Celine remembers the car stopping. ‘Are we home?’ she asks as she tries to peer outside her window. It didn’t look like home, and the driver said something she did not understand, so she didn’t really care, and continued with her coloring.
Then she recalls Carmen taking off her seatbelt and pulling her to the floor of the car. ‘Celine, come here! Remember the hiding game? We surprised mom… we need to do that again.’ She frowned, but Carmen said it was a game, so she willingly played it.
Her sister was piling stuff on top of her, and she started squirming. ‘Oooww…’ ‘Shhh… Close your eyes and keep quiet until mommy or daddy comes, okay? Don’t come out, I’ll get mad.’ Camen said before she disappeared.
There was some noise outs
-=-CelineOur courtship had been slow because I had reservations about Max coming from out of town. I doubted he could keep up the pretense that he was really serious and keep his promise to see me every week when his schedule permits. But all his persistence has paid off because my heart has been melting ever since. Every weekend we spend together has endeared him more to me.Our routine would be to have dinner every Friday. Go to a cafe after so we can sit and talk some more. Then the next day, we walk around a park or a hiking trail he found around the area. If I don’t have any prior engagements, we would have dinner again on Saturday. Then brunch the next day before he heads home. I know my parents complain that he’s been hogging all my time, but isn’t that what people in relationships do?
‘Oh, did I tell you my good news?’ he said as he sat on her vanity chair, trying to ignore the implication of her actions. His desire shot up when he saw her lock her bedroom door, and his presumption was correct. She seemed to have a plan on what should happen today.Celine was daring, and he liked that. He pegged her as conservative and a do-gooder, but it seems like she was more adventurous than he thought. In the few times they were together, he thought maybe he was the only one who felt the sexual tension, and he influenced her decisions. But it may seem that it was not one-sided after all, and he enjoyed discovering this side of her. Having this information was not good for his libido because now he feels more encouraged.‘No, what is it?’ she asked nervously, as she sat on her bed, not knowing how to initiate her plan.
Emelia jumps in, seeing her husband’s scowling face. ‘Sure dear, maybe it will help with my headache. And we can talk to you and Max before we turn it in. She nudged her husband to stop him from glaring. I hope we didn’t interrupt anything,’ she fussed.She was happy that Celine finally found a man to fall in love with, being a romantic at heart. All she wanted was for her daughter to be happy and hopefully find someone like her husband. Someone who loved her through the thick and thin. All this time, Nathan never gave up on their relationship and their family. That’s what she wanted for her daughter. A man who would stand by her no matter what.Celine blushed, they almost got busted making out in her bedroom. And even though she was already an adult, it would be hard to explain to her overprotective father what they were doi
-=- MAX could not believe it. He did not know if this was cause to be happy or be sad. 99.99% match meant they were sisters, and his chance with Celine had just gone out the door. For sure, Clara would not want them to be together. With his track record with women and all the bad rep recently, it did not look good. Even though he had never introduced women to his sister, he knew she kept tabs on his sexcapades and the number of women he bedded. In hindsight, he should have known that the universe would screw him over and throw someone unattainable at his feet. He always knew the fates hated him, but to mess with him like this got him frustrated. ‘I am not giving her up.’ he thought selfishly to himself. ‘Celine
Max shrugged off the ominous vibe he was getting from Rowan. Hoping he was wrong and that the CEO would turn out to be an okay guy.‘Sure, Max and I will take you up on your offer. Do you want us to meet you there?’ Clara asks as she helps Max clear up the conference room. ‘I heard everything around here is walking distance. Is that true?’‘It’s true. It would be a nightmare to drive anywhere around here, especially if you are not used to the area. Too many one-way streets. Come, let’s walk to the restaurant,’ Rowan says as he takes the laptop from Clara’s hand, even before Max could take it from her.Clara didn’t think too much about it because she was so used to her brothers carrying her stuff, but as Rowan reached for the laptop, she suddenly noticed he
