JACE'S POV“Are you sure he's the one?” I asked Aria for what might have been the tenth time but this time, she just gave me a side eye but did not reply.But no one could blame me. Kai didn't look like much. He was wearing a shirt and a jeans but the way they hung on his tall frame was off. It looked so weird on some much that it seemed like he never really wore them. He also had a buzz cut but an over grown beard. Then there was the part where he seemed overly excited like he had never seen computers in his life. “Sure about this, Boss?” Frank asked when I told him to let Kai use his computer for a while. I nodded and he finally stood up. Kai sat down in Frank's seat. He looked at all the monitors around him and smiled before he turned his attention back to me. “Aria told me that you needed to hack your way into the system of Dynamo Tech, right?” he asked. “Yes, I wouldn't put it like that but yes I need to get lots of information from their system. I need you to do that in just
I wasn't surprised when Kai broke into Dynamo Tech systems in barely two hour. This wasn't the first time I had seen him do way harder things, I wasn't too surprised when I was placed on a blacklist to the private party either. But what had shocked me was how I reacted to Jake telling me that he wasn't having sex with his female friend anymore. It shocked me in ways I didn't expect. Like why was I blushing.Then he had raised it up by asking me if I would have said “No,” if he wanted to raise my… who says that?! But then it had affected me to. I couldn't lie that I had not imagined it. Me bent over his large table. I was already scared that he was going to look into my eyes and see my dirty thoughts.That was why I had gotten up to leave because of the intensity of the embarrassment. But he didn't even let me go. He had spinned me on my feet and had moved so close to my lips like wanted to kiss me. A little tremor on the earth and our lips would have collided, that was how close we
I parked my sleek black sedan in the expansive garage of my family estate, the quiet hum of the engine dissipating as I stepped out. The late afternoon sun bathed the Sleighman property in warm, golden light, casting a nice, earthy scene that did little to lighten my mood. I'd spent hours at the office struggling with plenty challenges at Soliel Vineyards, and my frustration boiled inside me while I looked composed on the outside.Click-clack. The sharp rhythm of my red Louboutins echoed off the tiled floor as I entered through the massive oak front door, a load of paperwork tucked underneath my arm. An aroma of fresh lilies from a nearby vase wafted through the air, an R&B melody humming in the air, pulling my attention toward the parlour.Dad was a stout man, with streaks of silver in his dark hair, hunched over a pile of documents on the vintage mahogany coffee table. His brow was deeply furrowed, and he barely looked up when I entered.By the mini bar, my two-year-younger sister,
Despite the grand feast before us, the dining room was heavy with tension. Glimmering silver candlesticks reflected warmly in the light of the chandelier, while the soft clinking of cutlery against plates sounded louder than it should have. Caila sat with her hands fidgeting in her lap, glancing at me for some kind of cue or assurance I just didn’t have to give.I sat without it fidgeting, outwardly composed. Years of practice made it easily possible to mask my emotions, but inside, my stomach churned. I didn’t let my awkwardness show, unlike poor Caila whose emotions were painted across her face. I wished she didn’t have to witness whatever shitshow was about to go down. The main courses consisted of pumpkin soup in its velvety feel, a crunchy salad, and finally roasted lamb. Dad swallowed hard, several times in an effort to be jovial and create light conversation."So, Jace," he began awkwardly. "How's life over at Sharpe Techs? I read about the expansion into Europe. Really great
I sat on the edge of my bed, staring up at the ceiling. Two weeks of wedding preparations, legal arrangements, and awkward silences had just blitzed by. The house was abuzz. Caila, Dad and I had all practically managed to ignore the absurdity of this whole situation.Dad had thrown himself into the planning of it all, proudly announcing each and every detail to anyone who would listen. "A grand affair," he kept calling it. "The perfect union for Soleil Vineyards' salvation."Caila, on the other hand, had been quiet. Too quiet.One night, I found my sister on the floor of her room, knees against her chest, head bent. "What's wrong?" I whispered, even though I knew the answer.Caila looked up; her eyes were red from crying. "I thought...I thought it was love, Aria, that a marriage was supposed to be about. Not this. I don't want this.”I knelt beside her, pulling her into a hug. "I know," I whispered. "I'm so sorry, Caila. If I could fix this-""We're stuck," Caila interrupted, her voic
I knew well that if Solomon Sleighman's first daughter, Aria, was handed a knife, she would not show any hesitation before stabbing me with it.But I had my reasons for marrying both sisters. Unconventional, yes. Weird, definitely. But I held all the power here, and they all knew it.The reception was a very low-key affair. We remained, for appearances' sake, but it was plain that the tension was going to break soon. My trophy wife, Caila, stood quietly beside me, polite but her hands clasped nervously in front of her. I looked at her every now and then; I almost felt sorry for the girl. She was fragile, as if she would shatter under all this.I couldn't help but feel a bit insulted, though. The way both sisters seemed abhorrent at the idea of marrying me bruised his my. I was Jace Sharpe, for fuck's sake. Women lined up to be with me. And yet here were these two, acting like I was some repulsive creature.Still, we endured an hour of mingling before I decided enough was enough."We'r
