Ch. 376..380: Forbidden Heat R18 Chapter 376-380

Chapter 376: Reiner – Saying Goodbye

“No problem. I’m glad you got a place. Honestly, I didn’t think that you would decide on it that fast,” Kat replied with a laugh.

“It’s getting late now, you should head back and get some rest before work starts at the bar,” I suggested.

“You’re not coming tonight?” Kat asked.

“Umm...I don’t know...” I mumbled.

Truthfully, I wasn’t sure if I should work there tonight or not. I was very tired because I didn’t sleep at all last night and going around to see the apartment left me feeling tired. I probably didn’t have enough stamina to pull off another night at work at the bar. Then again, I might run into Reiner if I went back to the mansion early. I did succeed in avoiding seeing him at work by taking the day off, but I knew that sooner or later I would have to face him again. He’s my boss after all and I needed to keep my job.

“Sorry, I guess I won’t be going after all. Please say hi to Jamie and the gang for me,” I told Kat after making my decision.

“Awww...so sad. You better come help me out next time. Oh, and let me know if you need help moving,” Kat said with a grin.

“Thank you. I should let my hosts know that I’ll be moving out...” I said before smiling a little at her.

We waved to each other, and I watched Kat walk away before heading in the opposite direction to grab a ride back to the mansion.

...

Later that day, I made it my mission to find Queen and tell her that I’ll be moving out. Honestly, I wanted to be gone tomorrow but that wasn’t a realistic option. I didn’t want to take another day off work because my balance of leave days was limited. I couldn’t avoid Reiner forever either, so going to work and acting professional about it was the right solution. That made me decide to move out first thing on Saturday morning.

I made it sound like moving out was going to be a big effort for me but in reality, it was just me packing up a backpack and a small suitcase with all that I owned. Thankfully, I haven’t been living in the mansion for too long and I haven’t amassed a whole bunch of things. That meant that it was going to be simple and easy for me to move out. Hopefully, it was going to be quick and painless.

The maids that I walked past in the hallway told me that Queen was in her rose garden. I thanked them and headed straight for my destination. I remembered having a chat with Queen in her rose garden before. After all that she’s done for me, I felt quite guilty and uncomfortable telling her that I would be moving out. I had told her something to this effect before but now that it was really happening right around the corner, I was starting to feel slightly nervous about it.

I found Queen snipping a dead rose flower off the tip of a stem when I arrived at her garden. Slowly, I approached her, and she looked up at the sound of my footsteps.

“Natalia...you’re back already...” Queen said as she placed her scissors down.

“Yeah...” I replied vaguely.

“You look tired. You should sleep more or you’re going to age prematurely,” Queen warned.

“Thanks for your advice. Umm...actually, I’m here to tell you that I’m planning to move out this Saturday. Thank you for all that you’ve done for me so far. I know you told me not to rush but I think I’m ready now...” I told her before I lost my nerve.

“I see. Well, I should be happy for you, I guess...” Queen replied after a small pause.

“Thank you, really,” I thanked her again.

“Well, don’t be a stranger. I’ll miss you to be honest. I don’t have a daughter, so I sort of view you as one. Please come and visit me. We can also hit the bar together!” Queen said as she tried to sound cheerful.

“Sure. I’ll definitely keep in touch. Don’t worry about that. I’ll continue working at the bar and at King’s company too. You can call me, and you know where to find me,” I said with a smile.

“You’re right about that. Good luck, Natalia. Please don’t hesitate to let me know if you need any help,” Queen said.

I started feeling very sad and it felt like I was ready to start crying. She viewed me as her daughter, and I felt the same way. Queen reminded me of my mother and the kindness that she had shown me was very pure and touching.

“Thank you, Queen. I’m not leaving yet so...” I said as I blinked away my tears.

“You’re right. Do you need help with the move?” Queen asked.

“Not at all. I don’t have a lot of stuff with me, so I’ll just get a cab,” I replied.

“Ok...well, let me know if you need help,” Queen replied after giving in.

