Chapter 23: Welcome to London

"What a surprise, Dr. Aria West." Noah exclaimed, standing right in front of her.

Aria looked up from her magazine and stared at Noah.

"What was he doing here? Shouldn't he be at the hospital?" Aria thought, staring at the smiling Noah.

"What are you doing here Mr. Carter?"

"I am here to catch my flight?" Noah replied in amusement.

"But shouldn't you be at the hospital?"

"I got discharged today," Noah remembered how he had forced Ian to discharge him in the morning. He had pestered him, threatened him, begged him and did all he could do until Ian took pity on him and discharged him.

"Ohh Okay."

Aria took a look at him. He was dressed casually. He had donned a blue shirt and black jeans with a black jacket. He looked super sexy and all the women around him were ogling him. At that moment, an announcement was made that the passengers traveling to London could board the flight. Aria picked up her bag and her sunglasses.

"Okay Mr. Carter. I gotta go. See you later."

"I'll come with you."

"Are you going to London too?"

"What do you think?"

Aria was skeptical but her attention got diverted when one of her colleagues spoke to her. Mason was watching all that was happening. He had seen Noah and Aria talk. He knew who Noah was, he had seen him at the hospital. However, he did not know what he wanted from Aria. He was throwing daggers from his eyes at Noah. It was supposed to be him whom Aria should be speaking to. Yet, she was ignoring him and treating him like a stranger. This made him irritated.

Aria started walking towards the boarding area.

"Wait for me," Noah called from behind.

Aria turned and stopped for him.

"Mr. Carter, are you traveling on this flight?" Aria suddenly remembered that Noah was the richest businessman in the country. He would definitely have his own private plane. Why would he travel among other people?

"Why? Can't I?"

"No. No. You can. It's just that I thought you had your own private plane."

"That I have. But I want to experience traveling with other people." Aria gave him a look like he was crazy, while Noah gazed at her. Noah's assistant, Shane White, was standing behind him. There was also a woman dressed in professional attire, followed by four bodyguards.

Shane coughed. Only he knew how much trouble he had to go through in getting the flight tickets. He reminisced his meet with his Boss the previous night, when he had come to deliver the phone.

Flashback...

Noah was sitting on his bed. He was going through some documents which Shane had brought along with him. Noah thoroughly checked each file and then finally signed it at the bottom.

"How is the London based project going on?" Noah wanted to expand his software-based company, Carter Software Technologies, to other countries. And the first place he had in mind was England, London. The project was at the final stage. The only thing left was for him to give a visit to the site and approve it.

"Boss. Everything is going good. Currently it is on hold as we want your approval." Shane said, looking at Noah's cold face.

"Why should Boss always show such a terrifying face. Can't he smile a little?"

"Did you say something?" Noah asked, looking up from the files. He gave him a creepy smile and raised an eyebrow.

"No Boss. Nothing." Shane shivered. "How could Boss understand what I was thinking? Can he read minds?" He thought.

"Yes. I can." Noah said, this time without looking up.

"Oh, God." Shane was petrified. He knew his Boss was dangerous; but he did not know that he was a demon.

"Arrange a meeting day after tomorrow with the London staff and the collaborative company. We are going to London tomorrow?"

"We are?" Shane asked doubtfully. "But Boss, you are still not discharged. How can we go to London?"

Suddenly the temperature in the room dropped. It looked like the Arctic winds had changed their direction and had entered the ward. Before Noah could speak, Shane muttered. "Yes Boss. I'll arrange everything. I'll get the plane on standby."

"No. We are going by another plane." Noah handed him the plane details by which Aria was traveling. He had obtained it from Ian while he was returning to his ward. Shane stared at him in shock. His Boss was going to travel with other passengers. He couldn't comprehend Noah's behavior.

"Did he hit his brain? Has he gone insane?" He thought, but regretted immediately on hearing the next words.

"Hmm. Let me see. I am sure that my brain was not hit. But I can confirm a hundred percent that I have gone insane."

Shane's jaw dropped. He collected all the files.

"Boss I will arrange everything. Take care, Boss." Shane ran away from the ward.

....End of flashback

"Aria." Mason pulled her towards him. Aria stumbled and fell on his chest. She immediately pushed him away and glared at him.

"I am sorry. Come on. Let's go." Although Mason apologized, there was no trace of remorse on his face. Aria walked away from Mason huffing. Her other colleagues had already boarded the plane. Noah saw the little stunt Mason had played on Aria. His blood boiled when she fell on him and he clenched his fist.

"There are a lot of mosquitoes around my woman. I need to be careful." He mumbled and walked towards the boarding area.

Noah was smart. He knew Aria and her colleagues were seated in the economy class and if he followed suit then she would definitely get suspicious. So, he had got his seat booked in the first class. The first-class cabin had only Noah's people. His assistant, Shane, and the lady secretary were sitting on one side and three of his bodyguards were sitting behind him. He had appointed the other two guards to keep an eye on Aria.

