I didn't have to wonder long. The lips that had found mine pressed together firmly in a thin line.When I woke up, I hadn't found him. I had walked to his door to knock when Josh found me."He already left." I turned to Josh, my mouth open to question him."He had to be there earlier than us to meet certain people. We'll just join him there." He shrugged.My face fell in disappointment. I was hoping we could see, so we could talk about what transpired between I us last night. My fingers found my lips and I blushed at the thought."Are you okay?" "What? Of course I am.""Well, you look flushed." I reached up to my face and felt my cheeks. They felt hot."I am." I reassured him, smiling. We got to the venue which was only 10 minutes away from our hotel. The conference centre was so huge in comparison to most buildings I'd been in. Josh had left to go find Kol and asked me not to move too far so he could locate me easily.I looked around with my mouth ajar in awe. The lights looked like
"Wha..what?" My eyes bulged wide, not believing my ears. I waited for him to explain himself."I shouldn't have kissed you." My heart shattered into thousands of fragments. My eyes welled up but I let him continue."I'm sorry I did. I wasn't thinking straight. After seeing you and you pissing me off..." He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes like he was in pain. He wasn't. I was. As if reminding himself he was veering off track, he said."I can't break my own rules. I didn't want to get involved with anyone who has had something to do with Jason or a co-worker." And I was both.I nodded my head in solemn realisation."I understand." He looked shocked. Like he hadn't expected me to be chill about it. "Tori..." I hated how lovely the moniker had sounded from his lips. I hated that I loved it."Victoria to you. Only Josh gets to call me that." His face hardened at that. He had no right to be upset. I was the one who let him kiss me. I was the fool. I walked to the door
'What on earth was he doing here? Of all the places to be on a Friday night' I wondered. Mr Clueless got the idea and left. Kol sat down where he'd vacated. I didn't turn to look at him. I couldn't. I had deluded myself into thinking I didn't like him that much and could handle seeing him but today felt different. We were outside the confines of a work-related environment. Both of us said nothing as he ordered a bottle of scotch, neat. I picked up my phone just to fill time. I continued to scroll through it when a notification came in. I'd forgotten I still followed Michael on I*******m. He'd updated his account with a post. It was a digital wedding invitation card alongside a few photos of the couple. I thought I would feel the pain. That I'd be livid but I felt numb instead. I ran over my screen with my thumb. He hadn't wanted me the same way Kol hadn't. I smiled bitterly. Maybe there was something wrong with me. "Hey." He said. I didn't look up at him and I didn't repl
"What?"I cleaned my ears to make sure I wasn't just hearing things. He rolled his eyes."I said I need your help." He gritted his teeth. I was tempted to smile but I played it cool. Sure, I had risen to the role of assistant team manager in quite a short time but, I never thought the day would come where he'd outrightly ask for my help."What do you need help with?" "I've selected a handful of people who I've decided to work with. We're about to launch a new device, a tablet with a different feature than the ones we have created and we're trying to keep it hush till the launch day." Because of Jason. He didn't need to say it.Jason was just a big bully and a scoundrel. I could see the pain on his face when he said it no matter how quickly he tried to mask it. It was hard for me to admit it to myself but I'd begun to notice the small details about him. The subtle way he scratched his chin when he was confused or the way his eyebrows rose subtly when he was shocked."So, do you agree
I told him everything I had planned out from months back, leaving out the part of it being why I was in his company in the first place.By the time I was finished telling him and showing him how far I'd gone with my idea, his mouth propped open. Josh was floored. "You thought of that?" Josh asked. Kol hadn't found the words yet. I smirked in response. I had made him speechless, a feat many wouldn't be able to brag about. There was a glint in his eyes, an emotion present there that I couldn't decipher. Pride maybe, or respect, I couldn't tell. It went as quickly as it came.A knock sounded from the door."We'll discuss this later." He nodded in my direction. 'This isn't over.' His eyes had spoken.It felt like a heavy weight had been lifted off my shoulders as I walked back to the office.A smile formed on my face. I had finally achieved 60% of my dreams.The rest of the day went by slowed as I drowned in work. "Miss Victoria, what do you think?" I looked up from my computer and at
