Is it getting hot or what?
Near the door, he found a baseball bat and took that with him just in case an intruder was on the premises. Owen waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. The patio was partly illuminated by the light from the living room and the kitchen, but since the rest of the house was dark, so were the areas near the bedrooms. Anybody could lurk in the shadows, and Owen was not taking any chances, not when it would put Regina in danger. The sound he heard came from a person or a big animal, and since they were several floors up, an animal couldn’t get up there. Regina wrapped the blanket around her body and switched on the outdoor lights to help Owen see better. In an instant, the whole area was bright as day. Outside, they found three dead birds with their feathers stuck to three different windows. “Did they hit the window and die?” Regina asked. “I told you to stay inside.” Owen was halfway through the courtyard and stopped his search. He returned to where Regina stood, in case she ne
“Hmm…” Regina stretched and found her arms enclosed in Owen’s biceps. The couple had slept with their arms and legs wrapped around each other after Owen tried to soothe her nightmares away. “This is going to be a habit, isn’t it?” Regina burrowed under Owen’s neck, inhaling his musky scent. “What is?” he asked sleepily, tightening his arms and legs around her so Regina felt his arousal digging into her abdomen. “Me waking up with your arms wrapped around me.” “The sofa was not big enough. I did not want to fall.” Regina looked over his shoulder. “There’s a lot of space behind you. Stop crowding me.” Owen groaned and held her tighter with his legs. She closed her eyes and thrust her hips against him when she felt his shaft twitch against her belly. “There are consequences to your actions. You’ll end up in bed all day if you don’t stop that.” “Maybe I shouldn’t go to work, and just spend the day with you?” Regina reached up to align their lips. Owen groaned after he indulged in
Regina came in early that day to see Owen before he left for work. As she pulled into the driveway, Regina got excited to see someone standing outside the mansion, expecting it to be Owen waiting for her. But her face fell when she saw it was Arthur. “Hey Arthur! What are you doing here so early? I thought your work didn’t start until eight.” “Oh, I came to see you and apologize for my behavior last weekend.” “It’s okay. I’m busy most weekends, so it’s hard to schedule anything. You just need to let me know in advance so you don’t wait in front of my apartment.” “Well, you weren’t answering my messages, and I wanted to see you.” “I saw you every day last week, plus waiting outside my apartment gives a terrible impression.” The dog happily barked inside the car and took Regina’s attention as Owen sauntered toward Arthur. “Arthur, I heard you’ve been here every day for the past week. I don’t remember my uncle mentioning you’d be here today.” Owen said, as Regina left Arthur’s side
Regina was happily humming on her way to Mrs. Bennet’s bedroom that morning when she encounters Yvan. “A little birdie told me my brother sampled a certain juicy, rare blonde, err… steak from the steakhouse a few weeks ago, and apparently they’re dating now. Do you know anything about this?” “Which brother are we talking about? If it’s Myles, then I am happy for him.” She tried to avoid his teasing, but Yvan was not one to let an important secret go. “C’mon, you can gossip with me. I won’t tell anybody.” “I don’t gossip. It’s bad for the people involved.” “My brother, the one you didn’t mention, did not come home last night. Was he at your place?” “We have a tracker on his phone for security purposes,” Yvan smirked and called out her address. “Isn’t that where you live?” “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” “I would prefer it if you dated someone handsome and nice like me, but I guess my brother will do. He has some redeeming qualities.” Regina was not rising to his bait.
