Ariana was out of breath after Jace entered his office as she stood in the spot he'd left her and her thoughts went haywire. Her hands were trembling at her side, and so was everything on the inside and she had to get that under control.

That had never happened to her before.
Ariana thought.

It was nothing, she told herself as she tried to shake it off.

"You can move now, you know."

Ariana snapped out of her reverie when Bridget spoke, catching her off guard. That was twice in the last hour and Ariana didn't like it. Bridget was smiling at her which slowly turned to a full-on grin.

"What?" Ariana asked, confused as to why she was grinning.

"I don't know." Bridget said, "Want to tell me?"

Ariana raised a brow in question having no idea what was going on.
"What?" She asked again,

Bridget's grin fell flat in seconds as she stared at Ariana blankly.
"Wow!" She said now with a straight face. "You are absolutely clueless in this regard."

"What are you talking about, Bridget?"

"You'll figure it out," She said, "Hopefully sooner rather than later."

"If it has anything to do with Mr. Black you have to tell me," She said, "My job is to protect him."

"Well, now I'm thinking you might need to protect yourself," She said, "I can actually picture it happening but when it does you wouldn't have a job. If I know him well enough." She murmured the last bit to herself.

Bridget got back to work while she was left standing there, confused. Everything was usually black and white for her, simple and straightforward. But this was just, it was Grey. Which was making her confused and uncomfortable because of that confusion.

She pushed everything aside and focused on the task at hand. She would be lying if she said a certain man stopped popping up in her head once in a while as she tried to focus on anything other than.

When she wasn't sitting, she was pacing. When she wasn't pacing, she was leaning against the wall. When she wasn't doing that, well she was counting till whatever number until she got tired and did everything all over again.

This wasn't what I signed up for, she was dying of boredom. Why did she have to be the one to take up this case?

Lunch time came and Ariana waited for Paul to come up to deliver Jace's lunch but he didn't show up. A few minutes later when she was leaning against the wall on the other side of where her chair was, Jace stepped out of his office. His gaze went to her chair just as she pushed away from the wall, he turned to her, their eyes met and it felt like they were frozen in time. Jace had a hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth which Ariana caught.

"We're going out for lunch."

She waited for him to walk ahead of her but he just stood there, looking at her. She turned and walked away from him, heading towards the elevator. Jace smiled, watching her and then followed behind her and joined her at the elevator where she waited for the elevator.

They stood side by side as they waited and Ariana felt how close to her he was standing. She ignored it, or rather, tried to. Jace was starting to love the lack of personal space and he planned on using it against her.

Before Ariana could do something obvious like move away from him, the elevator opened up and Ariana waited till Jace was inside before she went in and pushed the button for the ground floor. She stood at ease but with her hands in front as the elevator closed.

Jace leaned against the wall of the other side of the elevator, his eyes fixated on her. He wondered why he'd never once seen her without her guard down, maybe that one time when he'd tucked her hair behind her hair. He got it was her job but it must be tiring having to be on guard two-four-seven. He would know, he'd worn himself out by doing just that and keeping up with the company, that's why he'd needed a second pair of eyes.

Ariana could feel his piercing gaze on her making the tension inside the elevator more palpable and she was finding it hard to breathe. Ariana cleared her throat to ease the tension and end the deafening silence, something that never bothered her before.

"You don't need to have your guard up all the time. You can let your hair down sometimes."

Ariana wondered if he'd forgotten someone wanted to kill him.
"I can't take that risk."

"Of letting your hair down?"

Ariana turned her head to look at him.
"Of letting my guard down." She looked away, "Besides, I'm certain you'll change your mind once you're killed."

Jace frowned,
"But I'll be dead."

Ariana smiled to herself.

Jace smirked and let her win this time.

They both exited the elevator and made their way to the car outside the company building. Ariana was right behind him the entire time, watching out for the paparazzi outside the building before they stepped outside. She gave Marvis a curt nod as she got Jace safely into the back seat and joined Marvis in the front.

