Seven

The room goes quiet, and she walks back towards the door when she sees Keenan walks out of the opened door with a bottle of wine in his right hand.

His hair is looking shabby, and his eyes are red and dull and his steps wobbly and staggering. He’s drunk and, from what she sees, he’s probably been crying. Her heart squeezes in her chest as she imagines the torture he must go through.

His eyes go dim when they see the blurry image lurking around and his lips pause as he curiously stares at her.

“Taylor?” he slur, staggering towards her and missing a step and almost falling.

“No, it’s Vary.” she replies, still moving back and her heartbeat increasing with every passing second, “Why haven’t you gone home?”

Once he hears her name, he pauses and steps backwards, “Oh Varishaa.... Hey...” he hiccups and he pouts his mouth and blinks quickly. He walks back to the chair in front of the desk, takes a sit and majestically crosses his legs.

What is the name of all creation, made him drink this much? She wonders.

She doesn’t want to be so obvious, but she blurts out, “You are drunk, Sir.”

“Shh, don’t tell anyone that. We’ll need to keep that a secret or the news and gossip will also have that on the TV tomorrow.” He hisses and brings the bottle of wine to his lips and drinking it.

She cannot stand and watch him drink himself to a stupor because of pain and sorrow or rejection, so she walks to him and collects the bottle from his hand.

“Give it back,” he whines, his face angry and filled with demands, but yet not making a move to get up and take it back from her.

“No, I’m taking you home.” she bluntly tells him, before going over to the shelf where there are a few books and she drops it there. She knows it isn’t the right place to keep the wine, but she isn’t ready to look for where it belongs.

She walks back to where he is, still seated, and takes his hand and pulls him with her. “Where’s your car keys?”

“In my pocket,” he replies, without hesitation or argument.

She searches through the pockets of his trousers, up to the one of his chest in search of the keys and she only gets frustrated and asks. “Which?”

Instead of replying, he chuckles, and mumbles, “You’re cute when you’re angry.” he purrs and then puts his hand into the inn of his pocket and pulls out the keys.

He dangles them in her face for a while, grinning from cheek to cheek like a little kid playing hide and seek with his friends.

Varisha rolls her eyes, and she yanks the keys out of his hand, trying to ignore his words and the shiver his hot breath sends down her spine, “Let’s get you home.”

When she said that last word, she did not know how heavy the man called Keenan was, now she can barely drag Keenan without losing her stand on the ground, but slowly she does it and brings him out of the building into the parking lot. Her back hurts a lot as she does a quick stretch while Keenan stands on his own for the first time in almost fifteen minutes.

She looks around the parking lot and spots a black Lamborghini at the corner, and a red SUV in the other corner. “Which is yours, Mr Hilton?”

He looks up from the ground his eyes fixate on for a while and his eyes narrows and after a long concentration; he points to the red SUV, and she pulls him towards his car. She opens the door and helps him inside before closing the door.

When she enters the car, she sees him laughing, although tears stuck to his eyes threaten to spill any moment.

Don’t get mad Vary, he drank and probably won’t remember any of this in the morning. The voice in her head tells her and she takes a few quick breaths.

She turns and stares at him. “What’s funny?”

He gives her the most ridiculous eyes he can cook up. “Do you even know where I live?” is his only question before he continues laughing.

Damn it! She does not even know where he lives, so how is she planning on taking him home? His laughter increase louder and his hand holding his stomach from the pain the laughter seems to cause and she just glares at him in silence.

She knows the composed, in control Keenan Hilton scares her, but she would pick him over this heartbroken, laughing maniac!

She would never have guessed that love would break the all-powerful Hilton playboy. Talk about how the mighty falls.

“No, I don’t know where you live,” she agrees to his words. She needed his help, “but I’m guessing you know, right?”

He suddenly frowns and the laughter ceases and he crosses his arms over his chest like a stubborn kid unwilling to give out his priced possession.

He looks adorably cute!

“Tell me?” she prob in a mild voice.

“You will do something for me in return.” He bargains and her mouth pauses.

She can’t believe that after everything she’s done for him tonight, he still wants more in return.

“Okay, what is it?” she asks, even though she’s not ready to keep the promise, but hoping that by this time tomorrow he wouldn’t remember a thing.

She’s certain he’ll thank her for this.

He hiccups a little and looks at her with his eyes dim and mischievous immediately. “You stay with me tonight.”

She looks away from him when she feels herself consider his proposal.

What the hell is she even thinking?

Considering it would be madness! She’s got a boyfriend. What is he going to say if he finds out she’s spent the night at her boss’s place? Because she knows one way or another the world is going to know about tonight because come on, this is Keenan Hilton and she knows everything he does always ends up on the TV.

“I– I can’t.” she stutters with a vigorous shake of her head, “I don’t think Levi would be happy about this.”

His brow rises questionably, “Why not?”

She stares at him in surprise, “I wouldn’t want to give him any reason to doubt me.”

His raised brow doesn’t come down. “You think he’s going to think I’m fucking you?”

“Not exactly the words I’d like to use but,” she nods in concord with what he just said, “since it’s the way you put it, then yes.”

“Isn’t relationships supposed to be based on mutual trust?”

For a drunk person, he has a strong point for argument.

Her eyes dim a little and she asks, “Well, would you be understanding if your girlfriend stayed the night in her boss’s place?”

He contemplates the answer to her question and, not waiting for his answer, she starts the car and drives them off. He tells her the address of his house and tells me it’s a fifteen minutes’ drive to his house and we go into it in silence and awkwardness.