Caila and I followed Clinton down the long, echoing hallways of the huge mansion. The butler walked with a dignified air, pointing out important locations as we passed them."This," Clinton said, gesturing to a large wooden door, "is the library. Mr. Sharpe has an extensive collection should you ever need it."I looked in curiously as we passed, noticing the high shelves of books lining the walls. Down the hall further, Clinton stopped in front of another door. "The kitchen is in here. If you want refreshments at any other time than mealtimes, you can ask for them.Finally, Clinton halted at another corridor leading to a quieter wing of the house. "This wing has been prepared for your arrivals. These are your rooms." He gestured to two doors across from each other.We looked down the hall and I pointed to a third door at the end. "And who does that belong to?" I asked the question I was sure Caila had in mind.Clinton followed my gaze. "That would be Mr. Sharpe's room."My lips thinne
ARIAImmediately I was sure Caila was gone, I turned my attention back to Jace. He had his hands folded over his chest. “You can have everyone fooled but not me,” I stared straight at him, calling him off.His only reaction was his eyebrows drawing closer but he said nothing, just stared at her like she was a pest disturbing his quiet time.“I don't know what the real motive of this or what you're trying to get from this...” she started to say but he cut her off.“I'm not trying to get anything. I have everything I need and in case you didn't know what you did when you signed that contract, let me explain, Aria. I own you and your Sister.” he stated coldly and for a second, I just stared at him trying to find the best words to reply but I couldn't. “You don't own me,” I replied finally. Did he think I was just some random object he could just own? Some object that just be pushed around? I wasn't Caila and I had to make that clear to him.Before I could begin shouting at him, he got
I wasn't surprised when Kai broke into Dynamo Tech systems in barely two hour. This wasn't the first time I had seen him do way harder things, I wasn't too surprised when I was placed on a blacklist to the private party either. But what had shocked me was how I reacted to Jake telling me that he wasn't having sex with his female friend anymore. It shocked me in ways I didn't expect. Like why was I blushing.Then he had raised it up by asking me if I would have said “No,” if he wanted to raise my… who says that?! But then it had affected me to. I couldn't lie that I had not imagined it. Me bent over his large table. I was already scared that he was going to look into my eyes and see my dirty thoughts.That was why I had gotten up to leave because of the intensity of the embarrassment. But he didn't even let me go. He had spinned me on my feet and had moved so close to my lips like wanted to kiss me. A little tremor on the earth and our lips would have collided, that was how close we
JACE'S POV“Are you sure he's the one?” I asked Aria for what might have been the tenth time but this time, she just gave me a side eye but did not reply.But no one could blame me. Kai didn't look like much. He was wearing a shirt and a jeans but the way they hung on his tall frame was off. It looked so weird on some much that it seemed like he never really wore them. He also had a buzz cut but an over grown beard. Then there was the part where he seemed overly excited like he had never seen computers in his life. “Sure about this, Boss?” Frank asked when I told him to let Kai use his computer for a while. I nodded and he finally stood up. Kai sat down in Frank's seat. He looked at all the monitors around him and smiled before he turned his attention back to me. “Aria told me that you needed to hack your way into the system of Dynamo Tech, right?” he asked. “Yes, I wouldn't put it like that but yes I need to get lots of information from their system. I need you to do that in just
JACE'S POVI expected Caila to understand the risks of being involved in something like this but it turns out she didn't and was only interested in throwing a tantrum like a child. She had gotten herself in a dangerous situation and I was trying to take her away from it and she was getting pissed. At least Aria was talking to her to make her understand because I couldn't. I didn't have that patience.And I had other issues to take care of. When I got into the office, I saw Edward sitting grimly on the sofa waiting for me. I instantly knew that something was wrong. He hated being the one to deliver bad news. After greeting me, he told me that he got some pictures that he wanted me to see, then handed an envelope to me and leaving before opening it. Few minutes after he left, I was about to tear open the envelope when Aria walked into the office angrily. “I half expected you to come in with your sister,” I snorted.“You brought her into this mess in the first place!” Aria shouted. I
