I take off my heels as soon as I enter the villa and breath a sigh of relief. My heart still felt heavy, but I could not allow it to hold me down any longer. As much as I hated it, I was essentially a married woman now and needed to act as such even if my husband did not.
“Ah, Mrs Dumont, you are home. Are you hungry?” Ilse asks me as I enter the kitchen area, but I shake my head. “I just came from brunch with a few friends, Ilse. I’ll be fine for a while. Do we have headache tablets? I am not feeling too well and would like to go have a lay down for a little while.” I say and I could see the worried frown that creased her brows.
I absolutely adored Ilse, she was like a mother to me in a strange home. She showed me the love and affection I had never received from my own mother. The warmth that matched the villa.“Oh, dearie. I will get you something that’s non-drowsy. Go to your room and I will have it brought right up to
SebastianMy body feels stiff.I opened my eyes to sunlight and felt a weight pressed up against me. I glance down only to see the sleeping face of Elena wrapped up in my arms. We had fallen asleep on the L-shaped couch last night; I was up against the armrest and she was lying on her side in between my legs with my arms wrapped around her. How did we get in this position?My heart starts to race when I realize that for the first time in years I had slept well; no nightmares had plagued my sleep. Was it because I had Elena in my arms?I peer down at her again and my heart skips a beat; she truly was an exquisite beauty. How could I have been so foolish as to cheat on her with Sarah so many times? She was the woman I had dreamt about long after we met at the masquerade ball, the one who had not been scared to call stiff customs ‘stupid’.My rebellious heiress.And I had almost thrown it away for an office fling, a
I rushed out of Sebastian’s room after putting the mask back where I found it. The man I had shared a connection with at the masked ball was Sebastian, who was also coincidentally the man I despised above all else.Did I still despise him, though?I sit down on my bed in a daze. Could Sebastian have felt the same way about me at the time? It would explain why he came to see me the following weekend, but he asked for Eliana Wiltshire, not me. Was he mistaken as to who I was?My mind was working overtime at what I had discovered and suddenly 5 years seemed even further away than before. Maybe this whole thing was an enormous coincidence.Sebastian and I were always in the midst of banter whenever we met in the past. He displayed an open dislike towards me and vice versa. He couldn’t possibly be that sweet gentleman from so long ago.I saunter towards my bathroom to have a soak and to forget that I found that damned mask.Two hours la
I get up from the couch and grab my things before heading back to my room. Sebastian had no emotion on his face when I made that remark. This was for the best, I knew it was. The two of us cannot grow closer, not when my freedom was only 5 years away. My studies and my new life lay across the ocean, not in this villa where I felt trapped.Passing Sebastian’s room, I see that he left it ajar and I could hear his shower going. My mind goes back to his well built body that I spied this morning and I groan inwardly. This attraction would never be extinguished unless I did something about it. He needed to despise me again, go back to calling me fat and screwing his employees.Wait, what? Did I really want him to go back to that woman?I sat down on my bed and an idea came to mind, so I grabbed the laptop on my bedside table. This villa felt like an endless snow in prison, so I will escape to some place sunny. I looked up different places to visit where it would
*Trigger Warning - Possible Sexual Assault* It was Saturday, day six of me being here, and I still could not find my phone. I did not want to know how pissed off Sebastian was with me by now. It was not deliberate; I hope he knew that. Why was I so worried about what he thought about me and my vacation? He probably had other women in his bed by now. I was terrible at remembering numbers, and I never had to call him before, so I just did not bother. I could not recall his company’s name either, so I could not call him at work to tell him I had lost my phone. It was dusk, and the sun was starting to set, so I decided to head out to a cocktail bar tonight and let my hair down. Obviously, I would not be drinking because of my low tolerance for alcohol, but I would sip on shandies. I took the elevator down to the lobby, and the hotel concierge greeted me. “Benito, do you have a lost and found? I seemed to have misplaced my cell phone.” I ask him, still wor
Elena Ugh, the sun is too bright. Did I fall asleep next to the pool again? I slowly opened my eyes, trying to register where I was, but everything was too blurry. Gosh, did I get sunstroke or something? My throat felt absolutely parched and I could do with an ice-cold juice right about now. I try to sit up and blink back the blurriness, and thankfully it worked some. And now I wish it didn’t; I was in a hospital room. How did I get here? What happened? I got up from the bed, intending to walk towards the bathroom I had seen and fall forward onto the floor hard. “Ah, shoot,” I say heavily disoriented and try to get up from the floor, but my body would not reciprocate. I felt incredibly weak and dizzy from the fall. Tears prick the corners of my eyes at the uncertainty. Why couldn’t I remember anything? Why did my body feel so weird? The door in front of me opens as I try to lift myself up again, “Elena!” Was that… was that Seb
ElenaWe have arrived in London, and I forgot it was winter over here.The drive back to the villa in Kensington has my stomach in knots and I am fraught with nerves. Ilse will be so upset with me! She will give me that disapproving look until she was ready to forgive me, and I do not blame her.Sebastian has not uttered another word to me, and I don’t know if I was thankful for the silence or disappointed. His phone rings as we near the villa, “Sebastian,” he answers his phone monotonously, and I am left wondering again what type of boss he was. “No, I haven’t forgotten about the dinner, Sarah. I’ll be in the office in the next hour or two, bring the figures along and we can go over it while we wait for Darcy.”Excuse me, what? Sarah, as in his mistress?I couldn’t help myself and started eavesdropping terribly. “Yes, I am aware of the time. I said I would be in the office with
Sebastian did not come home that night, I know because I stayed up all night reading the set of books he got me. I know that he didn’t take the Phantom because I heard the Bugatti start up and speed away, but not return and I stayed up until 2 am reading. Something which I deeply regret now as I realise the designer from Dior would be here at 9 am. I drag myself out of bed to have a cold shower that would wake me up. Ugh, I never learn from staying up so late to read; I always regret it the next day. After my shower, Ilse informs me that the designer had arrived and showed her into my room. A beautiful, petite blonde woman with the face of a pixie enters and introduces herself, “Mrs Dumont, lovely to meet you, Meghan Black.” She says with an American accent. I offer her a smile and shake her hand, “Please call me Elena,” I say and she nods then immediately dives into the aspects of the dress. She takes my measurements and listens to my likes and dislikes and what I a
Elena My heart dropped. “Oh, come on. You couldn’t possibly have been serious about that?!” I cry out in surprise, trying to pull my wrists out of his grip, but he tightens his fingers. “Do you know me as a person who goes back on their word, Elena?” He asks, still wearing that naughty grin that I want to slap off his face. Sebastian slowly walks me backwards. “I warned you about rolling your eyes at me. Your parents obviously never punished you for misbehaving when you were a child, hence your bratty behaviour.” “I’m not a brat!” I tell him, and I feel his bed behind my legs. He was standing so close to me right now that I could feel the heat emanating from his skin. Chuckling, he shakes his head then looks at me with that stupidly sexy Greek God smoulder in his eyes. “By saying that you have just proven that you are a brat who needs to be punished.” Before I knew it, Sebastian threw me backwards on the bed and I landed with