Hey everyone, thanks again for reading and leaving me wonderful reviews :) I appreciate it more than you'll ever know. Here's an 'extra' chapter for you all, please enjoy.
Monday 16th June 2008.
Standing in the suite doorway, Joseph took a sip of his coffee and watched as Clarisse bent over, doing a stretching exercise. Raising his eyebrow, he tilted his head a little and tried his best to understand why she wanted to lose weight when she, to him, was simply perfect as she was. Taking another sip of his coffee, he stepped into the room and watched as she stood back up straight and turned to him.
"You're serious about losing weight and getting fit, aren't you?"
"I am, I told you already," she nodded and watched as he stopped beside her. "Charlotte printed some exercises off for me yesterday and put me in touch with her friend who's a personal trainer."
"Alright, toning up is fine but I wish you would listen to me about losing weight," he said while slipping his arm around her waist, "you are perfect as you are."
"So you said, but I don't feel perfect," she said while looking up into his eyes, "so please will you just listen to me for a change?"
"Ok, ok," he said and removed his arm from around her waist as she looked down, "I will start listening from now on."
"Thank you," she said and looked back up at him, "while you are here actually, I wanted to ask if you would be able to take me shopping after the luncheon today? If you are busy though, it's not a problem I can ask Shades to do it for me."
"No, I can do it," he nodded, "I can meet you back at the palace afterwards."
"That's perfect, thank you."
"It's no trouble," he said and took another sip of his coffee before asking, "what do you want to get?"
"Well with the possibility that someone has been in here and gone through my lingerie drawers, I need to pick up some new underwear and bras because I don't feel comfortable wearing the others now," she said.
"Oh I see, and understand," he nodded, "I'm just glad that your closet was locked."
"Me too," she said and turned back to finish off her exercises as he watched her a moment.
"Alright, well, while you are doing your exercises I'm going to go up to the office and make a few calls about these security cameras," he said while walking back over to the door and stopped to look over at her.
"Alright," she said and continued what she was doing.
"Come and find me when you are ready to leave for the palace ok," he said and watched as she nodded.
"I will," she simply answered and bent forward, stretching her arms to the floor once again.
Nodding to himself, Joseph walked out of the suite and made his way slowly up to the office in the attic. He knew after last night everything that's been going on over the last few months was starting to really affect her, and even though she wasn't really speaking about what has happened he's glad that he did return yesterday, knowing she needed him more than ever.
Later That Morning.
Hearing her footsteps coming up the stairs leading to the attic, Joseph averted his gaze from the laptop screen to the doorway of the office and watched as she slowly appeared wearing her beige knee length skirt, matching fitted jacket, that was left surprisingly undone, white blouse and heels. It had been a long time since he had seen her in a business suit, but she still looked as beautiful as ever.
"Are you ready to go?" He asked while slipping off his glasses and placed them down on the desk.
"Yes," she nodded and watched him as he turned off the laptop. "Did you look into getting the security cameras?"
"I did and they are coming to put them in on Wednesday," he said while standing to his feet and walked over to her. "We just need to figure out where they will be placed."
"Oh that's good, and we can sort that out tomorrow," she nodded and turned to lead the way out of the office.
"Hey, wait a minute," he said, gently grabbing her wrist as she turned her head to look back at him.
"What is it?" She asked, allowing him to pull her back to stand in front of him.
"I just wanted to tell you how beautiful you look today," he said softly while slipping his hands in the opening of her jacket and placed them on her sides as she looked up at him. "And I thought that we could go to dinner after we have been shopping?"
"Thank you, and yes that will be fine... but we really need to get going now," she said while stepping back and turned to walk out.
Letting out a sad sigh he watched her walk out first before following her down the stairs, longing to take her in his arms, tell her that everything will be alright, but knowing what kind of mood she was in, he knew it wasn't a good idea so he just followed her down and left for the palace in silence.
Arriving at the palace a short time later, Joseph parked the car and they both made their way inside, where Nicholas was just about to take Imogen up to the suite for a nap and after having a quick cuddle, Clarisse met Mia and the prime minister in Mia's office for a quick briefing.