“Sure. No worries,” I replied before smiling bravely at her.

Queen stared deeply into my eyes before she nodded at me.

...

It was as if finding a new place and having told Queen straightforwardly about it had lifted a huge load off my chest and mind. Because of that, I slept very well that night and work up feeling quite ready to deal with life and its many challenges. Because I knew that I couldn’t avoid it forever and also because I was determined to do well at my first ever fulltime job, I had firmly decided that I would go to work today. Come what may.

I woke up on time when the alarm rang. I didn’t drag my feet as I headed to the bathroom for a quick shower before getting dressed. Nothing weighed me down when my hand reached for the doorknob before turning it to open the door. I was prepared to face the day and whatever it would throw at me; however, I wasn’t prepared for what I was about to see.

“Good morning,” a low manly voice greeted me the moment that I stepped out of my bedroom.

Chapter 377: Reiner - Acting Normal

The door closed behind me with a small thud as my body froze in place and my face felt numb.

“Good...morning...” I replied softly after regaining my composure.

That was all I could come up with to say to him. Why was Reiner standing here in front of my door?

“Good morning, Natalia. Are you going to work today?” Reiner asked flatly.

Is that another way of asking me why I wasn’t at work yesterday? I took in a deep breath and stood up a little straighter.

“Yes, of course. Umm...thank you for waiting for me. Shall we?” I said as I tried to act natural.

I didn’t wait for Reiner to say anything in response before walking past him along the hallway that would lead us to the stairs. My mind screamed all the way to the stairs as I wondered why he had to appear in front of my bedroom like that. Honestly, I wasn’t planning on avoiding him or anything. I had work to do, and I was going to do it.

Act natural, Natalia.

I repeated this to myself with every breath that I took until we got into the car together. Needless to say, the atmosphere in the car was tense. Reiner obviously wanted to know why I didn’t turn up to work yesterday and that question just hung in the air between us throughout the whole ride. He didn’t voice the question and even if he did, I wasn’t sure if I could answer it directly and honestly. How does ‘I quickly hunted for a place so that I could move out of your mansion as soon as possible’ sound?

Unlike the days before, I didn’t bother to make conversation with him in the car. The now-familiar scenery on the way to the office past by in front of my eyes in a haze as I stared out the car’s window. I’ll talk to him like normal when we get to the office. We’ll talk about work and that would be it.

We arrived at work, and I quickly got out of the car. Wordlessly, we ascended the elevator together to his office. As we stepped out of the elevator together, I was already piecing together what I would say to him when we arrived at his office.

“I left a short list of agents for you to review. Have you seen it?” I asked once we arrived in his personal office.

Reiner sat down behind his table before he nodded at me. He took out what I recognized as the papers that I had printed for him.

“I see. I narrowed down the agent list to those that may have lost a member of their team during a mission because of incompatibility issues. Of course, we don’t know that for sure yet. However, I think that it’ll be worth your time to talk to them one by one,” I explained.

“I see. Let’s do that. If you send this to the secretarial department, they can help you schedule meetings with these agents,” Reiner replied calmly.

“Great. I’ll do that today then...” I readily agreed.

Despite our personal circumstances, it seemed like work was making some progress. I can start analyzing more data the same way and maybe I’ll find more insights. Now that I had my work cut out for me today, I didn’t have a reason to hang around in his personal office anymore.

“I’ll be working outside then. If you need anything, you can give me a call,” I said politely before turning to leave.

Try to act normal, Natalia. I repeated to myself again as I felt his eyes on my back. After walking out of Reiner’s office, I closed the door softly behind me and breathed a sigh of relief. Hang in there, Natalia.

Now that I was back at my desk, I felt a lot more comfortable. Focusing quickly on the work at hand, I went straight to analyzing the data with the hope of finding more trends or any indicators that could help us with the problem at hand. For a moment, I wished that I would run into Charles. Maybe he would have some wise words of advice for me if I asked him about it. If what other people told me about Charles was true, then he’s got to have ample of field experience. He probably knows a thing or two about improving the survival rate of a team on a mission.