Silent because like she hoped for, he didn’t bring up any comeback or argument and awkward because he turned away from her so his back was to her and his face was pressed to the window, staring furiously as the streetlights and his he’d bobbing along with their rapid disappearance and once in a while he’d place his hand on the window as though he can feel the energy. If he was trying to ignore her, he was doing great.

She felt a little bad for him, as she watches him act childishly.

When we arrive at the address he’d told me, she pulls up in front of an elegant and magnificent mansion with creamed milk paint and from a far off the mansion stands out from the others around. It is more of a family house with fine flowers around it and has a relaxation corner set up at the side of the house, one she only gets to see in movies. The house probably must have cost a fortune.

Talk about class. Money talk.

Her eyes widen, and her jaw drops in amazement as she stares at the house. And she knows Keenan must have seen her because he chuckles and opens the door to his side, only to stumble face down on the ground.

He yells out in pain and breath out cuss word under his breath. She runs over to help him up, but he stubbornly shrugs her hands away. “Back off, I can help myself.”

She frowns as she watches him clutching on to his probably bruised knee with both hands, “Yes, of course, you can! What the hell was I thinking?” she sarcastically replies, more of shouts at him then she backs away from him.

“Don’t fucking make fun of me!” he snaps with a wounded look.

“Then stop acting like a little bitch and let me help you,” she says, pulling him up and although grumbling, he doesn’t reject his offer to help and he holds on to her shoulder for support while hers wraps around his waist.

She helps him into the house and she notices he lives alone. She wonders why he’d own such a big house if he was alone? But as if reading her mind, he says. “Taylor and Reign were supposed to live here with me if we were ever to get married. I should probably sell it and buy a smaller house, as it now looks like I’m going to be a bachelor for a long time.”

She knows why, but seeing him going through pain makes her heartache grievously

“Cheer up,” she pats his hip, and she feels his body tighten to her touch and she withdraws my hand from around him.

He looks down to look at her. The look on his face is obvious, and she’s seen it far too many times on the faces of needy and desperate men. “Stay with me,” he says and the strength his deep hoarse voice possesses she doesn’t expect.

She bites on her lips to keep herself from agreeing to the demands of the currently damaged man standing very close to her. She brings him to the couch and I help him down on it, but she loses her balance when his weight pulls her down with him.

Her face comes incredibly close to his and their lips are only a few inches away from each other. His rough breath brushes over her face and shivers rush down south. She can feel the tightening of the muscles of his stomach underneath the clothes as her hand move to his biceps, which seems large and firm, and she bites her lips hardly. She breathes in his thick, rich, masculine smell mixed with the smell of the alcohol as it engulfs her face and weakens my other senses of reasoning. When he ran his hand over her face, it sends paralysing shivers down her spine and she let him do it.

She’s so caught up with his full red lips purring as he stares at her like a hard puzzle he is about to solve and her eyes dreamily close.

He would not even remember this in the morning.

And you already have a boyfriend who is faithful to you, Vary, and what you’re about to do is what they call cheating.. her mind screams at her loudly.

Her eyes fly open and she scrambles to her feet and moves away from him. “I’m sorry, so, so sorry.” She covers her gaping mouth, not knowing why she almost kissed him.

What almost happened?!

“Apology accepted,” he replies, adjusting his position on the couch. He gives her a dirty smirk as he licks his lips.

“I should go.” She steps back towards the door which they came through earlier.

His eyes go dull and weary when he says this, “Please stay with me.” He practically begs as he sees me further back away. “The answer to your question is yes. I would understand if my girlfriend stays the night with her boss as long as she’s honest with me.”

That’s the problem now cause she is not sure she will survive this night and still be faithful to Levi.

She thought the feelings she had for him four years ago were gone, but this moment proves those feelings were still there.

“Please, I don’t want to be alone,” he mutters under his breath.

She does not know if she wants to stay anymore because what was about to happen about two minutes ago also told her she’s not safe around him and he might not realise it because he’s drunk, but she can because she’s not.

There’s only one way to go about this. “No funny business,” she warns with her finger and he nods like a kid being told the do (s) and don’t.

“Okay,” he says happily, “there’s a bottle of wine on the counter,” he says, pointing his hand to the counter of the minibar behind him.

She smiles and shakes her head, “Thanks, but I don’t drink.” She answers, clearly wanting to keep a clear head till the morning.

He rolls his eyes dramatically, “It’s not alcoholic.” he informs, “I know you don’t drink alcohol, you told me.” hiccups, “yesterday.”

Her cheeks heat of embarrassment, so he listened after all.

“Don’t be shy, Vary,” he urges, his blue eyes going soft as they land and stay on me. “we are two people in love with other people. What potential harm can we do to each other?”

“Get the wine,” he tells her in a voice she remembers is his bossy tone and she walks over to the counter and there is a bottle on the counter along with two glass cups.

“Were expecting someone?” she raises a brow at him and he nods.

“Taylor.” the single names seem to explain a lot. He probably had everything set, hoping Taylor would accept his proposal, but unfortunately for him, she didn’t.

She wouldn’t want to return to this house either if she was in his shoes.

“Okay,” she pours the drink into the two glass cups and she brings him his. “What are we toasting to?” I ask, handing him one.

He collects it from her hand, “To those we love.” and raises his glass for a toast.

She smiles widely. “To those we love,” I echo and tip my glass towards his before bringing it to my lips.

.............

She wakes up with a pounding head and painfully strained eyes, probably because of the sun shining directly on her face. Her hand goes to her aching head and rubs her hand on the temple and as she does this, the bedsheets fall away from her body and coldness embraces her skin and when she looks down; she realises that she’s in nothing on the massive white bed.

What the hell happened last night?!