All the Wrong Places

by Jerilee Kaye

  “It must be the wine,” she giggled.

  “Come on, I’ll walk you in.”

  River let go of her hand, but walked beside her to ensure that she does not fall or trip again. She bid him goodbye at the doorstep.

  “Thank you again. It had been a lovely night,” she said.

  “The pleasure was all mine,” River nodded. “See you later.”

  Julianne walked up the stairs slowly to make sure that she does not fall. The house was quiet, which meant that everybody had gone to sleep. She checked her phone for the time. She cursed when she realized that it was already one in the morning.

  “River Jefferson could well be a shrink!” she muttered under her breath.

  She opened the door to her room. It was dark and chilly inside. She must have left her window partially open again.

  She likes to open her window sometimes, to let the natural breeze in. Plus, her wide window usually has a perfect view of the starry night and the full moon. She likes to watch the sky as she falls asleep.

  She turned towards the direction of the window when she realized that a tall figure was standing in front of it, his back towards her. Her hand went to her mouth as she prevented a scream from escaping her lips.

  “Holy crap!” she muttered under her breath.

  The figure, dressed in a pair of black pants and black leather jacket, finally turned to her.

  She could barely make out the contours of his face, illuminated by the moonlight from the window. He looked so cold, so handsome, Julianne thought he could well be the devil himself.

  She struggled to find her voice. “Wha-what are you.. what are you doing here?”

  He stared at her for a long moment and then finally, he asked, “Did you really think you could hide from me for the rest of your life?”

  Jin Starck’s voice was low, sober and clad in arctic fury. The look on his face was dark and fierce, like an untamed beast who finally found the prey he’d been looking for all these years.

  And suddenly, Julianne wished she could faint again.

  8.

  Julianne stood frozen on her feet as she watched the tall, lithe, figure approach her slowly.

  Her heart stopped beating, and she forgot to breathe for the longest moment of her life.

  She took a step back until her back hit the door. He continued to walk towards her until he was only a few feet away and she could almost feel the heat emanating from him.

  She couldn’t look at him. She felt more scared of him now than when she was about to tell her father that she was pregnant.

  Jin put his hands on either side of her face, trapping her. She could almost hear him breathing as he stared down at her.

  “Hello again… Arabella.”

  Julianne closed her eyes for a moment as she heard him call her by the fake name she gave him. Finally, she gathered the courage to look up at his face.

  “You… you’re not who you said you were either!” she tried her best to keep her voice steady as she looked at him evenly.

  “Who said I wasn’t who I said I was?”

  “You’re not Jas Mathieu!”

  He narrowed his eyes at her. Even in the dark, she could see that his eyes were blazing with anger.

  “I am Jas Mathieu!” he said in low, hoarse voice. “J-A-S are my initials. Mathieu is my mother’s maiden surname. Jas Mathieu is the name I use to sign all my works of art. My family and my closest friends know I use that name all the time.”

  “That’s not your legal name!”

  “It’s my pseudonym! I exist under that name, like my mother exists as Amanda Seville and Adrienne is known as Jamila McBride when they publish their works.” He took a deep breath and raised a quizzing eyebrow at her. “Arabella Adams, on the other hand… you gave me a fake name!”

  She looked down on her feet. She couldn’t bear to look at his face and see the cold wrath in his eyes. The last time, she looked at them, they were shining with love and admiration for her. But now… he looked like he could murder her with his bare hands.

  “Wha-what do you want now?”

  She silently prayed that he doesn’t ask about Jared. She’s not ready to tell him yet. She’s not ready for Jared to know. She’s not ready to open the issue of Jared’s paternity and start a rift between her family and Adrienne’s.

  He didn’t answer. Her heart stopped beating as she waited for what seemed like an eternity before he uttered another word. But he just stood there, a few feet from her, where she could almost hear his non-existent heart beating.

  Finally, she dared herself to look up at him. From the little light coming from her window, she could make out his handsome face. His eyebrows were drawn together, and the look on his face was cold, dark and unreadable.

  “I’m sorry,” she said in a weak voice. “I was on the last adventure of my life when I went to Paris.”

  “So, you thought fake naming a guy and making him fall for you would make a great trophy in the end?”

  “Fall for me?” she echoed. “If you had honest intentions from the beginning, you would have told me your legal name. Not a made-up name, that was technically yours, but still made-up, nonetheless.”

  “You have no idea what I went through after I realized you were gone!” he fumed.

  “You have no freaking idea what happened to me after I came back from Paris!” she said, raising her voice.

  How could he make this only about him? I’m pretty sure what he went through was nothing to compared to what I went through!

  “You’re right. I don’t know what happened to you,” he said. “I don’t know where you’ve gone to. I don’t know why you vanished and went to a place where I couldn’t find you. Not even the best investigators in the world could give me a clue about where you were. I was a fool… looking for a woman in at least three continents, and I didn’t even have the right name!”

  What she heard him say almost shocked her. She stared back at his handsome face, trying to see if what he was telling her was the truth. Then suddenly, she realized why he was looking at her angrily the very first time he saw her again in Paris, at his mother’s party.

