"We tried reaching out to her and connecting to her. She never responded." Cecilia replies defensively. That is news to me and I don't blame Amelia if it is true. Why would she be interested in going out to social events to socialise with the same women who picked on her as a teen with her mother? Especially as such a chaotic moment of her life. "I don't blame her. Goodbye Cecilia." Finally, I end the call. "Charlotte, come in." I say in the next breath. I know she was listening in all along. Everything goes silent. She doesn't reply or acknowledge that I have caught her."I know you are there. Don't waste my time." I lean back, waiting. In the meantime, I send my request to the HR representative to start looking for a new replacement. I don't know how long that whole process will take for me to get a qualified worker, but I am willing to wait it out. I could get a stand-in, pending when they vet a new employee. Less than five minutes later, Charlotte walks in, hands behind her, he
"Okay." I say. I pull back so he can continue driving. Because I am incredibly attuned to him, I notice the tightness around his mouth. I see that he is gritting his teeth and he is not maintaining eye contact with me like he normally does. I try not to read into it but when we reach the house and he opens the door for me without any funny gesturing like he normally does, I get worried. "What is wrong, Linc?" I ask, coming to turn around so I can face him, I cross my arms over my chest and fix him with a serious stare. It is all just to hide my nervousness. "Why do you think something is wrong? Did you pack all you would need for two days and three nights already? I packed last night. I don't need much. So just give me a minute to change clothes and we will be on our way. Are you excited about what I have in store for you this time around?" Linc walks past me, he is heading up the stairs to his room. Our room. I follow behind him. Confused. Did he just try to deflect from my quest
"She wanted money, Amelia. She wanted me to show up for the cameras so it drives up the importance of the event and also to donate money in the charity drive." Linc says. I hear the anger shine bright in his tone. So that is what ruined his mood. I look at him, I stretch a hand to touch his hard jaw and I feel him grinding his teeth under my fingertips. He is doing his best to conceal his anger. Cecilia's shamelessness must have triggered some deeper issues he had with Kathryn and her posse or superficial friends. "I am sorry." I whisper. He holds my hand to his face and closes his eyes. He looks very different from what I am used to but he is still my Linc. Always would be. "Don't be." He says. "But I am. I know Kathryn treated you like an ATM and you didn't see it till it was too late. Now her friends have the nerves to want to continue that behaviour and it is unacceptable." I say, my cold fear at assuming the worst is gradually shifting into anger. The nerves of that."It is
How long have we been flying already? It can't be up to an hour yet. Our pilot is a tall middle aged man with the most serious face I have ever seen. He didn't smile once during our onboarding and he was very polite and professional. I don't know if I would ever get used to the respect and honour I get placed on when I am with Linc. Pilot Sanders bowed to me and I felt weird about it. Linc said not to worry about it but I can't help myself. I found myself wondering what they think about me. Do they know about us and just don't care? Or are they judging me silently? I could drive myself crazy just wondering about it so I don't. I straddle Linc and his eyes fly open. "What? Are you going to bribe the answer out of me?" He asks, the corners of his mouth twitching into a smile he's barely concealing. He can't keep up his hard unyielding act with me for long and he knows it. I know it too and I want to use it to my advantage. "No. Can't I just want to snuggle with my man anymore?" I sa
Though to be fair, Kathryn was right. I wasn't fit to be travelling across Europe alone like I intended. Seeing as how sheltered I had grown to be, it was a wonder she let me go outside the state for college. But she was right. I wasn't ready.And now I am. Because I have Linc. He is with me. He is mine and he would protect me no matter what. Though I doubt that is something that would have given Kathryn any comfort. "I probably would have spared you if I went on a murderous rampage." I say, sniffling back the last of my tears. Laughing. Linc is laughing too. The chauffeur is done loading up our bags and he stands at a distance beside the car, pretending not to be watching us. Captain Sanders salutes us from the cockpit, uninterested in stepping out of his space. "Right. I think you would have framed me for it." He says, he takes my hand and walks me to the car, opens the door for me and watches my head as I enter the air conditioned spacious backseat of the car. It smells like luxu
The name. Beau. Why is that name familiar to me? Oh wait. That is the name of the artist my mother eloped with. The man that exploited her trust after her demise. The man that wanted to blackmail Linc. Arthur Beau. He is a Parisian. Linc surely knows this. "Linc. Are you okay being here? In this city?" I ask cautiously, scooting close to him again. He looks at me like he is confused about my question."Why wouldn't I be? What is wrong, Ames? Where did your bright smile go? What are you thinking?" Linc pulls my chin up with a gentle finger, he looks intently into my eyes."The name, Beau. It brought back the memory of Arthur Beau and all that mess. He is here too. Somewhere in this city." I whisper. Hating the fact that I might never truly be free of Kathryn and her long reaching influence. She managed to sink her claws into my dream city too. Moving here without even telling me. Falling in love here. Dying here. All that waste and toxin. Linc must hate Paris. Oh God. And yet he bro
