Sleeping With The CEO
Chapter 236: Night Talk

Chapter 236: Night Talk

In the past when Derek had heard of couples staying awake well into the night just to talk. He had often had to hide a scoff of disbelief at that.

Staying awake for hours on end just to talk. Who did that?! Did they not know that sleep was precious?

That it should not be wasted. That if somebody had the chance to close their eyes and rest. They should take it and use it well. Not wasting it on something as trivial as talking, which could be done during the day.

That had been Derek’s view on the whole thing. For the longest time he had often held no small amount of contempt towards people who did that. He had always felt as though they were showing off. Making fun of people like him who had to fight tooth and nail for every little bit of sleep that they managed to get.

But now things were different.

Derek had a girlfriend now. A real one, unlike all the others in his past whom he’d had to keep up a facade for.

Emily knew him, she knew of his struggles, she knew how hard it had been for him to sleep in the past. There was no need to hide with her.

And because Derek was no longer hiding. Be it his problems with sleep, or the fact that he liked her, talking just came so much easier with her.

But if Derek were pressed, with somebody holding a gun to his head, and asking him exactly what it was that he and Emily had stayed up all night talking about. He would not have been able to say a single thing. Because at some point, it had stopped being about the words.

Derek had merely just started listening to the sound of Emily’s voice. Enjoying the soft tones. At some point they had not even been talking.

The two of them just laying in the dark humming to one another. Sharing song melodies when they ran out of words. Derek’s fingers carding through Emily’s hair. The softness of it addictive.

In the end, they had not gotten more than three hours of sleep. But Derek felt energized like never before. How could he not? On Thursday night, he had worked up the courage to ask Emily to be his girlfriend. When she had said no, she had nearly shattered his heart.

He had gone to bed feeling as though the world were collapsing around him.

Consoling himself with the fact that he at least got to be close to her.

That he got to be in her presence even if she wanted it to be nothing more than just platonic. But then after going to bed with the person of his dreams right next to him. Having resigned himself to the fact that he would only ever be able to look, but never touch. Emily had changed her mind. She had voiced her fears, letting Derek know that the reason for her saying no had not been because she found him repulsive in any way.

His heart singing, Derek, had not belittled her worries. Instead, he had patiently explained away each one. Opening her mind to possibilities that she had not thought of. And when she had expressed her wish

to keep them secret.

The tears in Derek’s heart had deepened a bit, but when she had explained. He had felt them begin to heal.

A secret relationship, not because she was ashamed, or because she felt that his status as CEO would make things hard for her.

But because she wanted to get to know more about them as a couple before the rest of the world did. Derek had never had that before. Every single relationship that he had been in, had been for show in some form or the other. From the diplomats to the models, the celebrities, the actresses. They had always been showing off, either to the media, their family, or their friends.

It had always been for somebody else at some point. His very first dates plastered all over the front pages of the tabloids. People in their homes reading about where he took people that he was interested in romantically. Some of his exes even selling stories of how he was in relationships to the newspapers.

It was one of the aspects that Derek had never liked about being somebody of his status in society.

But Emily had somehow given him something that Derek had never thought he’d have in any relationship.

Privacy.

"Let us just be us first, and see how things go from there. No stage, no audience to perform for. Just two people getting to know each other in a relationship."

If Emily were to be any more perfect. Derek had no idea what he would do to himself. On Thursday evening, Derek had gone to bed with a breaking heart, and without a significant other.

But because of the way the world moved, things had changed overnight. Now it was Friday morning and he was waking up with a song in his heart and his girlfriend by his side.

Only a few seconds after opening his eyes, Derek felt Emily stir next to him, and a smile stretched his face.

Rolling over, he faced her, and when her eyes fluttered open. Derek was the first thing that she saw. It was worth it for the way that her whole face just lit up.

"Good morning, girlfriend," He said. Derek would never get tired of saying those words. Moving closer still, he planted a morning kiss on her lips, unbothered by the morning breath. And then, just because he could,

Derek put a hand on her waist, and pulled her closer to him.

Emily snuggled into his chest.

"Good morning to you too, boyfriend," She said, kissing lightly at his chest.

It would have been in their best interest to get a head start.

But instead they stayed as they were. Enjoying their first morning as a couple simply by cuddling. To some, it might have felt like a waste of time doing something so boring to celebrate the beginning of a relationship. But for Derek it was perfect. He had his world in his arms and that was all that mattered.