  “You… you looked for me?”

  He closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them again, she saw his expression slightly soften.

  “Five long years, Arabella,” he whispered. “I hired the best detectives in Europe and the US to find you… to search for any trace of you, or where you could have gone to.” He shook his head. “But they couldn’t find you. No one could tell me where you were. And all the while… you were here, you were part of my sister’s family.

  “You know… I was going to tell you the next day who I really was. I was used to girls falling on my feet just because I was Jin Starck, heir of Starck Corp.,” he told her. “I decided to use my pseudonym to introduce myself to you because I wanted to know if you would fall for me… the real me. Doesn’t matter whether I was a struggling artist.”

  “Is that true? Were you really going to tell me?” she asked.

  “Yes!” he answered without hesitation. “The next day, I was sure of it. I was decided. I was going to ask you to stay in Paris… with me. And even if you weren’t ready, I would wait for you to be. I would travel back and forth to the US until I convinced you to make a life with me.” He sighed and shook his head. “But when I woke up… you were gone and I don’t know what I did wrong.”

  Tears rolled down her cheeks as guilt gnawed her.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m sorry. You weren’t part of the plan. You just happened. And I couldn’t… I was… I was engaged when we met. I was getting married as soon as I returned to the States.”

  He took a step back and gave her a confused look. “Oh wow! Now it makes sense! How many other lies did you tell me, apart from your fake name? You were cheating on your fiancé with me, you little minx! That’s why you ran away!”

  “No, no! It wasn’t like that!”

  He shook his head, looking at her with conte
mpt. “You must know you’re a hot piece of ass. You probably get a kick when guys worship your every step. And before you got married, you wanted to have one last hoorah at making guys crawl on your feet!” Jin’s voice was getting louder, Julianne was scared he would wake up the whole household.

  It was evident that he was insulted to know she was engaged when they hooked up in Paris. He raised an angry brow at her and asked, “How many adventures did you go to before your last stop in Paris? Your fiancé must have been very upset. Was that why he left you and your kid?”

  Julianne couldn’t believe what he just said. Did he just imply that she was sleeping around? Did he not realize she was a virgin when he took her that night?

  Fuck! The first guy I slept with didn’t even realize he was taking away my innocence!

  And how dare he talk about Jared like that… like he was Patrick McAllister’s son?

  Slap!

  Her hand was flying in the air and hitting his cheek with a big slap before she realized it. He didn’t dock, didn’t even move. He let her slap him as if he had been waiting for it, as if he had been asking for it.

  “I’m sorry for your trouble, Mister Starck!” she said in an angry voice. “I will reimburse you for all the money you spent hiring private investigators to look for me. But I cannot have you insult me or my son in my family’s house. Please! Get out of my room!”

  She stepped aside to clear his path towards the door.

  He heaved a sigh and stared at her like she was the most unbelievable, most untrustworthy person on the face of the planet. She felt guilty for hurting him, but after all she’d been through, she didn’t deserve to be thought of as a con artist or a slut.

  “Get out!” she repeated.

  Sure, she gave him a fake name, but then so did he. She already said sorry for hurting him, but he responded by hurting her feelings back.

  I guess we’re even!

  He reached for the handle of the door. Julianne could barely hold back the tears in her eyes as she waited for him to leave her alone so she could let out her emotions freely.

  He opened the door but before he went out, he said in a low, sober voice, “I didn’t think I was capable of feeling deep emotions for a woman. But I did, when I met you. You were the first woman I really cared about. It’s a pity because all I was to you… was a last adventure!”

  Then he stepped out of the room and closed and the door behind him with a bang. Julianne went for the door and made sure to double bolt it. Then she leaned against it and fell down on the floor, finally letting out all the tears she had been holding back.

  She lay on the floor, whimpering. Her pain was great. But her fear was greater. Seven years ago, she made a mess of her life. All throughout her banishment from her family and all the things she endured raising a kid on her own, the memory of his touch, his kisses and his love gave her strength and made everything worth it.

  Now, she realized that his love was the last string of hope she was holding on to. Subconsciously, she had been waiting for the day when she would finally see him again. And she was hoping that maybe when that day came, he would forgive her and he would understand why she did what she did and they could be together again… with Jared.

  But now… he didn’t even mention Jared, or even asked about his paternity. She thought that he would be able to put two and two together and realize that Jared was his. But no. He didn’t even know he was the first man she went to bed with. He thought she was sexually adventurous and Jared could be somebody else’s son!

  Julianne could not stop the tears that continuously rolled down her cheeks. She could not stop the whimpers from escaping her lips. She was crying not just because she lost all hopes of ever reconciling with the only man she’s ever loved. She was crying because she felt that she failed her son.

  ***

  Jin Starck sat on the floor, leaning against Julianne’s door. He could hear her crying on the other side. He heard every whimper, every sob… and each one felt like a knife cutting through his heart… a heart he forgot he had.

