A/N: Guuuuuuuuuuys! you are great :D, thank you so much for your reviews =D...

Thanks to my anonymous reviewers MmeButterfly, 123456, Balack88 and vanilla.

vanilla: Again ;) thank you so much for your wonderful review, and don't worry... everything will happen in good time :)...

s.e tudor and XxxCherikxxX you are amazing! Thanks for your help!

IMPORTANT! Chapter 6 will be M rated! Ok, i don't want to disappoint any of you with this story so there will be sexual tension and when the time is right we'll have a lot of romance! I warn you, i'll be bold enough when it comes to sexual tension in order to make more obvious the difference between passion and love ;). I hope everyone is ok with that. In Chapter 6 we are going to the day before the meeting with Erik's family, both characters will be nervous, they'll fight, they'll meet someone that you are going to hate and they'll both act totally out of character... Erik will be more humanish :P and Christine bolder than usual :)... but enough of it...

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN PotO nor the main plot of the story.

so... ON WITH CHAPTER 5...

Judging by the cover

Chapter 5: Let the show begin

"Are you ready?"

Christine felt her cheeks turning red as Erik approached her, and she knew that although her colleagues didn't turn their gazes to them, they had their full attention. Something logical of course.

"Mr Gilles, I am afraid that Christine will be a little late at lunch time." Erik informed a rather puzzled supervisor. "Didn't you tell him the news, my love?" he turned at Christine, his eyes full of love.

Poor Andre was not able to mouth a word. "Christine I do not... I do not understand..." he mumbled shyly.

"You must not be mad at Christine." Erik attracted Gilles' attention with the tone of his voice. "I am responsible for everything. You see, I insisted on keeping our relationship secret till the end of the management's change. I didn't want anyone to blame my fiancée for anything that happened in the company. And if it happened, it would be unfair anyway, since she never wanted to talk about this matter. Not that I was in the mood of talking about work when I was with her..." he said meaningfully and gave Christine an extremely sensual and hot look which made every female at the room sigh with jealousy.

...

"Was this really important?" Christine asked him furiously as soon as they were alone.

"What, my love?" he asked innocently.

Christine rolled her eyes. "You know very well what I am talking about... We could just meet outside!"

"You mean secretly?" his look was more tired than sensual now that they were alone. "I have already told you that all these things are happening for making our affair known! And that's why..." he gave her his most charming smile "I booked a table at the bar where I dined last night. I have to admit that the food was excellent, but the surprise after it, was... rather bad..."

Christine felt that she had reached her limits. "Listen! I've tried so many times to explain you that what happened last night was a mistake! I..."

"I totally agree with you" Erik interrupted her "It was indeed a mistake. A mistake made by YOU, so I have to warn you that IF you try anything like this as long as we are acting like a couple... IF you dare to raise your eyes to look at another man..." he paused as he watched amused the horror in her eyes and chuckled softly "I am very possessive with whatever I own...When it is about my woman..."

"But I am not your woman! I do not belong to you!" she reminded him as calmly as possible.

"True! You belong to whoever can pay you!" he replied cynically "And keep in your mind..."

"You don't have any right to talk to me this way!" Christine was now fuming.

"You think so? As your fiancé, I believe I have every right!" and before she could stop him, he raised his large hand to her face and ever so gently caught few tears with his thumb. "Tears?" he mocked. "I have to admit my dear, that you are an even better actress than what I had in mind!"

And with that, he proceeded in opening the bar's door for Christine, who was trying in vain to hide her feelings.

"I don't want to eat a thing. I am not hungry." She told him.

"Oh! Are you mad at me, my little angel?" Erik questioned ironically. "I cannot force you to eat. But I also can't deny myself a proper lunch. On the other hand, we have to discuss a lot of things" he turned his gaze to the catalogue "After reading your records at the company; I have to say that I know some things about your personal life. However, in order to convince my family, and especially my grandfather, we need details. We have to share with each other secrets that only lovers know..."

Lovers... Christine trembled at his words and rushed to change the subject. "All right! Tell me then about the woman your grandfather forces you to marry."

Erik smirked "Carlotta is a widow. Her husband, Piangi left her with two daughters at their teens and a big fortune. She was married at her twenty five. That would be almost two decades ago."

Christine's eyes went round "A widow? I cannot believe it!"

Till that moment, she believed that her rival was a young woman. But Carlotta... was older than Erik. "One lonely and vulnerable woman..." she thought. She could swear that this poor woman had already gained her sympathy.

