by Lexi Aurora
“What are you talking about?”
She took a breath to calm herself.
“This is weird,” she said. “I’m going to open the door. But it’s weird.”
“Weird is fine. I can handle weird. What’s going on?”
“Just look,” she said, opening the door behind her, turning around to look in the room. I gasped when I saw what was inside.
“What the—”
“Look,” she said, going into the room. I followed her, filled with revulsion as I looked at what was hanging on a string from the ceiling.
“They’re everywhere,” she said. I looked more closely at one of the headless birds hanging from my ceiling, then scanned the room to see that there were dozens, all of them beheaded, not a drop of blood to be found.
“What the fuck?” I asked in wonder. “Who—”
“Someone broke in while we were gone. They left a note.”
“Where is it?” I asked her. She thrust it into my hands as if it was burning her.
I am not kidding. Split up or die. I want to see a fight.
“See a fight?”
“They want us to fight. To break up publicly, I guess.”
“Why?” I asked her.
“Beats the shit out of me,” she said. “But after tonight, it’s not going to be hard to fucking dump you.”
“Listen, I’m sorry about Marie, I was just—”
“You’re just an asshole,” she said heatedly, then cut herself off.
“I’m an asshole,” I agreed.
“Anyway, what are we going to do about this?” she asked, gesturing around.
“I guess we’ll tell Joseph.”
“No,” she said quickly. “Don’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t trust him,” she said. “It might be him who’s doing this.”
“This isn’t his handwriting,” I said, gesturing toward the paper.
“Maybe he’s getting someone else to write his notes. I don’t know.”
“Joseph has no reason to want us to split apart.”
“So who is it, then? Marie?”
“She’s been with me.”
“Oh, I know,” she said, poison in her voice. “So what do we do?”
“I’ll take these down and throw them out. We’ll spend tonight together—”
“And then what?”
“I guess we’ll fight,” I said to her.
“You’re really going to do something some anonymous person told you to do?”
“Look at this,” I said, gesturing around us at the room. “This is a threat. They’re not kidding. We split up until we figure this out.”
“Thank god,” she said sharply. My exasperation grew, but I tried not to show it. I went about taking the birds down from the ceiling, feeling her eyes on me from where she sat on the edge of the bed. Once they were down, I tossed them in the trash, tying the bag to take it to the chute. I did so without saying a word to her, and when I got back I saw her struggling with her dress, cursing to herself in a low voice as she tried to get it unzipped.
“Let me help,” I said, going to her before she could say no, slowly unzipping her dress to reveal her smooth skin, wishing I could fully undress her. I lingered there for a moment and she froze, then let out a soft sigh that made my cock grow rock hard in an instant. She looked at me over her shoulder, and for a moment I saw desire there, before it flashed back to anger. She pulled away from me and disappeared into the bathroom, and when she came out she was dressed in an oversized t-shirt and a pair of sweats that were way too big for her. Somehow, it was just as sexy as the dress she had been wearing, and when she climbed in the bed, I ached to take her into my arms again. She turned her back to me, though, and a few moments later I heard her fall asleep. I stayed awake for a long time looking at the back of her, watching her breathe.
“I love you,” I said aloud, not loud enough to wake her. “I really am so in love with you.”
She mumbled something in her sleep and I froze, afraid that she’d woken up. But then she sighed and settled down again, flipping over, her eyes still closed. Her lashes were fanned out over her cheeks and for a moment I felt so much pain, more than I had ever felt before. I reached over and gently took her hand, hoping not to wake her. I kissed her fingers, watching her peaceful face.
“I’m going to keep you safe,” I promised her. Her eyelids fluttered open then and my heart stopped, wondering how much she had heard. She stared at me with sleepy eyes and I couldn’t help but to reach over and touch her cheek.
“I’m going to keep you safe,” I repeated. She nodded and watched me as I kissed her fingers again.
“I promise,” I said.
“I know,” she responded, speaking for the first time.
“Can we call a truce, Eve?” I asked her, staring into her eyes. “Please?”
“We have to fight tomorrow anyway,” she said.
“I don’t want it to be real. God, I don’t want to fight with you.”
“I don’t want to fight with you, either,” she said quietly. “But—”
“We’re friends. We can get along.”
“We’re friends,” she agreed. “We can be friends.”
“Good. So this fight tomorrow—”
“It’s all for show,” she said. I leaned in to kiss her forehead, my lips lingering there for a moment before I pulled away.
“We’re friends,” she said again.
“Yes,” I said. “So get some sleep. Tomorrow, we fight.”
She smiled at me then, a sweet look on her face.
“Looking forward to it,” she said.
“Me too,” I said to her. “Go to sleep.”
“You go to sleep, too,” she said.
“I will.”
“Okay,” she said, still smiling as she closed her eyes. A few minutes later, she was asleep again, and I was filled with a feeling of relief thinking about our truce.