‘I know. You’re with Sebastian Colfer from the Navio shipping company, right? But you’re not married yet, and I think I can sway you to choose me instead of him,’ he said. Max’s eyes grew big, and he silently said, ‘Whoa!’‘You haven’t been together for a long time, either. In the last three months, you’ve gone out on less than five dates? I don’t think that’s enough for you to have enough feelings for each other. I assume you slept with him already, and that’s why you’re attached to him?’ He looked at her inquisitively, questioning if he hit the nail in the head. Clara glowered at him.‘So what? I’ll make you forget about him as soon as you become mine,’ he said in a cocky manner that made even Max’s hair stand on end. He was trying so hard t
‘WTF, Max? You’re not serious about this, are you? Wasn’t the harassment at lunch enough? What else does he want? If this project wasn’t important for our company, I would have already cursed that guy off. Isn’t telling him I have a boyfriend enough? These men are so frustrating,’ she complained, covered her face with the pillow, and screamed into it.‘Doesn’t he remind you of Sebastian, though? The direct questions, the tactics, and now the dinner. Do these men have one guidebook they read on how to get the girl?’ Max wondered.‘Max, at lunch, he talked about Navio’s contract. How did he get that information? Do you think we have a spy in the office?’ Clara frowned as Max shook his head. ‘I was wondering about that too.’‘You
In the cab, Max drapes his arm around Clara. He knows that in her mind, there was a war going on. Her mind is fighting whether she should have backed down, accepting his invitation for dinner to show that arrogant fool that he did not really scare her and on the other, she felt she did the right thing. She would willingly swallow her pride and do what’s good for the company, but she would not let arrogant men like him win.She leans against Max and sighs, ‘Max, did I do the right thing? It kind of scared me that if he took me to dinner, something else might happen. He looked like he would have been capable of taking drastic measures. What if I’m not as strong as I thought? If I couldn’t fight him back…’He hugged her closer. ‘It’s okay Clara. He’s just a client. We can find another one. You are more i
Peace had returned to their household, and everything felt right. Celine and Max traveled back and forth between San Diego and San Jose since Celine reconciled with her parents, and Max was getting to know his parents better. They were having fun riding Sebastian’s plane all the time. It was the perk of knowing a billionaire and being closely related to one. What they had really wasn’t a terrible deal, having 2 houses and a place to stay wherever they were. They didn’t even need to pack any outfits since there had closets full of clothes in both locations. The thing is, they couldn’t decide which place to choose, where to stay and which one to leave, and the more the couple got together, the more they wanted to settle somewhere, where it was just them, so they both agreed that Celine would join Clara’s company, SST and Max would find them a house to settle in, something they could call their own. Max was the first to separate from their group, but Celine did not want to live too far
‘I feel nervous as hell. We’ve done this a hundred times before, yet I feel like it’s our first time.’ Celine had been in the bathroom for the last half hour since the reception ended. She couldn’t enjoy the party because she kept thinking of what might happen tonight, resulting in frayed nerves and an empty stomach.Celine hesitantly left the bathroom. She knew prolonging the inevitable would only result in disaster. But the minute she walked into their honeymoon suite, the smell of fries and burgers invaded her senses.‘Hey babe, I ordered room service.’ Max greeted as he arranged the plates on the coffee table in front of the TV, as they always did when they were still dating and binge-watched one of their shows. ‘I saw you touched none of your food, so I ordered us some burger and fries. I figured
‘Do you know what really shocked me, aside from Raffy being my abductor? Is that when I woke up after he abducted me, his butler declared dad was on the phone.’‘Why was Raffy calling you dad?’‘I wanted to tell him you were in town because he kept calling the past few weeks and wanted to know when he could visit.’‘He said you approved of him as your son-in-law? How could you do that to me? You sold me to the devil, and he saw that as an excuse to do what he wanted with me.’ she looked at her father accusingly. Celine was so mad that her father had something to do with Raffy, thinking they had welcomed him into the family when Max was not.Celine and Clara’s parents, Nathan and Emelia Jacobs insisted on visiting afte
