Rachel's POV

"I honestly thought you and Blake were dating," I said looking at Deana in shock. "How does this friends with benefits thing work?"

Deana sighed and her eyes filled with sadness. "Just don't do it. Don't ever do it. It always ends in someone catching feelings and now I'm stuck kinda loving the guy, well sort of. It's complicated. I care for him a lot but my feelings are always swaying. I just don't understand," she said with her voice unsteady.

Julia reached over for the chocolate covered strawberries and popped one in Deana's mouth. "Oh cheer up, he'll come around. He already acts like your boyfriend so don't rush with the labels."

It was around 6pm and we were back home from our girls' day. I finally got my drivers' license so I took the liberty of driving us to the mall with my precious new car all thanks to my Alexander. We ditched going for a movie and instead settled on shopping, eating, getting our hair and nails done as well as going to the park to take some pictures for Deana's Instagram. She had over 400 000 followers so Julia often called her an influencer.

We were now enjoying our time in the hot tub that was attached to the pool while drinking some champagne and eating chocolate covered strawberries.

Deana huffed frustrated. "I'm not sure if he only sleeps around with me but I have to confess," she looked at us intently.

"I went out with Jacques the other night and we...you know," Deana mumbled and started playing with the water.

Julia gasped loudly while her eyes went big. "Holy fuck, Deana! You slept with the Frenchie?"

"Frenchie? Who's Jacques?" I asked.

"Jacques Lemeiux. Well more like Monsieur Jacques Lemeiux and sometimes Professor Jacques Lemeiux. He's a benefactor for the fashion students at the institute since he owns one of the leading fashion brands in the world. Totally gorgeous, handsome and very French. Sometimes he comes in and helps the fashion students with crash courses. But like I was saying – Holy fuck, Deana!" Julia let out while Deana cowered away in shame.

"And the worst part is, I don't regret it," she whispered with a little guilty smile. "I care for Blake. I thought I loved him at one point. I'm really not sure. But Jacques... he made me feels things no man has ever managed to," Deana said dreamily.

I took a sip of my champagne and turned to Deana. "So you basically slept with your teacher and you'd do it again?" She nodded with a little bit of shame in her eyes but I could tell that she felt more for this Jacques professor as well.

Just then, Julia's phoned beeped with a notification. "Boys will pick us up in two hours. Let's go get ready. Amir is designated driver so the rest of us can get wasted tonight!" she cheered and stood up.

We all stepped out and wrapped the towels around us. "I'm just going to see Alexander for a few minutes and I'll be right with you guys. Go ahead and shower in the meantime."

"Remember what I said, Mrs Viotto-Ashford," Julia wiggled her eyebrows at me. I nodded shyly and made my way to the study with the towel wrapped securely around me.

Men love it when you run your nails down their back and gently scratch and claw when he's fucking you

My nails were extra long with the acrylic extensions and it was a deep red colour with a glossy finish. 'Sexy slutty nails' as Deana described and managed convincing me to be bold for a change.

I entered Alexander's study without knocking and closed the door behind me. However I was surprised to find that there was a man sitting across him. Both of them drinking a glass of what I had got to know was bourbon.

"Oh my apologies, I'm so sorry. I didn't know you had company," I said and turned around to leave quickly.

Alexander's POV

"It's alright, princess," I called out before she could leave, "Let me introduce you to someone."

Rachel turned back around and walked over to me behind my desk. She held her towel tightly around her, seemingly a little shy to be in front of Liam in her pink bathing suit. I stood up and towered over her as I kissed her.

Forcefully she pulled back as a blush appeared on her cheeks. I looked over at Liam to see him smirking at me. It's not as if he should care, I've seen him fuck his wife before – that too in my fucking car.

"Alexander, not in front of your guest," she whispered to me with an embarrassed smile.

"Don't worry about him. Liam is worse than I am," I said and kissed her again, hard and deeply. I really craved these lips. So soft, so velvety and all mine.