"Thanks for doing this for me, grandma," Mia said as they all made their way down the palace steps and over to the waiting limousine.
"Oh you don't need to thank me, darling," Clarisse smiled as she removed her jacket and put it over her arm as Lars opened the back passenger door for them, "I told you that I'm happy to help."
"It'll be just like old times, won't it," smiled the prime minister as both Mia and Clarisse looked up at him.
"Indeed it will be," Clarisse smiled and put her hand on his arm as she looked at the car then back up at him, "and just like old times, after you," she said and watched as he bowed his head.
"I'll meet you here afterwards," Joseph said and stepped closer to kiss her cheek as the prime minister climbed in the back of the limousine.
"Yes, that's fine," she nodded and looked back at her granddaughter as she leant closer to her and kissed her cheek too.
"Do you have the notes?" Mia asked as she stepped back.
"I do, in my handbag," Clarisse smiled and turned to climb in the car, "see you when we return."
"You will," Joseph said as she climbed in the car.
"Good luck," Mia smiled and waved as Lars closed the door. And as they began driving off a moment later, Mia looked at her grandpa standing beside her. "Alright, what's wrong with grandma?"
"What do you mean?" He asked as they turned and began making their way back towards the palace steps.
"You know exactly what I mean, why isn't she her usual happy self when yesterday she was so so happy," she said and they both stopped walking as he looked up at her. "Grandpa, please tell me what's going on?"
Meanwhile in the limousine, Clarisse sat with the notes on her lap, going over them one last time as the prime minister watched. "Is everything alright?" He asked several moments later.
"Yes, everything's fine," she nodded, not looking up.
"Clarisse?" He said, growing concerned for one of his oldest friends as she finally looked up at him.
"Yes," she said and averted her gaze over his shoulder to the window, "I just have a lot on my mind at the moment, which resulted in me not getting much sleep last night, that's all," she said while looking back at him.
"Are you sure?" He asked and watched as she reached her hand out and placed it on his arm. "You know that you can talk to me, or Sheila, if there's anything bothering you, don't you?"
"I do, thank you Sebastian," she said and smiled as he put his hand on top of hers resting on his arm.
"What are friends for?" He smiled and watched as she nodded before removing her hand and looking back down at the notes on her lap.
"You will have to tell Sheila that I will give her a ring sometime to arrange lunch," she said and looked back up at him.
"I will," he smiled and watched as she smiled up at him before looking back down at the notes in her lap.
Late Afternoon.
"Thank you," Joseph said as he handed the menus back to the waiter and looked at Clarisse sitting to his side at the table. "Did you get everything you needed today?" He asked and took a sip of his drink.
"I think so," she nodded and rested her arms on the table in front of her as she put her hands around the bottom of her glass.
"Okay," he said and placed his glass back down on the table, "I forgot to tell you with everything that's been going on that me and Gino spoke to Luca about staying at the hotel for our anniversaries like we talked about yesterday morning."
"Oh yes, what did he say?" She asked while raising her glass and took a sip of her drink.
"We are booked in for five days from Monday the seventh, which will work out fine with us having planned the barbecue for the Saturday before," he said and watched as she nodded.
"Yes, it will," she said while placing her glass back down on the table before looking at him as he took hold of one of her hands in his. "With everything that's going on I wish we could go before, but I promised Mia I would help her for a couple weeks."
"I know, but it will soon be here and the break will do us good, with no stress of the wedding we can go, forget everything for a few days and just relax," he said softly and watched as she looked down at their hands resting together on the table.
"It can't come quick enough," she said and looked back up at him.
"I know, but we will get there," he said and raised their hands up to his mouth to kiss the back of her hand, "I promise."
Later That Evening.
Placing an ice bucket with a bottle of wine in and a glass down on the coffee table in their suite, Clarisse stood back up straight and was just about to walk over to the bedroom to get changed when her mobile started ringing. Picking it up from the coffee table, and seeing it was Mia who was calling she answered and put the phone to her ear.
"Hello darling, is everything alright?" She asked and sat down on the sofa.
"Yeah, everything's alright here, but listen grandma, grandpa told me earlier what happened last night and that you believe someone might have been in your suite and I just wanted to make sure that you were okay," Mia said.