It took an hour for the couple to arrive at Sebastian’s house, and to expedite their travel, they were escorted by the motorcycle brigade to navigate and clear the traffic. Otherwise, with the congestion in the city it would have taken them a few hours to get home. By the time they got home, both sets of parents were present together with their siblings. ‘Max–’ ‘Celine–’ ‘We’re so–’ ‘You’re here!’ ‘I’m glad–’ ‘Are you–’ They all yelled excitedly, but Max ignored them and carried Celine directly to the bedroom. She tucked her head in his neck when she expressed she did not want to see anyone. And because she was more important than everybody else, he closed the door and drew her a bath. He wanted to help her relax and scrub all the terrible memories away. Get her clean so she could feel like herself again.Celine clung to him like a lost child would his mother, not wanting her husband to leave her even for one second. ‘Turn on the lights, please. They kept me in darkness most of the
Raffy laughed out loud as he watched the cops breaking into his mansion and finding nothing. ‘You idiots will never find me.’ He left his butler at the mansion to deal with the authorities as a taunt. He knew Max was more resilient than any regular husband, and could track him down faster than the police or the FBI could, so he had to take measures to cover his tracks.The house he was hiding in was purchased for the sole purpose of keeping his victims, like Celine. It wasn’t recorded in any of his financial books, or any of his aliases, and he figured it would take time before they find him, enough to carry out his plans and have sex with Celine. If she doesn’t cooperate, who knows what might happen? He might just do what he threatened her with, and tie her to the bed. He shook his head, remembering how the other women reciprocated his affection.
Celine pulled off all the pictures from the wall, every single one of them, and tore them up into little bits and pieces to satisfy her anger. The last piece that pushed her over the edge was a naked picture of her as she slept, with a hand squeezing her breast. She knows that Raffy probably had copies everywhere, but with Jeremy and Max’s help, they could erase all this embarrassing information from every computer, phone, and tablet Raffy might have them saved in.‘I’m so screwed.’ She cried while scrubbing her face with both hands. ‘Max will hate me for this. Fuck! Now I have to do what Raffy says or he’ll leak the pictures out. Oh, I don’t care. Fuck him! I won’t do anything I don’t want.’ she debated as she paced around the bedroom.‘Why do these assholes have to follow me all
‘Sebastian Colfer! Explain to me who this woman is with my sister?’ Clara barges into her husband’s office, at the same time, the security guard speaks. ‘Sir, there’s a person downstairs claiming his girlfriend never showed up to their date yesterday, and her phone shows she’s still in the building. We called her department, and they said she left early yesterday. What should I do?’‘Search the entire building and see if you can find her phone. Check the parking lot and see if her car is still downstairs. Maybe she ran away with another guy, who knows.’ Sebastian answered.‘What is it, sweetie? I did not get what you were asking.’ he focused on Clara and her laptop.‘This woman was in the elevator yesterday with my sister before she disapp
Celine lies back in bed and curses. ‘How am I going to get out of here if I don’t have clothes?’ So she started exploring Raffy’s bedroom, hoping to find something more decent to wear, when she noticed the pictures on the wall. ‘Fucking pervert!’ she exclaims.There she was, splattered on every surface of the room. Different sizes and images of her. One had her laughing, the other brushing her hair away from her face, and another of her eating. What bothered her more were the pictures of her in different states of undress. In one she was in a bath towel, another in her underwear, while the others had every outfit she has donned in the past year. She even had one in the lingerie she was wearing right now. The pose reminded her about that night she wanted to send Max a naughty video, to which he ended abruptly.
‘Yeah, but my sister, Clara, came… and I needed... You know what, it’s not important. I came by to get my car downstairs. I left it in the building.’‘Hey, tell me, isn’t the boss dating your sister? Is it true that they got married?’ she whispered while getting closer to Celine.‘Yeah, they did. It was a lovely ceremony. I helped plan it.’‘That’s a big ring you have on your finger. Rumor has it that you’re married as well.’‘Can you keep a secret? I got married in Vegas last weekend. Eeekkk…’ Celine said excitedly.May squealed, ‘Omg, are you serious? That is so unexpected. We knew you were dating but didn’t know it