"What?" Thea peered around to look at the message on my phone."Uhm.. Kol wants to uhm..." I cleared my throat, my brows furrowing at the message. His message was curt and simple, leaving no room for argument. "Kol wants to meet at his place." Thea's brows creased in confusion."What do you mean meet at his place? Why his place?"I had always wondered why he wanted to meet at his place but apparently his place was set up as an elaborate tech space, making it much easier for us to work without distractions from our work place, plus there was probably a lot of security too.I always thought with the way he was closed off to everyone except Josh, getting to know his house would be as easy as finding a needle in a stack of needles.My stomach churned at the thought of being at his place. Knowing where he lived, how he lived, what that looked like. Like a small view into his soul. I felt my face grow hot at the thought."Are you blushing right now?" I touched my face with the back of my
I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, looking at him with an annoyed look on my face."Where's your rag?" He went inside one of those mysterious doors and brought one.I wiped the floor clean of every spilled drop of water but Kol had something else on his mind. He was relentless. When he wanted something, he wouldn't rest until he got it and that was the answer to the question he had asked earlier."You didn't answer my question." He stood, arms akimbo like I owed him an answer. I didn't and I let him know that." I don't owe you an explanation." I scowled at him."Yes. Yes, you do." The b*stard. He'd been testing my patience all day and I had had it up to here."No, I f*cking don't. You're such an egotistical, rude, big-headed-a*s jerk. Not everything is about you." I was infuriated with him and tired of his antics. One minute he "No but everything is about you. You're suffocating, weird, annoying, uptight and most of all the most confusi..."We were chest to chest now, breat
"Where are you going?" He pulled me flush against his body.I struggled with his hold."I know what you're going to say""Really?" He asked, one brow raised high in question. His swollen lip, a testament of what had happened earlier, distracted me for a short moment.As if reading my thoughts, he bent his head and kissed me, snapping my thoughts close. I pulled away from him, hating that I loved it."You're going to tease me about my lack of experience." I said, a scowl forming on my face.He pulled me closer and wrapped his hands around me, shocking me to stupor. We had skipped so many stages that it baffled me to realise we had actually never hugged before. "I don't care. I was just shocked." He pulled back a fraction to look at myself."Shocked that I don't look inexperienced? Meaning you thought that I..." His index finger fell to my lips, shutting me up. "Nope. You're not going to do that."His eyes questioning me, if I was going to say anything. I wasn’t, so he removed his fin
EPILOGUE“Kol, this doesn’t look right.” Kol pulled the Christmas tree to the left again. I could see his veins about to pop as I shook my head. We’d been at it for almost 30 minutes straight and Kol was getting tired.“A little…” He groaned as he moved the tree a little to the right. There!“Perfect.” I huffed like I was the one doing all the work. Kol collapsed on the rug for a few minutes, probably thinking of new ways to most like strangle me and then stood up.“Baby, I’m sorry.” I kneaded his shoulders, his body relaxing under my touch.“It’s fine.” I placed a kiss on his back hoping to relieve his muscles but he turned rigid instead. I didn’t stop kissing his back though.“I think you should stop. Your dad will be coming over in a few hours and I would prefer the house smelling like hot chocolate and cookies.” He spun around to face me, grabbing my jaw.“Not wild s*x.” He always had a way of leaving me w*t and speechless every d*mn time.Now I wanted the whole place to smell like
“I cannot believe you woke up late. We should’ve left hours ago.” I smacked my forehead in exasperation.“You mean 30 minutes ago.”“You’re late. It’s all that matters.”Dimitri had an amused smile on his face as he watched Charlie and I bicker in the plane. They were all late, except for Kol and me. That was pretty much a given but Charlie was the latest of them all.“Can you too stop fighting so I can enjoy my champagne?” Josh was pouring a glass for Thea who had her sunglasses on, even in the plane, seemingly unbothered about everything.Both of them had been pissing me off.“What the f*ck is going on between both of you?”“They shagged.” Charlie pipped up beside me.“Ew! I cannot believe this.” My nose wrinkled in grossness.“Pay up.” Kol stretched out his hands. I now owed him a couple hundred dollars. Thea’s brows pinched together in confusion and sudden realisation.“They bet on us.” She pointed accusingly.“Why am I not surprised?” Josh glared at us, mainly at Kol.“How much?”