On the other hand, I knew absolutely nothing apart from the first level basic insights that the data was telling me. I realized then that some expert insights into this will probably be invaluable. Reiner probably knew a lot about this topic but the same couldn’t be said about me. This work and company were very unique and I found myself getting more interested in it.

“Natalia...Natalia...” I heard someone calling my name.

“Huh? Yes...Yes...Sorry, you were saying?” I quickly replied after snapping out of my bubble.

I looked up to see Reiner leaning over my desk with his face now very close to mine. Being too focused on the work on my computer screen, I had somehow lost all track of time and what was going on around me. I didn’t even notice when Reiner approached me and I wondered how long he had been calling my name. What does he want?

“Sorry, I was too focused working. Is there something that you need?” I asked, trying to sound polite and less flustered than just now.

“It’s lunchtime,” Reiner stated plainly.

My eyes flickered to the clock on the wall and found out that he was right. Actually, it was already 15 minutes past lunch time.

“Right. Do you want me to go buy something for you? What would you like to have for lunch?” I asked as I quickly stood up from my seat.

This is bad. I should have noticed the time and asked him beforehand what he wanted for lunch. Even if I headed out now, all the restaurants are probably packed, and it would take a long while before I could return with his lunch. Why did I have to get sucked up into my work like that?

Chapter 378: Reiner – His Invitation

“No, actually, I was wondering...if you want to have lunch together with me?” Reiner asked bluntly.

“Lunch...with you?” I repeated questioningly, unable to believe what I had just heard.

Reiner is asking me to have lunch with him? Huh? Why? Why this all of a sudden?

“Yes, lunch with me,” Reiner repeated with his eyes still on my face.

I blinked rapidly as his words started to sink in. Is this really happening?

Honestly, if he had asked me to join him for lunch a few days ago, I would have jumped up and cried for joy. However, I wasn’t sure what I should be feeling now. My feelings were completely messed up. I didn’t feel any happiness at all...I just felt uncomfortable and anxious. Pushing my messy thoughts and feelings aside, I decided to concentrate on the facts. It doesn’t matter why he asked me out, a lunch is just lunch. It’s probably not strange for a boss to invite his subordinate to eat lunch with him.

Don’t read too much into this, Natalia.

“Sure. What would you like to eat? I’ll leave it up to you to choose,” I replied before smiling a little at him.

Just act normal, Natalia.

“My schedule is quite free in the afternoon, so we don’t need to rush. What about Japanese?” Reiner asked casually.

“Sounds good...” I replied smoothly.

I couldn’t care less what we ate. I just hoped that lunch would pass by without any emotionally damaging incident. Reiner opened the door for me, and I walked out of his office into the hallway. I wasn’t sure which restaurant he had in mind, so I let him lead the way after we got out of the elevator. To my surprise, Reiner led me to the parking lot where he had parked his car.

“We need to drive to get there,” he explained before we got into the car.

...

Reiner drove us to a part of the business district that I had never been to before. Apart from the area around the office building where we worked at and where my new apartment was located, I haven’t travelled anywhere else in the business district. We arrived at our destination which turned out to be an expensive-looking hotel.

“There’s a pretty good Japanese restaurant here at this hotel,” Reiner said casually as we got out of the car.

“I see...” I mumbled.

Reiner led the way to the restaurant that was located on a high floor. After stepping out of the elevator, it was like I had arrived in Japan. The restaurant was decorated in the theme of a Japanese garden with Sakura trees and there were tatami mats on the floor. Cute low Japanese style tables were neatly arranged for customers to sit on. Although it wasn’t real, it still looked very impressive.

“It’s like we’ve been teleported to Japan,” I commented.

“Yeah...” Reiner replied.

A lady dressed in a beautiful pink and gold kimono came to greet us and lead us to our table. The restaurant was quite dim while the table was lit with just enough orange warm light for us to see. The atmosphere in the restaurant was quiet and peaceful. Apart from us, there were only a few occupied tables.

