Finally, it was time to travel. When Valentina went to the airport, her troubles began as she tried to check in. Apparently, she couldn’t book herself twice on the same flight, and the airline had canceled her newly purchased ticket, leaving her with just the old, more expensive one.

They wouldn’t cancel it since it was booked through corporate or allow her to book a new one, which forced her to use the one booked by Roman or fly on a different day.

Considering that the filming was for the next day, she really couldn’t delay it.

Then, to make matters worse, the person she didn’t want to see the most appeared next to her.

“What are you doing here, Mr. Grayson?” Valentina narrowed her eyes as she looked at Kaiser calmly getting into the seat beside her as she put her luggage away.

“It’s my assigned seat, so here I am.” He calmly replied while staring at her intently. His eyes were shadowed as if he hadn’t slept, and his stubble was growing into a light beard as if he hadn’t shaved.

“You know that’s not what I meant.”

“Valentina. Shall we talk?” His voice was low and sounded as if he was caressing her.

Hearing the wistful voice, she shook her head.

“Nope. Nope. Nope. I’m not doing this right now.” She looked away before putting on her headphones and sunglasses before leaning against the window.

She now had a headache in addition to her stomach hurting, and it wasn’t all from the piercing.

As the flight attendants went through the instruction process, she kept her vision focused and completely ignored the man beside her even though she could feel his gaze burning into her.

Not her business, not her problem.

She turned her music volume up, leaned against the window, and fell fast asleep while holding her churning stomach.

****

The flight was both long and short, and when she got off, she got her baggage in no time. Unfortunately, she seemed to have acquired extra baggage that kept following her around.

“Let me give you a ride.”

“I can catch my own.”

“Valentina.”

Ignoring him, she walked out with her suitcases toward the taxi pickup spot. Seeing her struggle with the two large suitcases, a roller carry-on, and a backpack, Kaiser easily snatched the suitcases from her.

“Give it back.” She leveled a cold glance at him causing Kaiser to snort.

“Don’t fuss, and let me help you before you tip over,” Kaiser replied calmly as he pulled the suitcases.

After a failed attempt at pulling it away from him, Valentina rolled her eyes before letting him pull it while continuing to walk toward the taxi pickup area.

Seeing the eyes of the men around them looking as if they would pounce on her immediately caused Kaiser to narrow his eyes, the vicious air around him causing them to turn their gaze away.

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He calmly followed Valentina, helping her load her suitcases onto a taxi while watching her clutch her stomach with a pained expression.

“Are you okay? Did you hurt your stomach or eat something bad?” he asked in concern.

“I’m fine. Stop following me. Goodbye, Mr. Grayson.” Valentina gave him a cold expression before pulling her mask up and slamming the door shut.

Grimacing softly as he watched the taxi peel away, he messaged his assistant to have his driver pull up the car.

He had a girl to catch.

When Valentina arrived at the assigned hotel, she quickly checked in before going to her assigned room on the fourth floor.

When she opened the door and looked around, her brows temporarily wrinkled before smoothing out.

The room was…small.

But then, everything would be small compared to the suite she had at the Kaiser’s place.

The majority of the room was taken up by a full-sized bed, with a small dresser, desk, and lamp.

Still, this would be where she would be living for the next couple of months, so she would get used to it.

After unpacking her stuff into the small closet, she took a quick shower, changed into comfy clothes, and began reviewing the script. She would have to leave early to do the script reading with the whole cast before they began recording, and she wanted to make sure that she was ready for anything that might happen.

As she was getting into the script, there was a knock on the door. She almost opened it, but something told her to check the peephole, and she made eye contact with Kaiser.

Turning away, she wanted to ignore him, but as if he heard her moving around, his lips quirked upward, and he spoke out in a calm voice.

“Miss Valentina Salazar. Stop avoiding me and open up. I know you’re in there.’

She continued walking away before he started pounding on the door. Hard.

Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.

His fist pounded on the door, rattling it before she heard his voice called out again.

“Valentina open up before someone comes to investigate. In fact, I think I see someone coming-”

“Mr. Grayson, what exactly do you want, and why do you insist on being a stalker?” Valentina asked him coolly after snatching the door open, but Kaiser just smiled softly at her, his gray eyes looking her over and especially focusing on her stomach.

“Hey babe, have you eaten?”

Seeing him pretend everything was fine, Valentina could feel her face scrunch up in irritation. Yet she didn’t realize that she looked like a cute cat that was irritated and had brought out its claws; although it meant to be fierce, he could only see it as cute.

“Not yet. I planned on ordering food.”

“I plan on ordering spicy wings and some beer. Do you want some? Or shall we go out to eat somewhere?”

“No, thank you. I have to show up early on set tomorrow for filming, so I planned on eating something light. Don’t worry about my meals. Do you have any official business for me? If not, Have a good night.” As she made to slam the door, Kaiser stuck his foot into it, causing it to be opened just a crack.

“Valentina?”

“What?” she asked him rudely, her expression bland. She knew she should manage this relationship and be polite to get all the advantages that she could, but she didn’t want to. She already had to manage her image in so many other aspects as well as the stupid system; this was the one thing she could control right now.

“Let me in. Let’s talk”

“I told you, I don’t want to. I’m fine talking like this if there’s any business to talk about.”

“Fine with me. You’re the one who wants to hide our relationship, not me.” Kaiser gave her a sly smile before raising his voice.

“I’m here to confess to Miss Valentina Salazar! When you were living in my house for several months, Valentina, I-”

“Sshhhhhh. There are people here! What if someone hears?!?” She quickly hissed at him.

“Are you letting me in?” Kaiser glanced down at her, his gray eyes flashing with amusement.

‘Of course not.”

“As I was saying, Valentina Salazar, when you lived in my house, I Kai-” Valentina quickly slammed her hand over Kaiser’s mouth, covering it up entirely.

Seeing his smug expression, she glared at him and couldn’t help but curse.

“What the hell, Kaiser? Be quiet!”

Chuckling, he licked her palm, and as she snatched it away, he grabbed and held it gently while leaning forward so his face was so close to hers she could feel his minty breath waft over her face while his cologne seemed to encircle her.

“Let me inside, and let’s talk. And then I’ll leave. Otherwise, we’ll have the conversation out here. At full volume. I don’t mind yelling if I have to, but we will talk. And if someone comes, good luck explaining.”

“Are you blackmailing me?” Valentina narrowed her eyes at him.

“If that’s how you want to think about it. Can I come in?”

They stared at each other in a stalemate and as she stood there, she could feel the heat of his large warm hands penetrating her cold ones as he began softly caressing her hand.

“…fine. Come in.”

Snatching her hand away and reluctantly letting him in, she backed into the room until she was standing against the farthest wall.