Skylar breathed in the simmering steam of coffee, hoping it would help her calm her jagged nerves, but she nearly dropped the cup of hot liquid when, as she stepped into her living room, her eyes fell on the man who sat in one of her couches with his legs crossed and arms outstretched on the headrest on either side of him.She realized she'd left the door unlocked, and her heart soared at what this unexpected visit could entail: that'd he'd calmed down enough to want to listen to her explanations now.“I see you are as relaxed as ever.” He spoke, slowly lifting his eyes to her.Skylar's heart plummeted right to the ground at the bitter edge to his tone. “Luca...”“It's okay. You don't have to say anything, Skylar.” The words were calmly said, but it was the glimpse of the emotion that seemed to burn in his eyes that made her flinch. Hatred?Skylar swallowed, struggling to steady the ceramic cup in her hand as she walked towards him tentatively. “I thought you were here so that we coul
“Dude, are you sure you want another bottle? Haven't you had too much?”Luca glared at the barman, then blinked so that his somewhat hazy vision could clear. “I've only had three bottles. Besides, what's your business? You aren't paying my liquor.”The guy shook his head, seemingly in resignation and turned away from the counter. Ten seconds later, he placed Luca's fourth bottle of tequila in front of him.“Aren't you Luca Knight?” He suddenly asked as he uncapped his bottle.Luca grabbed the cold bottle, then blinked when his shoulders felt too weighted down to shrug. “Yeah, so?”“Man, you're drank shitless and you don't even have a bodyguard. A man like you should know that's dangerous.” He looked shocked. “Will you mind your fucking business? I'm just buying drinks from you. You are not my friend.” Luca bit out sharply, not caring that he was being rude.The man raised his hands, seemingly in surrender. “Fine, I was only trying to help.”He turned to attend to another person at the
Luca groaned, rousing from his sleep. His head felt like it was going to split into two, like someone was diligently banging it from the inside with a hammer. Opening his eyes fully, he froze when he scanned his surroundings. There was no way this was his room.Then he felt the weight on his chest. Warily, ever so tentatively, he lowered his eyes, flinching when he realized it was the head of a woman. Where the hell was he and who the hell was this woman?A soft, sleepy groan vibrated against his chest, and the woman began to slowly raise her head. She yawned and turned back to look at him after sitting up, not looking even one fifth as startled as he was. He recognized her as the Latina he'd met about a month ago.A grimace adorned her lips. “Didn't think you would wake up so early.”Luca looked out at the small light filtering through the blinds to ascertain how early in the morning it was. The natural light was bright enough to indicate that the sun had already risen.He turned to h
Luca stepped under the shower spray, feeling the warm water as it pelted and cascaded down his body. He stood there just like that for about a minute, soaking the water and the steam before reaching out to grab the soap on a bar.Almost right after he'd picked the soap, a poignant pang of nostalgia hit right at home as he remembered all the times he and Skylar had danced to the passion in the showers. To think he'd thought all those times it was total and sole surrender on her part.Not knowing she'd been having other guys behind his back.He expected everything with her and about her to disgust him. Instead, he found himself hardening with want. God, he still wanted her badly despite what she'd done to him. What a mess.Grimacing, Luca hurried through his shower and then dried up. He would just go get some sleep since his head was still aching, even though it was now a bit benign.“Where have you been since last night?”His mother's voice startled him as soon as he stepped out of the
Fight it! Fight it! Fight it!Skylar chanted in her head like a mantra, but obviously, the puke pressing at the back of her throat was far stronger than her resistance. Throwing the sheets off her body, she rushed into the bathroom and bowed over the toilet bowl just in time to avoid spilling her guts on the floor.Her puke consisted of mostly watery slime because she hadn't eaten anything substantial yesterday. Grimacing, she straightened as she flushed it away.What the heck?She'd been experiencing constant bouts of nausea and slight dizziness in the past few weeks but it'd never gone into such full blown vomiting. She had been vomiting since last.Hardly had the thought finished, Skylar found herself having to rush back to the water closet to puke her guts out again.She stumbled out the bathroom some minutes later after brushing her teeth, wondering what was wrong with her. She felt exhausted even though she'd just woken up from bed, and placing her hand on her neck informed her t
THREE YEARS LATERSkylar walked through the foyer while feeling like she could pass out any moment from now. She groaned, feeling a headache coming on, and the cacophony of voices and heels all around her in the reception wasn't helping.Despite her tiredness, she did her best to greet and respond to greetings with a smile. But her face must've been a mask of exhaustion and worry because everyone she passed by looked at her with pity.She'd spent almost all night going through document after document. Looking for discrepancies and errors or nuances and technicalities that could help pull the company in which she worked from the crises it currently found itself wallowing.She'd worked fruitlessly deep into the night until the words on the sheets and her laptop screen blurred and her eyes watered. Only then had she given in to the grogginess. She'd caught the time as 3:58AM just before she'd stood up from the couch and fallen on the bed.Yet, she'd had to wake up at six in order to prepa