We ordered our food and the lady in the pretty kimono accepted our orders with a charming smile. I wondered if Reiner liked coming to this type of restaurants. The atmosphere was overly pleasant that it was bordering romantic. Now that we were alone again, I didn’t know what to say or how to react.

The silence between us made me feel uncomfortable. I decided to talk about work just so that the silence would stop suffocating me.

"Thanks for bringing me here. This is a nice place. About the work, I think we should have all the interviews with the agents scheduled soon. All interviews can be wrapped up next week,” I informed him.

“Right. Thank you,” Reiner replied.

I ran out of things to say, and it didn’t seem likely that I could keep the flow of the conversation going. An uncomfortable silene crept up on us again. I picked up a small ornament that served the purpose of decorating the table and began examining it. There was absolutely nothing interesting about this little sculpture of a fish in the Japanese art style, but I stared at it as if I had never seen such an interesting thing before in my life. It was better than not having anything to do at all.

I’ll just pretend to look at this and that until our food arrives or something...

Reiner didn’t say anything, but I could feel his eyes on me. When I looked up from the little fish sculpture, our eyes immediately met, and I glanced away in a hurry. That was scary and not so good for the condition of my heart. This situation was supposed to be a good opportunity for us to get closer, but I couldn’t focus at all. I felt so anxious about everything, and I was so aware of his presence sitting opposite me at the table that I just wanted this lunch to be over and done with.

Thankfully, the lady soon returned with our order. I returned the smile that the lady graciously offered as she served our food in front of us. I had ordered the recommended sushi set. I stared at the various colorful sushi on my plate before reaching out for my chopstick. I glanced over at Reiner who had begun eating his sushi casually. Maybe I was the only one feeling awkward in this situation.

I picked up a sushi with my chopstick and looked at it before putting it in my mouth. The fish tasted fresh, and the rice tasted slightly sweet and sour. Lucien liked to take me out to eat Japanese food like this. He knew that I loved Japanese food and any fusion variations of it. I wondered what Lucien is doing now? Was he very upset or mad when he found out that I was missing?

Chapter 379: Reiner – A Sweet Reminder

It wasn’t the first time that I started thinking of people back home. I knew that I didn’t miss home and that I didn’t want to go back. However, recently, I’ve been thinking of the people back at home more and more. I shook my head a little to shake away my thoughts. Perhaps Reiner’s words telling me to go home was finally getting to my head.

“Natalia...” Reiner called my name softly.

My chopstick stopped midair in my surprise. I lifted my eyes to look at Reiner.

“Hmm? What is it?” I asked curiously.

Reiner glanced away as if he was hesitating to say what he had in mind. I cocked my head to the side curiously as I watched him and waited for him to continue.

“Actually, never mind...” Reiner said emotionlessly.

He continued eating just like nothing had happened. I picked up my teacup and sipped at the warm green tea as I peered at his face over the rim of my teacup. I wondered what he was about to say...

Lunch came to an end without us sharing any more conversation. To my relief, lunch was over, and we were leaving the restaurant. I couldn’t believe that I was thinking this, but I truly wished to return back to the office and do some work so that my mind wouldn’t need to think about anymore useless things.

After exiting the restaurant, things didn’t quite go as I had expected. Instead of leading me back to the car, he led me to the lobby of the hotel. I followed after him without asking any questions, but I was surprised when he started walking out of the hotel.

“Let’s stop by a café,” Reiner suggested.

Did he want desert or something? I didn’t think that Reiner would normally drop by a café in the middle of a workday. Perhaps, he just wanted some coffee?

“Do you want to get coffee?” I asked as I walked at his side along the pavement.

“Not really...” he replied vaguely.

Reiner was acting a little strangely and I didn’t quite understand why. I continued walking by his side as we strode past various shops that lined the side of the road. Soon, we arrived at a beautifully decorated café. This light pink café decorated with pastel-colored flowers made Reiner look so out of place. I couldn’t believe that he brought me to a place like this.

