Arawn“You cannot hide forever.”I tsk as Elinor storms into one of the separate sitting rooms of the venue, catching me sipping an expensive brandy. “Watch me!”“Ah, Mr. Rodberg!” She scolds me as she scurries through the room, ripping open the curtains to open a window. “You shouldn’t act so childishly and disappear from your own party. It doesn’t behoove a man of your status.”Scoffing, I spread my arms theatrically. “And you shouldn’t go around disrupting conversations. And yet here we are.”The feeble light of the lanterns outside streams into the room, pulling it out of its darkness.“Man of my status,” I add in a murmur, taking another sip.“Yeah, yeah.” She says, moving to clear the table in front of me, putting my brandy away under my protest. “You can go on acting like a spoilt, sulking child, but someone had to do something. You will end up losing her to that sunny boy. Do you know what he works with?”I groan as she stops to stand before me, lifting her finger, reprimandin
Nerthus “Wow,” I say dreamily as I am braiding the tassels of her scarf. “You two are adventurous.” Emily is just about to inquire about my Thanksgiving after having gushed about theirs, as I jump at Owen slumping back down at the table.Saved by the bell.My panic rises as I see Arawn taking his place as well, and I turn around. Checking if he has a split lip or a black eye, I am equally relieved as I am disappointed.I’m such a disgusting character.“Everything alright?” I ask, and he nods looking at me as if I had caught him red-handed.“Sure. Why?” He leans forward to press a chaste kiss on the corner of my lips, making me freeze.Shaking my head, I stare at him in disbelief. “Nothing.”“We will discuss it later like we said we would.” He lowers his voice with a smile, and I nod absentmindedly.I am more confused than ever, and honestly, I am scared.Maybe they didn’t talk to each other, and happened to just come back into the room by coincidence?My fingers itch to grab my pur
Nerthus I’m so angry at him that I’m set on giving Owen the last piece of me nobody ever had.I don’t care if I’m doing it out of spite, I just need him to be out of my system.“So, here we are.” Owen smiles at me as he parks his car in front of my alibi building.“Home sweet home.” I chuckle as I turn my body towards him. “Would you like to come upstairs?”He grimaces shortly before he moves his head away from me.Oh, no!“I’d love to, Aria.” He says as he looks back at me like the boy with the tuba who is about to break up with the girl from the math club.Because he talked to the quarterback about her!That fucker!“I’d really, really love to.”I force a chuckle as my throat dries out. “So, why don’t you then?”“We still
Nerthus “Can I bring you something else, sweetie?”Mr. Entitled Asshole: You aren’t at home. Where are you?A man dressed in a suit looks up from his phone with a dizzy smile. “No, I’m alright, Aria. Thank you!”Mr. Entitled Asshole: Where the fuck are you? Answer the phone!“Call me if you need anything.”Mr. Entitled Asshole: I don’t have the key to your fake apartment.He nods, returning to his flashing screen as he leans back onto the counter.I clean up the counter swiftly with a rag as I take the order of a couple of young ladies blabbering excitedly.Mr. Entitled Asshole: Are you here? Are you going to open the door or not?I was already knocked out as his texts reached me, and I still don’t know if I’m sad or happy about it.My day shift at the café and my current shift at the bar surely took a bit of my thoughts away from the asshole, but I was still struggling to concentrate on the tasks.More than anything, I was angry, and eventually I thought it served him right to be le
Nerthus The week starts as badly as it ended.I feel exhausted as I didn’t sleep well another night. Expecting Arawn to come over to collect his debt, I’m practically useless for anything as I feel as if running on adrenaline.As days pass, my subtle fear turns into frustration as I don’t even get a text from him.And soon enough, I find myself feeling disappointed as he doesn’t show up.But still manages to steal my sleep this way.In a weak moment, I am tempted to contact him, but Jenna saves me from my embarrassment as she tells me that he must have gone out of the country for some meeting as Dario had to go with him.At least a text!I go through my days with my shifts in the café and the bar as well as casual dinners and drinks with Gigi and Jenna.Not that it helps a lot.Sitting on my bed, I chew on the skin around my
Nerthus If he is going to come for me, I better be prepared.And with that, I don’t mean fuckwise but especially for the talk he is going to want with me.I don’t know what it’s going to be about, but I certainly want my heart to be ready for everything.In particular, I have to make up my mind about if I want to go back to work for him, as I don’t seem to be able to detach myself from him anyway.So, at least I’ll be getting my money.My last shift of the week in the café is surely going better than the others before. Even if my thoughts keep going back to my call with Arawn last night, as I had my first video phone sex ever. I find myself smiling repeatedly at how I had him assure me several times that he wasn’t recording it, even if I could see in his smirk that he wasn’t being honest.But by God, he was way too gorgeous to have me refuse him this joy.“You seem in a good mood today. I’m glad to see you smiling like that.” Lizzy says as she is counting out the cash in the register