Seat belt on, Marvis pulled out of the reserved parking lot for the CEO. All through the ride, she made sure to avoid looking into the rearview mirror. If she needed to look behind to see they were not being followed, she used the side mirrors. Jace had seen her checking her side mirror a couple of times but the position in which she was seated, she couldn't see him. He liked how she covered all her bases and she was right, she couldn't be too careful. If she wasn't doing her job, he wouldn't be at ease like he was. Granted, he didn't trust her completely, yet. But he trusted that she was capable not just because Jack had chosen her for the job but because he'd watched her for the past twenty-four hours, give a little, and he'd seen similarities of himself in her.

Minutes later, Marvis pulled up in front of Les Coulisses a five-star restaurant.

"Typical," Ariana muttered to herself before she got out of the car.

She noticed the paparazzi hanging around as she opened the door for Jace. As soon as he stepped out of the car, it was flashing lights with a bonus of multiple questions being fired his way. She got him safely into the restaurant without having to punch anyone's lights out, their camera lens or their eyes.

Walking towards the maître d'oeuvre who stood behind the front desk with a tablet. He looked up when he heard their footsteps and his eyes went a tad bit wide.

"Mr. Black, welcome."

Jace gave him a curt nod,
"I have a reservation for two."

"Yes," He smiled, "Aright this way, please."

They were led to a private area of the restaurant, barely anyone was there and the floor to ceiling windows was tinted which made it paparazzi-proof.

"Here we are," He stopped at their table, "I'll have someone with you right away."

"Thank you." Jace replied,

The maître d'oeuvre left as Jace pulled out a chair and looked at Ariana.

Ariana gazed back at him with a raised brow wondering what he was doing.

"Sit, please." Jace begged, "I won't sit and have lunch while you stand there."

Ariana clenched her jaw, not sure what the protocol was in this kind of situation.

"Please."

Ariana glanced at the chair and back at him, before she walked to the other chair, pulled it out by herself then sat down.

Point taken.
Jace smiled to himself.

Jace sat in the chair he'd held out for her and fixed his gaze on her and Ariana immediately looked away when she knew he wasn't. She wasn't about to play another round of 'who blinks first'.

Ariana's back was to the waiter who approached, his footsteps muffled by the carpeted floor. Jace saw him coming and Ariana didn't hear his footsteps until he was a few feet away, closing in on them. Without a second thought, she was on her feet ready to attack but was immediately embarrassed when she came face to face with the waiter. He looked shit scared as he stared back at her with wide eyes.

Ariana straightened, pulling her jacket down.
"Sorry," She felt bad for the poor guy, "Carry on."

Jace was laughing silently in his seat when Ariana sat back down.

"G-Good afternoon. What c-can I get you?" The waiter neared the table stuttering.

Jace looked at him,
"We'll both have the coq au vin."

Both?!
Ariana wondered what he was doing. She wasn't eating with him.

"I'm not..."

"And two glasses of sparkling water," Jace interrupted her, "That would be all, thank you."

The waiter nodded and left and Jace returned his gaze back to her.

"You scared the poor guy to death," Jace smiled, "The look on his face was priceless."

"I saw. I was standing right in front of him."

"You need to relax," He said, "No one's going to attack us here. Well, except they take a shot through the window from that building over there using our heat signature."

Ariana stared at him, brows furrowed.
"And you still chose to sit here."

"I love sitting by the window." He said like it was no big deal.

"By the way, you'll be eating all by yourself," Ariana said, "I agreed to sit down, not to join you for lunch."

Jace sat back and studied her,
"We both didn't have anything for breakfast this morning and you said you'd have an early lunch," Jace reminded, "If you don't eat now, you'll be running on fumes and then knowing you, you wouldn't have anything until dinner."

Ariana just stared back at him, not knowing what to say to him being right. She nodded and looked away making him smile for winning this one.