Had he been here before? Most probably, he has. Who did he come here with; I wonder? This just doesn’t look like a place that man like Reiner would come by himself.

I turned to see him looking at the various cakes and confectionaries that were displayed magnificently in the store’s window. Reiner’s large frame as he bent over looking at the small pieces of cake, tarts and the like felt strangely out of place. A smile curved my lips before I could understand what kind of feeling had taken over me.

“Shall we head in?” I asked, encouragingly.

“Yeah, we should...” Reiner replied a little blankly as he followed me inside the café.

The waitress quickly led us to an unoccupied table before passing us the menu. Apparently, Reiner wasn’t just looking to get a simple takeaway coffee. I glanced at him to see what he would order. Apart from the drinks section of the menu, the other parts of the menu consisted of mostly cakes and other desserts. Are we really going to eat cake together here?

“You should order a cake,” Reiner spoke up without looking at me.

“Oh...ok...” I replied, a little confused.

“The blueberry cheesecake here is good,” Reiner said with his eyes still on the menu.

I cocked my head to the side as I got even more confused than before. Did he bring me here for me to eat blueberry cheesecake? It had been a while since I ate cheesecake...

My eyes scanned the menu but couldn’t find blueberry cheesecake written on it. I glanced at the waitress who quickly provided the answer to my question.

“It’s not a regular menu here but we do have it today,” the waitress said with a sweet smile.

“Oh, I see. I’ll go with what he suggested then. One blueberry cheesecake for me please,” I turned to order from the waitress.

“Yes, Miss. Anything else?” she asked sweetly.

“I’ll have coffee and some apple juice for her,” Reiner said as he ordered a drink for me as well.

My eyes watched him intently as he spoke to the waitress politely. I wondered what he was thinking. I couldn’t read him at all...

I offered him a small smile when I felt his eyes settle on my face. Reiner looked like he wanted to say something but, in the end, nothing ensued between us except for silence. I better find something to talk to him about. The waitress returning to our table with our order saved us from more awkwardness. The arrival of the blueberry cheesecake also provided me with something to talk to Reiner about.

The cheesecake looked amazing. Just as expected from a café that had such an impressive and eye-catching display. I admired the cake for a while before picking up a small fork and cutting a small piece. Without hesitation, I placed a small piece of cake into my mouth.

“This...” I murmured before trailing off as I got lost in my own thoughts.

Was it just my imagination?

I took another bite of the cake, this time a larger one. Either my imagination had started running wild or my taste buds are fooling themselves, but this cake tastes a lot like the one that Reiner used to make for me when we were back at Lucien’s mansion. My eyes glanced over to Reiner who seemed to be enjoying his coffee.

It couldn’t be...

I stuffed more of the cake into my mouth as I savored its familiar taste. Regardless of whether this cake tasted like the ones that Reiner made for me or not, the taste made me feel better about everything that was going on. I was smiling before I knew it as I put more cake into my mouth before sucking lightly on the little fork. It tastes so good and so familiar.

Chapter 380: Reiner – Sneaking Out

“Thank you for bringing me here. This cake tastes really good,” I said before smiling a little at Reiner in appreciation.

“I’m glad that you like it,” he replied.

“I really like it,” I said as I looked deeply into his blue eyes.

Thank you, Reiner.

Time slipped by as we sat there in silence. Some time, I would feel Reiner eyes on me as I continued to eat the cake. Once I had finished, I realized that we’ve had quite an extended lunch in terms of time.

“Natalia...” Reine called my name softly.

I looked up to find him staring directly at my face.

“Yes?” I replied, wondering what he was going to say.

“About yesterday, where did you go?” Reiner asked.

Was that what had been bothering him?

“Nowhere. I just wasn’t feeling so well,” I replied, trying to sound normal.

“Really?” he asked as his eyes watched me.

“Really. I feel all better now so there’s nothing for you to worry about,” I replied

I lied but it was true that soon, there wouldn’t be anything for him to worry about anymore.