“Hello Laura.” Skylar greeted her baby sitter who was sitting in the couch with a sleeping baby in her arms.“Shh.” Laura immediately placed her finger on her lips, cautioning Skylar to not make any noise. “I just managed to get him to sleep. He was restless.”Skylar winced as she gazed at her son whose head was resting on Laura's shoulder. Austin wasn't a worrisome child but Skylar knew how bad it could get when his crying mood set in.Laura had been her son's caretaker for more than a year ever since Skylar's maternal leave had ended. She took very well of Austin on weekdays while Gypsy was at work. Without her, navigating her demanding job and a son would've been very stressful.Laura's brows crinkled in confusion. “You're home early.” She whispered.That reminded Skylar of the shitty day she'd had. Sighing, she sunk onto the couch beside Laura.“Remember when I told you that my boss was planning to make an investment which was sure to ruin everything?” Skylar asked. Laura nodded. “
“What the fuck is this?” Luca demanded as he flipped through the file on his desk. “Do you not fucking listen to instructions or what? I don't remember hiring a dummy so you better up your game if you want to stick around here long enough and continuing earning that fat paycheck.”“Yes, sir. Sorry, sir. It won't happen again. I'll redo it.” The voice of his PA shook as she spoke, the fear evident in her voice.Luca looked up at her and realized that she had tears brimming in her eyes. He scowled, shaking his head in disdain.“Get the fuck out of my office.” He dismissed her, tossing the file towards her. It slipped off the edge of the table and fell to the floor, and she crouched to pick it up, nearly tripping and falling in her haste to get out of his office.Rolling his eyes once she was gone, Luca returned his attention to his laptop to continue working. His work was interrupted when the door to his office suddenly opened. In stepped Caleb who had an amused look on his face. He had
Hey guys,This has been a long journey of a little over three months, and I know that reading this story must've been a bit frustrating because of my unscheduled updates where you never know when to expect the next chapter in a day. But y'all stuck with me, and I'm so grateful for that. Thank you so much for the patience.There were times I wanted to give up because writing was so stressful but all your comments kept me on my toes, along with all those beautiful gems you gifted me. They're truly appreciated.A few of you might not agree with some directions I decided to take, but I realize I can't satisfy everyone. I do believe in second chances as long as the other person is remorseful and willing to change. And I tried to be as realistic about the whole thing as possible.That being said, this is my first story on here, and I'm not perfect. There's always room for improvement for my future books, so do let me know; Where did I lack? What could I have done better? Were there issues yo
The first clue read: YES! YES! I KNOW THAT YOU'RE A DAY OLD, SO LOOK FOR THE FIRST TREASURE WHERE THINGS GET COLD.So Skylar did remember. Grinning like an idiot, Luca figured the first one out easily. It was obviously the fridge. But they had two. One in the kitchen and another at the corner of the wall near the dining table. He took a chance on the one near the dining area, and he was right.His first treasure was there, a somewhat rectangular gift wrapped up so that he couldn't see what it was. Attached to it was the second clue.It read: A MAJESTIC THRONE THAT NO ONE WANTS, YET WE ALL HAVE TO RULE OVER EVERY OTHER DAY.His brows drew together. A throne? Since he was standing around the dining table, his eyes went straight to the chairs there first. But the clue said no one wants it, so it definitely couldn't be those chairs. It took him five minutes of running all around the ground floor before he finally figured it out. When he did, he burst out laughing. What the heck? So the t
ONE YEAR LATERLuca was pissed.The day hadn't gone exactly how he'd envisioned it, and he'd been complaining the whole evening. The unfortunate listeners of his lashing out were Caleb and Abhishek.“How could she just forget?” He grouched. “Everyone remembered. My mum, Ella... Heck, even you guys remembered. And she forgets?”“Uh, with all due respect, your highness, your mother gave birth to you. She's the most inclined to remember when it's your birthday.” Abhishek had the very salient idea of mocking him, becoming the recipient of Luca's very unhappy glare.Caleb wasn't fazed though. “Dude, why are you making this a big deal? I'm sure Skylar had stuff on her mind and things to do, and she must've forgotten. Just remind her when you get home. No big deal.”Luca transferred his glare to the other man. “No big deal? It's not like we're 60 or something. We've just been living together for a year! How the hell does she forget my birthday? She didn't have to remind me when it was her bir
