.

This woman will send me to an insane asylum before she quits her job. She does her work well. I have yet to find any mistakes. She is precise and efficient, so there is no reason to fire her.

The other staff don’t interact with her socially, as per my request. I could build a false case and dismiss her, but no other assistant has been this good at their job or stuck around for so long.

Additionally, her reason for employment about shaping her to be the best version of herself hits too close to home for me.

“And what is this used for?” Venezia asks my head site manager, looking up at the crane with curiosity. I’m sure she knows, but she just wants to be difficult or, more likely, annoying.

Every time she catches me looking, she smiles coldly. I’m not sure what changed, but instead of her smiles feeling warm and like a soft punch to my heart, they suddenly feel a little distant, and that bothers me now, too.

I told her to shut up, and it seems she did. She did tell me she has my best interests at heart and wants to help me, as per her long speech yesterday. She keeps on top of her work and always leaves me fifteen minutes in between each meeting, her notes neatly done, my coffee and lunch perfect to my tastes, I have noticed it all. While I admire her work ethic, though I’d never tell her that, that’s not what irks me. It’s her. Her personality. Her beauty. Who she is.

I’ve never encountered someone like her.

Someone so serious, yet so warm and happy. Someone whose eyes don’t spark with passion or desire while her mouth chatters away. I feel so distant from her while being so close to her. She is a fucking mystery to me. I can’t figure her out, can’t put her in a category.

The site manager doesn’t seem to mind Venezia’s questions. In fact, this newly manager who is in place for the one on sick leave, can’t keep his eyes off my assistant. He is about to be fired.

Everything feels so fucking annoying now.

“This is for lifting heavy—”

“Oliver, get me the updated plans and show where that plumbing problem is,” I snap.

Blond hair whips with the wind and brown eyes focus on me. The manager steps away from us, shoots a smile at Venezia, then walks off towards the construction office at the far end of the site.

“Plumbing problem? Won’t that pose a danger?”

I nod at Venezia’s question, focused on the dark ocean in front of me. The waves strengthen with each gust of wind.

“This place will look gorgeous during the summer. It’s an amazing location. I can’t imagine the price of the land, given the location.” She walks over, stands next to me, and mirrors my crossed arms.

Oceans are a fascinating, uncontrollable force. When my eyes slide over to Venezia, who looks around the construction site, she feels like a stronger force than the ocean.

She walks with an innate confidence, stirs trouble without trying and remains in control of every situation. I’ve never found someone who reminds me of myself, but this twenty-two-year-old woman has thrust a mirror in my face.

I didn’t trust her, but she has managed to chip away at part of that distrust and the barrier I created to keep her away.

Why does she make me want to argue with her more just to see her fiery side?

No woman has kept my attention for this long. Forget being my assistant, Venezia is about to discover what being the centre of attention looks like.

“Early on, in my teens, I used to wonder what a world beyond four walls felt like. I didn’t expect to see oceans, rivers, cities, and country sides and still not feel like I belong. Watching the carefree ocean makes me want to reach out to it and ask it how one achieves such freedom?”

A pang hits me inside my chest, but I ignore it.

She turns to me, and her hair is blown sideways, with strands covering half her face. Her deep eyes soften around the corners, and she gives me a small smile.

It’s still cold, though.

“The ocean also hides monsters. It’s best not to ask such questions when you could find a pair of wings and fly high. After all, isn’t space far greater and wider than the ocean?” My words spill out before I can stop them.

She shouldn’t have asked that question. I think about that question myself. I thought about it often and didn’t have an answer until now.

“You’re not that big of a grump after all.” She bumps her shoulder against mine with a wide smile. She’s never touched me before, never crossed that small boundary, but right now, just a small graze of her shoulder against mine restricts my throat.

She looks behind me and brightens like a fucking lightbulb. Who the fuck is there?

I turn around and find Oliver holding the blueprint. He’s smiling at her.

Without thinking, I step in front of Venezia and raise a silent brow at Oliver. He sobers up and unrolls the blueprint. I catch Venezia moving to my left, so I move to my left too, closer to Oliver.

She cranes her neck around me to my right, so I lean over to point at a random spot on the blueprint.

“We should move the trees?” Oliver asks, brows pinched.

I look down to see I have pointed at the trees we are planting for the park section of the hotel.

“No, we need more trees. There aren’t enough,” I smoothly point out.

When Oliver starts talking again, I glance behind me to see that Venezia is gone. I scan the open floor until wispy hair comes into view, all the way in the corner. She’s wearing a bright neon yellow construction helmet and a high-vis vest, and she’s laughing while talking to the two people marking the floor.

I suck in a sharp breath.

“Is this not where you want it? The problem is an easy fix, I promise,” Oliver stresses, looking at me.

Fuck this. I don’t care.

“If it’s an easy fix, then why are you showing me? Report it to Headquarters. I asked to only be informed of serious problems, and this isn’t one of them.” Leaving him there, I walk over to Venezia, who seems to be getting comfortable with the workers.

I can’t do this.

I can’t keep babysitting this woman.

I follow her around wherever she goes during the whole three hours we are there. Plucking off these men like rotten fruit. She never needs my help. The one time one of them tried make a move on her, she straightened and put him in his place without thinking. One look from her had everyone else frozen in place. A flicker of admiration for her warms my chest.

And when it was time to head home, I drop her off at the office building.

“See you tomorrow, Mr Gustav.” She waves while tucking hair behind her ear.

I nod at her in acknowledgement.

She straightens, and instead of walking to the garage or phoning a taxi, she starts to walk past my car. Does she not have a ride home?

The weather is already gusty and gloomy; it’s also likely to start raining. A loud crack of thunder booms through the darkening sky, and concern for this irritating woman sparks within me.

She’s still walking with no care in the world, no umbrella, no ride or anything.

“Home, sir?”

I blink and look away from Venezia’s retreating figure towards my driver.

I should—No, she will take it as me liking her or whatever.

“Yes.”

Sliding my window up, I force myself not to look out as my car passes her, but when we turn ahead at the junction, I look into the side mirror of the car just to see if she truly is walking home.

She was going the same way.

Halfway through the ride home, rain starts pouring. It splatters heavily on the car, and my mind reels back to Venezia.

Stop thinking about her.

That smart woman will probably bother someone and force them to give her a ride home.

Of course she will.

She’s confident and chaotic like that.