This chapter is dedicated to @preachardm for being the first to comment on this story. Thank you!

I stood there unable to move a muscle while Cole apologised to Kyle.

"What on earth got into you?" Cole asked me, snapping me out of my frozen state.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know he was the client," I said in a small voice.

"And what did you mean he's stalking you?"

"Nothing. I-I jumped to the wrong conclusion. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologise to me. I'm not the one wearing a refreshment for headgear," he said and I flinched at the harsh tone of his voice.

"I'm really sorry Mr Clarkson," I said.

"It's okay. At least now I know not to provoke you," he said laughing. He was being considerably kind which surprised me and Cole. Cole led him out and directed him to the toilets so he could try and clean himself up then he came back to my office. The livid look on his face sent a shudder through me.

"We'll talk later about your behaviour and the consequences of your actions," he said then left. I sank onto my chair and held my head in my hands. Cole was usually an easy going guy but one thing he did not tolerate was mistakes and unbecoming behaviour and he never gave second chances. I couldn't afford to lose my job. It was all that I had.

An hour later, Cole called me to his office. My tummy twisted into knots as I walked there. I went in and sat across from Cole. He stared at me for a couple of minutes in silence until I started twitching in my seat.

"You must have a very powerful guardian angel watching over you," he finally said and I just stared at him, too scared to say anything.

"Kyle insisted that it was entirely his fault that he ended up soaked because he had made some inappropriate remarks and you did not deserve to be punished for defending your honour so I'm going to let this one slide."

"Thank you, thank you so much Cole," I said relieved that I hadn't lost my job. Cole nodded dismissively.

"Despite my protests, Kyle insists that he be assigned to you and he says to tell you that he will be on his best behaviour from now on," Cole said eying me suspiciously.

I panicked. "Please Cole. Please assign him to someone else," I pleaded.

"I'm sorry but I can't do that. He said that he works with you or else he goes to another agency and we can't afford to lose him," Cole said firmly and from the grim look on his face, I knew my fate was sealed and I had no choice in the matter. He dismissed me after informing me that my first appointment with Kyle would be in thirty minutes.

I went back to my office and gathered the necessary paperwork I would need for my meeting with Kyle then drove to the location that he had chosen, the café where I had the misfortune to meet him that morning. How considerate of him.

I sighed and walked into the café and spotted him almost immediately. He waved me over enthusiastically and I plastered a smile on my face and sat down across from him.

"Good morning again Mr Clarkson," I said. He raised an eyebrow.

"Rather formal," he remarked.

"We weren't formally introduced," I said extending my hand to him over the table, "I'm..."

"You're beautiful," he said cutting me off as he took my hand in his. I ignored the somersault that my heart did and slowly withdrew my hand from his but I remained silent, not trusting my voice to not betray me if I tried to speak. He smiled at me, a smile so warm it would melt an entire igloo village. It had no trace of the smugness or teasing that I had seen earlier and I lost all train of thought as I sat there staring at him.

"I would offer to get you something to drink but I worry it might end up on me instead. In the very literal sense," he said laughing.

"Well you promised to be on your best behaviour so you have absolutely nothing to worry about, unless of course, you lied," I said finally finding my voice.

"You have nothing to worry about, Beautiful. I'm a man of my word," he said.

"I have a name you know," I said leaning back on my chair. I was slowly getting comfortable with him and I started to let my guard down.

"Don't care. Beautiful suits you," he shrugged.

I shook my head as I opened my folder and laid out some papers in front of him. "This is sort of a test that I give my clients to profile them so that I can determine which houses suit them best then I pick out a couple and we look at them."

"All work and no play I see," he said leaning forward to look at the papers closely. He scanned a few pages before he looked back up at me looking amused.

"Are you for real right now?" he asked.

"What?" I asked him innocently.

He lifted a page and read one of the questions on it out loud. "What are the names (first and last) and ages of your last three exes? What the hell does that have to do with buying a house?"

"For one thing, if you remember them, then it shows that you pay attention to detail and therefore any house I show you should have pronounced features and must have been built with great attention to detail. If you don't remember them, then you don't care about particulars so what you're actually looking for is just a place to crash so I won't show you my best house because if you buy it you would probably turn it into a whore house which would be quite a waste," I replied matter-of-factly.

"Whore house? Really?" he said laughing.

"Would you prefer slut pad?" I asked and he stared at me, mouth wide open in shock.

"You know I could just lie so this whole test is absolutely useless."

"If you lie, I'll know," I said.

"That's a load of crap," he argued.

"Try me," I said smiling dangerously at him. He eyed me warily then returned his gaze to the papers.

"I have a better idea. Instead of making me write this test, how about you profile me yourself?" he suggested.

"I would need more than a day to do that and even if I had more days, we'd have to spend a lot of time together if I'm going to get it right and I..." I trailed off when I saw the mischievous look on his face. The realisation that I had fallen into his trap dawned on me, "Oh."

"That's exactly the point Beautiful."

I shook my head. "No. You answer the questions or else I won't help you." He looked like he was about to argue so I beat him to the chase, "There's no point in telling my boss because he'll agree with me. He knows this is my method and he approves of it so you won't talk him into changing my mind."

He looked put off for a while but eventually the smile returned. "Have it your way Beautiful." I rolled my eyes and picked up the first question paper.

"How old are you?" I asked him.

"29. How old are you?" he said without missing a beat.

"This questionnaire is for you. I don't have to answer your questions."

"Indulge me," he said, "There's no harm in getting to know the woman who's helping me buy a house. It's a very big and important decision after all and I need to profile you and see if I can trust you with it.

I gave him a belligerent look before returning to the paper. "26." He smiled looking satisfied and I continued.

"Where do you work?"

"I can't tell you that," he replied.

"Why not?" I asked him frowning.

"It's classified," he replied.

"What are you, Secret Service?" I asked and he raised his eyebrows at me.

"CIA?" I asked again and he ignored me and took a sip of his drink.

"Russian mafia then?"

"Seriously?" he asked.

"Just tell me where you work. You already know what my job is so it's only fair that you tell me yours."

He just stared at me, arms folded over his chest. He wasn't budging on this one. I decided to move on remembering that he had specifically requested discretion and privacy from Cole so I would respect that. We got through most of the questions without incident, thankfully.

"What are the names and ages of your last three ex-girlfriends?" I asked him.

"I'm not answering that," he said.

I sighed, exasperated. "Let me guess it's classified too?"

"I don't want you to judge me just because I can't remember how old my last girlfriend was. I'm not looking for a whore pad.."

"Whore house," I interjected.

"Whore-house," he amended, "I just want a place where I can settle down that's big enough to accommodate my family when they visit, not a slut house..."

"Slut-pad," I interrupted again.

"Whatever," he snapped starting me with his harsh tone. He blew out a breath and ran a hand through his hair ruffling it. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you."

"No. You're right, I was being a bit judgemental and you don't deserve that. I have a couple of houses that I think you might like. When would you like to see them?" I asked him.

"Any time is 'tea' time," he said laughing at his lame attempt at a taunt.

"I have another meeting in half an hour so how about tomorrow?" I said packing up my papers. Kyle nodded and stood with me. He carried my folder and walked me to my car.

"I'll see you tomorrow," I said as I got into my car.

"I'm already counting down the hours Beautiful," he said smiling as he handed me my folder.

***

A/N Two updates in one day! Woohooo! I'm sorry, I know not much happens in this chapter but I just wanted to give you an insight on Emily and Kyle and how they relate. Maybe I'll update again in a bit, I've just been flowing a lot today. I'm on a roll, you can call me butter lool.