Nerthus “Are you okay?” Arawn’s voice gets me to calm down immediately, my shoulders slumping automatically. “Yeah. Yeah.” I say, playing with my necklace. “I just wanted to hear your voice.” He barks out a laugh, and I can see him lift his eyebrows at me. “This bad, huh?” “Uh-huh. She is doing better every day. But with her two left legs, you know how aunty Maria is. Never laying down.” “For goodness' sake, Nerthus.” He chuckles deeply before he just hangs up. What the fuck?! That asshole. Feeling absolutely shocked at him not getting my message, I’m about to send him a text with a few nice words to make him regret when they find me in some ugly ditch. With my torso cracked open and emptied. Just as I’m about to type, a text appears on my phone. Mr. Entitled Asshole: Your favorite band? Amber: Are you fucking kidding me? What are you doing? Are you updating your playlist? Mr. Entitled Asshole: Do you like Metallica? I lift my arms, pushing out a single laugh. I can’t
Nerthus I already have a bad feeling as I step out of my building.Naturally, I prepared myself for a night out with Bridget and didn’t cancel our date. I had informed her about the fact that I probably wouldn’t make it because of work, but I wanted to provoke Arawn anyway.That’s just the way we are.Bridget took it quite well, even if I think she might have been high anyway.A group of six men are standing distributed on the walkway without seemingly interacting with each other.The perks of shouting your lungs off against a King I guess.“Miss Flannings?” The bulkiest of them says in an accent I could swear from his accent that he is one of the men who escorted me home last night.He opens a car door for me and crosses his hands before his frame as he straightens back up. Wrinkling my nose, I walk to the car reluctantly.Not that I would have any other choice.“They know me as Rogers here if you don’t mind.”“I understand. I apologize, Ms. Rogers.”He remains unmoved and I flash h
Thank you so much, my lovelies for reading, your amazing support and for your patience as I had to take several breaks to finish this one. I hope you loved Nerthus' and Arawn's love story and will be following me for the sequel. XoXo, Shelagh
Lenore Her high-pitched giggles sound like razor blades in my ears as my gaze is fixed on the huge diamond sparkling on her finger. “Well, you will surely understand, right?” Jason asks with a stupid grin as he shoves the hand of his new fiancée under my nose. “We weren’t compatible anyway.” I force up a smile, caressing my arms as I hug myself against the cold. “Of course, you are so cute together.” “Thank you so much,” Gina squeals in her fake happy voice, putting her hand on her chest. “It was so important for me that you would understand.” This scene is so telling. Also, because I’m standing in the open, freezing to death in my cute dress while the snowflakes fall on me, sticking to my hair and melting into my already freezing skin.My best friend and my ex-boyfriend, on the other hand, are standing beneath the roof of the entrance to his house, smiling at me like it’s about to be Christmas.And luckily it is. I gave the best days of my life to this man, my high-school love,
Danny “Is this thing on?” I clear my throat as I tap on the microphone, smiling uncomfortably. “Hey everyone.” The guests are staring up at me and I squirm on my feet as I push out a deep breath. I have never spoken in front of so many people and my throat feels raspy. “As my brother asked me to be his best man, I felt honored, but the first thing I asked him was, ‘Don’t you have any friends?’” A low chuckle goes through the crowd, and I wet my lips with my tongue. “Of course, I know that he has a lot of friends, but he wanted me as his brother to do it. And thank God, Bernie was not too offended about it to help me with the planning of the bachelor party.” “Hear, hear!” Bernard lifts his glass, cheering loudly, getting other guests to join him. I play with my notes, my nervousness increasing as I feel my throat close. “Well, the bachelor party was great. Sorry, Amber, but there were a lot of beautiful girls.” Amber laughs, the diamond pins holding up her hair sparkling in th
Arawn“This is not fair! You can’t treat me like this.” Amanda screams at the top of her lungs, making me close my eyes exhausted.“Well, why don’t you go ahead and sue me?”Her theatrical gasp must cost her so much air that I’m surprised she doesn’t faint.“I hate you!” She screams even louder. “I never want to see you ever again!”So dramatic.It has been quite a while and I still struggle to adjust to this ‘love topic’.All because of that woman.Fifteen years have passed since I asked Nerthus to be my wife, and claimed she just said yes because of her job.I might have her punished for this.But she made me pay severely anyway.“Well, what a shame that you are stuck with me, isn’t it, Amanda?”“I hate you! I hate you!”Groaning, I pinch the bridge of my nose. “You keep repeating yourself. We already figured it out that far, didn’t we, my love?”The shrill scream that she is used to producing during her tantrums risks bursting my eardrums.Well, my fucking fault for thinking I coul