Again, Rachel pulled back and lightly pushed my chest. Liam laughed out loud causing her to cower away a little. I sat back down on my chair and pulled Rachel to sit on one of my legs.

"Aren't you going to introduce me your wife you sad fuck?" Liam asked with a glint of humour in his eyes. He was enjoying this.

My hand was trailing under Rachel's towel, trying their best to go into her bikini bottoms but she swatted them away.

I looked over at a gleaming Liam and scoffed, "You have a mouth. Introduce yourself."

Rachel hit my chest in an attempt to scold me. "Don't be rude."

"He always is. A polite Alexander doesn't exist. Don't mind him, I'm Liam Yorker. This fuckers best friend and a private investigator from time to time," Liam introduced himself and shook Rachel's hand from across the table.

Rachel smiled at him. Such a beautiful smile. "I've heard about you, so I'm sure you know all about me already," she said a little self-consciously. "I'm Rachel Harrison-" I lightly squeezed her thigh when she said that and she glared at me. "Well now Rachel Viotto-Ashford. And it's a pleasure to meet you Liam."

"Likewise. I should introduce you to my wife Isabella. You two would get along like a house on fire."

"I'd love to meet her," Rachel said and stood up from where she was on me. She turned to me with an adorable smile.

"I just wanted to see what you were up to. I'm going to get ready now. The girls are already in the shower. Amir and Blake will pick us up in about 2 hours." That fucker Amir. If somebody can't see that he has an extreme liking for Rachel, then they must be blind.

"Remember, princess. Keep your distance from that Amir boy. And don't worry, I've told Jock and Lev to be discreet when following you. Did you see them watching you in the mall?" I asked.

"They were following us?" she asked in surprise. Then that means my boys were doing well.

"Good. Then they did the job properly."

She nodded at me and gave me a light kiss on the cheek as she went to get ready.

"So... Alexander my little princess," Liam began condescendingly with a mocking smile and I knew what was coming. "I knew you liked the girl, but I didn't think that you loved her," Liam laughed.

I gave him a pointed look. "Stop being ridiculous. That shit doesn't exist. I like Rachel. Nothing more, nothing less."

Liam laughed even harder which got on my nerves. "Like her? You like her? I haven't heard a bigger lie in my life. You're whipped for her. So whipped bro."

"Shut the fuck up, Liam. The definition of whipped, is you. Not me," I barked at him uncouth.

Liam held up his arms in defense, "And I will admit that anytime and any day."

Liam met Isabella when he was 20 years old and hacking into her father's computer to retrieve his illegal money laundering schemes for the intelligence unit that he worked for at the time. The man was rich as fuck and it was the only job in Liam's entire life that he failed to complete.

Instead, his entire focus was on Isabella and shit went down when it was time to get her father's blessings to marry her. Safe to say he got sacked by the company and threatened with a gun to his face by his now father-in-law.

"Enough about all that. Back to business," I said and looked at my laptop again. "I don't understand who could have got down the mine without an authorised pass and who the fuck could have got to my plane in the private hangar out of all places. Apart from the pilot, I'm the only person who has the passcode and key."

Liam looked equally frustrated as I was. "All the CCTV is jammed at that particular time spot for both the mine and the plane hangar. Both your CCTV footage and the surrounding areas are static. It's as if time came to a standstill when they bombed the mine shaft and tampered with your plane. Whoever did this is out to get you."

I sighed tiredly and ran my hand down my face. "I'm sick of dealing with this shit all the time. The last guy – Dominic Volkard – he died right?"

"I never leave a job unfinished, Alexander. He's gone and so are all of his subordinates," Liam said a little offended that I doubted his skills and handed me 8 flash drives. "Compiled from people's social media stories, statuses and posts at the time of the blast in the surrounding areas. Was such a bitch to access from the server. Go through them and see if you can find anything."

I inserted the flash drives one by one into my laptop, tediously watching the various social media posts for the next 5 hours.