Aria's teammates were already in their seats except for Mason and her. She thanked the god as her seat was not next to Mason. Otherwise she was have killed herself. She sat on her seat and smiled at the person beside her. Although it was not any of her co-workers, she still exchanged pleasantries. What she did not know was that the man was one of Noah's guards, who was ordered to look after her. The guard was quite clever. He understood immediately that the woman beside him was of importance to his Boss. So, he kept an eye on her, lest his Boss should get angry. He immediately sent a text to his Boss.

"Boss. Everything is fine here. Madam is sitting right beside me."

Noah looked at the message. His grip on the phone tightened. Although he was one who had asked his assistant to book a seat for his guard next to Aria's seat, he was still jealous. He took deep breaths to calm down.

"It's okay. He is only following your orders." Noah muttered to himself.

The flight attendants explained the safety precautions when everyone was seated and after five minutes the flight took off. Aria had brought with her a book to keep herself occupied during the long journey, while Noah started to work on his laptop, his mind occupied with Aria's thoughts.

Mason took a look at Aria and walked towards her seat. "Excuse me Mister." He called the man sitting beside her. The guard looked at him, startled. He recognized the person in front of him. His Boss had specifically warned him before boarding the plane to keep him away from Aria.

"Yes." He replied with an indifferent voice.

"I wanted to exchange seats with you. The lady here is my friend." Mason pointed to Aria.

The guard looked at Aria. She was pleading him with her eyes to not to give up his seat. He turned to Mason.

"Sorry Mister. I cannot exchange seats."

"But why? My seat is similar to yours. I am asking you because I want to sit with my friend."

"I am not your friend." Aria retorted.

"Look Mister. I don't care if this lady is your friend or not. I am not exchanging my seat. In fact I have booked this seat because it is lucky for me." The guard wanted to bite his tongue at his ridiculous lie.

Aria and Mason looked him hearing his absurd words.

"Lucky?" Mason asked. He was getting impatient. He wanted to spend as much time possible with Aria during this trip so that he could achieve his goals soon. But the idiot in front of him was not coping with his plans.

"Yes. I have been advised to book this seat number only whenever I travel, otherwise something bad would happen to my family." The guard wanted to dig a hole and bury himself. He was dying out of embarrassment.

"Look Mister.." Mason started only to be interrupted by Aria.

"It's Okay Mason. I am fine here." Mason had no other option, other than going back to his seat.

"Thank You," Aria said looking at the man next to her.

"Why are you thanking me?"

"Because you spoke all those nonsense because I pleaded you not to trade seats."

The guard sighed. He knew how anybody could guess by hearing his silly reasons.

"By the way I am Aria West."

"I am Ronnie Petrov."

"Petrov?"

"Yes. My Dad is from Bulgaria."

"Nice."

Ronnie looked around, feeling someone's eyes on him. He saw Mason staring icily at him. He stared back, making him look away.

"You don't like the person who was here, right?"

"Yes. He is very annoying and I know what he wants from me."

"What?"

Aria gave him a knowing smile. Ronnie immediately understood. He clenched his fists in anger. The one thing that was taught to all the guards during their training at the Carters was to respect women.

"You don't worry. I'll take care of him."

Aria gave him a smile.

"I am going to sleep now. I am quite tired." Aria yawned.

"Sure."

Aria was very tired. She immediately dozed off to sleep the very next moment. Ronnie stared at her for a few minutes. When he was confirmed that Aria was in deep sleep, he took out his phone. He open the front camera and took a few pictures with Aria in the frame. After taking a few photographs, he cropped them and sent them to his Boss.

Meanwhile, Noah's anger was rising every minute. He had ordered Ronnie to keep him updated every ten minutes. But it had been twenty minutes since the last text. The people around him were dreading his wrath, praying to God to save them. Suddenly Noah's phone dinged. It was a message from Ronnie. He opened the message to find photographs of Aria attached to it. Noah's cold face immediately broke out into a smile. There was a sudden shift from icy weather to warm spring in the cabin. His men were dumbstruck. They had never seen him smile in such a way before. Though they had seen his creepy smile that scared the hell out them, this the first time they saw him being gentle.

Noah looked at the pictures of the sleeping woman. She looked so cute that he wished to personally go to her and look at her sleep. But he restrained himself. He knew it was not time yet. He had to take each step slowly.

Every fifteen minutes Ronnie updated about Aria to Noah. This continued till the entire journey of nine hours. By the time Noah's phone was loaded with Aria's pictures. Though Ronnie was sitting right next to her, she did not know she was been captured on his phone. Ronnie had made sure that nobody was looking at them when he was taking the photographs.

After nine hours, the plane finally reached London. Aria waited in her seat till other passengers had evacuated the plane. She then walked towards the exit at the front only to bump into Noah.

"Careful." Noah grabbed her at once.

"Are you hurt?" He asked worried.

"No. I am fine. Thank You." Aria said rubbing her forehead. Who was she kidding? Her head was throbbing due to the impact.

Noah observed her for a few seconds and his face broke into a smirk.

"Welcome to London, Aria."