NerthusMy birthday was more than memorable. Especially because after getting proposed to by the love of my life, I got to party my entry into a new life-year with my friends. I drank way too much, fearing I would have spoiled my chance of a tasty breakfast. “I’m out!” I hear Danny shout before the door slams close. Groaning, I fight myself out of bed, desperately needing a cup of coffee. As I reach the kitchen, a strange sensation rises in me. I notice that there is no staff around whatsoever. Not even the usual bodyguard is scurrying around my feet and I guess that Danny left with Goldie to go to the dog school, making the house awfully silent. I tie my morning gown tighter around my waist, concentrating on refilling the water tank of my coffee machine. My heart drops as I hear footsteps nearing, but I don’t turn around. Pressing the button to get the coffee to start flowing, I ignore my body shivering in anticipation as Arawn puts his hands on the counter, caging me in. “I
Nerthus - Six months later I take a sip of my coffee, hugging my denim jacket closer as I watch the children run around the statue of Alice in Wonderland. Thinking about how my life has changed in the last year, I nearly can’t believe my luck and I push down the urge to ask myself how I deserved this kind of life. So many things have happened in these six months and it is just crazy how I’m just living my days with a partner in crime, an adopted boy and a stolen dog. As they had liquidated my uncle’s and aunt’s assets, and as they couldn’t get hold of my cousin, I got nominated as their heir. First, I didn’t want to have nothing to do with it, but with Arawn’s and Danny’s support, I got to the house where I lived before I came to New York and we searched for something that I would want to keep before he arranged for the clean-up and the sale of the house. Naturally, I didn’t want to keep anything. But as we searched the house, Danny found a hidden safe where there were various docu
Nerthus It takes my lungs a few seconds to fill with enough air to push out a horrified scream. But it actually feels like it takes an eternity. Lizzy looks at us with a blank look before she sinks to the floor, collapsing in her own pool of blood. Arawn steps towards her with his gun still pointed and picks her gun up. “Are you alright?” he asks in our direction as he pushes the gun into the belt in the back of his pants. Danny nods, exhaling a deep breath, and I loop my arm around his, hugging him closer. “Let’s sit down. Shall we?” He slumps to the ground nearly immediately, tearing me with him. Nodding once again, he lets his shoulders slump and I turn my head to watch Arawn crouch down before me. Cupping my chin gently, he turns my head to inspect my face. “The ambulance is already on its way. I called Detective Ramirez. Are you feeling well enough to wait for them? Or shall I drive you to the ER?” “I’m fine,” I say, my voice nearly failing me as sobs rise in my throat.
Nerthus The first thing I feel as I wake up is the cold surface I’m lying on. Turning my head to the side, I wait for my sight to focus while I notice that I can’t move. I seem to be constricted by ropes that are tying me to the table and I suddenly feel like I can’t breathe. My clothes are missing, my body shaking as I’m only dressed in my lingerie and I dread the moment when we will find out why we are in this shitty situation. My panic is crushing my throat, my breathing getting heavy as I try to pull at the ropes constricting me on the shiny surface. Checking the room, I see Danny lying next to me. He is bound to a table as well but seems to be still knocked out, and for a moment, I’m glad as I couldn’t take his desperation which would be adding to my panic. The gas must have been inducted into the room on purpose to knock us out and I fight hard not to faint at the thought. I groan, turning my head to the other side as I hope it will reduce the pulsating pain in my skull.
Nerthus “Get him off me!” I scream pushing the dead body from me but failing miserably. Danny scurries around him a few times before he decides on what to do and how to get hold of the body the best way. With a groan, he pushes him off me, making me take a deep breath. “Oh, my God.” He remains standing, staring at the dead man with a void look while I drag myself over the ground to get to the gun he had kicked out of my hand. “Are you alright?” I ask as I sit up with a pained groan, and Danny nods. Laying the gun into my lap, I massage my hand as I take another deep breath. “I think he might broke my hand too.” Sighing, I look up while I let my shoulders slump. I watch Danny while my desperation still streams through me, and I can’t seem to be able to push it down. I know exactly that there is more where he came from. Danny has his gaze still directed to the dead man, his look is flowing into the void, and I gulp as I think about how I must get him out of this dark place as s