Spending the weekday with Reiner has made it hard for me to go to work at the bar. He drove us to work together and then at the end of the workday, he would drive us back. That left me no room to slip away to work at the bar. If I brought it up again and asked for his permission, we would most likely get into another argument, and I wanted to avoid that at all costs. This problem will go away soon enough anyways.

The weekend would arrive soon, and I would move out of his mansion to start living at my new place. That would mean that we would no longer share a ride to the office or a ride back to the mansion. Naturally, when that happened, I can work at the bar whenever I wanted once again. I should give Jamie a call to apologize for not turning up to work so much this week. At least, I can promise to work both nights on the weekends at this bar. Although that would make waking up on a Monday morning harder than usual...

...

After a few days of strenuous work with Reiner at the office, Saturday finally arrived. I spent some time on Friday night packing away the few belongings that I had to get ready for my move. Most of the things belonged to the mansion and I wouldn’t be taking them along. After packing the things that belonged to me, I was reminded by how little I owned. Just like I had imagined, everything fit in a backpack and a small luggage. This should make moving very quick and easy which was a great thing.

Kat had offered to help me move but I had turned her down. For some reason, I felt like I wanted to be alone during the move. I didn’t need any physical help with moving the stuff because there wasn’t much anyways. Therefore, I would rather go at my own pace and have some alone time to think and evaluate how I felt. At this moment, I felt extremely excited to move to my own new place. Sure, I’ll be leaving the comforts of the mansion, the helpful maids, and the kind and caring Queen behind but I was sure that I’ll learn so much more about life from this courageous move.

I also knew that I would be further away from Reiner now too...

Since I already informed Queen about my move, I was planning to make a low-key departure. Basically, I planned to slip out of the mansion in the morning on a Saturday, hopefully, without running into anyone. Most of all, I prayed that I wouldn’t run into Reiner. I wasn’t sure what his reaction would be. He might get mad, and we might get into another argument, or he might be relieved and happy now that I’m finally leaving. Either way, I didn’t want to face him.

With my backpack on my back and my small roller luggage in my other hand, I took one last sweeping glance around the room that had served as my first place on this island before I whispered a very soft ‘goodbye’.

The mansion was quiet on that Saturday morning, and I was thankful for the peace. The cab that I had arranged for should be waiting for me in front of the mansion already. I had just received a text from the driver to confirm that he had arrived based on the details provided in my pre-booking. I walked along the familiar hallway before descending the stairs to the first floor.

I made it to the entrance of the mansion without incident. However, just as I was about to turn the corner to head out the exit of the mansion, the sight of a very tall and familiar person caught my eye.

Reiner!

Reflexively, I stopped in my track and hid back behind the wall. I prayed that he hadn’t seen me yet. What is he doing up so early on a Saturday? Why was he just standing there right in front of the mansion’s entryway? My breath caught in my throat as my heart started beating faster and faster. I closed my eyes and concentrated on taking deep breaths to calm myself down.

What should I do? If I wait here, will he leave? Should I move away because he might come into the mansion?

I peered a little at Reiner and he was still standing there. Then I realized that he was talking, although I couldn’t quite catch what he was saying. That was when I realized that he was talking on the phone. I pulled myself back and leaned my back against the wall. Pressing myself flat against the wall, I continued praying that he would just go away soon so that I could leave.

“I’m waiting for you right in front of the mansion...” Reiner said.

He’s still talking on the phone. I could hear remnants of his conversation with whoever he was talking to. Apparently, he was waiting for someone to arrive. What should I do? Should I go back to my room and hide for now? But...the cab is already waiting for me outside. If I move, will he spot me?

“Knight!”

A very joyful and bright voice of a woman that I’ve never heard before rang out loud and clear as she called Reiner’s code name. Is she the person that Reiner had been waiting for?

My body froze in place and for no logical reason at all, an empty void expanded and filled my stomach. I’ve never seen her or heard her voice before, but my instinct told me that I already knew who the owner of that cheerful voice was. Suddenly, I felt cold, and a shiver ran through my body. Glancing down, I discovered that my hands were shaking.