  He could barely breathe as he fought every urge to open the door again and crush her into his arms and comfort her… tell her that everything was going to be okay. They were going to be okay.

  How could he do that? For years, he harbored this cold anger against her… the woman who broke his heart, crushed it into a million pieces and made it incapable of being fixed by anyone.

  He remembered those days in Paris. How helpless she had looked, arguing with that saleslady, desperately trying to purchase the antique glass bottle that was not even supposed to be for sale. Then how he stepped in to help her.

  The moment she looked up at him, and he saw her crystal blue eyes framed with long lashes, her flushed cheeks and her red lips that were made for kissing… he thought he had died and gone to heaven.

  When she smiled at him in genuine gratitude and he heard her laugh, he had seen that she was sunshine… heaven… and he knew he fell in love with her right then and there. And he thought himself too smart, too clever to fall in love with a chick who just might be devising a way to trap him in her web.

  The glass bottle she wanted was not for sale. But he told the saleslady that he would pay for it no matter what the cost. Knowing who he was, the saleslady asked for five thousand euros and a week-long all-expense paid stay for her and her entire family in Starck Corp’s most expensive Parisian resort. He saw how much she wanted that glass bottle, he didn’t even blink when he said yes to the saleslady.

  Even though his feelings were genuine, he had given her a fake name. Not because he wanted to disappear from her after a few nights of enjoying her body in his bed, but because he wanted her to fall for him… the real him, without a trace or clue of who he really was, without the nametag of an heir.

  Everything she showed him was real. Every laughter, every smile. He had seen the light shine from her eyes with the mere sight of him, regardless of what he was wearing. He had taken her to fast foods, less expensive cafes. He never took her to his exclusive clubs nor used his finest, most expensive cars when he picked her up on her hotel. She laughed and smiled at him with more genuine affection than any girl he had been with in the past.

  She had made him laugh and challenged him whenever she could. She had spoken her mind and had not worried that she might say something that might not please him or make him walk away. She was real. What she felt for him was real. And it was for the real him. Not for some hotshot, gold mine heir.

  When he took her to his apartment, she had been ultimately delighted. It was home for him, except that it was more his studio than his house. His house consisted of a tea room twice the size of that studio apartment and at least ten bedrooms. And it had butlers and maids and a garage big enough to fit at least ten luxury cars.

  His studio was where he kept to himself, where he expressed another side of him… the one that did not have a platinum face ID in every exclusive club, bar and restaurant in the city. It was there where he found himself when he felt that everything was getting too much. It was where he kept himself grounded, where he remembered who he was and what he really wanted in life.

  His studio was not elegant, but it was cozy and comfortable. It had one huge floor, a big bed in the center, a small dining table, a plasma TV, and a comfortable couch. All his paintings and canvasses were scattered all around it.

  When she stepped into that studio, it seemed that she brightened it with her mere presence. It was like sunshine finally shining in the West. And the delight on her face was nothing fake. She had truly liked being in his place, and he was happy that finally, a woman was content to be there with him… just him… regardless of whether or not the bed covers were made of the finest silk.

  He took her that night… not because he wanted any woman in his bed. No. He wanted her in his bed… to please her, to love her. He didn’t have sex that night… he made love to her… with his heart. He worshipped every part of her body. He loved her with every touch, every ca
ress.

  Every kiss they shared sang to his heart, and it was the first time in his life that he felt he wanted to be with someone longer than one night, one week, or even one year. Hell! That night he felt he wanted to be with her forever!

  But she left him.

  Five long years he looked for her. He hired the best investigators money could afford. All he had was her fake name and his painting of her beautiful face. None of those two things helped locate her. And two years ago, his investigators refused to work for him anymore, telling him they’ve hit the dead end. It was hopeless.

  The past two years, he focused on his game. He worked his ass off to forget about her. He took women just to warm his bed, satisfy his needs and make him forget her. He could not bring himself to love any of them. For him to fall in love again, he had to have a heart. When she left him, she had left his heart damaged beyond repair.

  He was succeeding. Because he didn’t have a heart, he only had to rely on his intellect when he decided on business matters. And for that, he’d been better at running Starck Corp. than his father or grandfather ever were. He’s taken his company to the number two global spot. He was one step away from being number one. All he needed to do was acquire Bernard Hotel Properties.

  But the Bernards were a traditional lot. They wanted to keep their hotel properties within the family. The only way for him to gain control of their company was if he was considered as one of their own. He had to marry their heiress, Vanessa.

  It wasn’t that hard. Vanessa was beautiful, and they had dated on and off anyway. He didn’t love her. He loved no one. He had given up his dreams of going home to a wife who thrilled his senses beyond belief, who could make him feel passion and love.

  He thought his destiny was to take Starck Corp. to the top no matter what the cost. He was not destined to be in a loving, blissful marriage like his father or Justin. And for the past two years, he had learned to live with it.

  He had been very ambitious. Vanessa was very much willing. It was an easy decision. No emotions involved. He didn’t even care to look at the ring he was going to propose with.