“You’re coming with me.”

“What?!” Wait I must have heard that wrong?

“Wait, I must be hearing some things. I thought I just heard you say that you want me to go with you on that honeymoon island. Ha ha ha”

“No, you are not hearing things Dara. I’ve wasted enough money on the wedding. I’ve spent a bloody fortune on that island, and I’m not going to waste that too. You said you’d like to go there. Well, now’s your chance.”

“But….it’s booked as a honeymoon,” stammered Dara. “Everyone would assume that we were married.”

“Who’s going to know, or care?” Jiyong countered. “They’re only interested in my money. It’s not as if they’re going to ask to see the marriage certificate when we check in.”

“Well, no, but…” Dara looked at him despairingly. Couldn’t he see how awkward it would be? “I booked it as a honeymoon, so they might make a fuss when we arrive.”

“Let them,” said Jiyong. “Surely the whole point of the exercise was that we would have complete privacy? This isn’t some B&B where we’d have no choice but to share a bed. At least, it had better not be for the price I’m paying for it!” he added caustically. “OK, we may have a whole island to ourselves and no one will know we are spending our whole time having .”

Dara was mortified to feel her cheeks burning. Honestly, anyone would think she had never heard the word before! But somehow Jiyong talking about it made it all too easy to imagine Jiyong doing it.

She forced the image aside, not without some difficulty.

“You make it all sound so reasonable,” she protested.

“Because it is reasonable. It’s a practical solution to the problem, and it would be a good thing for both of us. What’s not reasonable about that?”

Dara fiddled with her pen and tried to imagine what it would be like to go on holiday with her boss. “It would still be a bit…intimate,” she said at last.

“I don’t see why---“Jiyong stopped as it occurred to him, somewhat belatedly, that Dara might have a personal life of her own. He knew that she wasn’t married, but there might be a man on the scene, and that might complicate matters.

          He frowned. “Are you worried about what your boyfriend might think?”

          “It’s not that,” said Dara. “There isn’t anyone else at the moment.”

          “Even better then, “said Jiyong, relieved. “That means no one has any excuse to feel jealous or upset.”

          “Maybe not, but there’ll be plenty of people who’ll speculate about why we’re going on holiday together.”

          Jiyong scowled. “Who on earth is going to care?”

          “The entire staff of GD International for a start, I should think.”

          “What business is it for theirs what we do?”

          “None, of course, but that’s not going to stop them wondering. I’d wonder what was going on if my boss and his secretary disappeared to a tropical island for three weeks!”

“Tell them it’s a business trip,” Jiyong said indifferently.

“Tcsss, yes, I am sure they’ll believe that!”

“Frankly, I’m not concerned with what they do and don’t believe,” he said with a dismissive gesture. “The fact Is that it will be a business trip. We’ll have a whole island between us. We can take our laptops, and if we’ve got access to the internet there’s no reason why we shouldn’t get on with some work.”

Dara looked dubious. “Do you think there’ll be an Internet connection? She asked, even as she realized that she had been lured into discussing details before they had really dealt with the issue at hand.

“At that price there certainly ought to be!”

“I don’t know,” she said, still doubtful. “I can’t imagine many people hire a private island to work. It’s meant as a romantic hideaway,” she reminded him. “I don’t think the idea is that you spend your time checking email.”

“Then you’d better find out,” said Jiyong, “because I have no intention of cutting myself off from work for three weeks. It’ll be a good chance to catch up on a few projects without the distraction of endless meetings.”

Pushing back his chair, he got his feet and prowled over to the window, where he stood looking out at the sleety rain that splattered against the glass. “We might as well get something out of this whole fiasco.”

Dara bit her lip as she regarded his back. Silhouetted against the window, he looked massive and solitary. Internet access or lack of it, wasn’t the problem here.

“Are you sure you’ve thought this through? “ she asked carefully.

Jiyong kept his gaze on the rain. “What do you mean?”

“Have you considered how painful it’s going to be for you if I’m there instead of Chaerin?”

“Not as painful as forking out however many thousand pounds and having absolutely nothing to show for it,” he said, but he knew that Dara had a point.

“I suspect it’s going to awkward to be around for a while,” he went on, not without some difficulty. “It’ll be easier for everyone if I’m not here and then they don’t have to tell me they’re sorry or remember not to mention anything to do with weddings.

He hesitated, his eyes on the wet pavements far below. The sun would be shinning in the Thailand, he thought. What would it be like there? He hadn’t really thought about going with Chaerin but now he let himself imagine being there with Dara.

It would be easier if he could work, and she could help him to do that. The beauty of modern technology was that you could work anywhere, so why not Thailand? Dara could be his secretary there as well as here.

And while Jiyong might try and tell himself that he didn’t care what people thought, deep down his humiliation was still raw. It would be bad enough dealing with the sympathy here without having to explain himself all over again when he turned up for a honeymoon on his own.

He could feel Dara watching him warily.

“I could go to the island on my own,” he said turning back to face her, his hands in his pockets, “but then it really would be obvious that something was wrong. There would be fewer explanation if you came too.”

Dammit, he didn’t want to beg! “You’ve been doing all the work for this wedding anyway,” he ploughed on. “You deserve a break.”

“I thought I was going to work?”

“I’ll be working,” he said “You can do what you like”

Dara regarded him a little helplessly. It seemed all wrong to be taking another woman’s place on a honeymoon, but she sensed that Jiyong was too proud to ask her outright. The holiday would probably be a good thing for him, but he would lose face going alne, and she knew that would be difficult for him.

Was it too much to ask? She hated the thought of Jiyong being on his own at a timelike this, and this way she could at least keep him company and offer support if he needed it.

And, when it came down to it, it was February and he was offering her three free weeks in luxurious sorroundings in the Blue Island. If nothing else, it would get her away from Star wars Fanatics and allergy sufferes.

She drew a breath. “All right,” she said, “if you really would like me to go, I’ll go.”

“Fine” was all he said, but he couldn’t quite conceal the flash of relief in his eyes as he sat back down at his desk, and that made her feel better, or at least as if she was doing the right thing.

“Tranfer CL’s ticket into your name,’ he said “ and tell anyone who asks that we’re going on a bussiness trip.”

----------------------------------A/N=---------------------

I am so sorry guys to keep you all waiting....Mhiannie i was so so busy and i mean really really busy and i haven't had the time to update all my fics. Now that i have some spare time i'll be updating all my fics to make it up to all of you. Thank you for waiting Yeoroebun...i'll update this fic twice this week :)