Chapter 18: Eve
I lay awake on my side, my eyes closed, pretending to be asleep. I couldn’t sleep, though, my heart was racing too fast, my mind spinning when I thought about the words he’d spoken when he thought I wasn’t listening. It meant those feelings were real, that he did love me, something that made my whole body tense yet somehow feel light at the same time. I was glad that I didn’t have to address it, that I had pretended to be asleep while he was speaking, that I hadn’t been expected to respond with any coherent thought. I felt like I had none to respond with, no words to describe how his confession had made me feel.
I managed to fall asleep at some point, and the next morning I woke up to Sebastian taking a shower again. I sat up in bed and stretched, yawning deeply, and then got up to go in the bathroom. I started to brush my teeth when I saw Sebastian peek outside the shower to give me a look.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Brushing my teeth,” I said. “What’s it look like?”
He laughed. “While I’m in the shower?”
“I’ve seen you in the shower before,” I pointed out. “And you’re behind the curtain. Stop being such a baby.”
He shook his head with another chuckle, pulling the curtain shut. I couldn’t help but smile as I finished brushing my teeth. I went to the shower and then pulled the curtain back, looking at him. He grinned at me.
“You gonna get in?”
“No,” I said. “I just wanted to see what you were doing in there.”
“I’m clearly showering,” he said, his voice filled with amusement.
“I wanted to see—what stage you were at.”
“I’m rinsing off,” he said.
“I see that now. That means you’re almost done.”
“I am almost done,” he said. “I’ll finish up in a minute. Unless you want to help speed the process along—”
“No, thanks,” I said, letting the curtain fall back into place, leaving the bathroom with a smile. It felt so nice to have a truce with him, like a weight ha
d been lifted off my shoulders. I went to the closet and opened it, sighing again when I saw what I had to choose from. I had always dressed practically myself, feminine but comfortable. Nothing in that closet was comfortable, and impractical was a mild term to describe the style of the clothes. I flipped through to find the least scandalous item I could find, relieved when I pulled out a pale blue button down dress that fastened at the collar, showing none of my chest. It was short, but I could live with that as long as it meant that men wouldn’t be leering at all times. I pulled it out and hung it over my arm, sitting on the bed to wait for him to finish showering. A couple minutes later he was out, drying his hair with a towel, another one wrapped around his hips. His eyes met mine when he walked into the room, his gaze radiating warmth. I recognized that raw feeling now—love. I thought of his words again and had to look away, but a smile came to my lips nonetheless.
“You’re in a good mood this morning,” he said. “Why?”
“Am I not allowed to be in a good mood?”
“You’re the grouchiest person I know,” he said. I laughed.
“You just hate it when someone talks back to you, Sebastian Cunningham. Billionaire with a criminal empire.”
“I do hate that,” he said. “But not with you.”
“Someone has to keep you in check.”
“Good thing I have a friend like you,” he said, eyes sparkling.
“A friend,” I said. “Exactly.”
“Have you decided what we’re going to fight about?” he asked. “Or are we just gonna wing it?”
“We’ll fight about Marie,” I said to him. He groaned.
“No, please no.”
“That little stunt you pulled downstairs? That was public. Everybody saw you kiss her—”
“I didn’t kiss her, I—”
“It doesn’t matter. That’s what they’d expect us to fight about. It’s the easiest choice.”
“Eve, I really don’t want—”
“You’re just afraid I’ll roast you.”
A laugh burst from his chest.
“What?”
“You never were any good at debate.”
“Excuse me?” he asked, incredulous. “Are you kidding?”
“Yes. I won like, nine times out of ten.”
“I own a very successful business. I have debated and negotiated my way through life.”
“And yet, you suck at it,” I said to him, standing up from the bed.
“Why are you so mean to me?” he asked teasingly as I moved past him to get into the bathroom. He stopped me with his hand on my stomach, a searing heat burning through me the instant he touched me there. I looked up at his face, at his smoldering gaze.
“What do you want?” I asked him, trying to be snarky though my voice came out soft and breathy.
“You,” he said, staring into my eyes. “Just you.”
I looked away from him quickly.
“Come in the bathroom,” I said.
“But I just got out of the shower.”
“You’re going to sit there and talk to me,” I said to him.
“Yeah?”
“We have some more things to work out and I don’t want to waste time after my shower.”
“Okay,” he said, following me into the bathroom. I looked at him over my shoulder.
“Close your eyes,” I said to him sternly.
“I’ve seen you naked before. Touched you,” he said. I blushed when I remembered that, squirming under his fingers.
“Close your eyes,” I repeated. He did as I said, and I kept my eyes on him as I undressed. He didn’t open his eyes until I was safely behind the curtain.
“Okay,” I said.
“So, what do we have to talk about?”
“What happens next?” I asked. “We fight in public, we split up, get different rooms. We can’t spend any time together, can’t really be seen together. How are we going to figure out what’s going on?”
“We can meet somewhere else on the island,” he said. “I’ll have Jeremy show you the caves.”
“The caves?”
“They’re on the other side of the island. There are mostly cliffs over there—it’s rockier than here, so no one goes over there much. But if you know how to get there, it’s plenty out of the way.”
“You want to meet in a cave?” I asked him. “Why don’t we just—get off this island?”