ARIA'S POVI had suspected that Caila was going to be having night mares after the incident but I had hoped that it didn't happen, that I was wrong but I wasn't. I had been in bed, thinking about the best way to get Darius to leave his protective bubble when a loud scream pierced through the quiet night and into my thoughts, making my heart skip several beats. I jumped up from my bed and headed to Caila's room because we were the only ones at home apart from the additional security team Jace had placed around the house. When I entered her room, my eyes scanned it to see if someone had broken into her room but when I saw no one I was relieved but the look on Caila's face my heart clench. I knew she had a night mare again. It had happened last night and it had happened again.I had stayed with her for a while to console her but even after consoling her, before I left her room, I could still see the fear in her eyes. Even the marks around her neck was yet to go off completely and it ju
CAILA'S POVI had been scrambling around on the bed and kicking when I jerked awake with a scream. This was the second night this was happening. My whole body was trembling, completely drenched in sweat and tears fell freely from my eyes. I had been back at the restroom with Darius and this time he choked me till I was lying lifeless on the ground, I had tried to move but I couldn't. Then when I woke up, even after a few seconds, I'd try to move but I'd just lay down there, motionless as if a huge weight had been placed on me.Aria bursted into my room her eyes scanning the room and when she saw that there was no threat, she rushed towards me. “Night mare, again?” she asked. I nodded as teardrops fell on the bed. I hated this feeling of repeating the whole incident all over again. It was already depressing that one day that it happened in reality and I didn't have to get into the whole process again. I was tired of this. Tired of it all. “I'm so tired of it. I'm… I'm…” I struggled t
ARIA'S POVI had been sitting down still for hours in Jace lead engineer's office as the system check was going on, but my mind had been spinning with thoughts of what I wanted to do to Darius. To make sure he regretted ever breathing the same air as my sister. Tie his legs up so that his head is facing down till blood pops out of his eyes? Shocking him till death? But none of them involved calling the police. They were going to treat it in a legal way but I didn't care about that. I wanted to take care of him by myself. The confusion at the event hall had caught my attention for a few seconds and that was the only time he needed to slip into his car and drive off before I could call security. I couldn't go home for a whole lot of reasons.There was a little part of my heart that cared about what happened to Jace's company. I didn't care about Jace himself but all his employees that would be on the street if anything happened to the company. That would lead to lots of problems in the
JACE'S POVIt's 2am and I'm in my lead engineer's office, the only sound permeating the air is a soft hum of computers.I've been pacing over the past few hours that I had been there because that was the only thing that I could do. I didn't want to do the system check by myself and had my lead engineer do it. There had to have been an issue because why would the screen at the event hall just show “We are coming”Before it happened, I had been talking to Ethan and he had continued his advice on how I should have approached Darius more aggressively, than giving him time to think. That was when I heard the commotion - guests suddenly whispering and talking loudly. It wasn't even hard to figure out what the problem had been because immediately I turned around, right on the screen, I could see, in very bright and weird colour combinations the words “We are coming.”I would have remembered if I had approved this as part of the slideshow.My eyes moved through the crowd and found my lead e
ARIA'S POVI had gotten back from work early when Caila told me about the program that Jace company had built and how it was going to be launched that day. She told me it was the program she told me about and that she wanted me to be there. But I didn't want to go. Apart from the stress I was feeling, that had a huge influence in increasing my reluctance, there was also the part that I wasn't Jace's wife in the eyes of the public so there wasn't any formal reason for me to go for the event.But me and Caila were now on the same page and I didn't want it to seem like we were still fighting so after several hours after they had left, I had changed my mind. I had to go. After preparing myself and was about leaving, Edward had stepped into the house. “Ma'am, you're home,” he bowed.“It's Aria, not ma'am. I'm not your Boss. I'm not Jace so loose the 'Ma'am'. Is it over?” I asked, surprised to see him back home without Jace and Caila. They were lots of reason that could make them stay outs
CAILA'S POVMy heart pounded loudly in my chest and my pulse hammered away in my ears as I stared at him. The look on his face was very disturbing and I didn't know how to react. I had seen him leave and had forgotten about him to take any precautionary measures. I couldn't think of how to get away and I couldn't even kick straight. This particular restroom was one of the private ones and people rarely came by here and it was too far from the loud event hall and the possibility of anyone hearing me shout was very low. “I told you. I said you'd regret what you did but you thought I was bluffing?” he laughed. “I never bluff, Caila.”“Look, you don't have to hurt me,” I begged. That was the only way I believed I could deescalate the situation. “I know what we did… I'm sorry… I...”“That's it! That is it, Caila! I don't have to do anything but I want to. I want to hurt you so bad for what you did to me. I want you to regret it and even when you do. I would hurt you more and then leave y