Licking her tongue down his neck, Skylar groaned along with him as she stroked his hard-as-granite dick. God, she loved how his dick felt in her hand. So warm and meaty and hard and just so damn good. She found herself salivating, her mouth's wish to get reacquainted with his delicious member.Without hesitation, she dropped to her knees, sliding his pants and boxers down to the middle of her thighs. His erection bounced out, the huge member bumping against her face Grabbing it, she licked him from the base up to the tip, reveling when he let out a sharp sound of pleasure."Fuck, Vanilla." He groaned. "Open that mouth of yours. Just like that."Taking the tip in, she swirled her tongue around it for a bit before taking him further. Just like she remembered, she could only get half of him in without gagging, but almost four years of not doing this didn't mean she'd forgotten how to work within her limits.She had Luca groaning and gasping for air as she bobbed her head up and down, let
Once Alex left, Luca refused to talk about anything having to do with him. He claimed he wasn't upset, but his actions afterwards proved contrary.He drove her to her house so that she could get dressed for work, but he barely said a word to her.Laura was horrified when Skylar told her about what Alex did, but the nanny ended up also concluding that Alex definitely didn't have bad intentions. That only seemed to tick Luca off some more.He drove to the company in brooding silence and didn't even give her a goodbye kiss when he parted to go check out some issues with Brandon Wood, the new branch CEO.Then again, Skylar was definitely not prepared for any PDA that would blow up the secretaries' group chat with gossip. She knew most of the people in the company thought she climbed up too quickly and had always linked it to her having an affair with Hector Lancaster. She didn't want them seeing her with Luca and making all sort of bullshit up to suit that narrative again. Luca didn't say
Alex caught the swaying of Nicole's body before she let go, so he had enough time to react and catch her in his arms."Hey. Nicole? Nicole?" He called out softly, realizing she'd passed out.Lowering her onto the couch, he held her cheek in his hand and tried to shake her gently, but she didn't react in any way.Panic shooting through him, he gathered her into his arms, ready to take her to the hospital. He didn't know what was wrong with her, but he wasn't about to take the chance of waiting for her to wake up first.Getting out of the apartment, he was just heading towards the elevator when she finally stirred in his arms."Nicole, you're awake. Thank God!" He said but he didn't stop the journey to the elevator."Alex, where are you taking me?" Nicole groaned."To the hospital.""I'm conscious now. I don't want to go to the hospital." She said and began squirming in his arms just when they got to the elevator, wordlessly demanding to be placed down.Alex obliged and placed her on her
Chewing on a bowl of popcorn, Nicole sat on her couch, fast-forwarding through scenes of the K-drama she was watching on her TV. There was only so much of the goofy, cute banter she could enjoy before she got tired of the lack of story progression.Just when she got to a scene that looked to be exciting enough, her doorbell rang. Pausing the film, she set her bowl of popcorn aside and went to get the door.Her heart nearly leapt out of her chest when she opened the door to find Alex. Partly because she hadn't expected him and secondly because his face looked like a mess. He had a black eye, other bruises, and stitches marring his face."Hey, Nicole." He flashed her smile and winced like it hurt him to do that."Alex, what happened to you?!" She exclaimed, scanning his face in horror."Uh, I got beat up?" He chuckled a bit, obviously trying to deflect the gravity of the situation with humour."I can see that!" She said, "But who did that to you?""Can I come in first?""Of course, of c
The muffled sounds of a screaming match yanked Skylar out of her deep sleep. Groaning, she snapped her eyes open and tried to focus on the altercation. She couldn't hear much, so she slipped out of bed and approached the door, the voices getting clearer the closer she got."You have some fucking nerve showing your face here, you imbecile!" That was Luca, and he sounded very angry.The sudden sound of screeching couches and painful groans snapped Skylar into action. Realizing she was just in her underwear, she quickly grabbed the dress she remembered wearing yesterday which had been thrown on the bedroom sofa and slipped it on. Opening the door, she rushed out of the bedroom and came to a startled stop at what was going on.Luca was beating the hell out of Alex who was lying helplessly on the couch. His body was vibrating with aggression, and he seemed to be channeling that aggression into every punch. Alex's face already looked like a bloody mess, yet his blows were so heavy that she
Before the tentacles of doubts could bury its roots inside his mind, Luca held himself firm and shook his head, slicing through it until it was completely dead.No, he refused to believe it. He refused to believe that Skylar had done this to him. It just couldn't be.She loved him. Over the weekend, she'd shown him that with so much passion he'd felt it within his soul. There had been nothing like uncertainty about her love.Besides, during their fight regarding his marriage proposal, she'd told him that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him too. She wouldn't have never said anything like that if she didn't mean it.And he believed her. He wasn't going to make the mistake of jumping to conclusions again. He'd been there before, and where had that landed him? In hell, for four fucking years. There was no way he wanted to go back there.There had to be some plausible explanation as to why she was in Alex William's house sleeping in his arms in that state. An explanation that