Owen dropped by the Tesoro Cafe on his way home, and it wasn’t because he needed to get pastries to take home. He had another agenda. “Jason, I need to have a quick word.” Owen found the owner cleaning tables. “That’s if you have enough staff to take over what you are doing.” “I’m the owner. I need to make sure everything in my cafe is perfect. I assume you do the same with your buildings.” “Touché. Can we talk in private?” “Come, follow me.” Jason led Owen to the kitchen filled with top-of-the-line equipment. They all looked brand new, so Owen knew Jason had money to buy all the equipment when he put up his business, and he was impressed. Jason did not come from money, and according to the investigation, there was no loan from a bank either. The cafe owner had a silent, rich investor not mentioned in the reports. Owen did not care where Jason got his money from, but Owen was concerned that if he was dealing with something illegal, then Regina might get into trouble being at th
-=- A, I need to write this brief letter fast. I am going on a trip, and I am worried about Regina. Who will take care of her while we are gone? That snake Owen is getting closer and closer with her, and I feel like this trip would set us back further from our goal, but on the other hand, we need this tremendous opportunity to prove once and for all that we can take care of our Ginny. I just can’t let this pass. Wish me luck. J -=- Regina was on her way out when Owen called her to his office. “I have to leave again this weekend. I need to bring a few people from the office to the job site.” “Will you be gone for a week?” she asked. “I’m not sure because I need to introduce them to the owner so they could get familiar with the project. I’m taking a very talented project manager, and she will take care of everything after I leave.” Regina’s eyebrows raised, and warning bells sounded at the back of her mind. ‘Talented? He’s never called anyone talented before.’ “So, is this pro
Owen surprised Regina early Saturday morning when he headed straight to her place after traveling for almost eight hours. “Did you encounter any disturbance while I was away?” He asked after settling on the couch. “No,” she lied, not wanting to tell him about the letter she received when he left a week ago. It was the only incident, so she thought it was not worth mentioning. If what the letter writer said was true, then he must be out of the country right now, and Owen was safe. He pulled Regina onto his lap, eager to touch their lips together and lick the sweet taste of her skin. She gasped against his mouth as his hand traveled up her thigh to touch the edge of her shorts. Regina could feel her skin prickling as his thumb caressed the crease in her hip. “Owen,” she said breathlessly, as he moved his hand to grab her butt. The doorbell played its sweet melody and at first, Regina ignored it because she thought it was her phone. Nobody ever rang the bell, so she was not used to
Callia and Reana came out of the elevator screaming in delight when they saw her door open. “Auntie Reggie! We’re here for the party!” They both squealed like little pigs in their excitement. Now she was sure her brothers were preventing her from seeing Owen. Why else would they dump their kids at her house on a weekend, when they knew Owen had just returned from a trip and she was eager to see him? ‘Me and my big mouth,’ she shook her head, remembering teasing Raffy about her weekend. She told him about the romantic day she planned for Owen, even insinuating they were having sex. And Raffy just laughed at her, which at the moment didn’t seem odd. But now she knew why he was okay with it. “Are you wearing your bathing suits under your dresses, too?” “Is Uncle Jason here?” Reana asked in anticipation of meeting her favorite. “Not today, sweetie, but Uncle Owen is here, and he’s teaching the boys to swim and go to the deep end without being carried.” Reana’s face fell, but her twi
“Regina, are you okay?” Arthur’s softer voice asked from the other side, and she looked up as she wiped her tears away. “I need to tell you something before he comes back. I drugged you the entire time you were with Jacob because he wanted you to cry and scream when he raped you, but he wouldn’t touch a sleeping body. He said it felt like he was fucking the dead. So I made you sleep.” “You what?” “I drugged you, so he couldn’t do anything to you. All the things he told you were lies. None of them happened.” “You did that for me?” she asked, confused about whom to believe. Was this version of Arthur telling the truth, or was it also another lie? “I couldn’t bear the thought that I stood by and watched while he harmed you.” “Why?” “I always loved you, Regina. I always will,” Arthur said before his face changed again. “That stupid shit. What did he tell you?” Armed with the knowledge that nothing happened between them, Regina stood to taunt Jacob. She wanted to get to the bottom o
“I wanted to see.”“And there’s a reason I told you no.”“Babe…”“That guy left me for dead, Regina. Would you like to see a picture of that?”“Yes. I want to understand why a man with a face so kind could be so horrible.”“I will show you the footage from the precinct and how they found out Arthur’s mental illness.” Owen sighed, knowing that keeping the truth from Regina would just give her more reason to sneak around. “Then will you come to bed and forget about this?” She nodded as Owen retrieved a file from his computer and showed her a video of Arthur arguing with himself at the precinct. He was fighting with himself as if there were two people instead of one, and Regina felt unnerved. “The doctors said Jacob was too traumatized by Arthur’s loss that he erased the fact that he was dead. In his grief, he developed the Arthur persona, who was kind and smart, just like the actual person. It was a form of coping mechanism.”“Where is he now?”“In the psychiatric hospital inside the