“Imagine having time to take care of your family because your app helps you work out your day effectively from just keeping track of what you do per time.”“We are in the age of health and lifestyle. An app that could sync up your life with routines that have been mastered by our app would make life so easier.” Everyone was paying rapt attention as I continued to speak.“For example, Miss Tina doesn’t usually work out but she syncs her app to her health. On Monday, she works out by 9, on Tuesday, she does the same. On Wednesday, she doesn’t work out at all. Maybe something else has her preoccupied at that moment.Our app notices these routines you have skipped throughout the day and reminds you at 9 that you haven’t worked out. You’re not forgetting anything and you’re not storing unnecessary data in you brain.”“It doesn’t just work with health, it works for anything that has a routine. Something you do every time. You don’t have any activity you’re forgetting because something is re
“How?” I couldn’t process my words. It was like I had entered a new realm where the sun had been replaced with fairy lights. Concrete had been replaced with soft grass that tickled my feet. I pried open strings of steams and walked into the space before me.“Was that…” Julia Michael’s song played in the background but this song felt different than when I first heard it. It felt like a lifeline, my lifeline. The song that had pulled me out of a wandering abyss at the hospital.I’d been so caught up in the beauty of the environment that I hadn’t noticed Kol in the centre of everything, standing right there. My eyes welled up with tears and my mouth felt very dry.I walked slowly to him and stopped where he stood.“Kol, what is all this?” I gestured to everything he’d set up. His hands found mine and squeezed.I looked up at him and my heart raced within its cage. There was a new emotion in his eyes I hadn’t seen before. Contentment. He seemed content with everything, his life. Gosh, I w
“Thea, meet Charlie. Charlie, meet Thea.” I motioned to both of them as we converged outside Thea’s new place. She’d moved into Charlie’s neighbourhood and thought we should all just meet at her place since she hadn’t been properly introduced to Charlie.Both of them smiled at each other and Thea being Thea just ran off her mouth.“You’re so pretty. D*mn. If I were into girls, I would lick you up.” I threw her a disgusted look. Some thoughts were better left as thoughts. Charlie didn’t mind though as her cheeks turned rosy.“Can we please go inside?” I rolled my eyes at both of them.We joked around for a few hours and I could tell that they would be fast friends. They were so similar in nature, both beautiful, fashionable and resilient, tough nuts to crack, but would defend what they thought was right with all they had.Thea looked at her phone surreptitiously and turned it off. She’d been acting edgy all day. Was she expecting a call from someone?“What is it?” I whispered beside he
We sat inside David's study. A room with wood that looked richer than my bank account. It probably was richer. The shelf behind him held so many books that had been considered priceless or just lost to most of the world.His house looked just as elegant as it did outside on the inside. The couches smelled of expensive leather and one could smell a citrus-cinnamon scent everywhere else.We all sat in the living room just staring at one another until Gerald came in to ask for what we'd eat, his stare at me unwavering. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat.We'd all echoed the same thing."No, thank you. I'm fine."When he saw no need for his services, he calmly left the room, sparing me a final glance before exiting the door.I didn't know where to start or how to David's face wasn't welcoming. He looked angry but he hadn't thrown me out yet. So, that counted for something.Instead of leading with a 'why the f*ck did you help me?', I asked something entirely different. "How long have you
I went up to the room and lay in bed, looking up at the ceiling but not noticing it.First I was shocked, then I was mad. Shortly after I was confused. Why?Kol walked on eggshells around me all night, not knowing how to handle the situation for once. I understood that there was no choice and he was the only option in that moment but why had he done it?I was under the impression that he hated me and that I should’ve died in place of his wife. He’d made that abundantly clear. If you asked me, I thought that was a very obvious opportunity for his wishes to be fulfilled.While I continued staring at the ceiling, Kol glanced at me surreptiously.“I’m sorry.” I turned my face to fully look at him.“I’m not mad at you. I would’ve done the same thing.” I would’ve. His life over any other thing. That would’ve been my choice too.“I’m just… honestly, I don’t really know how to feel.” I moved a lock of hair from his forehead and left my hand on his face, cupping his cheek.“That’s fine. If you
FIVE WEEKS LATERTori’s POV.“I swear, I’ll kill him if he tries to bring a spoon near me to feed me.” I hissed through my teeth.Thea chuckled beside me as she got the bath ready for me. I’d come back from the hospital and Kol had been treating me like I was made of glass, carrying me everywhere, spoon-feeding me, tucking me in bed.I was tired and he was slowly getting on my nerves. I’d thrown a fit when he’d demanded that I let him feed me. My arms were f*cking fine. I was fine. I still needed bed rest but I could do a few activities without groaning so loudly.“It is so weird to see Kol like this. I think it’s best if you just let him baby you. We don’t know when he’d go back to cold - no emotions Kol.” She was right but it was getting overbearing.I rolled my eyes at her.“I am serious about killing him though. He won’t go beyond holding my hands though.”“What else do you want him to do? He’s scared he might break you.” Her eyes glinted mischievously at me. I scrunched up my nos
Tori was awake. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The doctors couldn’t either.They were all shocked at her miraculous recovery. She could barely speak or move much. She still needed weeks of rest and medical care but she was awake. It was all that mattered.I watched her sleep and wake up, drink water when she was parched, cleaned her myself and then watched her some more for long hours.My phone rang, disrupting my new position as the room hawk and mother hen according to Thea who was asleep in a very uncomfortable position by the way.“How’s she?” Josh had also rushed over, dropping every other thing when he had heard she was awake but returned back to work shortly after.“She’s asleep.” He sighed deeply and then continued to talk some more about work. We were doing fine, thanks to Josh. The short period when Tori was almost lifeless, there were moments of reflection where I realised that not a lot actually mattered to me in the grand scheme of things. The grand scheme of things being sp