IVAN'S SECRET PLACE

Their finished their lunch and as planned, Ivan slept in Kaye's sleeping lounge to get rid of jet lag in that afternoon.

Kaye worked on her pending tasks but she would check on him time to time to make sure he's comfortable.

Ivan slept for almost three hours. If Kaye didn't wake him up, he would continue to sleep in her office.

He put on his coat and picked up the bouquet for her.

"Did I tell you that I'd bring you to a secret place?" Ivan asked while helping Kaye with her coat and bag.

"You did. Why?" Kaye responded after locking her office door.

"Well, how about I take you there now? I'm pretty sure you'll like it." Ivan suggested since they could just have dinner there.

"Sure. I can drive us there." Kaye offered since she brought her own car.

"I'll drive your car." Ivan corrected her. "I've rested myself so I have energy to drive. You've been working all day so you should take a rest as well."

"If you say so. Here's my key." she tossed the car key to him while they walked towards the elevator area.

'Ding!' the elevator door opened. Kaye and Ivan went inside and waited for the elevator to send them to the ground floor.

"Is it far from here?" Kaye asked him while opening the car door in the copilot section.

"Not really. An hour drive if there's a heavy traffic." Ivan responded after taking a sitting on the driver's seat.

"How's your trip to Singapore?" Kaye inquired since there's not much that they can talk about.

"It's fine. 95% of the planned collaboration was successful. The remaining 5% doesn't matter. It was mostly a business trip so there's nothing fun or interesting about it." Ivan replied while maneuvering the car to get out from the parking lot. "How about you? You didn't tell me you're associated with Mr. Alejandro."

Kaye grinned at him after hearing his question. "Well, you didn't ask. It was a long story." Kaye answered him. "He was supposed to adapt me when I was at the orphanage. But something happened at the school. When he came back the next day, I was taken by my parents already. Still, he didn't give up. He wanted me to become his sole successor. I thought he had forgotten about it. I didn't expect him to come back and asked me to sign the documents."

"That's magnificent. You're richer than me now." Ivan commented with a slight teasing tone while driving.

"The things I have aren't really mine. Anyway, what is this secret place you are talking about? I can see where quite far from the highway." Kaye asked him when she saw a vast forest with a wide road in the middle.

Even though it was a forest area, it wasn't dar since there were lights on the main road towards a place that was unknown to her.

"Don't worry, nothing will harm you here. It's a very special place to me." Ivan wiggled his brows at her.

Kaye just observed the surroundings in silent. The winding road was elevated so she knew they were climbing a mountain.

After a few minutes, a big villa at the top of the mountain came in to view. Kaye gasped in amazement with what she saw.

"God! This is amazing! Who owned this place?" Kaye covered her mouth from the surprise. Her eyes were wide with excitement and bubbling happiness.

"This is my private property. Whenever, I felt suffocated at home or from the company, I would always go back here." Ivan helped her unfasten her seatbelt so she could go out of the car.

"This is really amazing. It's huge. And it's a little familiar but somewhat not." Kaye furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. She was thinking what was so familiar about the house when Ivan spoke beside her.

"I had it built using mom's old house as the model. We used to hang out there so I wanted to get the same feeling in my own house. It was slightly the same at the same time different."

"I like your house." Kaye muttered under her breath. She didn't really know what she meant by it but she honestly likes the house.

"You like it? You can live here with me." Ivan nudged her elbow which made Kaye laughed out loud.

"You're ridiculous. We can't do that. Your wife would kill me. But seriously, your house is magnificent." Kaye didn't want to spoil their moment so she quickly changed the topic.

"Let's get inside. It's cold here." Ivan helped her with her things and guided her inside the house.

Ivan led her to the living room where a huge space awaited her. There were several black and white couches that formed a semi-circle. In the middle was a coffee table with magazines.

A huge TV was hung on the wall with several cabinets below it for sound system and game consoles.

Few picture frames caught Kaye's attention. "Eehhh? You still have these?" It was a picture of her, of the two of them and a picture with Yvonne.

"Of course. I got more pictures of you in my study room. When mom took pictures of us when we were young, I asked her to send me copies. When I couldn't find both of you, I had these pictures developed and framed." Ivan's voice held a longing tone at the same time a little bit happy.

"I didn't really mean to hide from you. I asked auntie Yve several times about you but she wouldn't tell me anything. And we knew already why. Let's not talk about it." Kaye waved her hand to drop the subject.

"Come here. This is favorite spot of all places here." Ivan held hand and walked towards the second floor.

He opened a room on the west wing and got inside. There was a queen size bed and some furnitures. There was a terrace with bunch of flowers, too.

Ivan pulled her towards the terrace and what greeted Kaye was the colorful city lights in front of her. When she raised her head to look at the sky, the stars were brighter than ever. They were like sparkling diamonds.

"I love this. It's beautiful." Kaye mumbled while breathing in the fresh air.

"Indeed. It's beautiful." Ivan echoed her thoughts but he wasn't meaning the view or the house but her.