[ZARA]“I like this one,” after devoting the entire day to checking out one apartment to another, I finally found the one conforming to my suitability. Well, more like my affordability, but you know what I mean.“It’s an excellent choice,” the real estate agent—a woman in her late thirties and hair so red I had to blink multiple times to adjust my eyes—agreed enthusiastically. And even though she had been muttering similar lines for almost every apartment that we had been to, it still made me a little pleased to know that she acknowledged it. “Oh, you should check out the balcony. Wonderful view. It’s open and spacious. You can even put a cute table and some chairs. A perfect setup for morning and evening tea. And the neighbours are also lovely people. You’ll have no problem adjusting,” she gushed out, her chirpy voice getting more and more excited every minute.“Well, it’s a little distant from my workplace,” sauntering over to the balcony and glancing around the animated neighbourho
I frowned. “What do you mean?”“Come on. I’ll show you my cabin. It has an even better view,” with an arm around my back, Brandon ushered me down the hallway and towards his cabin. Though when he opened the door, I wasn’t expecting to come face-to-face with the person in the room.“Armonica?” Shock bolted through me, leaving my eyes wide and mouth open.What was she doing here? Did she come here to give Brandon a hard time? After Maddox Richmond turned out to be her asshole cousin, she was another reason I felt so guilty. Brandon was crushing so hard on her. And by doing what I did, I was afraid I screwed up any prospect of their happily ever after together.To my surprise, however, when Armonica’s gaze landed on me, a wider smile grazed her lips. She shot up from her seat at lightning speed and dashed over to pull me into a hug.Wait. What?Didn’t Brandon say her father was his client? Then what was she doing here?And why the hell was she so happy to see me? Was she OK?Did she forg
[MADDOX]“I’ve got some leads from Europe,” Jade explained through the other side of the phone as I yanked the door of my car open and slid inside, tossing the briefcase in the backseat. “Already booked a flight. Hopefully, it wouldn’t end up with another dead end.”“Jade, whatever happens. If he’s the right person, you know better than to make direct contact,” I told her, clenching the steering wheel tight, hoping she wouldn’t ignore my advice like she often did. “You’re only there to confirm his identity. And once that happens, you’ll leave everything to me. Do you hear me?”“Loud and clear,” she muttered, but I could practically imagine her rolling her eyes at me. Not that I cared. Her safety was more important than anything.“He is dangerous, Jade.”“I know, Maddox.”“If you know that much, then you’ll fucking keep your distance. If he even got the whiff of what we're up to, we can’t even imagine what he would do. He might hurt you. Like he did to—”“Don’t worry about me,” she sig
[ZARA]When I revealed to mom about the new place I had planned to buy, mom was ecstatic. Although Brandon seemed a little sore at the disclosure. He grumbled about being used to home-cooked food and that he wasn’t sure if moving out this soon was a good idea.But I knew it was more than that.After completing his graduation, the first thing Brandon did was leave his home. Despite his parents’ best efforts to call him back, he stubbornly refused to step back into their house. Not many people knew, but Brandon’s parents had fallen out of love long before he turned twelve. He didn’t like to talk much about them, but I had seen him growing frustrated and reluctant to return home after school.He used to stay at our place for as long as possible and always ate whatever mom fed him. I tried to talk to him about his problems, but he always brushed me off or circled the topic back at me. He was good at distracting, and because I was the person who ran more on emotions than my brain cells, I
My first reaction was to check the time.It was almost one in the morning. Who in the world could be outside my door? Could it be Brandon? Did he forget something? But why would he drive all the way back when he could always collect it in the morning? It made no sense. Did Armonica forget something? Now, that was a possibility worth contemplating. Then again, I had already cleaned the room and found nothing that could belong to her.The bell rang again.Ugh. Should I ignore it?No. What if it’s one of the neighbours in need of help? God, I hoped that wasn’t the case.When the bell rang for the third time, I almost screamed and stomped over to the door.After one brief glimpse through the peephole, I realized the person indeed was the neighbour. I met him this morning. He lived across the hall. But what was he doing here so late at night?Anyway, now that I knew it was safe to open the door, I lugged in a deep breath and unlocked the door. A guy in his late twenties came into view.“Di
[MADDOX]“To a new beginning.” I raised the toast. “Cheers!” And took a sip, grinning to myself and watching her as the look on her face turned from annoyed to skeptical, before a small glimpse of panic shone in her baby-blue eyes.By the time I put the glass back on the small dining table where I stood presently, she had already taken a step back.“Why exactly are you here, Maddox?” she asked, slightly panicked, mostly suspicious.It did not slip my mind that it was the first time she called me by my first name. I decided at that moment that I quite liked it that way. My name on her soft plump lips. As I remembered the way they tasted that night at her place, in her bedroom, on her bed, blood prompted in the south.God, this woman could make a man horny just by saying his name.“Why don’t you make an educated guess?” I hummed nonchalantly and shifted my gaze from her to the rest of the room around.It was a decent two-bedroom apartment.The walls were bland. No paintings. No picture
[ZARA]If only I hadn’t been so careless…God, why did I leave the album out there in the open? After making sure Armonica or Brandon didn’t get their hands on it, I stupidly left it on the dining top after cleaning up the room. How dumb could I be?Then again, it wasn’t like I was expecting company.Maddox Richmond just dropped by uninvited.The asshole. The bane of my existence. The jerk who couldn’t keep his dick in his pants.I thought in exchange for the album, he was probably trying to get his way with me. It wasn’t rocket science to read him, the kind of creep that he was.He wasn’t doing an outstanding job of hiding the lust and want from his eyes. I could practically see the reel of that night playing in his mind, in the way the corner of his lips twitched to the side, the way he held me close and breathed in my scent and the shudder that travelled down his chest.All the signs were there.Except, it wasn’t as if with him in the same room I could think of something else eithe
“Not happening, Mr Richmond. And in case you’re forgetting the most important thing,” I turned my face to look at him and raised an eyebrow. “I still hate you. Like a lot. So much that I want to strangle you right now. I don’t think having me around would be safe for your health, well, or life, for that matter.”Instead of being offended, he chuckled at my words.Jerk!“Well, what can I say—perhaps I love to live dangerously,” he grinned.“I don’t,” I grimaced. “I have no plans of going to prison.”“Then don’t kill me. Simple.”“Not so simple. Especially when seeing your face—all I want is to chop it with that butcher knife in my kitchen drawer.”“Jesus, didn’t take you to be so violent,” he sounded surprised and I almost felt a flicker of pride curling my lip up. “It kind of looks hot on you, though.” But then he opened his mouth again, and I mentally groaned.Fuck me!“You know what? If you’re not inclined to leave soon, maybe I should be the one out,” that’s it. I couldn’t take thi