"Oh he did, did he?" Clarisse said and slumped back on the sofa.
"Yes, and you know that you are welcome to come and stay here if you don't want to stay at the house, don't you?" Mia said.
"I do, thank you darling," Clarisse said as she nodded to herself, "but I am fine here."
"Alright, well you know where I am if you change your mind," Mia said.
"Thank you, sweetheart," Clarisse nodded as Joseph came into the room, "I will speak to you tomorrow."
"Yes you will, we love you," Mia smiled.
"We love you too, goodnight," Clarisse said and hung up the phone.
"Who was that?" Joseph asked as he stood by the dining table and watched as she placed the phone on the coffee table before standing up.
"You had no right telling Mia about what happened last night, or that someone could have been in here!" She snapped while turning to him, taking him by surprise.
"I beg your pardon?" He exclaimed, "she has every right knowing."
"Joseph, she's just had a baby I didn't want her knowing and adding more stress or worry on her," Clarisse said and shook her head.
"So keeping it from her would have stopped her worrying would it? Ha, sure! She knew something was wrong with you this morning, she asked me what was going on so I told her, I'm not going to keep anything from her." Joseph exclaimed while trying to keep calm.
"But you had no right," Clarisse shouted at him.
"Ok, ok, calm down," he said while walking around to her.
"No, don't tell me to calm down!" she exclaimed while putting her hands on her hips, her chest raising and falling rapidly as she tried to suppress her anger.
"Please," he said softly and looked into her eyes, "calm down."
"I am so angry at you for telling her," she exclaimed and shook her head.
"Ok, I know you are and you have every right to be," he said calmly and put one of his hands on her side, just above her hand resting on her hip while slipping his other hand up between them to cup her cheek.
"Joseph, I know what you are doing, and it's not going to work," she said, but closed her eyes anyway as he lowered his head to kiss her.
"You're sexy when you get angry," he whispered between kisses and kissed her slowly as she finally began to respond and tipped her head back slightly while wrapping her arms around his neck.
Arching her back, she pulled him closer to her and pulled her head back to look into his eyes a moment before looking down between them. Unbuckling his belt and undoing the button and zipper on his pants, she looked back up at her husband a moment as she slipped her hands inside his pants to push them down a bit, just enough to free his manhood before taking his lips in a hungry kiss.
Laying on the sofa, Joseph turned his head to the side to look at Clarisse sitting on the floor in front of the sofa with her back to him. Smiling, he averted his gaze down to her now obviously creased, from being bunched up around her waist, skirt and her beautiful long legs stretched out in front of her, crossed at the ankle.
"I love the things you do to me," he said softly and watched as she tipped her head back to rest on him.
"I love the things you do to me too," she smiled and stared up at the ceiling a long moment as he wrapped his arm around her front and slipped his hand in the top opening of her blouse. "And I'm sorry I got angry with you."
"It's alright, I should have told you that I had told her," he said, absentmindedly smoothing his fingers up and down her bra strap.
"You were right though, she does have a right to know," she said and shrugged slightly, "I suppose I was just trying to protect her, I need to keep reminding myself that she's an adult."
"I know me too," he nodded and removed his hand from inside her blouse as she turned to the side to look at him.
"And I'm sorry that I have been off with you all day," she said while resting her arm on the sofa along his side.
"It's alright, there is a lot going on so I completely understand," he said, putting his hand to cup her cheek.
"There is, and I have been trying to work out the best way to go forward from here, even moving and selling the house crossed my mind," she said and looked down.
"It did?" He said in surprise and watched as she looked back up at him.
"Yes," she nodded, "but I realised if we did that then that means he would have won and I'm not having that. I'm not going to let him or anyone else drive me from my home."
"I am so proud of you," he said and lifted his head to kiss her a couple times before looking into her eyes, "everything will be fine, you'll see."
"With you, it will be," she said and smiled before leaning closer to kiss him once again.
"I love you," he whispered and wrapped his arm around her as she pulled back to rest her head on his chest.
"I love you too," she smiled and closed her eyes as he smoothed his hand up and down her back.