Linc is the one that eventually eases off the kiss. Gently. Carefully. He pulls back, pressing lingering kisses all over my mouth. I keep my eyes closed. Trying to recalibrate my bearings and remember the last word I spoke. Our conversation. Where we are. Kissing Linc is like taking a break from reality. It is such an escape. I am addicted to the very pull of it. I can't get enough even if I tried. "We are here." He says, a small cocky smirk playing on his wet lips. He knows the hold he has on me. I can't blame him. "Where?" I ask absentmindedly. I am still floating. My feet are on the floor but I can't yet exactly feel my centre of gravity. Linc laughs. That rich sound. Like pulling treasures from a deep trove. I will never tire of it. I want to always make him laugh. I want to always be rewarded by that sound. "Some cafe. Let's get some coffee and breakfast in ourselves. We have a long day ahead of us." Linc says. He is still holding me close. Our bodies pressed sideways. "Oh o
The coffee is better. We relapse into comfortable silence. Her croissant forgotten on the table. We watch the people seated around us in the sparse spacious setting of the outdoor space of the cafe. We watch the people walking about. We watch the sassy waitress attending to customers like they were an inconvenience. It is all very french. Of little interest to me. But Amelia watches it all with a breathless look of awe in her eyes. "Mr. Dmitri?" I am pulled out of my reverie of watching Amelia soak up the simple colloquial morning of Parisians by a man's voice to my left. We both turn in the direction of the voice, I am surprised by the unfamiliarity of the voice, calling my name out of the blue like that."It is you." On closer look, the man is actually a kid. Probably not older than Amelia, but boys at that age already develop the gruffness of adulthood. "Hello, Sir. My name is Dylan. I am a huge fan." He extends his hand for an handshake. I look at the palm, smooth and hairy, I l
The door swings open and Ashley walks in, she comes straight to where I am perched in the middle of the room in my expensive wedding dress that costs seven figures, designed by a top rated designer to flatter my body and make me look unreal. It was unspoken but also to make my tiny pregnant bulge not very visible. And it is perfect. I feel like a fairy in the low V-neck, long sleeved, ankle length gown made with sheer lace, embroidered with real diamonds along my silhouette. I feel pretty. "Are you okay?" She asks.I shake my head. I am far from okay. My life is a fairytale and I can't seem to snap to reality. We are having the wedding in a quaint countryside ranch in the south of France, magical and ethereal. How can I be okay? It is a small wedding. When I say small, I mean it is just Linc and I, Ashley and Dylan, Chris who is Linc's best friend who I am just meeting who happens to be a very jovial man with a wicked sense of humour, his girlfriend, a french model whose name was so
I am alone in the bed. But Linc's scent lingers in the pillows, sheets, my senses. His side of the bed is warm. I can tell he just left. But to where? It is still Sunday right? I look around for my phone, it is six p.m in the evening of the same day so he didn't go to work. My bladder pushes all the other thoughts from my head as I make to get up and go pee. After peeing, I look at myself in the mirror and I find that I can't quite recognise the woman looking back at me. Sensual and free. My eyes are glazed and it is not because of sleep. Wild and sated. My hair is a tousled mess atop my head, hanging loosely down to frame my breasts. Linc had left me multiple hickeys. On my neck, clavicle, shoulder, breasts, everywhere I look, he is there, he has claimed me in ways that I could never detach from. It is not our first time but something about the selfless way he pleasured my body till I came, felt different, new and exhilarating. I need him to come back from wherever he went to immed
I skip over her waiting flesh, the clean trim of her pussy, the little triangle of golden hair, I kiss her inner thighs, raising them up for easy access to the feast I am about to have. Amelia quakes in my arms, I can't help the cocky smirk that comes on my face. We are only just getting started, my love. I give her a little bite around her smooth bikini line and she shivers, the sound of her breathing is audible. Quicker. Shallower. I am positioned in between her thighs and I look up, holding her eyes. "Look at me, my love. I want you to watch me as I worship you." I say, my voice is raspy and endlessly choked full with emotions that overwhelm me. Her scent is in my head, clouding my senses, holding me captive, I am hers, forever. "Linc." She only breathes in response. Waiting. Hunger. Writhing. Arching. Pleading. Wanting. I lean down and run the pointed tip of my tongue through her slick pussy folds, maintaining eye contact, enjoying the rapturous look of pleasure stretching her