“YOU KILLED ARTHUR! YOU DON’T DESERVE TO BE HAPPY!” It said before images began appearing on the screen. Regina was frozen and horrified because of the text, she was trying to figure out what the images were but Owen closed the lid before she did.“Don’t touch the computer. It was just a virus. I have a friend who can clean this for you.“Who would send such a horrific message? And what is that message about Arthur? Is he dead?”“Yes, no. It’s a long story. Don’t worry about it.” He said as he moved the laptop to his desk.“Don’t lie to me, Owen.” Regina stood up to face him. “We said no secrets. What was that about? And why is there a naked woman on my screen?”“Did you have an affair and not tell me, because gods help me, I am not taking this crap from you.”“No babe, I wouldn’t do that to you. You have to sit while I tell you what that was about.”“I can’t sit. My blood is boiling right now.”“Okay, let’s go to the kitchen, get a glass of water for both of us while I collect my tho
“Dad, thank you for giving me the extended leave. France has inspired me a lot with my artistic side. Did you see my paintings?”“Yeah, I have a few of them put up in the hospital and around the house already. Is that what you want to do now? Paint?”“Oh no, that’s just my side hobby. I was inspired by the nursing home in France and wanted to build a non-profit nursing home as a branch of our hospital.”“That sounds like a good idea. I think someone suggested that before and we just didn’t have time to look into it. Talk to the project manager so we can get this started. Which wing do you want it in?”“Well, that’s the thing. I want it to be separate from the hospital, in a more scenic setting so we can usher the old people to rest peacefully. I don’t want them to feel like they’re in the hospital all the time.”“Are you willing to put in work for this project? This will be a lot of work, starting with finding available properties. You can’t just quit mid-way because it’s too hard.”R
“What are you telling them?”“Don’t worry about it, sweetie. I have everything in control.” He said confidently as they walked to his mother’s room.“Mom? Are you awake?” Owen asked. Myles was reading her a book Regina sent from France, and the scenes were getting steamy, so he was glad that his mother’s attention got diverted to the guests. “Look who’s here?”He stepped aside, and Regina softly exclaimed, “Surprise!”Mrs. Bennet stared at Regina, wondering who she was, and then it clicked. “Mandy? Oh, I’m glad you’ve come. I’ve missed you so.” She grew emotional as Regina sat on the bed and hugged her.“So did I Mrs. Bennet. I am glad to see that you are better.” Regina touched her forehead to get the temperature and her wrist to check how fast her pulse rate was.“Oh, it was nothing. They just worry too much. Now I’m in the hospital when all I want to do is see that dog.” Bella had been constant in her life, and like Regina, not having seen her for a few days, threw everything out o
News of Owen’s mystery woman spread throughout the nation as pictures of the couple were shared across every website on the internet. “Owen, what are we going to do? Can we hire someone to delete the pictures?” Regina asked as the car sped away. He smirked, “No.” “No? But your reputation?” “I’m a single man in a relationship with a beautiful woman, so I don’t care about the pictures.” “But the paparazzi, they’ll know.” “We’re not hiding our relationship, my love. Unless you want to.” “I don’t.” “I know you don’t want your face in the media, so we won’t tell them who you are. Let them find out on their own.” “I don’t care if they find out. I’m through hiding. It didn’t do me any good, anyway. I kept lying to people I really liked. I just hope they could forgive me,” she said, leaning back into the seat, more relaxed. “Well then, that’s settled,” Owen smiled and leaned over to nuzzle her ear. “You know they’ll be at my apartment waiting. What do you say we go to yours and lock
Regina asked how they all knew each other, and the three men regaled her with stories of when they met while re-constructing the apartment she was staying in.“So I have a question. If Owen owns the complex, then why do I have a small apartment?”Caelan and François both laughed and teased Owen.“Well, I didn’t want you to get suspicious about paying such a small price for an enormous apartment, so we gave you the smallest unit. It was Caelan’s place.”“Aww…” Regina looked at Caelan, “You gave it up for me? I’m sorry if I brought in mismatched furniture in there.”“Don’t feel sorry for him. He got a bigger apartment out of the deal, so he’s happy about that.” Owen butted in, and Regina laughed.“I don’t mind how you decorated the place. I like it and will keep most of the furniture,” Caelan replied.“So I heard Owen hired you to follow me around and disrupt my dates with Jason. Is that true?”“Well—I—He—Yes, it’s true,” Caelan could not defend himself, so he admitted the truth.“So th
The sun was peeking through the horizon by the time the couple fell asleep, satiated and full of love. Neither wanted to sleep lest everything was just a dream. Regina woke up first, staring at the sleeping man beside her, waiting for him to awaken. “What are you doing?” Owen asked, his voice husky from sleep.She blushed that she got caught running her finger down his chest, tracing the lines of his abdomen. “Waking you. Did it work?”“It did.” He grabbed her waist, pulling her toward him. He hooked his legs around hers and kissed her neck. “I missed you so much that when you stopped sending me messages, it made me go crazy.”“I’m sorry. I was so ashamed about what happened that I did not know how to handle the situation. How could I not know anything about my body?”“There were a lot of things happening during that time. Stop blaming yourself. We’re here now, where we should be. Just don’t shut me out again.”“I promise I won’t.” Owen nibbled her neck, and her body came alive. “W
“I had a baby—”“I know.”Regina scrunched her brows in shock. “But I never told you. The diary said you didn’t know.”“The baby was ours,” he said, holding her gaze. If her mouth wasn’t hanging open before, it was now.“How—”“How did I know? I have the same tracker app you do, and they were synched together so I could watch your cycle. I wanted to know when it would be safe because we were having unprotected sex. We needed to take extra precautions to prevent having an accident.”“But we still did.”“It doesn’t make a difference. I still love you.” “You knew, and you didn’t tell me?”“I was waiting for you to share your troubles, so I gave you the space you needed, but you just distanced yourself from me. I didn’t want to nag you because you’ve been through so much already. So I waited.”“The diary said I couldn’t tell you because I felt guilty.”“I know.”“But I didn’t tell you…”“You said it in the letter that you sent me.”“The letter that you keep talking about?”“Yes, do you w