“There’s something—that I need to attend to here now that we’ve arrived. And this place is protected from the police, at least. We need to be somewhere isolated. My face has been all over the tabloids for years. I’m easily recognizable. And you—”
“What about me?” I asked him curiously.
“You don’t want to go on the run like this, Eve. I promise you, this island is better than anywhere we could go. Otherwise, we’d have to run, hide all the time. I don’t want that. We’re safest here until we can figure this out.”
“Alright,” I said. “So we meet in a cave.”
“Got any better ideas in a house made of glass?”
“No,” I said. “I guess not.”
“We fight this morning. I’ll have Jeremy show you around the island and where the caves are, and I’ll meet you there later this afternoon.”
“Okay,” I said to him, surprised at the fact that I felt slightly excited about the adventure. I had been wanting to explore the island on my own, but since I had been pretty much kept on lockdown, shut out from the main group, I hadn’t gotten the chance. Normally, I wasn’t the kind of girl who went to explore uncharted caves, but I found myself craving to do so, even just to get out of the house, which was somehow stifling despite how massive it was.
“Are you ready, then?” he asked. I swallowed hard, nodding.
“I guess it’s show time,” he said grimly, following me out to the elevator. I was surprised when he took my hand and kissed my fingers, a habit of his that made me feel lighter than air. I only pulled away because I saw people on the first floor watching us on the glass elevator as we descended. I plastered an angry look on my face, and as soon as the elevator doors opened, I stomped forward and hurried away from him. Jeremy’s smile went to a frown when he saw the look of anger on my face. I ignored him and moved past him to the bar, ordering a drink, taking a deep breath before I downed it all in two swallows.
“Listen, Eve,” I heard Sebastian said, felt him take my arm gently in his hand. I yanked it away and ordered another drink, carrying it past him, meeting his eye for only an instant to see that there was amusement there.
“Something wrong?” I heard Jeremy ask as I took a seat at one of the tables, holding my glass, staring at the jewels in the centerpiece.
“She’s unhappy,” Sebastian said in a tight voice. “As usual.”
I gave a dry laugh. “Only with you, Sebastian.”
He rolled his eyes, but I could see the playfulness there as he looked away dramatically.
“As you can see, we’re not having a good morning.”
“We might have, had you not brought her up,” I said, scathingly. “As if I needed reminding that you were all over—”
“All we did was dance,” Sebastian said in exasperation. I glared at him, holding his eye, and felt a blushing heat spread through me, seeing something other than anger there. The tone of his gaze was nothing but pure desire, and my body responded to it in a way that made me speechless for a moment, forgetting what I was going to say. Sebastian cleared his throat to prompt me forward, but passed it off as a sound of annoyance.
“Hey,” Jeremy said. “Why don’t we—”
“I want another room,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. Sebastian barked out a laugh.
“Perfect,” he said. “I’d love to get away from you. Maybe I can bring her over, have some semblance of a good time.”
My eyes narrowed at him, but my breath caught in my throat before I could speak. My body trembled under that look in his eye.
“Evelyn,” he said firmly,
but I cut him off when I reached forward to slap him across the cheek, just hard enough to make a slapping noise that reverberated through the room, causing everyone to go quiet. I went to do it again but Sebastian caught my hand, took me by the wrist, holding me there. His skin seared me in the places it touched mine, and the look on his face was one of fiery lust that struck me deep, causing my body to grow heavy with need. I stood up and yanked my arm away, though the last thing I wanted was for him to stop touching me. He sighed deeply as I looked at Jeremy.
“Are there any open rooms?” I asked him.
“There are,” he said. “We can get you one now.”
“He’s moving,” I said loftily. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Sebastian snorted, his eyes locked on my face.
“Fine, Eve,” he said. “I’ll get my stuff later. Maybe you should go upstairs and cool off.”
“Fuck off,” I spat at him, turning around and stalking away. I went to the elevator and went upstairs, squirming as I sat on the bed. All I could think about was the look in his eyes as we fought, a look that said he wanted to peel my clothes off, fuck me, make me cum. My breath was shallow, pussy wet and swollen. I took some deep breaths to calm myself. My heart leapt in my chest when there was a knock at the door. I knew what would happen before I could open it—I would pull Sebastian in, let him kiss me, let him do anything he wanted to me as long as it meant being touched for hours by his large, warm hands. I went to the door, hesitating just a moment before opening it. I froze when I saw that it was Jeremy, letting out a deep breath.
“Hi,” I said.
“Hey. Sebastian pulled me aside, told me what’s going on. He wants me to show you around the island. To the caves.”
“Yeah,” I said, still dazed and caught off guard. I felt flushed and distracted, but followed Jeremy anyway, heading down the elevator and out the mostly hidden back door.
“That fight was pretty convincing,” Jeremy said. “I was worried for a minute.”
“We always fight, anyway,” I said. “It would have been nothing new.”
“That’s Sebastian. He’ll go head to head with anything.”
“So will I,” I said. Jeremy looked over at me as we started along the path behind the back of the house.
“I’m not surprised you’re the type of woman he would fall for.” Jeremy said.