Linc Dmitri POV::I kiss her like she was life itself. She is my life. She is my everything. She just made me sob like a child with the heartwrenching news that she was pregnant. Never have I ever been that overwhelmed. Completely caught off guard. I am going to be a father at forty four. Amelia, my girl, my precious little love, she is going to make me a father. It is hardly believable, I can't seem to fully come to terms with it. When I turned forty, I kind of stopped bothering about the whole heir thing. I figured I would just pass down most of my wealth to charity and the other half to her, even if she wasn't in my life anymore. I reviewed my will a few months ago, before I even called her to come back to New York, I reviewed my will and made her the part beneficiary of my entire wealth. That was the extent of my loyal affection for her. I was never going to let her struggle for anything. And then she returned and we gave in to this beautiful fire that was our relationship and I
"What?" "What?" Linc's voice overshadows Ashley's. I look away from the intensity of his eyes burning into me. My heart is beating hard and fast. I am not scared or worried, I am a lot of things. A lot of bubbling emotions and I start crying again. It is definitely the hormones. The test I did didn't say how far along I was, just that I was pregnant. Positive. "When did you find out?" Linc is in front of me. Hovering above me. He is all I see through my tears, he places his hands on my cheek gently, softly, like I was a feather he could blow away easily, like I was fragile and he was scared of hurting me, I am crying too hard to talk and he just quietly swipes away the tears, cradling my face with so much affection, the tears would not stop falling. "Yesterday night." I manage to say through my tears. He pulls me close and I get lost inside him. His huge hard body engulfs mine and I look at Ashley, her face is wet again and she is trying to wipe her face clean, she pats down my ha
"I knew her through Trent. We paid her a condolences visit and help her out with little things occasionally." Ashley says and I realise that I asked her the question out loud. She is telling me her connection with Sheryl and it only makes the sense of dread tighten in the coil of my empty belly. "I pay her a visit every Thursday to check in on how she was doing. When I got there this week, she was drunk and started sobbing uncontrollably about revenge and all sorts of things I couldn't follow till she brought out the phone and showed me the video. She said she was going to share it since, but hadn't found the courage to. She was an emotional grieving mess. It was sad to watch. I stayed with her till she fell asleep and I took the phone and deleted it from the cloud it was saved on. When she wakes up and finds it gone, she might believe she did it herself when she was drunk or whatever. I went to your place that night but you weren't around. I expected to see you in class the next day
Amelia POV::I hear the knock at the door but I don't move. I don't know when I slept off last night, and when I open my eyes to see that it is morning, I couldn't believe it. Yet, I did not move even then, not even to go pee or brush my mouth. And now with that persistent knocking, I remain inert. I didn't order anything and I am not expecting anyone so maybe it is a neighbour's guest at the wrong door. I am not bothered to go check it out. They would leave when they figure it out. My entire world is spinning and I can't seem to get a grip. A thousand thoughts rush through my mind and none is comforting. I am hot and cold at the same time and I am hungry but incredibly nauseous and sensitive to the faintest smell. I couldn't keep anything down if I tried. I sit up suddenly, alarmed by the unmistakable click of the door and then it is open and I hear that familiar voice, that silky smooth baritone that makes my insides melt and feel like mush. Linc. A weak smile plays on my lips in s
"Mr. Dmitri, are you there?" Mr. Hageman's voice comes on again, polite and persistent. Sometimes, I forget about the man's existence in the house with me. But I feel his presence in how pristine he keeps the mansion. It is not an easy job to do, but he manages it all perfectly. His bookkeeping is honest and professional, I have had him for close to ten years now and I have never had any issues with his work. I send birthday and holiday cards to his wife and kids through my assistants every year. "Yes. Send her in. I will be down in thirty minutes." I reply, getting up. I didn't plan to get out of bed today but here comes Ashley of all people, to drag me out of it. I am very curious about her visit but not enough that I would clean up before meeting her. Amelia told me she doesn't have the best opinions of me and that makes her visit all the more suspicious. Is she here for Amelia? I thought they fell out with eachother. I take a quick cold shower, put on clean casual clothes and
Linc Dmitri POV::I stretch my arms out and I come up empty. Air. Nothing. She is not here. I open my eyes and glare at the sunlight splashing on my face. It is Sunday morning and I am in a foul mood. Just yesterday, I woke up in the best mood, with her soft body in my bed after a long night of ravaging her body to my soul's satisfaction. I woke up to her warm body snuggling into me and I couldn't resist fucking her again. And now, she is not here anymore. I can't wrap my head around anything. I swing my arm up to cover my eyes. I can't stand the brightness of the morning, it feels like the universe is taunting me. How can time be moving on when my world is unstable?Did she break up with me? Are we broken up? I am forty four and I can't tell. But I do know one thing. The ugly ache stuck in my chest. Her words hurt me and I was too numb to act when she finally said she had to leave because she needed space. I just watched her. And she left. It took me hours of stunned hurtful silence