"Yes, but you don't have to trouble your brain with her. I doubt that you will meet her. She travels a lot spending her husband's rather big fortune."

"A big fortune? And a music company? Why is he refusing to marry her?"

Erik, like reading her mind, bent close to her and whispered "The truth is that unlike you, I do not sell myself."

"I do not sell myself either!" she spitted violently and immediately frowned as a waiter walked towards them holding two dishes of hors d'oeuvre.

"I didn't order anything." She straightened her shoulders.

"I did it, on your behalf. I may like to beat my women, but I don't like them starving." He teased her and burst into laughter after watching her grimace.

"It's not funny!" she complained.

"But it is! Now, seriously, I think that you deserve to get a good licking..." he said giving a totally different meaning to his words "Because you're a woman who can make even a saint go crazy." He growled.

Christine blushed at his sexual innuendo and felt very anxious. "Why are his words turning me on?" she questioned herself and tried to make the heat, caused by his presence, evaporate. Mechanically, she started eating while avoiding his gaze on purpose.

"If I didn't know better, I would say that she's as innocent as a virgin." Erik admitted to himself "The slightest sexual innuendo makes her blush and drop her head. Fortunately, I know who she really is. Otherwise..." Otherwise, he would be tempted to turn the words to actions...To find out if she would tremble at his touch, as much as she was trembling at his words.

In order to get over a rather annoying erection, he cleared his throat and began talking to her in a professional tone "I have to tell you some things about my family." He announced to her coolly.

He said to her about his parents, not the whole story, only that they were alcoholic and his grandfather send them away. He talked about his cousins, aunts, uncles and generally every person she was going to meet. Finally, he added...

"My grandfather is very ill, but that does not stop him from messing in my life. On the contrary, the fact that he does not work this much now, gives him more time to plan things behind my back. He is always complaining to my aunt, Estelle that he's afraid of dying without me giving him grandchildren. In a few words, he's blackmailing me." He stopped angry.

"Well, it seems that blackmailing is something common in your family." She commented too sweetly and Erik gave her and deathly look.

"Of course sometime this whole thing will end. I mean we are going to...break up. Because of the differences we will discover during our life together in my grandfather's mansion. After we return here, our paths will separate. At least, till then I won't have anyone over my shoulder... and I hope that during our time there, Carlotta will give a positive reply to one of the many marriage proposals she receives, according to what my grandfather says of course."

"And what if she doesn't?" Christine asked without thinking.

"Then, we'll either remain engaged till she does so, or I'll finally convince my grandfather to forget grandchildren."

"You mean you are never going to marry?" the question slipped from her lips and Christine covered her mouth.

Erik, however, didn't seem annoyed and replied calmly "What I have to say is that, since I turned thirty two without meeting the great love, I doubt that I'm going to ever find it. Because falling in love at a young age is too much, but falling in love at my age, is simple foolishness."

"My father fell in love with my mother when they were fifteen..." Christine said silently before she could stop herself "They left together and before they turned sixteen they had me..." her face cloudy "What they did was very frivolous. Before I was born, they had already stopped loving each other, even though they had also got married... with their parents consent, thinking it was for the best..." She fell silent "If they were a little more mature... What I mean is that I believe an older man would at least feel a little responsible about his child. But my dad was a child himself..."

"Did he abandon you?" although he didn't do it on purpose, his voice was full of concern and he winced at that.

"They both left me. But that was not the main reason."

Erik frowned although he knew exactly what had happened.

"They... had decided to stay together, for my sake... Meanwhile, they left their families without saying a word. As the years passed things were getting unbearable. Too many fights and they finally decided to take a divorce. During one of their fights after they had divorced, my father lost the control... the control of his car and they both... died." She whispered the last word. "I was in the car too."

Erik inhaled sharply after hearing that.

"They were fighting about...me. My mother had an important meeting to attend and my father refused to take after me for one more day. After that, the police found my grandmother, who by that time had never met me. My parents had no contact with their relatives all those years. Then, I found out that my grandmother was the only person left for me. I was nine years old when I moved to her house..."

Erik simply stared at her. The sudden desire to enter her heart and soul and understand her was urgent. "What is wrong with me? Why am I trying to find excuses to the fact that she's a whore?" he couldn't be as dumb as to be tricked by the tears he had earlier spotted in her eyes!

"It's time to go." He suddenly announced in an irrationally angry voice.

A/N: so, what do you think? just let me know :)...

(little reminder: Chapter 6 will be M rated)